Resurrection

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RESURRECTIONS AND JUDGMENTS M.M.NINAN his devotees from the hands of the messengers of death and placed them in the highest heaven in recognition of their meritorious deeds. Belief in many heavens and hells The early Vedic people believed in the existence of two worlds apart from ours, the world of ancestors and that of gods. They called these worlds, bhur (earth), bhuva (moon) and svar (the sun), which occupied the lower, the middle and the higher regions of the universe. However the notion of rebirth of human beings was alien to the early Vedic people. In the Rigveda there is no mention of rebirth or reincarnation. Once the souls departed from here, they lived either in the world of ancestors or that of the gods for good. Their bodies (tanus) were recreated in the higher worlds according to the merit they gained through the sacrifices they performed whilst they were alive. The Vedic tradition of offering sacrifices to one's ancestors support the Vedic belief that the ancestors would either stay in the ancestral world or ascend to the heavenly world through the sacrifices of their descendants but would not return to earth again. If their stay were temporary, the question of making annual offerings to several generations of departed souls would not make much sense. A rudimentary concept of rebirth can be traced in some early Upanishads, which repeatedly suggest that a father lives through his son. While the body may perish, the Self does not because the knowledge and energies of the father are transmitted to the eldest son. However with the integration of new traditions into Vedic religion, the Hindu cosmology grew in complexity and so were the theological explanations about afterlife and rebirth. The Puranas and later Vedic literature speak of the existence of not one hell and one heaven but of many sun filled worlds and many dark and demonic worlds. Apart from these, each of the Trinity of gods has his own world, which is attained by their followers after death. Vaikunth is the world of Vishnu, Kailash of Siva and Brahmalok of Brahman. Indralok, the standard heaven (svar) of the Vedic religion remained as a temporary resting place for the pure souls. Pitralok is the world of ancestors while Yamalok is the hell ruled by a god called Lord Yama, who is also the ruler of the southern quarter, where impure souls are held temporarily and 96
RESURRECTIONS AND JUDGMENTS M.M.NINAN subject to pain and punishment till their bad karmas are exhausted. He is assisted by an attendant, known as Chitragupt, a chronicler, who keeps a catalog of the deeds of all human beings on earth and reads them out as the jivas stand in front of Yama in his court and await his verdict. According to Hindu scriptures, both heaven and hell are temporary resting places for the souls from which they have to return to earth to continue their mortal existence once their karmas are exhausted. But the same is not the case in case of liberated souls. Liberated souls are liberated in the real sense. They are not bound to any place or condition or dimension. Different schools of Hinduism offer different explanations about the status of a liberated soul. According to the school of advaita (monism), when a soul is liberated it reaches the highest world and becomes one with Brahman. Simply, it exists no more as an individual self. According to other schools of thought, when a soul attains the highest world of Brahman or of Vishnu or of Siva, it remains there permanently as a liberated soul savoring the company of the Supreme Being and forever freed from the delusion of Prakriti or nature. It does not reunite with Brahman completely. Some of them may at times incarnate again on their own accord to serve humanity. But even then they would not be subject to the impurities of illusion, attachment and karma. A liberated soul remains forever free and untainted even during the dissolution of the worlds and the beginning of a new cycle of creation. The purpose of heavens and hell In the ultimate sense, the purpose of after life is neither to neither punish nor reward the souls, but to remind them of the true purpose of their existence. In the final analysis, the difference between heaven and hell is immaterial because both are part of the great illusion that characterizes the whole creation. The difference is very much like the difference between a good dream and a bad dream. It should not matter to soul whether it has gone to a heaven or to some hell, because the soul is eternally pure and not subject to pain and suffering. It is the residual jiva, that part which leaves the body and goes to the higher planes after death, which is subject to the process of learning through pain and pleasure in the 97
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