Hindu Views of the Afterlife
The Upanishads describe reincarnation, or samsara. The Bhagavad Gita, the holy book of Hinduism, talks extensively about the afterlife. Here, the Lord Krishna says that just as a man discards his old clothes and wears new ones; similarly the soul discards the old body and takes on a new one. In Hinduism, the belief is that the body is but a shell, the soul inside is immutable and indestructible and takes on different lives in a cycle of birth and death. The end of this cycle is Mukti or salvation. However, not all Hindus believe in reincarnation.
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Hinduism believes in the rebirth and reincarnation of souls. Souls are immortal and imperishable. A soul is part of a jiva, the limited being, who is subject to the impurities of attachment, delusion and laws of karma. Death is therefore not a great calamity, not an end of all, but a natural process in the existence of a jiva (being) as a separate entity, a resting period during which it recuperates, reassembles its resources, adjusts its course and returns again to the earth to continue its journey.
In Hinduism, unless a soul is liberated, neither life nor after life are permanent. They are both part of a grand illusion. Death is a temporary cessation of physical activity, a necessary means of recycling the resources and energy and an opportunity for the jiva (that part which incarnates) to reenergize itself, review its programs and policies and plan for the next phase of life. Each life experience on earth and each incarnation of soul offers the jiva an opportunity to learn and overcome its inconsistencies and blemishes so that it can become the whole. We cannot have likes and dislikes, preferences, prejudices and attachment and yet expect ourselves be liberated. Even a preference for purity becomes an impediment at some stage in our lives. The soul therefore needs to be born again and again till it overcomes its state of delusion, achieves the state of equanimity and realizes its completeness. When a person dies, his soul along with some residual consciousness leaves the body through an opening in the head and goes to another world and returns again after spending some time there. What happens after the soul leaves the body and before it reincarnates again is a great mystery about which we can form an idea after studying the scriptures.
The Paths of the Sun and the Moon
The Bhagavad-Gita describes two paths along which souls travel after death. One is the path of the sun, also known as the bright path or the path of gods and the other is the path of the moon, also known as the the dark path and the path of ancestors. When a soul travels along the path of the sun, it never return again, while those which travel along the path of the moon return again. How is the path of the sun attained? Lord Krishna provides the clue: "Controlling all the openings of the body, with the mind established in the heart, fixing the prana in the self at the top of the head establishing oneself in the Yoga, uttering the monosyllable AUM, which is Brahman, who leaves the body remembering Me, he achieves the highest goal." In the same chapter we are also informed that all worlds including that of Brahma are subject to rebirth, but on reaching Him there is no birth.
The Fate of an Individual Upon Death
What happens to a soul after the death of a mortal being on earth depends upon many factors, some of which are listed below:
1. His previous deeds. If a person has committed many bad deeds in his life, he will go to the lower worlds and suffer from the consequences of his evil actions. On the contrary if he performed good deeds, he will go to the higher sun filled worlds and enjoy the life there.
2. His state of mind at the time of death, that is what thoughts and what desires were predominant in his consciousness at the time of his death, decides in which direction the jiva will travel and in what form it will appear again. For example if a person is thinking of his family and children at the time of his death, very likely he will go the world of ancestors and will be born again in that family. If a person is thinking of money matters at the time of his death, very likely he will travel to the world of Vishnu and will be born as a merchant or a trader in his next birth. If a person is thinking of evil and negative thoughts he will go to the lower worlds and suffer in the hands of evil. His suffering may either reform him or push him deeper into evil depending upon his previous samskaras (tendencies). If he is thinking of God at the time of his death, he will go to the highest world.
3. The time of his death. The time and circumstances related to death are also important. For example it is believed that if a person dies on a battle field he will attain the heaven of the warriors. If someone dies on a festival day or an auspicious day, while performing some puja or bhajan in the house, he will go to heaven irrespective of his previous deeds.
4. The activities of his children, that is whether they performed the funeral rites in the prescribed manner and satisfied the scriptural injunctions. There is a belief that if funeral rites are not performed according to the tradition, it will delay the journey of the souls to their respective worlds.
5. The grace of God. God in the form of a personal deity may often interfere with the fate of an individual and change the course of his or her after life. We have instances where God rescued his devotees from the hands of the messengers of death and placed them in the highest heaven in recognition of their meritorious deeds.
World-Class Religions and their views:
- Atheism
- Christian
- Catholic
- Judaism
- Islam
- Buddhist
- Zoroastrianism
- Hinduism
- Shinto
- Confucianism
- Jainism
- Taoism
- Sikhism
- Bahá'í
