-Rohan Noronha
Before writing this article, I sat down to contemplate the meaning of life, because from life is when the questions of Heaven and Hell arise. Many are of the notion that when we do good, we go straight to heaven and if we do bad, we go straight to hell. Well taking that into account, I would then say that Hell is overbooked and most of us would not get place to even put our toes in, so the question of me going to hell doesn’t arise (BIG SMILE).
As a Christian if you accept Jesus as your savior, according to current Christian teachings, after death you will be living in heaven with Jesus and surrounded by angels. According to Roman Catholic teachings also this is true. But if you did not lead a good life, it is likely that you will end up in hell or purgatory. Purgatory is a place of temporary suffering or hell where you will be purged of your sins and purified and may be allowed to enter heaven. Hell is a place of eternal damnation where you will be condemned to suffer for eternity.
Grandma always told me one thing as a child, no matter who we pray to or where we hail from, we create Heaven or Hell right here as we are and where we stay and the people we interact with. So now that gets me thinking, ‘Is Lucifer really a handsome dude who will give me everything I want if I sell my SOUL to him? Will God take me on the chariots of fire straight to Heaven and show me eternal bliss if I amend my bad deeds and be a goody two shoes for the rest of my living life here on Earth?’
Heaven and Hell are concepts which originate either from the state of mind or from the learning’s we have absorbed from various sources including our families and friends. Now, with due respects and as a spiritualist following no particular organized religion, I have strong belief that yes the state of mind that we are in makes the situation of Heaven or Hell.
As with so many things in life, for every action there is a reaction. If a person is unhappy, he may do something to make him happy, for example, like drink alcohol. Feeling low, he may go to a bar, drink a lot, and feel happy. The next day, he pays for his happiness with a hangover. Do this on a regular basis and that unhappy person becomes an alcoholic, still in search of happiness.
Others take chemical drugs to escape their pain and unhappiness. According to a survey, today in India, more than one in every one hundred people are in jail, as many as 20 percent for drug-related issues.
Being in jail is not my idea of heaven. Some people go shopping to relieve the pain. Money is their drug. The more money they have, the more they shop. Rather than finding heaven, they find hell, living under a mountain of credit card debt.
Another drug of choice is food. When I am unhappy, I eat. While I’m eating, I feel happy. The problem is, the more I eat, the fatter I become. The fatter I become, the unhappy I get, so I eat more, become fatter, and become even unhappier. In my attempt to reach heaven through food, I wind up in hell. Many people seek to solve their unhappiness through religion. Many have so many problems they feel they cannot solve them, and they seek salvation by hoping God will save them from their hell here on Earth.
There is no evidence currently to support some of these views. According to esoteric tradition or Ageless Wisdom, everyone after death enters another plane or state of consciousness known as the astral plane or the astral world. It is known as the spirit world to the mediums and psychics and to the general public. After the death of the physical body, our astral-emotional body or the vehicle for our emotional feeling nature and the mind still remains.
This allows us to function on the astral plane. Astral plane is an illusion created by the human mind and is very much like living in a dream and you create your own hell or heaven just like in a dream. It is the same plane of consciousness associated with our dreams during sleep. If you did not believe in a hell or heaven you may live a material life similar to living on earth but on the astral plane.
Reasonable standards of living will give people the time to explore their inner nature through thinking, reflecting, meditating or by engaging in a hobby or sport which may be more spiritually uplifting than the study of religious dogmas, which may create guilt and unnecessary suffering to people. This may make life a joy to majority of people than a daily chore and combined with the various scientific discoveries, will lead to the creation of kingdom of heaven on earth instead of the present hell existing in some parts of the world. Both hell and heaven are existing right here on earth.
Hence Paradise Lost or Paradise Regained? I ask you my friends to seek the answers from within. Learning is something that never stops. So go right ahead and try to find out what exactly Is hidden up there or buried way below.