Synopsis: People always talk about heaven and hell but
most pay only lip service to the words when mentioned by religionists. I think
one should really try to understand what it really means and how one can make a
heaven or hell for himself right here in this world.
Long before the advent of organized religions, the
primitive man had the notion of divinity and all that it meant in their daily
life. He had a vague idea of the Divinity that had its origin in the wonders of
the nature and the awe the primitive man felt when the nature showed its
immense power through lightning, thunder, flood or earthquakes.
He did not understand why the nature was so powerful but he
understood its benevolence as well as its destructive powers so he started to
attribute it all to a higher power he started to call the Divinity. Literally
this was the start of the concept of religion that took hold on the humanity in
ways no one had ever foreseen.
Later as the religions got organized, they took different
ways to celebrate the Divinity but would never come to a consensus on what was
the fundamental religion of the humanity so they vouched for their brand and
fought those who did not go along with their brand. This has caused great loss
of human lives since antiquity that continues even today as I write this blog.
So the humanity split up between various ideologies and their followers who dug
in their heels when it came to define what religion was and why it was
important.
Then people started to think of the rewards and the penalty
aspect in all religions and came up with the idea of heaven and hell. If you
were a good religionist, you went to heaven after your death and if you were
not then you went to a terrible place called hell where you were tormented for
ever for not being a good practitioner of your brand pf religion.
This concept of heaven and hell spread to all organized
religions and became the foundation on which they built their belief system
because a belief system was necessary to propagate the brand they adhered to.
It also served as a lure or enticement to join particular brands because it
offered all sorts of rewards in this life or the afterlife to those who joined
but offered hell for those who did not.
In Islam they came up with the concept of 72 houris or
celestial nymphs who would attend to all your needs in heaven if you were a
good Moslem and died serving your faith that often meant killing the infidels
and getting killed in the process as well. They promoted terrorism in the name
of their belief but called themselves martyrs who went to heaven and were
attended to by no less than 72 celestial virgins who took care of all their needs.
This idea of getting served by 72 beautiful nymphs in the heaven was so
attractive that it made numerous young people commit to violence and become
martyr whom others call them with pejorative names like terrorists.
The primitive people at first did not have a written
language because they felt no need for it but they too felt a need to express
what they felt not only verbally but in other ways as well. So they painted on
the walls of deep caves what they saw thousands of years ago. For paint they
only had what they could extract from plants or the soil but they left behind
their legacy in dazzling colors and art that would put to shame any modern
artist. You can still see such paintings on cave walls in France and in many
other countries that will mesmerize you with their originality and beauty.
Later our ancestors took to carving rocks to leave behind
their message but by this time they had developed a written language some in
the form of hieroglyphs and others in Cuneiforms or the Chinese script in which
they recorded their history, wars, famine, epidemics, harvests or how to build
pyramids. By this time their religion and belief system was well developed
creating their first organized religion like in Egypt or Mesopotamia where they
wrote on papyrus or on stone their concept of their religion and various
rituals they practiced.
Their religion was in the process of evolution meaning that
it changed when a new Pharaoh or king came to power but they described what was
heaven where their souls went and what happened to bad people whom their God of
death punished that was the equivalent of hell .It terrified people so much
that they tried to live a life of virtues to avoid such punishment. But the
evil people were not impressed by the punishment aspect of their religion so
the idea of hell had minimum impact on them just like it is now.
But a religion could not be established unless it had
developed a written set of rules to live by and a prophet who showed people
what to do and what not to do by giving example the way Jesus, Buddha or Ram
did. So all religions have their own Bible
or Koran or Ramayana. The Sikhs have their Granthasahib
and the Buddhists have the words of Buddha written in numerous wood blocks like
in Tibet. The Hindus claim to have the world’s oldest written religious texts
written thousands of years ago that are now available in the form of Vedas , Upanishads etc. that have been
translated into many languages and spread all over the world.
The Aztecs, Incas and the Mayas developed their own
religions that dictated to them the rules by which to live while the Native
Americans and the Native Australians developed their own religions and the set
of rules to live by but they all had in common the idea of heaven or hell that
perhaps varied from one set of people to another like it does even today but
they failed to develop a book like the Bible or the Koran.
A lot of African tribes worshipped different Gods and still
do but they too failed to write it all down because their languages were only
oral that the bards passed on to them generation after generation through story
telling or songs . This is still the practice among many African tribes so the
foreign missionaries and mullahs worked hard on them to make them Christians or
Moslems. People in Africa, South America and other continents are impressed by
the efficacy of the organized religions that now present their religious books
into the native languages for the first time.
Similarly a single old monk from India who went to spread
Hinduism in America and later in many countries wrote in English many religious
books that he himself translated from Sanskrit or other texts. This was the
start of the Krishna Consciousness movement worldwide that we are now quite
familiar with. The followers number in millions who have collected large amount
of money to build huge Krishna temples in many countries.
The Hindus in general do not dwell on the concept of heaven
or hell as much as others do but believe in Karma. If you live a virtuous life
and do many good karmas like helping others, feeding others, treating their
illness for free or building orphanages etc. you get rewarded in your next life
or y may even get the coveted freedom from the cycle of life and death so your
soul become free. But those who are evil and do bad things to others are
punished by a higher authority in this life or the next so the idea of heaven
or hell or purgatory etc. is less emphasized.
But the Christians are obsessed with the idea of sin so they
have ritualized in their sermons the idea of sin and who goes to the purgatory or
who doesn’t. They say that we are all sinners in some way so we should ask for
forgiveness. You see this in the mafia movies where a man goes to confess to
his priest that he has sinned and has done many bad things so he seeks
forgiveness. The Priest then says you are forgiven. Just pray and say Hail Mary
a thousand times so that it can wipe off from the slate every bad thing you
have done. The Mafioso kneels, asks for forgiveness and says Hail Mary but goes
out to commit more crimes. The religion does not change him but he uses it to
clean his slate once it is full every now and then.
I live in a country where most people are Catholic
Christians who go to their churches to confess their sins now and then but in
reality some of them are the meanest, vilest, unworthiest people who are toxic
in their behavior. I used to think that a religion should have a good impact on
people so that they live a life of virtues but I now see that it does not
change some of them. It is no wonder that the young people in many countries
are disillusioned about the organized religions so they protest and say that
the moral corruption in the churches or Moslem religious schools called
madrasas give very bad examples to people. In India some Hindus use religion to
get rich and spread immorality and corruption.( Read Fake gurus here )
The fundamentalism in any religion gives it a bad name. Most
people tend to shy away from it but there are fringe groups that promote and
actively recruit people like them who in the name of their brand of religion
spread hate and violence worldwide.
So where is Heaven? Where is it located? Is it real or just
a made up idea to make people feel good? Basically it is based on a belief that
God will give you a place there if you follow his commandments but he will
punish you if you are a bad person. I do not know if this argument sounds very
persuasive to the bad people because there are so many bad people everywhere
who are not all bothered by what they do.
If you believe that you have the power to create your own
heaven right here or your own hell then perhaps the notion of heaven or hell as
preached through the pulpits may not hold much water. I think we all can do it
if we are honest to ourselves and have a conscience that guides us to do what
is right and never do what is wrong. Some of the nicest people I have ever met
are atheists who live a very moral life and are always ready to help those in
need while some of the nastiest people I have also met are the Bible thumpers
who are mean and who never help anyone.
If a religion keeps you straight and on the path of virtue
then I say go for it. But if it makes you racist, intolerant of others, mean
and a dishonest person then all I can say to them is – try to become a better
person and create your own heaven here. Just don’t be tempted by the 72 houris
to do “good “deeds.
Emperor Jahangir (a Mughal king in the 17th century) had
rightly said, if there is a heaven on earth, it's here, it's here, it's here.
It is apparent when you visit the garden he created that it was not a gross
exaggeration. You do not have to be a king to create your own heaven. Between
heaven and hell, I will always choose heaven whether here or in the outer
world. No one really wants to live in hell.
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https://achtrjee.wixsite.com/mysite/blog
La biografía de anil en español.
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