I have always been uncomfortable with the concept of a hell, a place where God tortures people, a place of physical abuse. It is disturbing to think God has something in common with someone like Saddam Hussain, or a Stalin. Using torture to correct your ways, really, does that sound like God? Recently in a Taliban area, a young woman was held down and brutally whipped! Should we think that God follows the same abusive policy?
I believe that Abrahamic religions, which are king religions, came up with a concept of hell. A king punishes his subjects and so their god punishes. These religions are not very nice religions, full of abuse and hate, god using threats to keep you a member. Remember you cannot enter this god's segregated heaven unless you are a member. You could be a Gandhi but you can't get in. Imagine that!
But Hinduism is not like that, the much older Hinduism came up with a very much different idea, an idea without using phycial abuse, karma and rebirth. Let's remember that a Hindu's goal is Moksha, not a flesh-happy heaven. Moksha is for those who are truly enlightened. God is our teacher in this journey towards Moksha. God doesn't have to use physical punishment to guide you to the right path. She uses Karma and Rebirth, you are born again and again, learning the lessons of God. If you do bad things in a previous life, God is not going to punish you, but simply will try to impart her teachings in another way.
Take for example a teacher in class. There was this one teacher who lost his temper one day and beat us all. Did that make us better students? Did we learn what he was trying to teach us? Not at all! The wise teacher is one who is patient and tries again and again to reach his students. But in the end the teacher is also telling us that the students have a responsibility too. We also have to make an effort. If a student continuously refuses to listen to his teacher and keeps failing, what happens? He falls behind his peers and ultimately with little education, is stuck in a low-paying job, and it is then he realizes his mistakes.
The same thing happens to us Hindus. If we fail to reflect on our actions and correct them, we may repeat them in another life. We need to listen to God's teachings, lead our life in a correct way and only then we move forward in our quest for Moksha.
What a great concept! We Hindus should be thankful that we are being given this great gift!
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