To Hell And Back

[cmorel02]

This is a little book I ran across during some research. It's about this man's journey to hell and pretty much teaching that all other religons are evil and what not. And that when you die you either go to heaven or hell...Strange thing is if you look at Psalm 6:5 it says you just lay unconscience until the return of Jesus and (Thes 4:13-18; 2 Thes 1:7-10) says that the dead will be raised and judged. So that disproves the authors words...But kind of brings us to what us Hindus believe, all the earthly gods are represinatives of the Brahma. He'll come to you in the most comfortable form for that soul...I studied Near Death Experiences, too, which also supports the existence of our God...Sorry if not too clear on anything. But what are your opinions? I really hope to hear them...

[Ramakrishna]

Namaste cmorel02,

But kind of brings us to what us Hindus believe, all the earthly gods are represinatives of the Brahma.

Can you expand on this? What are these earthly gods that you refer to? Also, are you talking about Lord Brahma or are you talking about Brahman, the all-encompassing reality?

Jai Sri Ram

[cmorel02]

The god I an talking about here is Yahweh/Jahova.

[Eastern Mind]

This is a little book I ran across during some research. It's about this man's journey to hell and pretty much teaching that all other religons are evil and what not. And that when you die you either go to heaven or hell...Strange thing is if you look at Psalm 6:5 it says you just lay unconscience until the return of Jesus and (Thes 4:13-18; 2 Thes 1:7-10) says that the dead will be raised and judged. So that disproves the authors words...But kind of brings us to what us Hindus believe, all the earthly gods are represinatives of the Brahma. He'll come to you in the most comfortable form for that soul...I studied Near Death Experiences, too, which also supports the existence of our God...Sorry if not too clear on anything. But what are your opinions? I really hope to hear them...

Vannakkam cmorel: I don't normally respond to anything on the Christian or Islam threads, but here goes. Before Christian imperialism came to Hindu India, there was no sense of it. (rather obviously) So from my point of view personally, that is where I stand. Christianity is totally irrelevant to SD now just as it was then. There is no hell, there is no reason to compare, etc. The two thought systems are eons and light years apart.

From the Hindu (mystical) perspective, there is no Death, no Ego, no individuality, only pieces of a whole dancing out in energy of Lord's dance.

Best luck with your attempts to compare, though, if that is what you choose to do.

Aum Namasivaya

[Adhvagat]

I'll "disagree" with EM to expand on this.

There IS hell, but mental hell, hell we create for our own selves.

I remember posting about this a while back:

Imagine the following situation: a young guy is seriously mad because his girlfriend left him. Is his suffering real? Is the mental hell that he's living a palatable situation? If he didn't have any attachments to that soul incarnated as a woman, he wouldn't be suffering. So as we entangle ourselves in this material existence we create our own mental hells.

So while we are focusing on the lower parts (remember the archetypal image of hell underground) of our being, envy, malice, jealousy, strong negative feelings arising from lust mostly, we are living in hell and bound to experience them with intensity if we leave this body at this state of mind.

In the book The Human Aura, Swami Panchadasi (thanks for recommending me this book, EM) states:

Each place has its collective aura, just as each person has his individual aura. The astral plane presents a wonderful scene of color by reason of this and similar causes. The harmony of the color scheme in some cases is marvelously beautiful, while the horrible aspect of scenes resemble a nightmare vision of the worst kind.

It is easy to understand why some of the ancients who stumbled into glimpses of the astral plane, while in dreamstate or trance, reported the vision of terrible hells of unquenchable fire, fiery lakes of smoking brimstone, etc., for such ideas would naturally come to the mind of the uninformed person who had peered into the astral plane in such cases.

And in the same way, the visions of heaven reported by the saints and others of high spirituality are explainable on the theory that these persons had sensed some of the beautiful scenes of the higher astral planes, filled with the combined auric tints and hues of souls of high development.

Hope it helps you.

Om

[Onkara]

Namasté
Hell does exist in the Srimad Bhagavatam e.g.

SB 5.26.12: Punishment in the hell called Mahāraurava is compulsory for a person who maintains his own body by hurting others. In this hell, ruru animals known as kravyāda torment him and eat his flesh. Link: http://vedabase.net/sb/5/26/

In fact there is more than one Hell, the Srimad Bhagavatam says about 21 Hells! [SB 5.26.7] As to whether confusion arises on English translation of the word "hell" is another topic.

Also I have not seen "Hell" mentioned in Upanishads or Agama scriptures, so it appears to be Puranic, and again, some Schools (I expect that of Eastern Mind Ji do not recognise those scriptures). The point is, it is up to you if you need the concept of Hell, in my opinion. As Pietro Ji says, it is purely mental

Comparative religions is interesting, it is closer to Universalism (see Directory on forum). However making comparisons (which are not necessary) may very well lead to mental hell.

[Sādhaka]

Namaste Onkara,

Is it okay for me to not believe the concept of hell? I'm extremely uncomfortable with that. Are they mentioned in the vedas?

It is one of the reasons why I despise the abrahamic religions.

OM

[Onkara]

Namaste Onkara,

Is it okay for me to not believe the concept of hell? I'm extremely uncomfortable with that. Are they mentioned in the vedas?

It is one of the reasons why I despise the abrahamic religions.

OM

Namasté Sādhaka
Of course, friend! Trust your Self
There is no need to consider any Abrahamic concepts to find Divine Truth for ourselves. God exists before scripture. I have not needed to read the Vedas' in depth to confirm this (Upanishads, Gita and Agama are rewarding). The beauty of Sanatana Dharma is that the scriptures support rather than dictate. Adi Shankara does not recognise the need of the puranic scriptures (in which Hell is described), nor to my knowledge do the puranic scriptures state that Heaven and Hell are the choice for all beings - we can aim for moksha with the Lord.

Something which I hope will become clear, is that the Abrahamic scriptures do not work against the Upanishads. There is no threat or need for comparison. The question in my opinion is a big difference in vocabulary, further confused by translation and opinion (on Abrahamic scriptures).

[pineblossom]

This is a little book I ran across during some research. It's about this man's journey to hell and pretty much teaching that all other religons are evil and what not. And that when you die you either go to heaven or hell...Strange thing is if you look at Psalm 6:5 it says you just lay unconscience until the return of Jesus and (Thes 4:13-18; 2 Thes 1:7-10) says that the dead will be raised and judged. So that disproves the authors words...But kind of brings us to what us Hindus believe, all the earthly gods are represinatives of the Brahma. He'll come to you in the most comfortable form for that soul...I studied Near Death Experiences, too, which also supports the existence of our God...Sorry if not too clear on anything. But what are your opinions? I really hope to hear them...

Perhaps we are already living in our own hell and the way out is break the shackles with such dualist thinking. In fact such was the essence of the teaching of Jesus - but then the Church took over and that was the end of that.

[anirvan]

Perhaps we are already living in our own hell and the way out is break the shackles with such dualist thinking. In fact such was the essence of the teaching of Jesus - but then the Church took over and that was the end of that.

I fully agree with you. Many sages has said only these thing.that THOSE WHO ARE DUALIST WILL FOREVER SUFFER IN HELL.tHe moment they realize ADVITA ....sarvam-khalu-idam-brahman,they are in heaven.