What happens when we die? Heaven - Hell - or Back to Earth

I intend to write a series of three blogs to discuss Life After Death, Karma and Moksha. This is my first post on What happens to us when we die?

What happens when we die, do we have a 'soul' that gets reborn, or are we tossed in fire in hell or accompanied by guarding angels in heaven.

Do we really have Heaven or Hell above or they are just arbitrary concept to scare humans to follow righteous path. Such questions are always there in the back of our head, lets tray and understand this phenomenon from four different set of beliefs - Western (Christianity), Middle East (Islam), Eastern (Hinduism) and finally Science.

Western Beliefs - Christianity

You would be surprised to know that, the modern concept of Heaven originated from Christianity, who in turn borrowed the concept of Paradise from Zoroastrianism. According to Christian belief (fellow Christian Steemians, correct me if I am wrong) there is New Earth, New Heaven and it contains a city called New Jerusalem. The city is made of precious stones, and it contains 12 gates to enter that city and you sing and dance in front of God.

Middle East - Islam

Probably because of its origin in 700 AD from same region where Christianity originated, Islam too beliefs in the concept of Paradise. If your good deeds outweigh bad ones, you get a straight entrance to Paradise, where Virgins and drink of 'immortal youth' awaits. The believers will be draped in green silk cloth and silver bracelets.

Eastern - Hinduism

Hinduism, one of the oldest establishment have no concept of Heaven or Hell. According to Hinduism, everything is on Earth itself, and your soul would is following endless cycle of life and death, taking birth and rebirths, until you attain Moksha (will discuss Moksha in later post). In your next birth, your soul carries the deeds of your past birth and you have to enjoy or suffer based on how you did in your past birth. The cycle continues until you Ledger is balanced.

The root of their belief is Karma - What goes around, Comes around - you will have to pay for your deeds either in this life of next, but here on Earth itself. (will talk about Karma in next post)

Summarizing the mythological beliefs:

The idea of Promised Land was first proposed by Moses (~1000 years before Jesus Christ) to free people from slavery in Egypt and show greener pastures. In today's world we can correlate this with Vision statement of every business plan. the end goal where we want to be, and then everyone is working towards it.

What science says?

Well there are not scientific evidences that says Heaven or Hell exists, the science have traveled all across the globe and explored the space in great detail, yet much more is left to be explored.

However, I recently came across two different books on Past Life Regression:

• The journey of our Souls - Dr. Michael Newton -
• Many Lifes, Many Masters - Dr. Brian Weiss

Both Dr. Michael Newton and Dr. Brian Weiss are renowned Psychiatrists who in their independent researches have given scientific evidences of past lifes and their impact on our present life. They have talked indepth about guiding souls and their mentors.
Their books also give a detailed explanation of what happens to our Soul when we die, why do some people see bright white light.

After reading the experiences of some of the patients in the books written by these doctors (both the doctors as well as their patients were of Western belief, with no knowledge of past life concept), I could relate to everything that is said in Hinduism.

If this is true, then according to Hinduism, all of us have a soul, that keeps on coming back to Earth in one form or the other. Our Soul is always connected with each other and also with One Universal Soul.

Hinduism says, through Meditation and Yoga it is possible to unlock this door and harness the power of universal energy. You know, like a Blockchain, where every computer has a potential to connect to the global network, but you just have to enter certain codes. :)

Thanks for reading, I plan to write two more blogs that continues from here:

1. What is Karma? How do we balance it?
2. How to attain Moksha?

I may not be the best person to talk about them, but i would like to discuss my understanding of life after reading numerous books and listening to people whom I trust in matters of spirituality.

If you like my blog, please Upvote, Follow and ReSteem to spread the word

Tagging @gavvet who I believe has a good grasp over this subject, atleast from Western point of view.