Monday, December 13, 2010

Hell and Heaven

 Hell & heaven are two most commonly used words or phrases.
On an average cursing involves sending someone to hell as if it were allowed and feasible by law.
And heaven covers picturesque beauty , scrumptious food , chocolates , friends & all the stuff that one finds pleasant.

Now coming to the actual meaning of these two imagined destinations , popular mostly through various religions which define them exponentially - there's a hell lot of stuff that you gotta be knowing!

So I'm quoting through my religion.[Hindu] One of our religious books which I read a couple of months back..describes hell so badly that for a moment I didn't want to belong to my religion. Its scary even if there's no proof of grantee of  your ticket to hell.

And then there was this whole list of what happens if you commit a sin.What happens in hell that is.
I can't point out a lot from what I read  - all I can say is it scared the hell out of me!

Strangely there's no major description as to what awaits you in heaven!

Back in Aug when I'd been to Mathura..we went to this temple where there were paintings all over the wall with one part talking about sins and the other its repercussions.
There was the usual..with what if you lie , what if you kill animals and eat ( two monsters roast you ; possibly just in the same way you had your barbecue )
The funny part is there was something about what happens if a wife mis-treats her husband!  and of course what if the husband mistreats his wife. Equal rules.
Then quite surprisingly - there was one painting talking about infidelity. First time I've seen or read anything close to that in my religion!

Ok so the whole point I'm trying to make is - none of us are saints! We all have our share of minor sins and we all somewhere have also done something good to someone else. So where does that put us ? I mean..hypothetically if we were to be send to one of these , where would we go ? Stranding between hell & heaven , I guess ? I know nobody knows how much of this is applicable. I mean all these talks are obviously a result of hundreds of thousands of old stories. And then nobody comes back to confirm any of it either! But I feel such kind of stories were made & written so that people were afraid of committing 'sins'. Which nobody to this day is!  If lying or eating non veg food is sin...then hell ought to be large enough ;)

I'm not 'superstitious' or supremely religious. This was something I had always been thinking of.
In my opinion , the concept of hell and heaven is just overrated.

9 comments:

  1. Nice interpretation...well i use hell more often than heaven! And i dunno where will i be going. :P

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  2. hey
    the concept of hell and heaven and various other concepts that exists in each and every religion primarily are ways to teach people to differentiate from good and bad...Fear can make any human being behave in the aforesaid direction, hence the vivid description of hell in our scriptures as well as the list of the Dos and Donts....
    Things like not eating Non Veg food is primarily prescribed for health reasons but then such reasons are masked by what we call religion....

    But again, these are my views :)

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  3. lol.. the way I see it, Ignorance is not bliss in this area! If you're a practicing atheist, then its cool.. you dont believe in a God to begin with, so why bother with Heaven, or with the devil and hell!

    On the flip side, if you believe that there is a God, then following that logic.. there is a Heaven.. and a Hell! So wouldnt it be good to know where you're gonna end up? and assuming that you dont wanna go to hell... Can you 'buy' your way into heaven? Despite all your sins? what's the currency? who pays the price?

    Something to think about.. specially if you believe in God.. cause God is eternal.. meaning that your co-existence in heaven with Him is eternal too.. or alternatively, eternal damnation in Hell!!

    so where you headed?

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  4. This is the first time I am reading that eating non-veg food is a sin:P I think these were all made up to scare us!! Unfortunately, doesnt scare any politicians:-)

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  5. heaven n hell- are definitely overrated! Just like God n satan- but i guess we'll always have em around just to adopt some kinda moral code!

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  6. Imagine there's no Heaven
    It's easy if you try,
    No Hell below us
    Above us only sky..


    Suga hun, ur wonderful post reminded me of those great John-Lennon lyrics.

    I agree with u 100%. Heaven and hell r oh so overrated. High time ppl start living on Earth and for Today, before planning to land in Heaven while trying so desperately to avoid Hell :) I think humans r generally heartless..it's best we try to hv more heart in everything we do b4 we try to stick to some rule or textbook phrase just to win a spot after-death in some place no one has ever seen!

    I hope u hv a very Merry Christmas and a great 2011! X

    Much love
    Keshi.

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  7. hey. U write really well. Nice blog!

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  8. true!
    it is a lil too over rated!
    anyway, till alive, you know not what's after death
    and once you die, you are not gonna get alive to tell whats there! :P

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  9. Hahaha your insights are really funny and strange :). As a child I used to argue," if a person does some good and some bad, does that mean he has to visit both the places time after time??? " :)

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