Heaven is regarded by many people to be a place where God, divine beings, angels, or venerated ancestors live. It is described as a higher place, paradise, where there is no paradise, where there is no sorrow or suffering, and all live in unalloyed joy. Some people also believe that heaven will be created on Earth some time in future.
The Bible describes God as the ruler of heaven and Earth. Jesus is said to have spoken of the Kingdom of God, or the Kingdom of Heaven.
Those conceptions of heaven assume that it is a place separate from our world, where not everyone can go.
The Book of Genesis says that, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.” This seems to suggest that heaven is a place created out of nothing by the will of God.
If that were the case, the question arises as to when was heaven created and how did it happen. How can a place be created out of nothing?
Indian religions speak of a Deva lok, a plane of existence where gods and divine beings exist. It is described as a place of eternal light and goodness where one can go as reward for performing charitable action.
At the same time, Hinduism says that the process of creation moves in cycles, and that each cycle has four great epoch of time, namely satyug, tretayug, Dwaparyug and Kaliug. Since the process of creation is cyclical and never-ending, it has no beginning or end, and goes on eternally.
Satyug is the period at the beginning of the cycle of time, when the world is in a pristine state, with all souls completely pure and the elements of nature unpolluted. Since the souls are free of any influence of vices, there is no pain or sorrow in that epoch, and there is unalloyed happiness. The world is heaven during that period of time.
But if this very world was heaven, how was it created?As the cycle of time suggests, our world becomes heaven after the end of Kaliyug, which is the time when the world passes through its darkest phase. In the last stage of the cycle of time, souls and matter are devoid of their best qualities, worn out and polluted. The souls have gradually lost their virtues over successive lives and as a consequence are in the grip of weaknesses or vices such as lust, anger, ego and greed. Their actions, therefore, cause surveying, and as a consequence bring them sorrow.
Nature also gets ravaged by the depredations of vicious humans, and when the ecological balance is disturbed, the elements stop behaving as expected, causing natural calamities.
It is when sorrow, suffering and disorder in the world reach extreme proportions that God comes to this world to save His children and re-create heaven on earth, where His children can live in peace and joy once again.
God turns a world that has become hell into heaven. He does this by first reminding human souls of their identity – that they are souls, not bodies, and that peace, purity, love and truth are their innate qualities. He also tells them that they can regain their powers and virtues by remembering Him, the Almighty, which would enable them to overcome the influence of vices.
Through this purification and empowerment, the souls eventually achieve their original state, turning from ordinary humans into divine beings. When this happens, their actions are informed by their virtues, and they spread peace and happiness in the world. Their relationship with nature also becomes harmonious. When a critical number of souls is thus transformed, their actions bring about major changes, whereby the planet’s ecological balance is restored and all impurities are removed. The world, so to say, gets rejuvenated, and a new beginning is made as kaliyug ends and Satug dawns once again.
The Bhagavad Gita hints at this transformation, when God tells Arjuna That He incarnates in this world whenever unrighteousness reaches extreme proportions, to uplift the righteous, destroy evil, and re-establish a righteous order.
This metamorphosis from hell to heave, brought about
by God, takes place at the end of each cycle of time. Heaven and hell represent
two different states of this world during different periods of time, with souls
having corresponding experiences during those periods. The quality of human
souls determines whether our world is hell or heave.
 |
Comments
Post a Comment