Heaven and Hell

Heaven and Hell

When I thought of writing this the first thing that came to my mind was the thought of a Chinese philosopher [I am unable to recall his name, as you know Chinese name are tough to remember for the Indians.], which says that for the entrance to either of these you need not to wait for your death, In fact there is the thinner most separating line between these of two and we are traveling frequently from one to another many times during our life period. We are used to be in and out from both of these heaven and hell at several occasions of our life without being aware of it. This is as good of holding a coin in hand you can’t be sure of from which side of coin you are holding it.

There are numerous stories, In fact the number of stories can match with the human population of the world, about the comforts and pleasures available with heaven, similarly you can observe that every body around you will be with own version about the painful and fearful punishments which are there in hell for the culprits. The most interesting thing is that you can’t find a person who came back from the journey either of heaven or hell. Similarly there are so many stories about the geographical location of the Heaven and Hell to some Heaven is at the seventh sky from the earth where as Hell is seven down from the earth. Other version says that at a particular time period earth will go under the divisions and heaven and hell will be constructed here only on earth. Every soul as per the works done during the human life will get allotment either in Heaven or Hell.

If we look at the human life we can classify the human activities into constructive one and destroying one. In simple words it can be said that construction is heaven and destroying is the hell it means these both are within our self. Osho was famous for including short stories in his dialogue with people once talking on the same topic he quote a short story which goes like this:

Once a worrier went to saint and asked about the geographical location of Heaven and Hell. Saint asked him who is he? The worrier with pride replied that he is the chief samurai of king. [Samurai are the Japanese people who virtue of their special training become expert in fighting and their skills of using sword are unmatched] Saint looked at him with a mischievous smile and told “No! You can’t be? Because your face is suggesting that you are begger.” These words ignited the fire anger within the worrier and under this destroying emotion he becomes ready to kill the saint with his sword. The saint with same smiling face told him “Stop dear, see the gates of hell are being open for you.” These words and smiling face of the saint were sufficient to bring the conscious of worrier back to normalcy. He put back his sword and bowed to saint, looking at peaceful face of the worrier saint said “Look son, now the gates of Heaven are opening for you”.

The moral of the story is that Heaven and Hell are not the names of any particular geographical locations; these are the status of our body and mind. Hence if we search either of these in the universe only and only failure will welcome us. To have a look at heaven or hell we have to go in our own inner world which is with the power of constructing Heaven or Hell. I recall a story which was narrated to us during our childhood by our father and highlights the presence of Heaven and Hell in our inner world.

There was a young artist who was fond of painting human emotions on the canvas. One day he heard that every human body is abode of God, so he decided to paint a human face shiny sparks of presence of God. He went to many religious places for search of such one human face but every time meets with failure. One day we was going through a village at the feet of a high mountain suddenly his eyes got focused at the face of a little shepherd,

Innocent and smiling face was the first point of attraction and while plying the flute his shining eyes were filled with a spark and seem to spreading message of peace and harmony for all the living. Artist started painting and before that magical music session was over he was able to finish his job of painting the presence of God within the human. The image was so lively that one how looks at it, realize the presence of God within the human.

The most significant quality of the time is its flowing and never waiting nature. Time wheel kept on moving and artist crossed the witness of sixty springs. One day he was memorizing the days which brought wealth and fame for him suddenly a spark and his work remain incomplete if he fails to paint presence of devil within the human. Once again search of the artist was on though it was hard for him to meet with this new challenge but he kept on. One day he heard about a killer who had killed seven innocent kids for no reason. He completed all the formalities and went on to meet that prisoner. It was very fearful experience for him because not only the face of prisoner was mercy less but even his smile was so cruel that it was messaging hair raising emotions. He painted and when he finished, he thought of comparing both of his creations so he hanged both the pictures on the wall and started staring from the distance. All of sudden he listened sounds of laughing followed by weeping from the behind. He turned to find that killer weeping, when he asked about it. Killer replied “I laughed to see what I was twenty five years ago and weeping because not only you but no one will identify me as what I was.”

Hell and Heaven are the virtual one and are always present in our own inner; it is our power of realization that gives us feeling of Heaven or hell.