Carry us beyond all sins" (Vedic Prayer)
There are clear stipulations in the Bhagavad Gita about the kind of acts that can lead one to heaven or hell: "…those who worship the gods go to the gods; …those who worship the Bhutas go to the Bhutas; and those who worship me come to me."
Two-Way To Heaven
Ever since Vedic times, there exist two known roads to heaven: Piety and righteousness, and prayers and rituals. People who chose the first path had to lead a sin-free life full of good deeds, and those who took the easier lane deviced ceremonies and wrote hymns and prayers to please the gods.Righteousness: Thy Only Friend!
When in the Mahabharata, Yudhishthira asks Vrihaspati about what is the true friend of mortal creatures, and who follows him to the afterworld, Vrihaspati says: "One is born alone, O king, and one dies alone; one crosses alone the difficulties one meets with, and one alone encounters whatever misery falls to one's lot. One has really no companion in these acts. …Only righteousness follows the body that is thus abandoned by them all…One endued with righteousness would attain that high end which is constituted by heaven. If endued with unrighteousness, he goes to hell."Sins & Offences: Highway to Hell
Vedic men was ever careful against committing any sin, because sins could be inherited from forefathers, and passed on from generation to generation. Thus we have such prayers in the Rig Veda: "…May the purpose of my mind be sincere; may I not fall into any kind of sin…" However, it was believed, women's sins were cleansed "by their menstrual course like a metallic plate that is scoured with ashes". For men, there was always a conscious effort to pass off sinful deeds as accidental deviations. The seventh book of the Rig Veda makes this clear: "It is not our own choice, Varuna, but our condition that is the cause of our sinning; it is that which causes intoxication, wrath, gambling, ignorance; there is a senior in the proximity to the junior; even a dream is provocative of sin".How We Die
The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad tells us about what happens to us immediately after death: "The upper end of the heart now lights up. By the help of that light, this self departs, either through the eye, or through the head, or through other parts of the body. When it goes out, the vital force accompanies it; when the vital force goes out, all the organs accompany it. Then the self is endowed with particular consciousness, and afterwards it passes on to the body that is brought to light by that consciousness. Meditation, work and previous impressions follow it. … As it does and as it acts, so it becomes: The doer of good becomes good, and the doer of evil becomes evil…"QUICK POLL: Do you believe in the concept of heaven & hell?View Current Results
See Also: How to Approach Death
