In this thread, I wish to discuss what Hinduism preaches about body and soul, or what happens after death to the body and soul.

"When asked 'is there life after death', a Swami replied, "if you want to know about death, you must go to people who are dead or you can meet me after my death". About life he said "I have a rich experience of life and how to add vitality to it"." Swami Ji might have said this because of his own reasons, but I am a householder and is affected by these quesions, and wish to share my understanding of the concept of body and soul with other householders like me.

Soul never dies. Hinduism teaches us that there in no beginning and end for the soul. Water can not wet it. Fire can not burn it. Wind can not blow it. No sharp weapon can cut it. As a person discards old clothes and wear new clothes, so is the soul discards one physical body and houses the other.

A body is the combination of Panch Bhoot - Prithvi, Jal, Vayu, Aakash and Agni. After a body dies, it is assimilated in these Panch Bhoot. You are right, it sounds much more peaceful and 'nature-like'. It is the soul in the body which goes in anther body, which can be of a human being, an animal, a bird or any other living creature.

Body comes from nature and goes back to nature. It is an endless cycle. To say that, "it is the body which never dies", can at best be an extension of the scientific theory that matter never ceases to exist. It may take a different form. A human body is made up of 'Panchatatva' and after death it goes back to 'Panchtatva'.

The Atman (Soul) separates from the God and has to traverse across the time to again reach Him. This journey is performed in a body. The body performs good and bad acts, and the result of these acts determines the path of the journey and the time it is required to take to reach its ultimate destination. Good acts creates a smoother path and lessen the time. Bad acts turn the path in to a difficult path and stretches the time. The cycle is unending. One may call it reincarnation. A smoother path can be termed as heaven and a difficult path as hell. The ultimate power which has a control over this unending activity can be given a name, God.

Existence of body and soul are interdependent. Body needs a soul to be live, and soul needs a body to manifest itself. The body can be of any living being, human, animal, bird or any other living creature. Body perishes when soul leaves it, and the remains are assimilated by Panch Bhoot, from where the body came. Soul leaves a body and finds another body. Like a person selects his clothes before discarding born clothes, soul selects another body before it leaves a body.

Body is a tangible object which can be seen and touched. Soul is intangible, which can not be seen and touched. Its presence can however be felt in a living body and absence can be felt when the body becomes non-living.
A person throughout his life collects good and bad points (paap and punya) through his Karma. When the person dies, these paap and punya goes with the soul. The life of the new body in which soul has now manifested, is decided based on the paap and punya carried by the soul from the old body. The individuality is carried forward from one body to another body. The attributes of individuality in the current life only are known to the person in that body but with ime as life progresses. Attributes from other births are not known. This explains, what people call as good Bhagya (destiny) or bad Bhagya. No two persons are born with same Bhagya. God has given a special favour to the human beings to write their own destiny in the current life. The fruits of these good efforts will be enjoyed by the person in whose body the soul will manifest after the death of this body. Of course some fruits may be enjoyed in this body also, but one can not be sure whether these fruits are due to good efforts in this life or previous life(s). This process goes on till the time the soul qualifies to be one with the Parmatman.

The idea of heaven and hell - there are no separate hell or heaven. Everybody experiences them during his or her life. Due to his good Karmas in this and previous life(s), new body will experience heaven, and due to bad Karma the new body will experience hell. As a person is engaged in both good and bad Karma in life, the body experiences both heaven and hell in a single life itself.

A normal human being has the knowledge of one life only, and that too is made known to him at different times as the life progresses. He has no knwledge of his previous births. Similarly he has no advanced knowledge of his coming births.

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If a soul has no knowledge of a future life, how can it select the body it will inhabit next. In order to do this there must be some past or future knowledge there.

Where does Hinduism stand on homosexuality?

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It is not the soul, but a human being who does not have any knowledge of past or next life.

I did not expect such a querry (last sentence of your post) under this thread. I will not like to discuss such a topic under this thread except saying that Hinduism preaches one to behave in a manner in total harmony with nature.

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I was thinking about the different paths that a soul might take.

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That's earth, water, wind, sky, and fire.
According to at least one interpretation of Advaitavedanta, atman is identical to the Absolute, the true reality, brahman, and thus can't be connected to some kind of individual existence like an eternal "soul".
To me, this seems to contradict the Vedas. I understand the old teachings as whatever spiritual part of a person there is after death, might get into some kind of heaven.

You are right that Atman is identical to the Absolute, the true reality, Brahman (Paramatman). The Atman (soul) in a physical body is the manifestation of Paramatman. To understand your views, please elaborate on - "can't be connected to some kind of individual existence like an eternal soul".

I see no contradiction with Vedas, there may be some difference in understanding. You yourself are using the term "some kind of heaven".

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Rebirth-Christanity-Islam-Hinduism

You say that the same Lord revealed the same knowledge in the entire world in different languages. But Islam and Christianity say that there is no rebirth. Hinduism speaks about the rebirth. If the Lord is same, how this contradiction comes?
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Only one Lord created this entire universe. He should have told the same knowledge everywhere in the world. The contradiction is only due to misunderstanding. In Hinduism also Sankara says that again human birth is almost impossible (Jantunaam Nara Janma Durlabhamidam). Sankara was the incarnation of Siva and so what He told is also authoritative. Even Gita says that the soul comes back to this world but does not say that the soul gets again the human birth (Ksheene Punye Martyalokam Visanti). In the second chapter, Gita speaks about rebirth but not about the human rebirth. Islam and Christianity say that the human birth is given only as a single chance. After this the final judgement is given.

The soul either goes to the Lord or goes to the hell permanently. In Gita also there are two ways for the soul. Either the soul goes to the Lord and does not return back or the soul returns back to the world (Abrahma Bhuvanath, Yat Gatva). According to Gita, if the soul does not go to the Lord (Brahmaloka), it returns back after enjoying the fruits of incomplete spiritual effort. Therefore in this human birth, if the spiritual effort is completed, the soul goes to the Brahmaloka permanently.

If the spiritual effort is incomplete the soul may go up to any world below Brahmaloka, it will return back to this earth after enjoying the fruits of its incomplete spiritual effort. The soul may go up to the sixth world, it cannot go to the Brahmaloka, which is the seventh world by doing the remaining spiritual effort in the sixth world. The reason is once the soul leaves this earth all the upper worlds are only Bhogalokas i.e., the worlds in which the soul can enjoy the fruits, but cannot do any work (Karma).

Therefore the soul has to return back to the earth. The soul will not get again another chance of human birth because once it is failed it can never succeed. Therefore the soul comes to the earth and falls into the cycle of animals and birds only. When the soul is trapped in this cycle of animal births, it is treated as a permanent hell.

If the soul goes to Brahmaloka it always accompanies the Lord either in Brahmaloka or may come back to the earth along with the Lord who takes the human incarnation. In such case the soul is born as a divine servant of the Lord. Such soul will not take rebirth in the cycle of animals. Thus for the divine soul also there is no such rebirth. In this way Hinduism, Islam and Christianity are correlated as one concept preached by the one Lord.

Christians and Muslims are putting up sincere spiritual effort because there is a threat that this human life is the only chance. There is no reexamination according to these religions. This human birth is the only one examination and the soul either passes or fails and will not be allowed for any reexamination. But in Hinduism such threat is not there.

People have taken a lenient view on the spiritual life because they think that the human rebirths are possible and so they can put up the spiritual effort slowly in the future human births. The Lord cannot say different theories to different people. The rule must be same for all the human beings of the world. Therefore whatever the Lord told in Christianity and Islam also told the same in Hinduism. Hindus misunderstood the concept. Therefore what ever may be the religion, every human being should think “Now or Never”.

The human rebirth is only for Yoga Bhrashta i.e., the soul, which has reached Brahmaloka and fell due to some slip. Such a soul is suspended from Brahmaloka and comes down to the earth and takes rebirth as a human being only. You have passed the P.G. Degree and obtained the post of the lecturer. But you were suspended for a month due to some mistake. You will be re-appointed.

Similarly the Yoga Bhrashta will be born as a human being for some time and will come back to Brahmaloka. The case of incomplete spiritual effort is different from Yoga Bhrashta. The incomplete spiritual person is like a B.A. Degree holder who never achieved the lecturer post. You cannot argue that you can be appointed as a seventy five percent lecturer since you reached seventy five percent of the total educational period (from school to P.G.Degree is hundred percent) by getting a B.A. Degree.

Thus there is no partial achievement by partial spiritual effort. The grace of the Lord is either hundred percent or zero. If it is hundred percent you are reaching Brahmaloka. If it is Zero percent you are falling back to the earth in the cycle of animals and birds. There is no third way in between these two. When this truth is revealed, only one in thousands will try to put the real spiritual effort as said in Gita (Manushyaanaam Sahasreshu). By this Hindus will become alert in spiritual effort like Christians and Muslims.

Sex - Homo Sexuality- Spirituality

First of all, one should know that the concept of sex should not be magnified and should not be given over attention. Sex is a biological need of the body like hunger and thirst. It is a biological issue at physical level because, when the food is taken, a part of it is supplied to the reproductive system, by which, it gives signals in the form of sexual desire for the growth of human race on this earth. It is created by God for this purpose so that the souls come down to the earth through the bodies created by sexual union. Thus, sex is a factor involved in the divine mission, which functions in a circular way by bringing down the souls to the earth and taking them away from the earth.

Disease is another biological need for the body to disintegrate and liberate the soul for its journey to the upper world. This is the cycle of creation called as “karma chakra”, which involves of taking the souls to the upper world for treatment and bringing down the souls after treatment. Birth is a vehicle in one direction running with the petrol called sex. Death is the same vehicle running in reverse direction with the petrol called illness. Petrol is one and the same and therefore sex is a type of illness, which is in the divine service of God and should not be looked down or aversed. Sex is divine and its deity is “Manmadha” or “kama deva”, who is the son of Lord Narayana only. He is doing the divine duty following the path of Pravritti or justice. In the Gita, Lord said that He is kama, following justice (Dharmaaviruddhah...). There is no need of shy in feeling hungry, thirsty, sleepy, spitting, urination, excretion etc. which are just simple biological, universal and routine activities. Sex is also in the same list, about which you should not think so much.

If you have understood the divine purpose of sex, there is no meaning in the homosexuality. It can be taken as a peculiar type of the biological need, which has no divine purpose. Satisfaction of hunger by eating food is not the divine aim. To maintain the body for doing Sadhana is the divine purpose and hunger is a signal indicating the same point. Without knowing this aim, some people say, “What is this eating, sleeping, living etc?” It shows their ignorance about the main aim of the human life. According to many, the aim of the human life is to enjoy the life with the family and get name and fame in the society as a rich man or as a scholar or as a capable person etc. Many feel that they have lifted the Govardhana hill by earning money and by bringing up their children. They feel that their lives are fulfilled when the circle of their friends and relatives appreciate him as a great disciplined person by uplifting his children. He wants appreciation from the friends and relatives by words like “How much educated and rich he is! Yet see his humbleness, humility and simplicity!” The poor fellow become unconscious by this hypnotic drug and helps them, whose aim is only the help from him. When the help is over, their suppressed jealousy comes out who will be abusing him. Thus, his life is neither fulfilled in this world, nor in the upper world.

The sages saw Rama and liked to embrace Him. Is it not homosexuality? No. They will not have such feeling, which is unjust and unnatural also. It is unjust because, it does not serve the purpose of reproduction, which is the divine justice. It is also not a natural path of satisfying the sex hunger. They had beautiful wives and reproduced children, thus serving the divine mission of the Lord. Moreover, they did not like to embrace Him in the same forms as males. They liked to embrace Him after transforming into females. This does not come under Pravritti, because they have wives and children already. This comes under nivritti in which the climax of love towards God called as devotion, which crosses all the limits of nature and justice. It is infinite love towards God, which is unimaginable. The context of such feeling is neither reproduction, which is divine mission nor the pacification of sex-hunger, which is a biological need. It is the unimaginable attraction of the heart of the devotee towards the Lord. This attraction is not simply based on the physical beauty of the Lord, which is meaningless, if analysed. It is the attraction of the heart of the devotee towards the total personality of the Lord. There is no distinction of male and female in nivritti. It is the point between God and soul. The same soul can exist in a body of male or female. The attraction between the soul and God cannot be compared to the attraction between two souls. Thus, there is a fundamental difference irrespective of the biological sex, which is related to the bodies. “Pumsaam mohna rupaaya” means that the sages are attracted by the divine personality. Moha means attraction and not sex. Kama is sex.

The husband wants that his wife should not be attracted by other males, but he is attracted by other females. Similar is the case with wife. Shri Rajaneesh attacked this issue in this way and such approach is only partial. What about the case in which one is attracted to the side while the other remains chaste? You cannot generalise the case of some people to all. Here is a person, who is very loyal to his wife and she is attracted by somebody else. Shri Rajneesh liberalized the concept by finding fault with the other side also. In general, he may be correct. But, what about a specific case? Ofcourse, this case may be otherwise, because tomorrow I may get a problem from a chaste wife complaining about her husband for his side attraction. Therefore, one should not misunderstand Me siding only chaste wives or only chaste husbands. The issue is if one side is chaste and the other side is not chaste, what should be the solution? The solution for this is again multi-dimensional and multi-stepped. First of all, I should question whether the marriage took place by the full consent of both boy and girl. Sometimes the consent is given by boy or girl as a ‘no objection certificate’. But that is not sufficient for a marriage. It should have a positive certificate of intensive attraction towards each other. The attraction becomes permanent and real if it is based on the total personality. Mere physical appearance is only one factor. If the physical appearance alone is the basis, the love should reduce as the old age comes or if the appearance is spoiled by some illness or accident in life. Buddha was attracted to Amrapali in her old age to serve her.

The husband or wife gets attracted by a better ‘total personality’ of opposite sex, whenever met in life. Mental attraction is hidden by several people by controlling their words. Words and actions of body are inert and do not participate in the sin. When this body, which spoke or did some wrong activity is left over here, the soul is taken to hell in some other energetic body and is punished. If the body is a participant of the sin, it should be directly taken to hell and should be punished. Therefore, in the hell, the mind is punished through another new body. Therefore, the sin is in the mind and not in the body. Once the mental attraction is there, the sin is recorded. The words and actions of body are works of inert energy and have no sin. When Sita was carried by Ravana, the body of Sita was fully touched by Ravana by force as per Valmiki Ramayana. This was referred by Sita, herself, (yadyaham gatra samsparsam…). But such attraction was not in her mind and therefore she was declared pure by fire God (Agni). Renuka got mental attraction towards a king on the banks of Narmada river and she did not touch him even by finger. But she was declared as sinner and her head was cut by her son, Parasurama. Therefore, after marriage, to get attracted by another person is a sin and the soul is punished in the hell. If the other side is also not chaste, will the sin get mutually cancelled and so no punishment to any one? No. Both will be punished in the hell. Therefore, the philosophy of Shri Rajneesh in this point does not save the soul in any way.

To get rid of such sin and the consequent hell, the control of mind cannot be the true path, which is impossible. Some control food, but it is not a permanent solution because such feelings (samskaras) are precipitated from several millions of births. You cannot control the mind through the body, when the mind (samskara) is controlling your body. Such precipitated samskara, called as prakruti or nature acquired from millions of births decides the course of action finally as said in the Gita (prakrutistvaam niyokshyati…). The only permanent and real solution for this is to realize the real aim of the human life and turn to God. The attraction towards God is like a mega-tsunami in which the side attraction towards another personality disappears like a flood of river. No other side attraction can exist, when the divine personality of God appears. This attraction is totally different since it is the bond between God and soul and not a bond between souls. There is no aspect of male or female here. Rama went for golden deer, even though Lakshmana tried to stop him. Here it appears as if Rama is more attracted by the female devotee compared to a male devotee. No. It is the climax of His love on the soul of Sita only and not on her body. The same Rama said to stop the war and was prepared to leave the life when Lakshmana became unconscious in the war. Here Rama neglected Sita before Lakshmana. This context shows the love of the Lord on the soul of Lakshmana, irrespective of the external body. In such tsunami of love on Lord, both justice and injustice disappear. If one realises this divine knowledge he attains the Lord and crosses both good and bad (Buddhiyogam tam yenamaaam, Buddhyaa yukto, Buddhiyukto jahatiha ubhe …the Gita). Both the hell and heaven are thrown out when you approach the divine Lord as said in the Veda (Punyapaape vidhuya…).

The divine knowledge will make you realize that though this world is real for the soul, the bonds between souls are unreal and dramatic. The sage Astavakra preaches the King Janaka through “Astavakra Samhita”, in which, the sage says that the mother and son in this life are becoming husband and wife in the next life! It is a hero and heroine acting two different roles in different pictures. We have two pictures running side by side in two theatres in which the same couple of actors acting as husband and wife in one picture and acting as mother and son in another picture! This bond did not exist in the past birth and will not exist in the future birth. That which was unreal in the past and will be unreal in the future is also unreal in the present according to Shankara. It is just a dramatic bond. Realize the main aim of human life and concentrate on that. You are unnecessarily worried in the side activity, which is just a change for recreation. Let her or him go to hell. Do not bother about it. There should be no tension in a game for a student. Game is just a recreation arranged for change. Do not be jealous on a classmate in a game. Be jealous in studies on the same classmate, because study is the main aim of your college life. Attractions are spontaneous, which can neither be created nor suppressed by force. A forced attraction by fear is not real and what is the use of such faith and love? In spiritual path also, the attraction to God should be spontaneous and natural without fear or force. Fulfilling the desires is the force. Fear is for the hell. Gopikas were prepared to go to hell in the love of the Lord and no force on the earth could deviate them from it. The attraction should be spontaneously generated in a free atmosphere without any attraction to boons and without any fear for the hell. In the human incarnation, the human form masks the real nature of the Lord so that a free atmosphere is created without fear and fulfilment of desires by using His super powers. Such love is really sweet. God created this Universe to taste such real sweet love of His devotees. When the Lord showed His mega energetic form (Viswarupam), Arjuna shivered with high tension. In such state can you even think of love? The love of Prahlada to Vishnu was spontaneous. His father tried to resist it and divert to Lord Shiva. The resistance increased the devotion more and more. Therefore, the realization of the main aim of human life, the realization of the family life as a side activity for recreation of the soul, the realization of unreal dramatic bonds of family will remove all the tensions. The ignorance of the real aim of this life and the ignorance of the unreality of these bonds are responsible for these high tensions. A realized soul will laugh at such problems (karma bandham prahasyasi …the Gita).

The soul does not remember the aspects related to body (name, caste, gender etc.,) from the previous births. The soul is integrated only with the samskara (essence of various qualities, which is jiva) achieved through the body related to previous births. All the samskaras in each birth are one and the same qualitatively in essence. Since the body is very close to the soul, it is natural that the soul gets only the samskaras related to the body due to the super imposition of the body over the soul.

Atman and Jeevatman

The word Atman means the pervading item. The current pervades the wire and can be called as Atman. In Adi Shankara and Krishna (Human incarnations of God) God pervaded all over their souls and their souls pervaded all over their bodies (as usual as in the case of any human being). Since the soul pervaded the body, the soul is called as Atman and since God pervaded all over the soul, the God is also called as Atman. Here both God and soul can be called as Atman. To differentiate both these, God is called as Paramatman and the soul is called as Jeevatman. In a liberated soul as per advaita, jeeva (subtle body) may be destroyed and in such case the soul can be called as simply atman. However, in any case Paramatman is different from Jeevatman or Atman. Therefore, God is different from an ordinary soul as well as a liberated soul (liberated soul here is according to advaita because the actual liberated soul is that which is not simply free from qualities but is full of divine qualities like devotion). The king is wearing a silk cloth.

A citizen is wearing cotton cloth. Another citizen is naked without any cloth. The king is different from both the citizens. Now let us take the case of Krishna or Adi Shankara. The Paramatman is pervading all over the Jeevatman or Atman and the jeevatman or atman is pervading all over the human body. The ultimate pervading item here is only Paramatman, which directly pervades Jeevatman or Atman and indirectly pervades the human body also. Therefore, the Paramatman is the ultimate Atman. The jeevatman or atman is pervading only the human body but is not pervading the Paramatman and hence the jeevatman or atman here cannot be the ultimate atman. Therefore, when Krishna says that He is Atman (Ahamaatma …. Gita), it means that Krishna is referring to Paramatman present in His human body. Since Paramatman is the basis of the entire world, He stated that His Atman is the basis of the entire world (Sarva bhutaashayasthitah….). If an ordinary human being repeats the same verse of Gita, what is the meaning of the word atman in his case? In his case the human body is pervaded by the jeevatman or atman only and there is no paratman in his jeevatman or atman. Therefore in his case the word atman means only jeevatman or atman, which cannot be the basis of the world because it is a tiny particle of the world.