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Re: HELP!
zombie452@aol.com (Zombie452) wrote:
>I am in need of your views on Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory for a research
>paper. Please send any ideas or useful information to Zombie452@aol.com
> Your help will be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
You might want to check out:
The Origins of Evil in Hindu Mythology
by Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty
Univ. of California Press, 1976.
(disclaimer: She is regarded as oversimplifing (popularizing) the
material by some scholars- a polite way for one professor to denigrate
another. Although reviews of this book are very positive.)
Quote from Jaiminiya (Talavakara) Brahmana 1.98-99:
The gods and demons were fighting. The gods created the thunderbolt,
which was a man, and they sent it against the demons; it destroyed the
demons and came back to the gods. But the gods feared it, and broke
it into three pieces, and they saw that the hymns that are divinities
were inside this man. They said "After he has lived virtuously on
this earth, he will follow us by means of sacrifice and well-performed
asceticism. Therefore, let us act so that he does not follow us: let
us put evil in him." They put evil in him -- sleep, exhaustion,
anger, hunger, love of dice, desire for women. Then the gods said
"These hymns, divinities, that are in the man -- with them we will
conquer the demons." They did so, and so they drove the demons out of
this world and heaven, and took their cattle. Then the gods were
supreme."
Jaiminiya (Talavakara) Brahmana 1.98-99
One interpretation:
The demons were driven "out of this world and heaven" (into hell) by
man (who was but a tool of the gods). The gods then corrupted man to
ensure that heaven would not become overcrowded.
After all, when it is possible to have "evil gods" and "good demons",
"overcrowding" of "heaven" and "hell", not to mention concepts such as
karma, _reincarnation_, etcetera, the Christian concepts underlying
the definitions of the words Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory are not
terribly relevant. So: (according to this material) heaven and hell
exist. Other material goes on to state that it is possible that the
actions of one's descendents may enable an ancestor in hell to leave
hell.
And all of this is complicated by the fact that Hinduism is a very old
religion which has undergone a tremendous amount of change over time.
And there are thousands of pages of religous material and hundreds of
schools of thought. So there is not any _one_ view of heaven&hell.
Arun Malik
P.S. I don't have the time to get engaged in a flamewar over this.
