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Re: Angkor Wat: Temple relief Heaven & Hell
Jochen Bink (binkj000@goofy.zdv.uni-mainz.de) wrote:
: The ruins of Angkor were as fascinating to me as the friendliness of
: the Cambodian people.
: Lately, as I showed the pictures of the reliefs at Angkor Wat I took a
: friend asked me how it is that a Hindu temple has a depiction of
: Heaven and Hell, when Hindu religion is based on the belief of
: reincarnation, the eternal chakra. The only exit from this is samadhi,
: which is something like oblivion. I was stumped for lack of an
: explanation.
: Where does Heaven and Hell fit into Hinduism?
: Jochen Bink
Dear Sri Jochen Bink:
Thank you for your post. SamAdhi is not salvation, but mahA-samAdhi is.
samAdhi is the last stage of the astAnga yoga as described by Sage Patanjali.
It is certainly not oblivion, individual souls upon realizing their unity
with God, merges in God, but retains their identities and have eternal lives.
That state is the real heaven. However, normally a part of the creation
called svarloka is described as heaven. Heaven is not in a material
plane, but is located in a mental world. The svarloka is not where
people have eternal lives, but is a temporary place where they enjoys the
fruits of their good works, but must return. In the Srimad Bhagavad
Gita, God said that even those who could go to the high heaven called
'brahmabhuvana', must return to the world of life and death.
I have not yet read much about the location of hell, but it could also be
in a mental plane. In this case, people after death would go there to
suffer for their bad works.
This is not at odds with the karmic cycle. Because, rebirth is the
sequel to such visits in the heaven and hell.
With best regards,
Dhruba.
