Part 4
Are the joys and sorrows of afterlife physical or spiritual?
When an animal dies its body is transformed into solid, liquid and airy elements of the world. Then the molecules of those elements go into the making of new animal body through different processes. Perhaps the elements of my body too are composed of discarded elements derived from millions of former animal bodies. And after death the elements of my body will go into the making of millions of other animal bodies.
Suppose each and every cell of the goat is marked by a doctor of extraordinary power in such a manner that may be identified and retrieved from any place whatsoever. Now if the flesh of the goat is cooked and eaten by hundred people in a feast and the remaining parts which are thrown away are consumed by jackals, dogs, crows, vultures and ants- how many creatures will have to be operated on for reconstructing the goats afterwards? Even if the marked cells are subjected to identification, it would be impossible to reconstruct the body of that goat without cutting up the bodies of all those creatures who had consumed it. It shows that the body of an animal is the aggregation of the materials collected from many other animals. In this circumstances, is it possible for all the created animals to have bodily existence afterlife? If so, how will all the elements of the earthly body of each animal reappear? If not, are the joys and sufferings of heaven and hell spiritual?
But the descriptions we hear of the joys and sufferings of heaven and hell and of the tortures in the grave are not susceptible of spiritual explanation. It is said that the dead body is resurrected in the grave and two angels called ‘Mankir’ and ‘Nakir’ interrogate every dead person regarding religion. They inflict inhuman torture on the sinners for failure to give the right answer. They club them down into the earth seventy yards deep and raise them up again. The sinners are scorched by the heat of hell-fire coming through a tunnel till the day of judgment. The virtuous people, however, enjoy aromatic breeze coming from heaven through a tunnel.
In the description of the punishment in hell it is said that they will be made to drink pus, blood, boiling water etc., and that their brains will melt in the excessive heat of sun. The eyes of the sinner who has sinned with his eyes for instances, one who has cast his lascivious eye over other people’s wives - will be subjected to optical punishment. Similarly, sins committed with the help of other bodily organs and limbs will be subjected to localized punishment in keeping with nature of sin.
In the description of pleasures of heaven it is heard that the virtuous will eat sweet and delicious fruit, drink nectar or non-intoxicating wine and sleep with nymphets. In a word, every virtuous man live the life of a medieval emperor.
It shows that the joys and sufferings and similar other matters in the afterlife have been described not spiritually but physically. But these matters cannot be clearly interpreted in physical terms, at least not all of them. Of the two interpretations, one physical and other spiritual, which one is acceptable?
How come the afterlife resembles the present life ?
The description we get of matters relating to life after death appear to be imitations or revised editions of mundane matters. For instance, the interrogation in the grave along with the heavy club, the cool breeze and hot air, the copper plate, the hot sun, the charge sheet, the trial, the scales and the judgment at ‘Hashar’, sweet and delicious fruits, nectar and ambrosia, milk and honey and beautiful women in heaven, and fire; pus, blood, boiling water, pincers etc. in hell. A review of above descriptions of all such matters relating to the life in the next world shows that these matters are probably taken or plagiarized from this world. Will there be nothing new in the afterlife?
Where do the ‘jeens’ and ghosts live ?
It is said that there is a species of supernatural beings of spirits called ‘jeens’ in this world who have birth and death and vice and virtue in this life and entry to heaven or hell in the world hereafter. But surprising thing is that no sign of existence of these so called ‘jeens’ has been found in the world to this day although hardly any land remains undiscovered and unexplored by man. Are they, then, inhabitants of other planets and satellites or stars?
No living or dead creatures could be discovered with the help of very powerful telescopes in the ten planets and the thirty satellites belonging to them. And the stars are all fiery spheres of varying temperature ranging from 2,000 degree centigrade to 23,000 degree centigrade. No creature can be born here. Some say ‘Jeens’ are made of fire therefore they may live there. In that case, the wicked ‘Jeens’ will have no fear of hell fire in the after life! On the other hand, if they are the inhabitants of this world, then what invisible substance are they made of ? In Jewish scriptures we find a lot of descriptions of many imaginary creatures called Shedime’. Are not the ‘Jeens’ their apparitions?
The Jewish religion in East Europe in the middle ages was replete with beliefs in ghosts and spirits, giants and demons and witches and demigoddesses. However, of all this things, the belief in being possessed by ghost in particular spread among the people. These ghosts or demons were described as dibbuk. They used to posses the body of men and any man thus possessed completely lost his personality. The Jews of that age evolved various kinds of charms and incarnations, as well as talismans and the use of charms and incarnations by the exorcists. There are still in vogue in backward countries.
The belief in being possessed by ghosts and spirits in Christendom was more queer. The possessed patients were not allowed to remain on this earth and were killed. However, the practice of killing possessed people has died down.
The belief that ghosts and spirits or heavenly musicians possessed men was in vogue in India in the Vedic period. We find some of the examples of it in Vedic literature. It is stated in the third Brahmmana of the third chapter in Brihadarannyak Upanishad that one daughter of Pantanjal Kaphy was possessed by heavenly musician.
Two kinds of happening generally take place - one is natural and another is supernatural. Again some of the supernatural happenings are subscribed as divine and some ghostly. Those happenings whose causes are gently perceptible are called natural and those whose causes are imperceptible are called divine or ghostly.
The diseases are also of two kinds - physical and mental. Such diseases as cholera, pox, fever, etc, are physical and perceptible. Insanity etc. are mental. Their causes are not perceptible or easily understandable by physical attribute. For this reason some people describe such diseases as ‘ghostly’ or the result of being possessed by ghosts or jeens. Those possessed by ghosts sometimes laugh and sometimes weep, sometimes dance or sing, some talk incoherently, some appear gloomy and so on. The learned psychiatrist usually term the disease as “hysteria” which can be cured under medical care and psychiatric treatment.
The incidence of being possessed by ghosts is more (1) Among uneducated people than educated ones (2) In villages than towns (3) Among women than men and (4) Among young boys and girls or middle-aged people than among children or the old.
The reasons of the differences are- (1) The educated people are (generally) free from superstitions and the uneducated people are full of them. By and large they make the demons, fairies or ghosts responsible for any kind of disease, particularly mental diseases. (2) The number of uneducated people is generally larger in villages than in towns. They consider mental derangement as ‘possession by ghost’, and even describe some diseases like cholera and pox as trouble made by goddesses ‘Ola’ and ‘Sheetala’. (3) According to Freud, the psychoanalyst, insanity, in most cases, is caused by love and sexual desire. the main reason behind, according to him, is the failure in love making. The medical name for it is nymphomania or ‘madness’ for love making. Women fall more in matters (because of our cultural pressure and discrimination) than man. That’s why they suffer more, particularly in youth, from nymphomania or ‘possession by ghost’ (4) According to a large number of physicians women suffer from insanity, in most cases, towards the end of menstrual period or after delivery because of hormonal disorder in the uterus. They suffer this kind of disorder in youth only, not in childhood or in old age. This is why women, in the middle period of their lives, suffer from nymphomania or possession by ghosts.
Besides these, people suffer from mental disorder for various other reasons. In villages, ghosts are made responsible for all such problems. In fact, nowhere in this world do such beings as jeens, demon, fairy, ghosts etc exist.