Going to a better place?

In Hinduism, the concept of life after death is a central one.  While I am certainly not an expert on this subject, I’ve recently been reading about this through books and online sources (no, no, no impending sense of doom or anything like that.)

The essential idea is that humans go through cycles of life and death until they fulfill all the duties that God intended for us.  When all our duties are done, we can attain eternal salvation (that is, freed from having to go through another lifecycle.)

Each time we die, Lord Yama (the God of Death) is supposed to go through the list of our achievements (good and bad), and decide if the soul needs to go to hell (to be cleansed) or heaven (or I guess sent back to earth to start the next life.)  An illustration of Lord Yama’s court (from wikipedia): 

I tried to imagine what it would be like for me to be in this state:

Me: “Hmm… Contrary to what I’ve heard about Lord Yama, he seems like a kind and gentle older person.  Yes, the noose in his hand and the huge buffalo he is seated on does look a little scary, but all in all, not as bad as I had feared.”

Lord Yama: “Son, sorry about having you spun around multiple times by the tornado before being struck by lightning, but I was kind of in a hurry.  So, as you know, it’s time for us to review your life.”

He leads me to this IMAX-like screen and signals to His minister, Chitragupta, to turn on the film.  I wince as stuff that I am not very proud of flash through.  Do I have enough good things in there to avoid walking across hot coal or get dipped in oil?  At the end, He puts an arm around my shoulder, and says, “Wow, that was a close one.  I am happy to say that you avoided Hell.”

Me: “That’s great – does that mean I am off to Heaven, to enjoy eternal peace?”

Lord Yama: “Not so fast, buddy.  That was just Part One.  Now, we need to look at all your prior lives.  Chitragupta, go ahead.”

The screen buzzes back to life.

2000 years back: I am a foot soldier in the great epic war “Mahabharatha” – unfortunately, on the bad (and losing) side.  End up getting trampled by an elephant.

A few uninteresting lives later, am a jealous Carnatic musician competing with Saint Thyagaraja.  Final tally – Thyagaraja (2000 plus songs), Myself (15)

And so on.  While this is going on, there’s a big cosmic clock that keeps track of my overall duties – if it completes a full cycle, then I am done.  The hour hand slowly creeps towards 12.  Almost there.  Suddenly, the screen and theater and everything else turns black.  Lord Yama fades from my sight.

Woof, woof - I wake up as a labrador.  So close!

Until next time… Sam