Hindus, what's our afterlife like?

[The Great Wanderer]

So to my fellow Hindus, I'm reading about the Ancient Egyptians and find they are remarkably similar to us in so many aspects it's mind-boggling.

But my main question is, how do you reach the afterlife and break away from the cycle of liberation? Do you know of the Seven Worlds of Heaven? How would one take steps to get there? I don't find it being often talked about. Surely we must know something?

 

[Sharmaji]

So to my fellow Hindus, I'm reading about the Ancient Egyptians and find they are remarkably similar to us in so many aspects it's mind-boggling.

But my main question is, how do you reach the afterlife and break away from the cycle of liberation? Do you know of the Seven Worlds of Heaven? How would one take steps to get there? I don't find it being often talked about. Surely we must know something?

To be honest, speaking of moksha I guess it’s different for everybody and I believe it depends on what you want to gain or take from this world. As for the seven worlds of heaven I’ve never heard of it before someone more learnt than me will surely answer.

 

[The Great Wanderer]

To be honest, speaking of moksha I guess it’s different for everybody and I believe it depends on what you want to gain or take from this world. As for the seven worlds of heaven I’ve never heard of it before someone more learnt than me will surely answer.

Would you know of Satyuloka, Brahmaloka? I mean the Egyptians have Aaru, Christians have Heaven, there must be something solidified for us Hindus?
Seven Heavens - Wikipedia

But you're right, let's hope someone with more knowledge about the afterlife can help us answer this question.

 

[Sharmaji]

Would you know of Satyuloka, Brahmaloka? I mean the Egyptians have Aaru, Christians have Heaven, there must be something solidified for us Hindus?
Seven Heavens - Wikipedia

But you're right, let's hope someone with more knowledge about the afterlife can help us answer this question.

What I know is that Moksha basically means to become one with the universal soul/universe again. It’s no place it’s a state of being.

 

[The Great Wanderer]

What I know is that Moksha basically means to become one with the universal soul/universe again. It’s no place it’s a state of being.

Thanks!

 

[Jainarayan]

But you're right, let's hope someone with more knowledge about the afterlife can help us answer this question.

I don’t think anyone has ever gone and come back with tales of Vaikuntha, Shivaloka, or moksha. Whatever the belief system or religion, it’s all subjective belief. How could it be any way else?

 

[Vinayaka]

To be honest, speaking of moksha I guess it’s different for everybody and I believe it depends on what you want to gain or take from this world. As for the seven worlds of heaven I’ve never heard of it before someone more learnt than me will surely answer.

I've never heard of it either, but since Hinduism is so vast it's probably there. As for afterlife, there really isn't any for the individual ego self that most people identify themselves with. That's gone with death of the physical body. The soul spends some time on the astral before reincarnating. Moksha is when the soul no longer needs a physical body to continue it's karmas associated with that.

 

[Kirran]

Moksha is unrelated to some kind of heaven or afterlife context. You can go to whatever worlds or planes (lokas) you want to, be it Satyaloka or whatever, but the idea of moksha is that it's about realisation, about understanding, about transcending the ego and the mind and therefore the perceived universe. At least, that's the traditional use of the word - many Hindus do indeed think of moksha as a place you go to, and think of it as the same as heaven. I don't know how long people have been using it like that.

 

[The Great Wanderer]

I don’t think anyone has ever gone and come back with tales of Vaikuntha, Shivaloka, or moksha. Whatever the belief system or religion, it’s all subjective belief. How could it be any way else?

It must have been written somewhere in the books thousands of years ago, but you're right, Hinduism isn't a codified religion.

 

[Sharmaji]

I agree the moment you destroy your own ego and let go of your physical and material attachment to body and world that’s when the need to reincarnate is no more. Karma then vanishes.

 

[The Great Wanderer]

I've never heard of it either, but since Hinduism is so vast it's probably there. As for afterlife, there really isn't any for the individual ego self that most people identify themselves with. That's gone with death of the physical body. The soul spends some time on the astral before reincarnating. Moksha is when the soul no longer needs a physical body to continue it's karmas associated with that.

I see, thanks Vinayaka!

 

[Vinayaka]

I don't know how long people have been using it like that.

Since non-Hindu faiths starting doing comparative studies, and some Hindus started listening?

 

[The Great Wanderer]

Moksha is unrelated to some kind of heaven or afterlife context. You can go to whatever worlds or planes (lokas) you want to, be it Satyaloka or whatever, but the idea of moksha is that it's about realisation, about understanding, about transcending the ego and the mind and therefore the perceived universe. At least, that's the traditional use of the word - many Hindus do indeed think of moksha as a place you go to, and think of it as the same as heaven. I don't know how long people have been using it like that.

Right, letting go of the ego. That's hard.

Moksha is so like the afterlife for us - same with all the benefits and stuff?

I would have thought that we Hindus should know of this, I mean the Ancient Egyptians wrote whole books about their afterlife.

I read about the Mesopotamian afterlife - no thanks!

 

[Sharmaji]

Since non-Hindu faiths starting doing comparative studies, and some Hindus started listening?

Missionaries and hardcore preachers came up with all sorts of crazy things, most famous to me is the St. Thomas myth...so no surprise they’d start to indoctrinate or distort certain facts about Hinduism concerning the idea of afterlife. Karma has always been explained as something unjust/evil and they linked it to the caste system. It’s all so messed up.

 

[Kirran]

Right, letting go of the ego. That's hard.

Moksha is so like the afterlife for us - same with all the benefits and stuff?

I would have thought that we Hindus should know of this, I mean the Ancient Egyptians wrote whole books about their afterlife.

I read about the Mesopotamian afterlife - no thanks!

In what way do you see moksha as being like the afterlife?

 

[The Great Wanderer]

In what way do you see moksha as being like the afterlife?

I'm not sure tbh. I know Moksha is realisation, but what then? Once you leave the earth, where does the soul travel too? Don't you have a judge of your deeds like in Buddhism?

 

[Vinayaka]

Missionaries and hardcore preachers came up with all sorts of crazy things, most famous to me is the St. Thomas myth...so no surprise they’d start to indoctrinate or distort certain facts about Hinduism concerning the idea of afterlife. Karma has always been explained as something unjust/evil and they linked it to the caste system. It’s all so messed up.

I don't think this one was intentional though. When you're looking through any lens (in this particular case, Christianity or it's 2 sisters) and that's all there is in your subconscious mind, you have little choice. It is human nature to compare anything that we don't know about to something we do know about. It happens a lot, quite naturally, and unintentionally. An old mechanic, if he time travelled to the era of electric cars, would most likely be looking for some sort of fuel that resembled gasoline. He's think that the plug-in was some sort of liquid combustable refueling system.

So words like Brahman, moksha, and many many more got mangled. Not intentionally but it still happened. When engaging with some people from that paradigm, I have discovered it to be nigh impossible to convince them I actually see the world quite differently.

 

[Vinayaka]

I'm not sure tbh. I know Moksha is realisation, but what then? Once you leave the earth, where does the soul travel too? Don't you have a judge of your deeds like in Buddhism?

Moksha isn't realisation. It's a result that happens because of realisation.

 

[The Great Wanderer]

Moksha isn't realisation. It's a result that happens because of realisation.

Would you agree with me that Hinduism is a vast religion to complicated to understand sometimes?

Maybe I should get started on some of the texts - where's an easy one that I can start with?

 

[Sharmaji]

Would you agree with me that Hinduism is a vast religion to complicated to understand sometimes?

Maybe I should get started on some of the texts - where's an easy one that I can start with?

Hinduism is a broad term for a different spectrum of individual sects/groups, each group has a different view on certain aspects of faith. I suggest you read the katha upanishad as it talks a lot about the idea of afterlife and the destruction of ego, additionally I assume the Bhagavad Gita could also be of use.