belief in an afterlife might make help people to be more relaxed about threats and adversity in the here-and-now.
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LESS PSYCH ISSUES ON RELIGS PPL
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depending on the actual beliefs held: belief in a demanding and vindictive God and the certainty about the reality of an afterlife can both lead to more anxiety. On the other hand, abiding by religious teachings and believing in divine forgiveness can reduce death anxiety.
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N HAVE MORE DTH ANXTY THAN D
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Terror Management Theory’. Put simply, this is the idea that people turn to religion to ease their fear of death.
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BIG SLEEP TO DUST SITUATION - BSTD OPTION
But it would be interesting to see what level of death anxiety there is among committed atheists, rather than the non-religious. In theory, atheists should have low death anxiety since, to paraphrase Epicurus, what do you have to fear from non-existence? However, I wonder whether this cognitive rationalisation is enough to overcome the innate psychological instinct!
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terror Management Theory’s worldview defence hypothesis predicts that death anxiety is lowest among very religious and irreligious individuals,
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not all religious afterlife beliefs have death anxiety buffering power as proposed by Terror Management Theory, perhaps because Buddhists view reincarnation not as a solace but rather as a renewal of sufferings due to unwholesome karma
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DTH ANXTY SCALE
Peace.
The Paths of the Sun and the Moon
The Bhagavad-Gita describes two paths along which souls travel after death. One is the path of the sun, also known as the bright path or the path of gods and the other is the path of the moon, also known as the dark path and the path of ancestors. When a soul travels along the path of the sun, it never return again, while those which travel along the path of the moon return again. (8.24). How is the path of the sun attained? Lord Krishna provides the clue in the following verses:
"Controlling all the openings of the body, with the mind established in the heart, fixing the prana in the self at the top of the head establishing oneself in the Yoga, uttering the monosyllable AUM, which is Brahman, who leaves the body remembering Me, he achieves the highest goal. (8.12-13)
B GITA 8.24 agnir jyotir ahaḥ śuklaḥ
ṣaṇ-māsā uttarāyaṇam
tatra prayātā gacchanti
brahma brahma-vido janāḥ
Translation of Bhagavad Gita 8.24
Those who know the Supreme Brahman attain that Supreme by passing away from the world during the influence of the fiery god, in the light, at an auspicious moment of the day, during the fortnight of the waxing moon, or during the six months when the sun travels in the north.
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Commentary by Sri A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada of Gaudiya Sampradaya:
When fire, light, day and the fortnight of the moon are mentioned, it is to be understood that over all of them there are various presiding deities who make arrangements for the passage of the soul. At the time of death, the mind carries one on the path to a new life. If one leaves the body at the time designated above, either accidentally or by arrangement, it is possible for him to attain the impersonal brahmajyoti. Mystics who are advanced in yoga practice can arrange the time and place to leave the body. Others have no control—if by accident they leave at an auspicious moment, then they will not return to the cycle of birth and death, but otherwise there is every possibility that they will have to return. However, for the pure devotee in Krishna consciousness, there is no fear of returning, whether he leaves the body at an auspicious or inauspicious moment, by accident or arrangement.
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Commentary by Sri Vishvanatha Chakravarthi Thakur of Gaudiya Sampradaya:
He speaks in this verse about the path of no return. The words agnir jyotir (fire and light) indicate the presiding deity of the sun according to the sruti statement te ‘rcisam abhisambhavanti: theft go to the sun planet. Aha indicates the deity of the day, and sukla indicates the deity of the fortnight of the waxing moon. The six months of uttarayana means the deity who presides over the uttarayana. The jnanis (brahma vidah) who go on the path of these devatas, attain brahman. As the sruti says:
te ‘rcisam abhi sambhavanti arciso ‘rahna apuryamana-paksam apuryamana-paksad yan san-masanudannaditya eti malebhyo deva-lokam
They reach the deity of fire. From there they go to the deity of the day, from there to the deity of the waxing fortnight, and from there to the uttarayana deity. Chandogsya Upanisad 5.10.2
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Commentary by Sri Ramanuja of Sri Sampradaya:
8.23 – 8.24 Here, the term ‘time’ denotes a path, having many deities beginning with day and ending with year. The deities preside over divisions of time. The meaning is — I declare to you the path departing in which Yogins do not return and also the path departing in which the doers of good actions return. By the clause, ‘Light in the form of fire, the day, bright fortnight, six months of the northern course,’ year also is denoted.
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BRIGHT LUNAR FORTNIGHT IS SHUKLA PAKSHA
The Fate of an Individual Upon Death
What happens to a soul after the death of a mortal being on earth depends upon many factors, some of which are listed below:
1. His previous deeds. If a person has committed many bad deeds in his life, he will go to the lower worlds and suffer from the consequences of his evil actions. On the contrary if he performed good deeds, he will go to the higher sun filled worlds and enjoy the life there. One's choices and way of life are also important. A householder should lead a balanced life and pursue all the four aims of life as a part of his service to God. The Isa Upanishad clearly emphasizes it.
Into blinding darkness enter those who worship ignorance (materialism) and into greater darkness those who worship knowledge (spirituality) alone. Distinct they say is the result of knowledge and distinct they also say is the result of ignorance. This is what we heard from the wise who explained these matters to us. He who knows both knowledge and ignorance together, crosses death through ignorance and attains immortality through knowledge. - Isa Upanishad
2. His state of mind at the time of death, that is what thoughts and what desires were predominant in his consciousness at the time of his death, decides in which direction the jiva will travel and in what form it will appear again. For example if a person is thinking of his family and children at the time of his death, very likely he will go the world of ancestors and will be born again in that family. If a person is thinking of money matters at the time of his death, very likely he will travel to the world of Vishnu and will be born as a merchant or a trader in his next birth. If a person is thinking of evil and negative thoughts he will go to the lower worlds and suffer in the hands of evil. His suffering may either reform him or push him deeper into evil depending upon his previous samskaras( tendencies). If he is thinking of God at the time of his death, he will go to the highest world.
3. The time of his death. The time and circumstances related to death are also important. For example it is believed that if a person dies on a battle field he will attain the heaven of the warriors. If a some one dies on a festival day or an auspicious day, while performing some puja or bhajan in the house, he will go to heaven irrespective of his previous deeds.
4. The activities of his children, that is whether they performed the funeral rites in the prescribed manner and satisfied the scriptural injunctions. There is a belief that if funeral rites are not performed according to the tradition, it will delay the journey of the souls to their respective worlds.
5. The grace of God. God in the form of a personal deity may often interfere with the fate of an individual and change the course of his or her after life. We have instances where God rescued his devotees from the hands of the messengers of death and placed them in the highest heaven in recognition of their meritorious deeds.
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Belief in many heavens and hells
The early Vedic people believed in the existence of two worlds apart from ours, the world of ancestors and that of gods. They called these worlds bhur (earth), bhuva (moon) and svar (the sun) which occupied the lower, the middle and the higher regions of the universe. They believed that gods attained the highest world of svar because of the sacrifices they performed in the past and that men too could reach their world through similar sacrifices. It was also through sacrifice that the gods managed to resurrect Brahma (Prajapati) when he exploded and lost his vital energy due to the intense heat that emanated from his act of creation. The gods represented the life forces and renewal of life while the demons who opposed them represented the forces of death and destruction. In the struggle between gods and demons the gods won and became immortal, providing an opportunity and a possibility to mortal men to attain their status through good deeds upon earth. However the notion of rebirth of human beings was alien to the early Vedic people. In the Rigveda there is no mention of rebirth or reincarnation1. Once the souls departed from here, they lived either in the world of ancestors or that of the gods for good. Their bodies (tanus) were recreated in the higher worlds according to the merit they gained through the sacrifices they performed whilst they were alive. The Vedic tradition of offering sacrifices to one's ancestors support the Vedic belief that the ancestors would either stay in the ancestral world or ascend to the heavenly world through the sacrifices of their descendants but would not return to earth again. If their stay was temporary, the question of making annual offerings to several generations of departed souls would not make much sense. A rudimentary concept of rebirth can be traced in some early Upanishads which repeatedly suggest that a father lives through his son. While the body may perish, the Self does not because the knowledge and energies of the father are transmitted to the eldest son.
However with the integration of new traditions into Vedic religion, the Hindu cosmology grew in complexity and so were the theological explanations about afterlife and rebirth. The Puranas and later Vedic literature speak of the existence of not one hell and one heaven but of many sun filled worlds and many dark and demonic worlds. Apart from these, each of the Trinity of gods has his own world, which is attained by their followers after death. Vaikunth is the world of Vishnu, Kailash of Siva and Brahmalok of Brahman. Indralok, the standard heaven (svar) of the Vedic religion remained as a temporary resting place for the pure souls. Pitralok is the world of ancestors while Yamalok is the hell ruled by a god called Lord Yama, who is also the ruler of the southern quarter, where impure souls are held temporarily and subject to pain and punishment till their bad karmas are exhausted. He is assisted by an attendant, known as Chitragupt, a chronicler, who keeps a catalog of the deeds of all human beings on earth and reads them out as the jivas stand in front of Yama in his court and await his verdict. According to Hindu scriptures, both heaven and hell are temporary resting places for the souls from which they have to return to earth to continue their mortal existence once their karmas are exhausted. But the same is not the case in case of liberated souls. Liberated souls are liberated in the real sense. They are not bound to any place or condition or dimension. Different schools of Hinduism offer different explanations about the status of a liberated soul. According to the school of advaita (monism), when a soul is liberated it reaches the highest world and becomes one with Brahman. Simply, it exists no more as an individual self. According to other schools of thought, when a soul attains the highest world of Brahman or of Vishnu or of Siva, it remains there permanently as a liberated soul savoring the company of the Supreme Being and forever freed from the delusion of Prakriti or nature. It does not reunite with Brahman completely. Some of them may at times incarnate again on their own accord to serve humanity. But event then they would not be subject to the impurities of illusion, attachment and karma. A liberated soul remains forever free and untainted even during the dissolution of the worlds and the beginning of a new cycle of creation.
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reincarnation like many forms of Hinduism and Buddhism, believe that one’s status in the afterlife is a reward or punishment for their conduct during life.
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The Upanishads describe reincarnation (punarjanma). The Bhagavad Gita, an important Hindu script, talks extensively about the afterlife. Here, the Lord Krishna says that just as a man discards his old clothes and wears new ones; similarly the soul discards the old body and takes on a new one. In Hinduism, the belief is that the body is nothing but a shell, the soul inside is immutable and indestructible and takes on different lives in a cycle of birth and death. The end of this cycle is called “Mukti” and staying finally with supreme God forever; is “Moksha” or salvation.
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The Garuda Purana deals solely with what happens to a person after death. The God of Death Yama sends his representatives to collect the soul from a person’s body whenever he is due for death and they take the soul to Yama. A record of each person’s timings & deeds performed by him is kept in a ledger by Yama’s assistant, Chitragupta.
According to the Garuda Purana, a soul after leaving the body travels through a very long and dark tunnel towards the South. This is why an oil lamp is lit and kept beside the head of the corpse, to light the dark tunnel and allow the soul to travel comfortably.
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Hindus also believe in Karma. ‘Karma’ is the accumulated sums of one’s good or bad deeds. Satkarma means good deeds, vikarma means bad deeds. According to Hinduism the basic concept of Karma is ‘As you sow, you shall reap’. So, if a person has lived a good life, they will be rewarded in the afterlife. Similarly their sum of bad deeds will be mirrored in their next life. Good ‘Karma’ brings good rewards and bad ‘karmas’ lead to bad results. There is no judgment here. People accumulate karma through their actions and even thoughts.
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four Purusharthas/exigencies of life . DAKMo
They are Dharma[righteousness], Artha[earning wealth righteously], Kama[fulfilling righteous desires] and Moksha/liberation.
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