“If you ask religious people all over the world, they want ‘heaven’.  Each scripture of that religion tries to give us a picture of heaven. By telling the people of heaven they put down norms of behaviour expected and rituals to be done. So what is Heaven? Have you seen it or have you met someone who has spent time there to come and tell you?  So it’s a kind of visualisation. I have been trying to take a rational picture of heaven. The best way to visualise heaven is to put the best of things for a long long time. 

So every woman is beautiful and every man is handsome. There is no concept of aging, you will forever be young.  There is no hunger or thirst so the struggle as a human beings end.  You get all that you desire. Wow what a beautiful Life. Actually it seems very very boring with no struggle for anything. Imagine if you were doing this for 5 years what would happen to you. You are sure to have the most boring life with no excitement at all. Yet, in life we are enamored to ask questions or apply our minds. Still, many are prepared to believe anything because of the pain of everyday living here on Earth.

The Vedic way of looking at heaven is slightly different and follows some logic. Depending on your good work and karma, you will accumulate Punya (grace).  Based on this, you go to a higher level with less or no issues. As soon as punya is used, you will need to come back to earth as Heaven is not considered a final goal. No karma can be done in heaven, only your punya will get exhausted. For karma you need to come back to the earthly plane. Sounds a bit more logical? The opposite is a not so comfortable space we call hell. For the bad actions and bad Dharma you collect Papas (negatives) you too will come back to earth after exhausting your papas. So it’s not forever, neither good nor bad. This makes sense as we always get an opportunity to change with every life…..

A vedantist does not aspire for heaven because it too has a limitation of time. Egos persist, as can be seen by the skirmishes and wars. Certainly I will not aspire to go to a place where egos persists among other things. The presence of ego created its own dynamics, much like what we see on earth. So a Vedantist seeks the highest possible goal with no limitations of any kind… That is the merger into Brahman – the universal consciousness.

I think the problem is that we do not apply our mind and take many important things as a given. In vedanta, continuous questioning is a core process of learning to acquire the knowledge of yourself. Don’t be enamoured by heaven, which is really unknown. It could be a myth – who knows?”