Heaven vs Liberation

If we keep aside the question about the existence of God and heaven, we see that most people are believers in some type of God and his kingdom in heaven. We have to take it as a practical reality because it impacts our religious and social behaviour. It influences the collective behaviour of people who believe in such a structure.

Hinduism, like on many other issues, has two propositions on this – one, at the level of a lay person and the other, at the level of a thinker. At the layman’s level it portrays not one, but several heavenly worlds, somewhere in space, which are full of comforts. This will be as a result of good deeds done by a person while alive. The second level is in the Upanishads, in which the individual has to discover his real nature as one with the Supreme Reality, which is not a personal god. This discovery leads to infinite bliss, called liberation.

There is a discussion in the Mahabharata (Vanaparva Ch 261) between a pious sage named Mudgala and a messenger from heaven who descends to take him to heaven. The sage asks him to describe what he would get in heaven. The messenger describes how the person attaining heaven would attain a divine body free from ailments, ever young, free from hunger and thirst.

There exist pleasures for all senses, and no trace of anything foul. However, the good actions done by the person resulting in punyam, is the currency for him to attain heaven. Punyam is like a debit card with a time limit. A person comes back to the cycle of birth and death at the expiry of the punya. This return to earth is very painful, and all the human ailments revisit, says the messenger from heaven. Sage Mudgala says, ‘salute to you sir! I do not want heaven where there is no scope for good work and tapas. I seek the highest goal by attaining self-knowledge’.

It becomes clear that heaven is the result of physical actions done by a person. It is something which is achieved. Liberation, on the other hand, is not an action. It is a discovery of what already exists but unrealized. Vedanta says that every being is Brahman, but not aware of it. Such ignorance leads a person to assume several social identities and tasks.

Investigation into one’s own nature leads to the discovery that the real nature is the same as Brahman. Vedanta gives the comparison with space seemingly limited in a pot merging with infinite space when the pot is broken. The identity of the pot-space is dissolved in infinite space. The individual self, like a salt doll, loses its name and form and gets dissolved in the infinite ocean of consciousness.

We thus note that heaven is a place to be attained, whereas liberation is freedom of mind, which is not a place to be attained but it is a state of awareness.

In fact, Hindu scriptures have a low assessment of heaven. Srimad Bhagavatam compares it to a lollypop to convince people to do good deeds in society. The good actions are such as charitable acts, restraining the mind and senses through yoga, study of scriptures, practice of compassion, non-violence and devotion. But liberation is the highest goal.

Religion and belief in heaven do not remove the ego (the idea of individual self) in a person. it can result in hubris, religious pride, ‘I am holier than thou’. Self-knowledge removes ego and the person goes beyond religion, and sees every being as his own self. There can also be a collective ego in religion, which can be dangerous to others.

In spite of all this exhortation from scriptures, the human being is happier to have an identity and have some achievements. He is content to have all the pleasures and pain of the limited self. Gaudapada, the great philosopher, wonders how people are afraid of losing their petty identities, about how they do not realize the fearless state of realization.