History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c71.s1.608
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c71.s1.608
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v5.c71.s1.608.1
As regards the opposite idea of *svarga* (Heaven) the matter is much clearer In certain Ṛk verses there are said to be three heavens (e g Ṛg I 35 6, VIII. 5 8, VIII. 41 9, IX. 113. 9) The generous donor or worshipper is said to occupy heaven and to mix among gods; and gods like Mitra and Varuṇa are implored to give the worshipper immortality³⁶⁶ (Ṛg I. 125, 5, V. 63. 2, X 107 2 ) Life in heaven is full of joys and delights and the denizen of heaven has all his desires fulfilled (Ṛg. IX. 113 10-11).³⁶⁷ In Ṛg IX. 113 8 the poet prays 'make me immortal (in heaven) where dwells king Vaivasvata, where the sun is confined (i e. where it never sets) and where the divine waters flow' A person who neither offers sacrifices to gods, nor worships, and observes ordinances other than those of Indra is thrown down from Heaven³⁶⁸. A sage exultingly addresses Soma 'we have drunk soma, we have become immortal, we have reached Light (Heaven) and we have known the gods; what will an enemy or harmful person do to us who have been mortals so far?'³⁶⁹ The pious dead become united in Heaven with their *Iṣṭāpūrta* (merit due to sacrifices and charitable acts) and with their fore-fathers and become endowed with a refulgent body (Ṛg X 14 8). Those who practise *tapas* or those who perform sacrifices in which the fees run to thousands (of cows) reach Heaven (Ṛg X. 154. 1-3)³⁷⁰, and Soma, ghee and honey flow for them there.
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Heaven is said to be the abode of Yama and there resounds the sound of flutes and of songs³⁷¹ The Atharvaveda, being more popular in character, contains much more information about Heaven. In Atharvaveda III. 29.3 it is said that a donor goes to Heaven where a weak man has not to render to the strong any contribution ³⁷² In Atharvaveda IV. 34.2, 5-6 it is stated that in the heavenly world there are bevies of women (for the denizens), that there the dwellers get many edible plants and flowers and that there are ponds of ghee, streams of milk and honey, wine flows like water and lotus lakes surround the denizens. In Heaven the meritorious enjoy delight, their bodies being free from disease ³⁷³. Atharvaveda VI. 120.3 and other verses express a yearning to meet one's parents, wife and sons (vide Atharva XII. 3.17).³⁷⁴ The Tai. S. is full of references to Heaven and so no quotation is cited here except one where it is said that he who offers the Adābhya cup in Jyotiṣṭoma goes to heaven while still living in this world.³⁷⁵ The Tai. Br. appears to hold that those who offer sacrifices become shining stars in the firmament (I. 5. 2. 5-6)375a The Śat. Br. (XI 1. 8. 6) states 'that sacrificer who offers a sacrifice as this redemption is born in the next world (Heaven) with his body entire'.³⁷⁶ Survival of the soul after death is emphatically asserted in the Tai. Br. III. 10. 11.
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These passages are enough to establish that the state of the pious after death and of heroes killed in battle was one of happiness in heaven, that there the food and material things (such as honey, ghee) that a person required in this world were also available in greater perfection and abundance The remark of Macdonell 'Heaven is a glorified world of material joys as pictured by the imagination not of warriors but of priests' (Vedic Mythology p. 168) is not (in view of Ṛg. X. 154.3) quite accurate or justified There is nothing to show that the warriors of Vedic times did not believe what the priests believed. In later times (as in the Bhagavadgītā II 37 'hato vā prāpsyasi svargam' or in the Raghuvamśa VII. 51) warriors killed in battle were supposed to go to heaven and were privileged to have the company of beautiful damsels Heaven as a place or state of eternal bliss to which the spirits of the religious or meritorious people or warriors go, is an idea common to most ancient peoples and was probably based on the idea that the Earth was flat and the sky was a dome carrying various celestial objects In the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Up (IV 3 33) and Tai Up. (II. 8) it is³⁷⁷ stated that the joys of the world of gods are'hundreds of times more delightful than those of the mortal world ³⁷⁸ In the Kathopaniṣad (I 12) it is stated by Yama himself that in Heaven there is no fear and no old age, that the denizen of Heaven is beyond hunger, thirst and sorrow and is in the midst of all delights.
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The Kausitakı Br Up as quoted by Śaṅkarācārya on Vedāntasūtra I. 1 28 contains the statement that the abode of sinners is below this world or ³⁷⁹ the earth. The Chāndogya Up in one place remarks³⁸⁰ 'those whose conduct has been good will quickly attain some good birth, the birth of a brāhmaṇa or a kṣatriya or vaiśya But those whose conduct has been evil will quickly attain an evil birth, the birth of a dog or a hog or a cāṇḍāla'.