The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c34.s2.1

v2.c34.s2.1

The chief place of the dead in the conception of the Rigveda¹ is unquestionably heaven: the soul leaves the body on death, and by the path of the Fathers it goes to the place where there is eternal light, endowed with lustre like that of the gods.² It is said to go as by a car or by wings:³ more completely the Atharvaveda⁴ pictures the dead man as borne up by the Maruts, with gentle breezes fanning him, and cooled by showers until he recovers his complete body, and meets with the Fathers in the highest heaven, where with Yama they dwell. The heaven is called also the home,⁵ but the idea can hardly be pressed to the view that the going to heaven is a return home: it is rather that the man reaches in the highest heaven a new and abiding abode. The connexion of this journey of the souls with the actual burning of the body is always a vague one, but the reality of the connexion of soul and body is proved by the emphasis laid in the Brāhmaṇas⁶ on the necessity for the due collection of the bones of the dead, and the need of replacing them symbolically in cases where they may happen to be lost.