Indian Philosophy v1.c8.s8.5

v1.c8.s8.5

The departed souls dwell in heaven revelling with Yama. They there live an existence like ours. The joys of heaven are those of earth perfected and heightened. “ These bright things are the portion of those who bestow largesses ; there are suns for them in heaven ; they attain immortality ; they prolong their lives.”² Stress is sometimes laid on the sensuous character in the Vedic picture of future life. But as Deussen observes: “Even Jesus represents the kingdom of heaven as a festal gathering where they sit down to table³ and drink wine,⁴ and even a Dante or a Milton could not choose but borrow all the colours for their pictures from this world of earth.”⁵ The gods are supposed to become immortal through the power of the Soma. To become like gods is the goal of our endeavour. For the gods live in a spiritual paradise enjoying a kind of unalloyed bliss. They neither hunger nor thirst, neither marry nor are given in marriage. In their ideal descriptions of the other world, the contrast between the life on earth and the life hereafter arises. The blessed gods live for ever. We are children of a day. The gods have happiness in heaven above where Yama rules; we have misery for our lot on earth. What should we do to gain immortality? We have to offer sacrifices to gods, since immortality is a free gift from heaven to the god-fearing. The good man who worships the gods becomes immortal. "Sage Agni! The mortal who propitiates thee becomes a moon in heaven."¹ Already the difficulty is felt. Does he become the moon or does he become like the moon? Sāyaṇa explains it as: "He becomes like the moon, the rejoicer of all";² others contend that he becomes the moon.³ There are indications that the Vedic Aryan believed in the possibility of meeting his ancestors after his death.⁴