Questions and answers

Question: Indian religion teaches reincarnation, the ultimate goal being the union of the soul with God. The Bible teaches that if one is good, he goes to Heaven; if one is bad, he goes to Hell. And also, of course, about resurrection. Is there a meeting of the ways between reincarnation and resurrection?

Sri Chinmoy: Let me deal separately with the two ideas. First, the Christian idea of Heaven and Hell says that if we do good things on earth, we shall go to Heaven; if we do bad things, we shall go to Hell. Actually, there is no such physical place as Heaven or Hell. If you imagine Hell to be a physical place where you are perpetually tortured, then you are mistaken. The experiences of Heaven and Hell are in our inner consciousness. What we call Heaven is, in the world of consciousness, a state of Bliss, continuous, all-fulfilling Bliss. Both Heaven and Hell are in our consciousness and nowhere else. When we deviate from the path of truth, we enter into the room of ignorance, which we can call Hell. When we live in the light of Truth, follow the path of Truth, then our consciousness will be in Heaven. Both Heaven and Hell are inside us in our inmost consciousness.

Now let us come to resurrection, the concept that the dead will come to life again. What does it mean, if not reincarnation? It does not mean that all human beings who have died after living on earth for a certain number of years will suddenly come into life again as they were when they died. To me it means that the souls who are not aspiring in this incarnation will have to aspire sooner or later in another incarnation. Today on earth there are millions and billions of people who are inwardly sleeping. They do not feel the necessity of making inner progress. Each soul who is not aspiring is the equivalent of a dead soul. The Supreme wants each soul to be awakened from the inner sleep which is like death.

As you mentioned, the Eastern idea is that through reincarnation each soul will ultimately reach God. Reincarnation is an opportunity; it is a golden opportunity for us to realise God. In each incarnation we are learning and unlearning: learning the message of Truth, Divinity and Immortality; and unlearning the lessons of ignorance, imperfection and limitation. Each incarnation is an opportunity to throw aside the past, the past that has not fulfilled us, the past that still lingers on in our consciousness and obstructs our onward journey. Each time we reincarnate, each time we come into this world, ignorance attacks us. But slowly, steadily, consciously or unconsciously we are casting ignorance away from us or trying to transform ignorance into divine wisdom.

In the process of reincarnation we are evolving. We came to the human kingdom from the animal kingdom, and long before that we were in the plant kingdom. Even before that we were in the stone kingdom. We have been in many different forms. Now we have evolved to the human level. At the human level the reasoning mind functions for the first time, and here the individual consciousness awakens greatly. Each human incarnation is a stepping stone towards the ultimate Truth. But that does not mean that in each human incarnation you are necessarily going to make very fast progress or that you will be aspiring for the Highest. It may happen that in one incarnation you are aspiring to be spiritual, but in the next incarnation you will try to be a famous artist or poet instead of caring primarily for true spirituality. This does not necessarily mean that you have fallen. No, you are only marking time and gaining another kind of experience. If the soul wants the spiritual life, the inner life, it tries to make you aspire to realise God in this life. But the soul may meet with very limited success in this life, and in your next incarnation you may totally forget about your higher goal. You may take to painting or writing novels, or just trying to be successful in the outer world. The soul may not be able to make you hear its message as you did in the previous life.

But there comes a time in the process of reincarnation and spiritual evolution, inner evolution, when you will throw aside every ordinary thing and begin to care only for God-Realisation. But this takes time. It cannot be done in only one incarnation. In the process of evolution, slowly and steadily you come close to God; you unveil your own inner divinity. The two processes go together; you unveil your own inner divinity and you bring into your outer life the highest transcendental Truth and Divinity.

Eastern thought and Western thought can easily be brought together and amalgamated. According to Eastern thought, we are progressing from light to more light, then to abundant light and finally to infinite Light. This is all happening through the process of reincarnation and the soul’s evolution. In Western thought we have Heaven, Hell and resurrection. But these concepts are not really opposed to the Eastern ones. After all, what is Hell really? It is the torture of imperfection and ignorance, darkness and bondage. When we are spiritually asleep the impurity, ugliness and darkness of the whole world enters into us and becomes ours. This sleep is the sleep of inconscience, not the ordinary sleep which we enjoy every night for eight hours. It is the sleep of the inconscient, limited, obscure, unlit individual. From the Eastern point of view we are progressing from this darkness to light, and finally we attain infinite Light. From the Western point of view, if we are good — that is to say, God-oriented — we will ultimately awaken from the sleep of death and be resurrected into the Glory of God where it is all effulgent Light. We will be reborn into a glorious, exalted state where we will bask eternally in the Light of Heaven. So there is no serious difference between these two points of view. Ultimately, when we go deep within, these two ideas follow the same spiritual principle and lead us to the same Goal. We are only misled by the words reincarnation and resurrection, but the inner meaning of the two is the same.