Question: What about the teachings found in some Western religions that one can see God only after death, if one has been good and goes to Heaven?
Sri Chinmoy: Heaven and God are not high above us, somewhere far away; they are deep within us, inside our hearts. Heaven is not a distant country where there are trees and houses and other objects; it is a plane of consciousness within us. Seekers of the eternal Truth will realise their eternal Heaven within their aspiring hearts. At every moment we are creating Heaven or hell within us. When we cherish a divine thought, an expanding thought, a fulfilling thought, we create Heaven in us. When we cherish undivine, ugly, obscure, impure thoughts, we are just entering into our own inner hell.
Sri Chinmoy, The summits of God-Life: Samadhi and Siddhi, Agni Press, 1974