The 7 Realms

Hi folks!


There is a question from Vinayak-

' A Soul is a micro or sub-atomic part of the main Cosmic Energy, and a Jeeva, a soul which has entered into the physical human body and contains an account of previous lifetimes. Are Soul and Jeeva two different things?'

This confusion would pertain to the Dwait and Adwait philosophies, which said that the Soul and God were two different things or one and the same thing.

There is one 'matter' which leaves the main body and starts its journey of exploration and evolution to eventually rejoin the original source.

This gets to be called a Soul, a Spirit,or anything the various languages and cultures of the world may think of.

Each language has its own word and definition for it, sometimes more than one too, but the 'matter' in question remains one.

'Soul' is an English word, 'Jeeva' a Sanskrit one.

Let us see what happens to us when we leave our body.

We know what happens when we take a bus, a train, a ship or a plane to some place on earth.

We are received if we have made such arrangements, taken to rest a bit and freshen up, then we set about to see the sights or settle in our jobs or studies.

If we have enough money, we go and live in comfort.

We earn, make plans and make all-out efforts to manifest them.

Something similar happens to us when we leave our body on earth.

Many, many people have described the various realms that one goes to when we die.

Today, I will tell you how Vispi and Ratoo Bhavnagari have described them.

1) The First Realm

This is the lowest and the blackest.

There are awful, deformed beings here who have negative thoughts and who move about on their stomachs.

Their bodies are very heavy and they always stay in extreme darkness.

This is a horrible realm.

2)The Second Realm

This is only slightly better than the First because the darkness here is a degree less.

The bodies of beings are not as horrendous or heavy.

They creep along in rocky caves, hate eachother and direct hateful thoughts to eachother.

3)The Third Realm

This one is slightly lighter than the first two.

The beings here have comparitively lighter bodies.

The atmosphere here is cloudy and smoky but not black and heavy.

The beings here have bodies like us humans but they are old and wrinkled.

They harbour negative thoughts and spend all their time in blaming others.

The beings here catch those people on earth who have been generally good but done something bad, as soon as they die and enslave them.

4)The Fourth Realm

This is like the half-way destination.

This realm resembles the Earth a lot.

The human soul begins its spiritual journey from this realm.

Both bad and good souls reside here and the choice of moving up or falling down is entirely individual.

If, after many, many lifetimes on the earth, you have progressed to a higher realm but then behaved badly in a lifetime, this is where you come to start your journey all over again.

5)The Fifth Realm

This resembles a beautiful place of great scenic beauty on earth.

It has a soothing light all the time ,and the spirits here are light of body.

They help eachother and harbour good thoughts.

If you have developed to this stage in your spiritual journey, your conscience will not allow you to behave badly on earth, and even if you do slip up, it still wont be bad enough to go below the Fourth Realm.

6)The Sixth Realm

This is very beautiful.

The trees, grass and flowers here have a beauty which cannot be described in words.

Such colours are not seen on earth.

This Realm seems to have a constant, gentle sunlight.

The beings here are light in body and beautiful.

There is love in abundance, no bad or negative thoughts and they help eachother in their work.

7)The Seventh Realm

This is The Highest Realm.

The beauty of this Realm cannot even be imagined by people on earth.

The beings have beautiful bodies which are light as a cloud.

They look young and live in complete harmony.

According to Vispi and Ratoo, each realm has further ten levels.

So what do you think of this account?!

There are some others who have described these too, and we will look into them some other time.

But generally, this is the most comprehensive description.

Do you think there is an afterlife?

What do you think happens to us when we die?

Do we die along with the body?

Do the gods /saints we have prayed to take us to their abode?

What is this abode like?

What do we do after we die?

Do let me know your thoughts.

It is these thoughts or lack of them, that completely govern our behaviour on the earth.

So long for now -