What the hell is hell.

•       Where do bad people go when they die
  don't go to heaven where the angels fly
        Go to a lake of fire and fry
  Won't see 'em again till fourth of July.

      The bible describes hell as Gehenna, a lake of fire. Most descriptions give the impression that we won't be needing to take our winter woolies. One thing is for sure, whether hot or cold, it will be immensely uncomfortable. Let's not go there.

We deserve it.

       Nobody goes to hell unless they deserve to suffer. That's how karma works. However,the good Lord is not mean enough to send you to hell forever just because you were a sinner in one, two, or more, lives. However, please note that, if you were a rather nasty mean mother, you might be in hell for a lot longer than you can count on your fingers and toes, and when you get out things may not be much better. It wouldn't be much fun being born as some creature that dwells in darkness on the bottom of Lake Nyassa or the Atlantic Ocean. Like wise being born as a grub in a peice of rotting fruit doesn't sound particularly appetising either. If we look around, we will notice that many, many millions of beings do take birth as these kind of creatures.

Alas, we digress, so back to hell.

       Srimad Bhagavatam, the cream of the Vedic literature, speaks of hell as a place where befitting punishment takes place. Those who kill, are themselves killed, those who are addicted to lusty desires (sex) are forced to embrace a red hot sex object, etc, etc.

Surely I'm not nothing.

       Whilst waiting in a doctor's surgery, we were once fortunate enough to open a copy of Reader's Digest and read the following little quote at the bottom of one of the pages; "If God does not exist and we spend our lives as good people, we have lost nothing. On the other hand, if God does exist and we live our lives as bad people, we have lost everything."

The Eternal Infinite.

       So, essentially, it is up to us to decide how to act so that we maximise our chance of happiness. Why do some people get born into abject poverty in a little third world backwater, and others not? Why would one person get a happy birth in a heavenly situation and another reside in hell? The answers to these questions are not difficult to answer, but easy to ignore, so we need to take up the task of eliminating ignorance from our habits. This process is best achieved by taking steps upon the bhakti-marga, or the path of bhakti.