*This is a tough article to write, mostly because
we do not know anything about heaven. Sure,
we all have our theories, hypothesis, beliefs and
ideas, but they remain just that- theories and
ideas without any tangible proof. So what is it
that we do know about Heaven? What can we
deduce from various systems of belief? The
concept of what Heaven looks and feels like
differs from religion to religion, but the basic
premise remains the same- it is the place where
people who have passed on live happily ever
after.

***We know it is a good place-
common sense dictates as much. According to all religious beliefs, we either go to Heaven or to Hell after we die. Oh, and the Christians believe in a middle-ground Purgatory. So if you have been good and not committed any murders in your lifetime and brushed your teeth every day, you will land up in Heaven and enjoy eternal bliss. If, on the other hand, you have been not-so good and committed sins and lived a life of vices, you will presumably end up in Hell- the place reserved for bad souls- and roast on the eternal fire of damnation. So if we go by that belief, it is only logical to assume by this binary that people who have been good in their lifetime will reap the benefits of the goodness by going to a wonderful place after death. According to the Bible, Heaven is a place where there is no
suffering, sickness, deaths or evil. People who
lead a virtuous life, are not ‘heathens’ and
believe in God go to this beautiful place. This is
also the reason that the Britishers used while
colonising- they wanted to save the souls of the
heathens by converting them to Christianity so
they would end up in Heaven and not dwell in
Hell.

***It is the dwelling place of God
God resides in Heaven. So does Jesus.
According to the Bible, God created the world
and everything in it and he rests in Heaven. To
save humanity, he sent his son Jesus to Earth. If
you have studied in a convent or a Christian
Missionary school like me, your morning prayer
probably began with “Our Father, who art in
Heaven, hallowed be thy name..” Heaven is
therefore the place where God resides, along
with His son Jesus. What else do we know about
Heaven? We know that St. Peter guards the
pearly gates of Heaven to make sure that
undeserving souls do not go in. We know that
Sigmund described God as sitting on a throne of
gold in his book ‘My Time in Heaven.’ We know
that it is because of God that Heaven is a
wonderful place. His absence is what makes Hell
the dreadful place it is.

***No one set place? In Christopher Marlowe’s
Faustus, the devil Mephistohilis loudly
proclaims that Hell is not circumscribed in one
self place, but is rather a state of mind. Many
systems of belief believe that it is the same with
heaven. Just like the Devil’s Hell is in his eternal
torment because of his separation from God,
something that he can not escape “Why this is
Hell, not am I out of it”, similarly, Heaven is not
so much a place as a state of mind. To a man
with a guilt-free mind, Heaven is wherever he is.
A mind tormented by sins will never experience
the bliss of Heaven. Heaven is not, then, a
beautiful place that you go to when you die, but
rather a wonderful state of mind that you will
always experience.

***AFTER LIFE
Many religions believe that we never gain
freedom from the cycle of birth and death, and
that after we die, we are not accorded the
luxury of eternal bliss in Heaven but have to go
on to an afterlife. Most such religions and sects
who believe in the concept of afterlife will also
tell you that in order to find peace and
contentment in your next life, you must do good
deeds in this one. We often see people
exclaiming that their misfortune is a result of
their sins of their previous birth. Perhaps the
closest thing to heaven, according to this theory,
is an afterlife full of happiness and joy. Jainism
believes that there are eighty four species of
animals into which we keep taking birth as one
or the other animal. Jainism and Hinduism
believe in the concept of afterlife, while
Christianity and Islam believe that our souls rest in heaven. The concept of afterlife and the cycle of birth and death is also associated with one more belief- that of ‘moksh.’ It is believed that when you rise above worldly pleasures and the materialistic desires of earth, you reach a
freedom or ‘mukti’ from this cycle of life and
death. This release is called ‘moksh.’

**It is a place for REWARDS- The Bible tells us that
we will be rewarded for our good deeds in
Heaven. According to Matthew 25:23 (NIV),
Jesus is said to have spoken of heaven to his
follower as “Well done, good and faithful
servant! You have been faithful with a few
things; I will put you in charge of many things.
Come and share your master’s happiness!”
Heaven is then, presumably, a place where you
will be rewarded for your faithfulness to God
and the good deeds that you have committed on
earth. It is also this promise of rewards in
Heaven that prompts most people to do good
without any expectations on earth. ‘Neki kar aur dariya me daal’ might just earn you bigger and better rewards in Heaven, so do good! This
concept of rewards for good deeds is also
closely aligned to the idea of good rebirths for
virtuous people.

***Jannat
The concept of Heaven in Islam is closely allied
to the Christian concept. According to the
Quran, Heaven has eight doors- one each for
people who were
(i) punctual in prayer
(ii)participated in jihad
(iii) gave to charity
(iv) fasted
(v) went to the holy pilgrimage
(vi) forgave others
(vii) had the virtue of faith and
trust in Allah, and
(viii) remembered God zealously and constantly. People rest in their graves until the time for their Judgment by God, whereby they are allotted a place in either Jannah (Heaven) or Jahhanam (Hell) according to how good or bad they have been. It is a story in Islam that the peacock was a bird of Heaven that was sent to earth because he made the mistake of letting the Devil inside Jannat.

***A place of ANGELS
All of us have been told at one point or the
other that Heaven is the place where angels
reside with God. The Bible seems to agree to as
much. The angels do the bidding of the Lord
their God. Satan was actually the brightest angel of Heaven- Lucifer- who made the mistake of revolting against God and thereby fell from
Heaven. In his book ‘My Time in Heaven’,
Richard Sigmund describes being escorted
around Heaven by two angels who were not as
pleasant as conventional tales would like us to
believe. Angels are as integral a part of Heaven
as God himself. Angels are traditionally
described as pretty things robed in white with
halos around their head and wings on their
back.

**Heaven is the place where our dead loved ones
live and look down upon us. I would like to
believe that the people I have loved and are no
longer with me on earth are looking down from
Heaven and taking care of me. It is a comforting
thought to have- a place high up above where
people who suffered on earth can spend their
days in contentment and leisure. A place where
the people we loved on earth are now reaping
the benefits of their goodness.

Source: listdose.com/everything-we-know-about-heaven-2/