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   around that person becomes a hell for him or her." (A'NANDA SU'TRAM,   
   CHAPTER 2, 2-20)   
      
   So:   
      
   "Human beings should move forward with a thorough knowledge of   
   propriety and impropriety. They must maintain a balance between   
   social propriety, political propriety and psychic propriety. One's   
   relations with one's brother, sister, mother, wife, etc, are all   
   different. One's behaviour with one's sister should not be the same   
   as it is with one's wife. Maintaining proper relations with   
   different sorts of people is part of propriety. Human beings must   
   not go beyond the limits of psychic propriety. If balance is   
   maintained and propriety is properly measured, then the world will   
   be an abode of dynamic adjustment (prama') - heaven will be   
   established on the earth.:" (YOGA PSYCHOLOGY, BIO-PSYCHOLOGY, 3 June   
   1987, Calcutta)   
      
   Some lecture that: "You know, only sinful people become ghosts after   
   death and, if they don't spend a lot of money on the last-rites,   
   they won't be able to go to heaven.  That's why the poor ghosts have   
   to stay down in hell and rot there." (IN THE LAND OF HAT'T'AMA'LA')   
      
   Some say: "The more gifts given to the priest, the higher my   
   father's ascent into heaven will be.  Therefore, I had to incur a   
   debt in order to properly arrange everything." (IN THE LAND OF   
   HAT'T'AMA'LA')   
      
   Who in the modern world will dare give such lectures about heaven or   
   hell?  But some do, due to lack of spiritual understanding.  Indeed!   
      
   "Almost every religion has claimed that only its followers are God's   
   chosen people and that the rest of humanity is cursed and bound by   
   the chains of Satan. One religion has declared, "Our prophet is the   
   only saviour. There is no escape from mundane sufferings except by   
   taking refuge in him." Another religion has declared, "I am the last   
   prophet. Prayers must be said before God a specific number of times   
   in a certain manner each day. Special animals must be sacrificed on   
   particular days. These are the wishes of merciful God. Those who   
   follow these injunctions will attain heaven on the Day of   
   Judgement." Yet another religion says, "Know ye, my son, thy God is   
   the only God. All other gods are false gods." Just imagine, all   
   these religions preach universal fraternity, and yet this universal   
   fraternity is kept within the confines of their own [religious]   
   community.* Humanity gasps for breath at such preposterous claims of   
   universal fraternity.   
      
   Carried away by the grandiose slogans of their respective religions,   
   the followers of these religions have at different times whipped up   
   a frenzy of communal (religious) hatred and indulged in orgies of   
   genocide. Had their founders seen such sights, they would have   
   hidden their faces in utter shame. Of all the bloodshed that took   
   place in the Middle Ages, a major part was a natural consequence of   
   this communal religiosity which is hardly a "universal fraternity".   
   (HUMAN SOCIETY PART 1, MORALISM)   
      
   This still goes on today. But remember:   
      
   "However dense the cimmerian darkness may be, the crimson dawn must   
   follow. The fiends of hell may burst out in loud laughter, but all   
   must fade in the void with the sunrise. The light of spiritual   
   practices shall dispel the thick darkness, notwithstanding the night   
   of the pangs of humanity. Sunshine is destined in human life."   
   (A'nanda Pu'rn'ima', 1973, A'NANDA VA'N'II SAM'GRAHA)   
      
   So let us remove this vile guise of condemning people by inferiority   
   complexes of sin and let us understand the meaning of good and bad   
   and that heaven and hell are within.  Then we can also understand   
   that a person's crimes are something to be rectified so that they   
   can contribute to society.  Punishment of itself is not a solution.   
   A proper human society needs to be built based on morality, and the   
   true meaning of spiritual practices can advance accordingly.  People   
   are not born sinners.   
      
   "By nature human beings are not wicked; rather most people are peace-   
   loving and thus inclined towards personal purity. This inclination   
   of the individual keeps the collective mind pure." 3   
      
   "The very idea of heaven and hell is sheer nonsense anyway. Such   
   stupid ideas thrived in the minds of those who popularized ancient   
   myths, but they have no capacity to find a foundation in the solid   
   ground of rationality. If, however, in order to humour such fools, I   
   accept the existence of heaven and hell, I might ask, 'If the spirit   
   of a wicked husband goes to hell and grazes in the fields as a bull,   
   should his virtuous wife also go to hell after her death, become a   
   cow and start grazing beside him?'" 4   
      
   It should be mentioned here that:   
      
   "Those who want to keep women subservient to men by holding out   
   false hopes or the illusory prospect of heavenly enjoyment in the   
   afterlife, fail to understand that although such false hopes or the   
   lure of heaven may be sufficient to keep women passive or in   
   servitude, no real good can ever come to human society from this.   
   The reason is that if, due to dogma and superstition, half of   
   society is bogged down in a state of inertia, the other half will   
   undoubtedly find progress difficult carrying a heavy, inert burden.   
   In individual life purity is equally necessary for both men and   
   women, and to make this possible real spiritual vision is essential.   
   As long as injustices against either sex exist, purity is   
   impossible." 5   
      
   Even sinners should depend upon God - He is there to help them. 6   
      
   "He is not only the Lord of heaven, He is the Lord of hell also.  So   
   even a sinner of hell should not become mentally disturbed because   
   the Lord of hell is with him.  'Even if the sinner of sinners   
   resorts to complete surrender, then they will be freed from all   
   kinds of sins'.  'They must attain salvation, for God is the granter   
   of salvation.'" 7   
      
   Now to finish off, here is an amusing story that shows the folly of   
   false thinking.   
      
   THE PLIGHT OF KING TRISHANKU   
   from: Sarkar's Short Stories Part 1   
      
   "I expect you all know the story of King Trishanku. One day he   
   decided it was time to go to heaven. The pleasures and delights of   
   this world, which he had long enjoyed, no longer enticed him. He   
   knew he had enough physical and psychic strength to undertake the   
   journey. What he lacked was virtue - his stock of virtue was   
   exhausted.   
      
   The story goes that King Trishanku instructed his guards to tie him   
   to the end of a long arrow with a piece of nylon rope, and then   
   shoot the arrow towards heaven's gate. The arrow sped through the   
   sky at the speed of a rocket. The gods were alarmed. At the gates   
   the security guards were dripping with perspiration. This had never   
   happened before. "What should we do?" they wondered.   
      
   As a rule, heaven's gate is never closed. However, on this occasion   
   the guards decided to take a risk. They closed the gate. At that   
   instant the giant arrow hit the gate with a tremendous thud, and got   
   stuck. And there it stays till this day with King Trishanku tied to   
   one end with a piece of nylon rope.   
      
   Those people who stagnate in life, who neither progress nor regress,   
   suffer a plight similar to that of King Trishanku.   
      
   I don't know whether heaven's gate was opened later or not. Informed   
   sources tell me that the gods have built a new gate on the other   
   side of heaven. That's the way in these days."   
      
   From the works of Shrii Shrii Anandamurti   
   1.	PA'RTHASA'RATHI KRS'N'A AND AESTHETIC SCIENCE, DISCOURSE 26,   
   NAMA'MI KRS'N'ASUNDARAM, 5 April 1981, Calcutta.   
   2.	THE DIVINE WILL, Ba'ba''s Grace.   
   3.	SOCIAL JUSTICE, HUMAN SOCIETY PART 1   
      
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   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)