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Originally I had intended to explore the relationship between religious belief and adjustment, but the amount of ethnographic material I needed to

3.4 Beliefs about life after death in Britain

3.4.2 Heaven, hell and moksa

Concepts of heaven varied considerably according to the informants' beliefs and affiliations. A Patel follower of Swaminarayan assumed his father was in Aksardham because he had been a really good man. He had converted a lot of followers in Uganda, and P r a m u k h S wami had said his father rested in peace with God. A Panjabi w o m a n believed her father, w h o had been a m u c h respected community leader and loving father, was in heaven and "very happy, leading a nice luxurious life wherever he is, still loving and advising people". Her deceased brother, w h o had drowned saving the life of a child, would also be somewhere in which he was held in high esteem (PjSF40). A Panjabi Brahmin said heaven was a place above this earth, "somewhere with

the Lord where there is no misery" <PjBrM40), whereas a Darji said he didn't think it was "up there, although I haven't got the imagination as to where they have gone". However, he believed the final heaven was w h e n "the atman blends with God" (GjDM45). T he Darji w h o described the signs in the

flour (3.4.1 above), was a devotee of Ambika. He thought heaven was the same as moksa, "It is to be with God in some w a y - not one with G od but a servant of God, separate from God. God is female" (GjDM45).

Another Gujarati Darji had been told that if she prayed and fasted during the m o n t h of Purushottam Mas she would achieve moksa, which would liberate her from going around and around 84 million times. This can only be achieved w h e n in h u m a n form. Moksa is also attainable by calling R a m a or Krsna at the point of death. Initially, mo/css seemed to m e a n liberation from the round of birth and death, samsara, in order to be with Purushottam or Krsna, but then she said she wanted to be with God and do bhakti in preference to moksa (GjDF42). Her daughter explained:

She believes she would prefer bhakti-yoga to moksa, as she wants to be near God and do bhakti. She doesn't care for liberation. She doesn't k n o w whether with bhakti she would come back but she would prefer that. She will have a body with bhakti. She is not going to ask for moksa or liberation. (GjDFlQ)

This seemed to imply a distinction between moksa as liberation in terms of

"having no body" and ultimate absorption; and being with Go d and serving him. She said at one stage in the interview that this would m ean returning to earth for service, and at another that because one was serving God in heaven, one would not return (GjDF40). According to a Pushtimargi, salvation is found through the life of the householder, grhasthai

W e don't believe in mukti (.moksa). W e want to be born in Gokul where H e (the infant Krsna) was born, and w e believe he is still there and w e can see him. In Pushtimarg w e want to come back, to give our Go d seva (service). (GjLF35)

A Panjabi Brahmin w o m a n said there were only two places the spirit could go, either with G od or in this world. If you died chanting the n a m e of R a m a you would go directly to Vaikunthadham: "Ram, R a m kahate m a m a r

Vaikuntha ko jlna." Her husband said,

You can achieve H i m by two different ways. You've got bhakti marga, the w a y of devotion and the way of knowledge; but for a householder bhakti is the easiest, as you don't have to leave your h o m e to get to Him. (PjBrM42>

To the Advaitin, being with Go d is not m o k s a , but being in svarga,

where Go d is prime minister, his kingdom is very nice, where honey and milk flow and where I shall have a nice time and enjoy God.

Moksa, on the other hand, is merging with him. The Ganges flows, it merges in the ocean. H o w can you find Ganga? Once you merge there you are gone, your identity is gone. That stage is not easy. As long as you worship G o d you consider that you and Go d are separate, jivatma and Paramatma. As long as there is an idea of he and me, it is always Visistadvaita. There is a barrier between m e and Go d because I have lust, anger and greed, so I have to defeat m y weaknesses to merge in Him, and become Paramatma. (KanPt; 3.2.3) According to a Jain m e m b e r of the Westmouth community, moksa is only available to sannyasTs w h o "go up the mountain", whereas others can only pray for a better rebirth.

Attitudes to death are reflected in the euphemisms which are used.

Examples are: Svarga vas, gone to heaven; Bhagvan pase gaya (Gj), gone to God; D h a m m e gaya (Gj), Paramatma ke sath milna, going to meet Paramatma, the great soul. In ordinary discussions the assumption is made that the deceased have gone to heaven, svarga, are reborn or are liberated; there is no reference to them being in pitr—Joka. A pandit, a m o n g others, explained that this was wherever the pitrs resided, and wherever the deceased happened to be, he would receive the gifts in the appropriate currency, either heavenly currency or hell currency (KanPt). A Panjabi Brahmin said that wherever the deceased have gone, there is still an attachment. He couldn't say where his o w n father was: "It's not for m e to say he is reborn,

to judge his merits, but w e still remember him through doing draddh." His view of the offerings to the pitrs was similar to that of the pandit above.

T h e offering took whatever form was needed by the deceased, so that if he was a snake he received whatever the snake needed, and if he was a tiger he would receive whatever a tiger required. A Gujarati explained that "If You are suddenly very happy for no reason it is because someone from a previous life is doing something for you, and m a y be the reason w h y you win the pools" (GjKM30).

According to a senior Gujarati Brahmin woman, a distinction has to be made between pitr-loka and svarga:

Svarga is for demigods and pitr—loka is for other gods. They are not all together, they are in different worlds. But w e don't k n o w what has happened because w e can't go up there and look. It is written that w h e n the God of Death is taking the soul away, if the deceased is sinful he is made to sleep on a bed of nails. W h e n you go to svarga, the good things you have done determine h o w long you stay, and then w h e n you finish you come back. In pitr~loka you don't come back. Most people don't ask for liberation, but ask to be reborn so that they can do bhakti. (GJBrF65)

According to a Darji couple, the offerings to the husband's parents enabled the deceased couple to have dinner together, wherever they were, implying that they were together in some post-mortem state (cf.3.3.2 above).

Hell, naraka, is both a place of punishment, the opposite of svarga, and misery on this earth. As a place of punishment, hell is temporary:

Like having your driving license suspended for a year, paying the penalty for your mistakes. I have to come back, getting the resultant life. The concept is that you are there in internment, detainment.

Concepts such as dipping you in boiling oil or hot water are myths in all religions to create fear, but that is primary school education.

Everything is temporary except moksa. (KanPt)

A Panjabi Khattri businessman used Western terms to describe his view of hell as a place where, "souls w h o are absolutely demoralised go under Satan,

they have no mo k s a, they are created like poltergeists". Hell, in more traditional terms, is ruled over by Yama, often identified with Dharma Raja.

He judges the newly deceased according to his deeds which have been recorded by the scribe, Citragupta, sometimes regarded as two beings, Citra and Gupta, w h o sit one on each shoulder to record the good and bad deeds.

However, according to a Pushtimargi bhakta, Citragupta is also regarded by some as the "secretary of God", w h o determines whether w e are punished or not (GjLF55). She had a dream in which "a big strong Yamraj" was carrying a soul, looking like a body, along a familiar road. W h e n she awoke she told her husband, w h o asked his colleagues at w o r k if anyone had died, and was told that someone had died that day on that road.

No one would actually say that his father or mother had gone to hell, but would prefer to think of "an apartment with all comforts" (KanPt). M a n y informants saw hell in metaphorical terms, as a period of suffering and expiation in this life, rather than a post-mortem state, although it could also mean rebirth in "the lowest possible family" (GjLM65). It was also suffering through rebirth, experiencing a less satisfactory life:

Hell is in this world, not "down there". Everyday w e see tragedies in front of our eyes, children without limbs, handicapped people, a sixteen year-old injured on a motorbike w h o becomes a mental patient for the rest of his life. If hell is not here for him, he can't have anything worse than that afterwards (GjDjM36).

A lot of misfortune, including 'bad death', is explained by the yuga theory involving the progressive deterioration of all standards. 19 This age, the kali yuga, is the age of suffering, where all mankind suffers (GjDF20;

GjKF30).

19. . There are four ages (yuga*) of the universe, Jlerts or m a t y a , trciS, d v a p a r a , and the lstest age, kali, descending in levels of moral corruption. The worst Is the present age, the kali yuga. The four y u g a # make a kalpa. At the end of this period the universe is supposed to he destroyed and recreated in a cyclical pattern as part of samsara (for details see Basham 1967:323; 0 ‘Flaherty 1975; 43; Stutley and Stutley 1977:351).

3.4.3 Rebirth

Rebirth is commonly accepted, and helps, along with the doctrine of karma, to explain the injustices of the world (cf. 16.3 below). T he process

was described by a pandit:

Th e soul is very eager to be reborn, os it cannot remain too long as a vague, indefinite and unseen object. If it was, in life, a cheat or a murderer, it has no place to go and feels helpless. It enters m a n in food and water, where it is converted into semen, and then enters the womb. At the fifth mo n t h it becomes aware. (KanPt).

A n u m b e r of informants felt that rebirth gave people hope, so that death was fearful (GjPt; GjBrM65; GjDF20; PjBrM45). "Death is a blessing in itself. Unless there is death, unless there is winter, unless the leaves fall down, the n e w ones will not come. It is a cycle." (GjPt70)

It is said that there are 84 million lives (.cherasT lakh yonT) before one is reborn as a h u m a n being, and that those w h o are really sinful have to go right back to an amoeba state and evolve through all 84 million lives (PjBrM42: PjKhF40). Bad karma can also ensure that one goes back one stage to one's previous status, whereas the spiritual path ensures one is born to similarly spiritual parents. Helpful animals m a y be born again as humans.

R a m a is said to have told the victorious monkeys in the R a m a y a n a that in the kali-yuga they would be born as white people and rule the world (GjSM30).

A Swaminarayan swami explained to some of his devotees that it was sometimes said that a bad person would return as a pig or a donkey, but that animals also had a right to live, and h u m a n s w h o ate them for meat were worse than the animals they were said to become. A Gujarati Brahmin told a story about Arjuna's son. W h e n he died, Arjuna was very upset and Krsna called him, saying "I will show you your son". He showed him a parrot. Arjuna was outraged and said, "How can this be m y son?" The parrot

said, "You were m y dad only once, but I was your father several times"

(PjBrM45). It is because the smallest creatures are souls w h o have been reborn that one shouldn't h arm them. A young Darji w o m a n felt that w h e n she looked into the eyes of dogs and animals, "I k n o w w e have the same soul, and I try to see the same thing in m e as I see in them" (GjDjF18). The one exception I encountered was that intestinal w o r m s were "evils", which one could justifiably eradicate (PjBF42).

A n elderly Gujarati lady w h o was the head of her family, was regarded as very pure and saintly because she had been widowed as a child, before the marriage was consummated. Her niece was shocked at her death, but her father consoled her by saying she was still alive somewhere, possibly reborn. The girl said, "I don't want her reborn as an animal, but as she is”.

H e replied, "She will come back and you will find her some day" (PjKhF16).

A spiritual awakening ma y be due to previous experience: "I went to an adram in India and all the progress I had made in previous lives awakened

and the answers began coming to me. I felt I was doing the right thing by doing dTksa. I wanted to go to God." (GjKM30). Great souls or "angels" were also born from time to time by order of Brahma, in order to do service and be good to mankind (PjKhM50).

According to a Gujarati K u m h a r couple, rebirth is like starting a letter.

W h e n you go to bed you leave it unfinished, but w h e n you get up you start where you left off. S o m e people are born with the letter nearly finished and ready to post. A pandit also thought that one was sent back to finish w o r k that has not been completed (KanPt). Someone w h o commits suicide, however, has to be reborn seven times. According to m a n y accounts, one is reborn into the same family, or family group, which is said to be w h y there are physical as well as temperamental similarities, rather than due to any

genetic or environmental influences. According to a Panjabi Khattri w o m a n the B G says that the roles of son and father might be reversed in the next life, "but w h e n they come in contact they don’t recognise one another. You carry on with your o w n life, and I carry on with m y own". Stories are told of children w h o want to search for their partners or parents in a previous life, but a m o n g m y informants these were all derived from books or television.

A child w h o has died m a y be reborn in another baby conceived soon afterwards, and any other relative w h o has died recently might be reborn.

There were m a n y examples of dreams or signs that a person had been reborn in a particular family, or simply a belief that a pregnancy immediately following a death indicated the return of the deceased:

W h e n m y brother died, m y younger brother was 17,000 miles away in Fiji, and w e were both wondering w h o could conceive in our family.

W h e n w e found out his wife was pregnant he even picked the name of m y [deceased! brother, for either a boy or a girl. A n d a girl was born and they used the same name [in feminine form]. I believe that m y brother has taken rebirth, and she must have conceived immediately. T h e child was born prematurely under the same astrological sign. T he child is very intelligent, very clever, very good, and in lots of ways she is so like him, I feel m y brother has come into our o w n family. If she was a horrible child maybe I wouldn’t think so! (PjBrF60)

A young woman, Padma (cf. 16.3 below), gave birth to a baby girl in Delhi, w h o died after nine days. A few days after the death the woman's sister had a dream in which the child appeared saying, "Auntie, you haven't given m e bananas to eat. Mama-ji (i.e. the baby’s mother) gave m e everything, but she never gave m e bananas. If you give m e bananas I'll come back again quickly to your house". The family offered bananas to the temple, and within a m o n t h Padma was pregnant again with her first son. Padma had a dream about another family w h o are fictive kin. Th e father had recently died, and she dreamed that he returned and said, "Don't worry, I'm coming

soon, I'm here". T w o days later his daughter—in—law gave birth to a baby boy, and Padma told them, "this is the soul of Papa-ji." S o m e informants, however, think it is unlikely that a girl would be born again as a boy, and have been distressed w h e n a girl has not been conceived after one died (GjBrF26; PjBrF45; cf.16.3).

O n e of Nesbitt's informants made daily offerings to the photo of her deceased father-in-law, including gifts of 'food' in the form of raisins stuck to his mouth on his photograph. Nesbitt asked w h y she did this if she believed he was reborn, and she said it was partly to show respect, since she would feed him if he were alive, but also that he ma y have been reborn as her oldest son. She had become pregnant again after having two daughters and felt she couldn't cope, so she had arranged to have an abortion. Her father-in-law appeared and told her he would be taking birth in the child, so she did not terminate the pregnancy (Nesbitt, personal communication).

Rebirth is not always looked on with enthusiasm, and several informants said they would prefer to be with God instead of returning to this world, even in improved circumstances. For others the concept of rebirth is a comfort, and the image, from the BG, of the soul changing bodies in the w a y w e change our clothes, is often used for consolation:

O n e lady was crying like hell after her husband died, "My husband is dead, m y husband is dead" and the priest said, "Why are you crying?

He's still there, only his soul is gone because he is changing his life." (PjBrF42>

A young Darji w o m a n was troubled about h o w to help a close friend whose father had died, but then read the B G which explained that,

Life and death just come, you shouldn't grieve, but take it in your stride. It tells you the atma's just going to transfer into another body, a fresher body. If I had read the philosophers I wouldn't have been so scared of going to her house. (GjDjF2Cl)