Heaven and Hell

This is chapter 5 from Deepak Chopra's book 'Life After Death.' This story originally came from Bhagavad.

Ramana Maharishi told the story of a monkey who was shut inside a small room in a castle tower to Savitri. To get the full story and background, you can read the book.

"Nothing was happening in the room and the monkey was restless."

"The monkey could only divert himself by going to the window and looking out at the world. This distracted him for a while, but then he started to think about his situation. How did he end up in this tower? Why had he been captured and put there? The monkey's mood began to darken. There was nothing to do, no one to talk to. His thoughts made him more and more depressed. The room seemed to close in; the monkey started to sweat anxiously. No, he suddenly realized, I'm not in a room, I'm in hell. Quickly his depression grew into anguish and anguish into torment. The monkey saw demons all around inflicting every imaginable pain."

"This is it, the monkey thought. I am in eternal hell. And so the torment continued, getting worse and worse, The monkey saw no way out. but gradually the monkey got used to his torment. How much time had elapsed? The monkey couldn't remember. but he began to feel better about his surroundings. It wasn't such a bad room, not really. In fact, it was rather pleasant to be by oneself looking out the window at all the fascination things going on outside."

"Bit by bit the demons stopped torturing the monkey and withdrew. He began to feel better, and soon the day came when he was feeling optimistic. The monkey grew more cheerful, and then..." Ramana broke off. "No doubt you know where this story is headed."

Savitri nodded. "The monkey is going to heaven."

"Exactly. He starts to feel bbetter and better, until he imagines himself in Paradise, and instead of being punished by demons he is being soothes by angles. Ah, the monkey thinks, I am in eternal bliss."

"Until he gets bored again," Savitri remarked.

Ramana nodded. "The monkey is the mind, sitting alone in the tower of the head. As the mind expands with pleasure and contracts with pain, it creates every possible world, constantly falling for its own creations. The monkey will believe in heaven for a while, but then boredom will set in, and being the seed of discontent, boredom will pull him out of heaven and back down to hell."

Savitri felt despondent. "So we're all trapped."

"Only if you agree to be trapped. I didn't say the tower was locked," said Ramana. 'There is an infinite domain outside the castle walls. You can take your mind beyond walls. There is freedom outside, and having achieved it, you will never have to go to heaven or hell again."

Lingering thought on existense

Our universe, as far as we know, has billions of galaxies. Our galaxy is known to have millions of stars. Our sun is one of those. I wonder how big is the sun compared to the entire universe. If I imagine our universe as a city, will I be able to find our sun in the city of the universe? How small is earth compared to our sun? Earth, a tiny particle of dust, or perhaps even smaller than a tiny particle of dust, in the city of the universe. And me just one of the six billion individuals. So how big is my existence compared to this entire universe? I just wonder. In that existence, I somehow manage to have an ego.

If we are part of this great universe, everything around us must affect us. What are we? Matter, skin, bones, minerals, mind, brain, energy? How are we connected to this universe? It's like an atom which makes elements and objects. Are we just a tiny building block of the endless universe?

Why are we here? Like the atom has protons and electrons and they have some energy which keeps the electron rotating, and gives properties to the elements. Are we just a form of energy and matter like the protons and electrons of larger things? It's interesting that most of an atom is vacuum. The space that the particles occupy is very small. It's mostly energy. So is that true for us also? Are we mostly energy? If that is true then why are we so concerned about our bodies, our looks, our hair, cosmetics? Where is the energy? Is our creativity just a symptom of energy? Our emotions? What about the positive and negative emotions? What about anger, love, passion? Are these all symptoms of that energy? How do we measure this energy?

Perhaps, the great Buddha found the source of it. Did he? Is that what Nirvana is? What is the purpose of this energy? Make money, have fun? I am sure it's not. How do I find the purpose?

Where do we begin and how do we know that it is right?