Everything should be in paradise: hell too!
Stanislav Jerzy Lec
The number of religions in the modern world is beyond counting. This is no exaggeration: numerous research institutes and organizations provide such diverse data that it is rather difficult to believe one specific source. Each belief has its own concept of the afterlife. In some religions, sinners are roasted on fires and put on colas after death, in others, about the same thing happens to the righteous. It comes to the point that sometimes hell looks more attractive than heaven. What hell are you planning to go to after death?
Gehenna fiery
Hell as such does not exist in all world religions. There is a certain concept of the afterlife, where some are a little worse, others are a little better, and each according to his deeds. The underworld as a place of punishment for sinners has become a popular topic in connection with the spread of Christianity. Of course, hell exists in Buddhism (Naraka), the Maya beliefs (Shibalba), among the Scandinavians (Helheim), but nowhere, apart from Christianity, was it given such importance, nowhere was it drawn so brightly, colorfully, effectively. However, Christianity is always better than other religions to skillfully show a beautiful picture - in order to attract or intimidate.
Satan sitting on the throne of hell is nothing more than an advertisement for the church as an institution of salvation. There is not a word about this in the Bible
Promotional video:
There is another side to this coin. The fact is that the Bible is generally silent about the afterlife. The kingdom of heaven and hell are mentioned several times in passing as places where the righteous rejoice and sinners suffer, but that is all. All modern concepts of the Christian underworld appeared in the Middle Ages thanks to zealous preachers and the wild imagination of illustrators. Moreover, the theory of hell and heaven promoted by the modern church is contrary to the Bible. According to the Bible, Satan cannot rule over hell, because God says to him: “… and I will bring out fire from among you, which will devour you; and I will turn you to ashes on the earth before the eyes of all who see you; all who knew you among the nations will be amazed at you; you will become terror; and you will not be forever”(Ezek. 28:18, 19). Also, we must not forget that God gave his own son to atone for human sins - is it really in vain?… So hell is more a product of the church as an institution than of religion itself.
Hieronymus van Aken Bosch had a peculiar view of the underworld. The right wing of his famous triptych "The Garden of Earthly Delights" depicts hell, but what a hell! A musical hell where martyrs are crucified on strings and necks …
Catholics and Orthodox have very strict requirements for believers. Believing and being righteous is not enough to go to heaven. It is required to be baptized, regularly receive communion, do many good deeds, and constantly pray for your own salvation. In general, it turns out that almost all people, even law-abiding and kind, rely on the rank of hell, if they do not attend church every day and do not spend several hours a day in prayer. Protestantism on this score is much more logical and simpler: it is enough to believe in God and be righteous. Protestants do not recognize rituals and idols.
Dante and Virgil in Hell. Painting by Adolphe-William Bouguereau (1850)
But back, actually, to hell. Today, the most common picture of Christian hell can be considered the one depicted by the great Dante in the Divine Comedy. Why? Because Dante systematized what before him was a mess of non-canonical Gospels, sermons, lectures, folk beliefs. Of course, Dante strictly follows Aristotle, who classified sinners long before the advent of Christianity, but in this case it seems quite appropriate.
According to Dante's version, the souls of virtuous non-Christians and unbaptized babies languish in the first circle of hell (Limbe). That is, those who were close to accepting Christ, but, unfortunately, did not know anything about him. To some extent, this is an evil parody, but it is definitely more fair than the assertion that all pagans, without exception, are doomed to hellish torments. Souls in Limbe do not hurt - just sad and very boring. Although the presence of Aristotle, Socrates and Ptolemy there can brighten up the boredom of any casual guest.
The rest of the circles are more or less evenly distributed among sinners of various kinds. Libertines are torn apart and twisted by a hurricane, gluttons rot in the rain, misers are dragged from place to place of gravity, heretics lie in red-hot graves (just about, the pans have already appeared). More cruel torments rightly rely on rapists and bandits who boil in red-hot blood, as well as blasphemers who are thirsty in the hot desert (and it is raining from the sky). Others are gutted, bathed in fetid feces, scourged, boiled in tar. In the last, ninth circle, traitors are tortured, who are frozen into the eternal ice of Lake Cocytus. Lucifer, the angel of hell, also dwells there.
In 1439, at the Florentine Cathedral, the Catholic Church officially made a deal with God and adopted the dogma of purgatory - probably not without the influence of Dante, by that time long dead. People did not want to go straight to hell for eternal torment without the possibility of redemption. The tale of purgatory originated among the people (and even in Old Testament times), Pope Gregory I at the end of the 6th century recognized the justice of the innovation, Thomas Aquinas and Dante systematized it, and the church went to meet people and gave them a chance for salvation. Purgatory became an intermediate territory between hell and heaven. Ambiguous sinners (for example, righteous, but unbaptized) did not immediately go to eternal torment, but first ended up in purgatory, where for some time they atoned for their sins through prayers. The prayers of living people for him also go to help the sinner. At the Council of Trent in 1562, the doctrine of purgatory was officially confirmed. Tellingly, harsh Orthodoxy rejects this teaching: since a sinner means to hell, no condescension. Protestantism also rejects it, but there are still much more lenient requirements for a candidate for the inhabitants of paradise.
Dante in Purgatory. This is how the illustrator Gustave Dorey saw the great Italian poet.
A few words should be added about the Christian paradise, where souls go either directly or after purgatory. Strange as it may seem, there is no exact concept of paradise for Christians. Most often, a certain light, sky-cloudy substance is presented, from which the blessed can contemplate the eternal radiance of God, drinking nectar and eating ambrosia. Such a picture came from Judaism, where the righteous in paradise always contemplate the supreme deity (however, they do not need to eat or drink). There are fears that for many inhabitants of our planet, such a paradise may seem worse than hell. Boring, boring, gentlemen.
However, we are well acquainted with the principles and postulates of the Christian hell. It makes no sense to dwell on them in detail. Let's go to another hell. For example, in Scandinavian.
Brief classification of the underworlds
Type 1. A series of circles (or separate hells) with various tortures and sufferings for sinners of varying severity: Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Taoism, Chinese beliefs, Zoroastrianism, Aztec mythology.
Type 2. A common underworld for all: ancient Greek and Scandinavian mythology.
Type 3. Absolute emptiness: ancient Egyptian mythology.
Hel vs Hades
The amazing similarities between the ancient Greek and Old Norse afterworlds allow not only combining them into one subsection, but also speaking of them as one hell with some differences. In principle, many religions are subject to the phenomenon of syncretism - when the same legends find their place in the beliefs of various peoples. Let's clarify right away: in Scandinavian mythology (as well as in ancient Greek) there is neither hell nor heaven as such. As in most religions, there is some kind of afterlife, and that's it.
Odin's messenger Hermod before the goddess Hel. Illustration by John Dollman (1909)
The Scandinavians believed that there are nine worlds, one of them, the middle one, is Midgard - our Earth. The dead are divided into two categories - heroes and everyone else. There are no other principles, no sinners and righteous. We'll talk about the heroes separately, and the rest have only one way: if you die, you get a ticket to hell, Helheim. Helheim itself is only a part of a larger world, Niflheim, one of the first worlds that gave rise to our native Midgard. In Niflheim it is cold and uncomfortable, eternal ice and fog reign there, and its most unpleasant part, Helheim itself, is headed by the goddess Hel, the daughter of the cunning Loki.
Helheim is unusually similar to the well-known Greek Hades. Unless the latter has a male ruler. The analogy is not difficult to draw. In Hades, you can cross the river Styx on Charon's boat, and to Helheim - across the river Gyol. Through the latter, however, a bridge was built, vigilantly guarded by the giantess Modgud and the four-eyed dog Garm. Guess what name Garm bears in ancient Greek mythology. That's right, Cerberus.
"Valkyrie" by the Norwegian painter Peter Arbo (1864). Beautiful Valkyrie warriors took the fallen heroes with them to Valhalla
The torment of the dead in Hades and Helheim is almost identical. Mostly they are boredom and spiritual suffering. Sinners who are particularly distinguished receive specific punishments, sometimes even physical ones. You can recall Sisyphus, doomed day after day to do meaningless work, pushing a heavy stone to the top of the mountain, breaking off every second a second before the end of the work. King Sipila Tantalus is doomed in Hades to eternal pangs of hunger and thirst. He stands up to his throat in water under the spreading crowns of trees weighed down with fruits, but he cannot drink, because the water leaves as soon as he bends down and bite off the fruit, because the branches rise when he reaches out to them. And a serpent is assigned to the giant Titius, devouring his liver daily, which grows back overnight. In principle, these martyrs have more fun in Hades than others. They at least have something to do.
There are some differences in Helheim. Firstly, its inhabitants constantly suffer not only from boredom, but also from cold, hunger and disease. Secondly, no one can return from Helheim - neither man nor god. The only one who has been there and returned is Odin's messenger Hermod, but that is a different story. Let me remind you that they return from Hades regularly, and sometimes even go there of their own free will. The main thing is to have a couple of coins for Charon.
The main difference between the Scandinavian afterlife is the presence of Valhalla, a kind of paradise. Valhalla is a palace located in Asgard, the heavenly city. The Greek analogue of Asgard is Mount Olympus. A rather narrow stratum of the population of Scandinavia falls into Valhalla: warriors who distinguished themselves in battle and died with honor on the battlefield. Half of the heroes go to the god Odin, half goes to another palace, Folkwang, owned by the goddess Freya. However, the existence of both groups of warriors is approximately the same. In the morning they put on armor and fight to the death all day. In the evening they come to life and dine with Sehrimnir's boar, washed down with intoxicated honey. And then women are pleasing them all night. Here's a real man's paradise: fight, eat, get drunk and girls. However, for most men, such a paradise is indeed closer than angelic singing in Christian heaven.
One of the most famous martyrs of Hades is King Tantalus. Standing up to his throat in water and half a meter from ripe fruits, he is doomed to suffer from hunger and thirst
In fact, in ancient Greek mythology, there is also an analogue of paradise - Elysium (not to be confused with Olympus - the abode of the gods), the country of the blessed, outlandish overseas islands. There are no worries and sorrows, there is sun, sea and water. But only the souls of the outstanding heroes of antiquity and especially righteous people, whose life was "approved" by the judges of the underworld of Hades, get there. Unlike Valhalla, Elysium has a lot of "doubles" in other religions. The mythology of the ancient Celts and Britons (Avalon), the Chinese (Penglai, Fangzhan and Yingzhou islands) and even the Japanese (the Island of eternal youth) tells us exactly about the same paradise.
Aztec Hell
Among the Aztecs, the class division even extended to the afterlife. The place of posthumous appointment was predetermined not so much by a person's personal qualities as by his social position. Depending on who the deceased was during his lifetime - a priest or a simple farmer - his soul, subject to righteousness, fell into one of three types of paradise. Ordinary people fell into the circle of paradise Tlalocan, as close as possible to earthly life, but the enlightened priest could be honored to go to truly cosmic heights, to the disembodied country of Tlillan-Tlapallan or to the house of the Sun Tonatiuhikan. Hell in the Aztec tradition was called Miktlan. It was headed by the cruel and evil (like almost all other gods of the Aztecs) the god Miktlantecutli. Sinners, regardless of their position, had to go through nine circles of hell in order to achieve enlightenment and be reborn again. Among other things, it is worth adding that a certain river flows near Miktlan, guarded by a yellow dog. A familiar plot, isn't it?
Several hundred idol images of Miktlantecutli have survived to this day.
Book of the Dead
Egyptian mythology, in contrast to Scandinavian and ancient Greek, includes a description of paradise. But there is no hell as such in it. The god Osiris, who was meanly killed by his brother Set, and then resurrected by his son Horus, dominates the entire afterlife, Duat. Osiris does not match the rest of the rulers of the afterlife: he is quite kind and peaceful, and is considered the god of rebirth, not death. Yes, and power over the Duat passed to Osiris from Anubis, that is, some kind of change of government took place already in those days.
Osiris, ruler of the kingdom of the dead, Duat. Sometimes depicted not with a human, but with a bull's head
Egypt in those distant times was a truly legal state. First of all, the deceased did not get into the cauldrons of hell or heavenly booths, but a fair trial. Before reaching the court, the soul of the deceased had to go through a series of tests, avoid many traps, answer various questions to the guards. The one who had gone through all this appeared before a host of Egyptian gods led by Osiris. Further, on special scales, the weight of the heart of the deceased and Truth (in the form of a figurine of the goddess Maat) was compared. If a person lived his life righteously, the heart and the Truth weighed the same, and the deceased received the right to go to the fields of Ialu, that is, to paradise. An average sinner had the opportunity to justify himself before divine judgment, but a serious violator of higher laws could not get to heaven in any way. Where did he go? Nowhere. His soul was eaten by the monster Amat, a lion with a crocodile head,and there was an absolute emptiness, which seemed to the Egyptians more terrible than any hell. By the way, Amat sometimes appeared in a triple guise - a hippopotamus was added to the crocodile head.
Amat, who devoured the souls of sinful Egyptians, was portrayed as a cross between a hippopotamus, a lion and a crocodile
Hell or Gehenna?
Significantly, the Bible clearly distinguishes between hell (Sheol) and Gehenna. Sheol is a general name for the afterlife, a coffin, a grave where both sinners and righteous dwell after death. Gehenna, on the other hand, is exactly what we call hell today, that is, a certain area where sinful souls suffer in ice and fire. Initially, even the souls of the Old Testament righteous were in hell, but Jesus descended after them down to the last, lowest circle of hell, and took them with him to the Kingdom of Heaven. The word "Gehenna" came from the real geographical name of the valley near Jerusalem, where the bodies of fallen animals and executed criminals were burned, and sacrifices were made to Moloch.
Copper buddha music
But let's get back to modern world religions. In particular, to Islam and Buddhism.
Islam is much more lenient towards Muslims than Christianity towards Christians. At least for Muslims there is only one sin that will not be forgiven by Allah - this is polytheism (shirk). For non-Muslims, of course, there is no salvation: everyone will go to hell as cute.
Doomsday in Islam is just the first step on the road to paradise. After Allah weighs the sins of a person and allows him to continue on his way, the believer must pass over the hellish abysses along a bridge as thin as the blade of a knife. A person who has led a sinful life will certainly slip and fall, and the righteous will reach paradise. By itself, the hell of Islam (Jahannam) hardly differs from the Christian one. Sinners will be given boiling water to drink, clothed in garments of flame, and generally roasted in fire in all possible ways. Moreover, unlike the Bible, the Qur'an tells about the torment of sinners quite clearly and in detail.
In hot cakes, sinners are boiled in cauldrons, just like in Christian hell
Buddhism has its own "hellish" characteristics. In particular, there is not one hell in Buddhism, but as many as sixteen - eight hot and eight cold. Moreover, sometimes additional and occasionally arising underworlds appear as necessary. And all of them, in contrast to their counterparts in other religions, are only temporary havens for sinful souls.
Depending on the degree of earthly sins, the deceased goes to hell predetermined for him. For example, in hot Sanghata-naraka, hell is crushing. Here sinners are ground into bloody crumbly shifting rocks. Or to the cold Mahapadma-naraka, where there is such a frost that the body and internal organs stiffen and crack. Or in Tapana-naraka, where the victims are pierced with red-hot spears. In essence, the multiple hells of Buddhism are somewhat reminiscent of the classical Christian circles of hell. The number of years that must be served in each hell for full atonement and a new rebirth is clearly stated. For example, for the mentioned Sanghata-naraka, this number is 10368x1010 years. In general, a lot, let's face it.
One of the sixteen Buddhist narakas (hells). The demons cut the pig-headed sinner into pieces, after which he grows together again
It should be noted that the concept of narak has changed over time. In sources of different years, narak is not only sixteen, but also twenty, and even fifty. In ancient Indian mythology, naraka is one and is divided into seven circles, and cruel physical torture is applied to sinners living in the last three circles. The inhabitants of the last circle (mostly boiled in oil) are forced to suffer until the death of the universe.
The hellish dungeons in Buddhism are located under the mythological continent of Jambudwipa and are located, like a truncated cone, in eight layers, each with one cold and one hot hell. The lower the hell, the more terrible it is, and the longer it will take to suffer in it. If Dante were a Buddhist, he would have found something to describe.
Similar principles govern hell in Hinduism. Sinners and righteous people, depending on their achievements, can after death get to different planets of existence (lokas), where they will be tortured or, conversely, drown in pleasures. Staying on hellish lokas has an end point. You can shorten the "term" with the help of prayers and offerings of children of the last incarnation of a suffering soul. After serving the sentence, the soul is reincarnated in a new being.
But in Taoism, heaven and hell very much resemble Christian ones. Only they are in the same place - in the sky. Paradise Tabernacles are located in the central, light part of the sky and obey Yang-chu, the lord of light. Hell is located in the north, in the region of the gloomy sky, and obeys Yin-chu, the lord of darkness. By the way, both a Hindu and a Taoist can easily show hell or heaven with a finger - in both religions, the locations of the planets-lokas and stars are combined with real astronomy. The torment of Taoist sinners is reminiscent of the ancient Greek - it is repentance, boredom, internal struggle.
In Chinese mythology, under the influence of Buddhism, the Diyu system of hell was formed of ten courts, each of which has 16 halls for punishment. All the dead, without exception, go to the first trial. Judge Qinguang-wang interrogates them and decides whether the soul is sinful or not. The righteous go straight to the tenth judgment seat, where they drink the drink of oblivion and cross one of the six bridges back to the world of the living to be reincarnated. But sinners before reincarnation will have to sweat in the courts from the first to the ninth. The torture there is quite traditional - tearing out hearts, eternal hunger (by the way, this is how cannibals are punished), climbing the stairs from the steps of knives, and so on.
* * *
You shouldn't be afraid of hell. There are too many variants of it, different people perceive the underworld too differently. This testifies only to one thing: no one knows what awaits us beyond. We will be able to find out about this only by getting there. But there is perhaps no need to rush to do this for research purposes. Remember that everyone has their own hell - and it doesn't have to be fire and tar.
Eternal memory as eternal life
In Russian fiction, one of the most interesting, complex and unlike anything "after deaths" is described in the novel by Svyatoslav Loginov "The Light in the Window". In his version, there is no retribution beyond the line, but just another world, more reminiscent of purgatory than hell or heaven. And what matters in it is not how sinful or righteous you were, but how long they remember you. Every time someone from the living remembers someone from the dead, this memory turns into a coin, the only currency in the land of the dead. Those who are remembered a lot and often, and after death live happily ever after. And those who remain only in the memory of two or three close relatives fade pretty soon.
This is a deliberately materialistic concept. It is the memory of the living in it that is the measure of the meaning and value of human life. After all, we do not know anything about the people who lived in the past, they seem to be no more, and the few who are still remembered, in a sense, continue to live. Morality is taken out of brackets, the tyrant-conqueror and the writer - the master of minds - find themselves in an equal situation. This is unfair, but unfortunately very plausible.
The phrase "a person is alive as long as he is remembered" in this concept of "after death" takes on flesh. And after reading the book, you involuntarily wonder, how many people will remember after death about you?
Tim Korenko