Over thousands of years of development of our civilization, different beliefs and religions have arisen. And every religion, in one form or another, has formulated the idea of life after death. Ideas about the afterlife differ greatly, however, there is one thing in common: death is not the absolute end of human existence, and life (soul, stream of consciousness) continues to exist after the death of the physical body. Here are 15 religions from different parts of the world and their ideas about life after death.
The most ancient ideas about the afterlife had no division: all dead people go to the same place, regardless of who they were on Earth. The first attempts to connect the afterlife with retribution are recorded in the Egyptian “Book of the Dead,” associated with the afterlife judgment of Osiris.
In ancient times there was no clear idea of heaven and hell. The ancient Greeks believed that after death the soul leaves the body and goes to the dark kingdom of Hades. There her existence continues, rather bleak. Souls wander along the shores of Lethe, they have no joy, they are sad and complain about the evil fate that deprived them of sunlight and the delights of earthly life. The gloomy kingdom of Hades was hated by all living things. Hades seemed to be a terrible, ferocious beast that never lets go of its prey. Only the bravest heroes and demigods could descend into the dark kingdom and return from there to the world of the living.
The ancient Greeks were as cheerful as children. But any mention of death caused sadness: after death, the soul will never know joy or see the life-giving light. She will only moan in despair from the joyless submission to fate and the unchanging order of things. Only initiates found bliss in communication with the celestials, and for everyone else after death only suffering awaited.
This religion is approximately 300 years older than Christianity and today has a number of followers in Greece and other parts of the world. Unlike most other religions on the planet, Epicureanism believes in many gods, but none of them pays attention to what human beings become after death. Believers believe that everything, including their gods and souls, is made of atoms. In addition, according to Epicureanism, there is no life after death, nothing like reincarnation, going to hell or heaven - nothing at all. When a person dies, in their opinion, the soul also dissolves and turns into nothing. Just the end!
The Baha'i religion has gathered approximately seven million people under its banner. Baha'is believe that the human soul is eternal and beautiful, and every person must work on himself to get closer to God. Unlike most other religions, which have their own god or prophet, Baha'is believe in one God for all religions in the world. According to Bahá'ís, there is no heaven and hell, and most other religions make the mistake of considering them to be physical places when they should be seen symbolically.
The Bahá'í attitude towards death is characterized by optimism. Bahá’u’lláh says: “O son of the Most High! I have made death a harbinger of joy for you. Why are you sad? I commanded the light to pour its radiance on you. Why are you hiding?”
Approximately 4 million followers of Jainism believe in the existence of many gods and the reincarnation of souls. In Jainism, the main thing is not to harm all living things, the goal is to obtain the maximum amount of good karma, which is achieved through good deeds. Good karma will help the soul to free itself, and a person to become a deva (deity) in the next life.
People who do not achieve liberation continue to cycle through the cycle of rebirth, and with bad karma, some may even go through the eight circles of hell and suffering. The eight circles of hell become more severe with each successive stage, and the soul goes through trials and even torture before receiving another opportunity for reincarnation, and another chance to achieve liberation. Although it may take a very long time, the liberated souls are given a place among the gods.
Shintoism (神道 Shinto - “way of the gods”) is a traditional religion in Japan, based on the animistic beliefs of the ancient Japanese, the objects of worship are numerous deities and spirits of the dead.
The strange thing about Shinto is that believers cannot publicly admit that they are adherents of this religion. According to some old Japanese Shinto legends, the dead go to a dark underground place called Yomi, where a river separates the dead from the living. It's a lot like the Greek Hades, isn't it? Shintoists have an extremely negative attitude towards death and dead flesh. In Japanese, the verb "shinu" (to die) is considered obscene and is used only when absolutely necessary.
Followers of this religion believe in ancient gods and spirits called "kami". Shintoists believe that some people can become kami after they die. According to Shinto, people are pure by nature and can maintain their purity by staying away from evil and going through some purification rituals. The main spiritual principle of Shinto is living in harmony with nature and people. According to Shinto beliefs, the world is a single natural environment where kami, people and the souls of the dead live side by side. Shinto temples, by the way, are always organically integrated into the natural landscape (pictured is the “floating” torii of Itsukushima Temple in Miyajima).
In most Indian religions, it is a common idea that after death a person's soul is reborn into a new body. The transmigration of souls (reincarnation) occurs at the will of a higher world order and almost does not depend on a person. But everyone has the power to influence this order and improve the conditions of existence of the soul in the next life in a righteous way. One collection of sacred hymns describes how the soul enters the mother's womb only after traveling for a long time throughout the world. The eternal soul is reborn again and again - not only in the bodies of animals and people, but also in plants, water and everything that is created. Moreover, her choice of the physical body is determined by the desires of the soul. So every follower of Hinduism can “order” who he would like to be reincarnated as in his next life.
Everyone is familiar with the concepts of yin and yang, a very popular concept that all followers of Chinese traditional religion adhere to. Yin is negative, dark, feminine, while yang is positive, bright and masculine. The interaction of yin and yang greatly influences the fate of all entities and things. Those who live according to traditional Chinese religion believe in a peaceful life after death, however, one can achieve more by performing certain rituals and paying special honor to ancestors. After death, the god Cheng Huang determines whether a person was virtuous enough to go to the immortal gods and live in Buddhist heaven, or whether he is heading to hell, where immediate rebirth and a new incarnation follows.
Sikhism is one of the most popular religions in India (approximately 25 million followers). Sikhism (ਸਿੱਖੀ) is a monotheistic religion founded in Punjab by Guru Nanak in 1500. Sikhs believe in One God, the Almighty and All-pervading Creator. No one knows his real name. The form of worship of God in Sikhism is meditation. No other deities, demons, spirits, according to the Sikh religion, are worthy of worship.
The Sikhs resolve the question of what will happen to a person after death this way: they consider all ideas about heaven and hell, retribution and sins, karma and new rebirths to be incorrect. The doctrine of reward in the future life, the demands of repentance, cleansing from sins, fasting, chastity and “good deeds” - all this, from the point of view of Sikhism, is an attempt by some mortals to manipulate others. After death, a person’s soul does not go anywhere - it simply dissolves in nature and returns to the Creator. But it does not disappear, but remains, like everything that exists.
Juche is one of the newer doctrines on this list, and the state idea behind it makes it more of a socio-political ideology than a religion. Juche (주체, 主體) is a North Korean national communist state ideology developed personally by Kim Il Sung (the leader of the country in 1948-1994) as a counterweight to imported Marxism. Juche emphasizes the independence of the DPRK and fences itself off from the influence of Stalinism and Maoism, and also provides an ideological justification for the personal power of the dictator and his successors. The Constitution of the DPRK enshrines the leading role of Juche in state policy, defining it as “a worldview centered on man and revolutionary ideas aimed at realizing the independence of the masses.”
Juche adherents personally worship Comrade Kim Il Sung, the first dictator of North Korea, who rules the country as eternal president - now in the person of his son Kim Jong Il, and Kim Jong Soko, Il's wife. Juche followers believe that when they die, they go to a place where they will forever remain with their dictator-president. It is not clear whether this is heaven or hell.
Zoroastrianism (بهدین - good faith) is one of the oldest religions, originating in the revelation of the prophet Spitama Zarathustra (زرتشت, Ζωροάστρης), which he received from God - Ahura Mazda. The basis of Zarathustra's teachings is a person's free moral choice of good thoughts, good words and good deeds. They believe in Ahura Mazda - the “wise god”, a good creator, and in Zarathustra as the only prophet of Ahura Mazda, who showed humanity the path to righteousness and purity.
The teachings of Zarathustra were one of the first, ready to recognize the personal responsibility of the soul for the actions committed in earthly life. Those who choose Righteousness (Asha) will experience heavenly bliss; those who choose Lie will experience torment and self-destruction in hell. Zoroastrianism introduces the concept of posthumous judgment, which is a counting of deeds committed in life. If a person’s good deeds outweigh his bad ones by even a hair, the yazats lead the soul to the House of Songs. If evil deeds outweigh the soul, the soul is dragged to hell by the deva Vizaresha (the deva of death). The concept of the Chinwad Bridge leading to Garodmana over a hellish abyss is also common. For the righteous it becomes wide and comfortable; for sinners it turns into a sharp blade from which they fall into hell.
In Islam, earthly life is only a preparation for the eternal path, and after that the main part of it begins - Akhiret - or the afterlife. From the very moment of death, Akhiret is significantly influenced by a person’s lifetime deeds. If a person was a sinner during his lifetime, his death will be difficult, but a righteous person will die painlessly. Islam also has the idea of a posthumous judgment. Two angels - Munkar and Nakir - interrogate and punish the dead in their graves. After this, the soul begins to prepare for the last and main Fair Judgment - the Judgment of Allah, which will happen only after the end of the world.
“The Almighty made this world a habitat for man, a “laboratory” for testing the souls of people for loyalty to the Creator. He who believes in Allah and His Messenger Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) must also believe in the coming of the End of the World and the Day of Judgment, for the Almighty speaks about this in the Koran.”
The most famous aspect of Aztec religion is human sacrifice. The Aztecs revered the highest balance: in their opinion, life would not be possible without offering sacrificial blood to the forces of life and fertility. In their myths, the gods sacrificed themselves so that the sun they created could move along its path. The return of children to the gods of water and fertility (sacrifice of infants and sometimes children under 13 years of age) was considered payment for their gifts - abundant rains and harvests. In addition to the “blood sacrifice,” death itself was also a means of maintaining balance.
The rebirth of the body and the fate of the soul in the afterlife depend largely on the social role and cause of death of the deceased (unlike Western beliefs, where only a person’s personal behavior determines his life after death).
People who succumb to illness or old age end up in Mictlan, the dark underworld where the god of death, Mictlantecuhtli, and his wife Mictlancihuatl rule. In preparation for this journey, the dead man was swaddled and tied with a bundle containing various gifts to the god of death, and then cremated along with a dog, which was supposed to serve as a guide through the underworld. After passing through many dangers, the soul reached the gloomy, soot-filled Mictlan, from where there is no return. In addition to Mictlan, there was another afterlife - Tlaloc, which belonged to the god of rain and water. This place is reserved for those who have died from lightning, drowning or certain painful diseases. In addition, the Aztecs believed in heaven: only the most valiant warriors went there, who lived and died as heroes.
This is the youngest and most cheerful of all the religions on this list. No sacrifices, just dreadlocks and Bob Marley! Rastafari followers are growing in number, especially among communities that grow marijuana. Rastafarianism originated in Jamaica in 1930. According to this religion, Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia was once God incarnate, a claim that his death in 1975 did not disprove. Rastas believe that all believers will be immortal after going through several reincarnations, and the Garden of Eden, by the way, in their opinion, is not in heaven, but in Africa. Looks like they have great grass!
The main goal in Buddhism is to free yourself from the chain of suffering and the illusion of rebirth and go into metaphysical non-existence - nirvana. Unlike Hinduism or Jainism, Buddhism does not recognize the transmigration of souls as such. It only talks about the journey of various states of human consciousness through several worlds of samsara. And death in this sense is just a transition from one place to another, the outcome of which is influenced by deeds (karma).
The two largest world religions (Christianity and Islam) have many similar views on life after death. Christianity completely rejected the idea of reincarnation, about which a special decree was issued at the Second Council of Constantinople.
Eternal life begins after death. The soul passes to another world on the third day after burial, where it then prepares for the Last Judgment. No sinner can escape God's punishment. After death he goes to hell.
In the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church introduced a provision about purgatory - a temporary place of residence for sinners, through which the soul can be cleansed and then go to heaven.
Over the thousands of years that human civilization has passed in its development, a huge number of all kinds of beliefs and religions have existed on Earth. Surprisingly, but true - and in all of them, in one form or another, there was the idea of life after death. The forms of life after death may vary greatly in different cultures, but the underlying fundamental idea remains the same: death is not the absolute end of human existence, but life or the stream of consciousness in one form or another continues to exist after the death of the physical body.
In some cultures, the afterlife is just a prototype of the real world, and life there develops according to laws similar to those on earth, but in the vast majority of cultures, the afterlife is endowed with features that are not at all characteristic of earthly life.
When studying life after death, striking similarities emerge between cultures separated both geographically and historically. The repetition of certain motifs is quite remarkable, and the idea of the existence of a final refuge for all the righteous on the other side of life - in paradise or in heaven - appears in many variations.
Man was created to live in paradise, but in this world he is a refugee. Vladislav Grzeszczyk
If heaven is not in you, then you will never enter it. Angelus Silesius
IN Christianity There are two different ideas about Heaven. The first reflects the theological and metaphysical concept of heaven as a kingdom in which angelic orders and saints enjoy the presence of God, contemplating His being. The symbolism associated with this concept combines the Jewish image of kingship with the ancient Greek ideas of concentric celestial spheres and the spiritual path. Ideas about paradise or the Garden of Love are based on the myth of the Golden Age and the image of the Garden of Eden. And here the symbolism includes a certain geographical location, elements of virgin nature, golden walls and roads paved with emeralds.
Judaism states that life after death is different from life in this world. “In the future world there is no food, no drink, no reproduction, no trade, no envy, no enmity, no competition, but the righteous sit with crowns on their heads and enjoy the radiance of the Divine” (Talmud, Berachot 17a).
Ancient Greeks They believed that after death, souls end up on the Isles of the Blessed and the Champs Elysees, located on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, at the ends of the earth. There is a wonderful climate, there is no rain, snow or strong wind, and the fertile soil produces fruits with a sweetness similar to honey three times a year. The Orphics, who believed that salvation lay in liberation from matter and earthly fetters, viewed the Champs Elysees as a place of joy and rest for pure spirits. At first these fields rested in the underground world, filled with a strange radiance, and then in the upper regions of the sky.
U Aztec There were three different heavens where souls went after death. The first and lowest of them was Tlalocan - a land of water and fog, a place of abundance, blessings and peace. The happiness experienced there was very similar to that on earth. The dead sang songs, played leapfrog and caught butterflies. The trees were bent under the weight of fruit, and maize, pumpkins, green peppers, tomatoes, beans, and flowers grew abundantly on the ground. The second paradise, Tlillan-Tlapallan was a paradise for initiates, followers of Quetzalcoatl - the god-king symbolizing the resurrection. This paradise was characterized as a land of disembodiment, intended for those who had learned to live outside their physical body and were not attached to it. The highest paradise was Tonatiuhikan or the House of the Sun. Apparently, people who had achieved complete enlightenment lived here. The privileged, chosen as the daily companions of the Sun, lived lives of enjoyment.
IN Nordic tradition access to Valhalla was won through military courage. Life after death was not very different from earthly life - during the day, warriors competed in single combat, and at night they feasted, washing down pork with honey.
Indian mythology full of colorful descriptions of heavenly places. According to the ancient Vedic tradition, Yama, the leader of the dead, ruled in the kingdom of light located in the outer sky. The stay of all the deceased heroes there was painless and carefree. They enjoyed music, fulfillment of sexual desires and sensual pleasures. In Hinduism, the transcendental myths are regions of beauty and joy, inhabited by a variety of deities. Access here was gained by appropriate lifestyle and correct performance of rituals.
In Buddhism The closest analogue of heaven is the description of the world of the gods, where after death a person can be reborn if he has accumulated many good impressions during previous lives. All the desires that arise among the inhabitants of paradise are instantly fulfilled: “as soon as they enter the water, the water will rise in accordance with his desires: ankle-deep, knee-deep, waist-deep or throat-deep. If someone wants the water to be cold, it will be cold, but if someone else wants the water to be hot, for him it will become hot, but if they want it to be both hot and cold, for them it will become hot , and cold, in order to please them, etc.” (Great Sukhavativyuha. But, despite the fact that the world of the gods is so beautiful, there is no opportunity for development, and when the positive sensations accumulated in previous lives end, the being is reborn in the lower worlds.
The image of heaven as a place of life for souls after death exists in many North American native cultures. For example, some tribes of North American Indians, such as the Ajibois, Choctaws and Sioux, believe that the dead live where the sun sets or where there is a successful hunt. Some of the Eskimo tribes see their dead in the rays of the northern lights, joyfully playing with the head of a whale. In the mythological worldview of the African Tumbuka people inhabiting Malawi, there is a realm of spirits located in the underworld, where the dead remain forever young and are never unhappy or hungry.
It is impossible to hope for the heaven of one religion without risking the hell of all the others. Julien de Falkenare
The idea of hell or purgatory is usually associated with a place where human souls are subjected to various tortures and tortures after death. IN Jewish Traditions of the dead follow to Sheol, which is a colossal pit or city surrounded by walls, “the land of oblivion,” “the land of silence.” There they live in darkness and ignorance, shrouded in dust, covered with worms and forgotten by Jehovah. Gehenna is a deep valley filled with blazing fire, where sinners are tormented in the flames. Unlike other hells of other religions, Sheol has a day off once a week, of course on Saturdays. What can you do - Shabbat remains Shabbat in hell.
Christian the picture of hell includes a hierarchy of evil devils who subject the souls of sinners to torture, suffocation and heat. Hell is located deep underground. The entrances to it are in dark forests, volcanoes, and the gaping mouth of Leviathan also leads there. The Apocalypse mentions a lake burning with fire and brimstone - the final abode of "the fearful and the unfaithful, the abominable and murderers, the fornicators and sorcerers, idolaters and all liars." Less commonly, cold and ice are described as instruments of torture, which corresponds to medieval ideas about cold hell, as well as the last circles of Dante's hell. Bitter cold is also a feature of Niflheim, the Nordic underworld ruled by the fierce and merciless goddess Hel.
Greek underground Hades was an area of bleak darkness. Homer described it as “a terrible abode of desolation, which the gods themselves fear.” Hades is located either deep underground or in the far west. The main river of the underworld is the Styx, through which Charon transports the dead. Those who personally insulted Zeus were imprisoned in a bottomless abyss - Tartarus, where they were subjected to terrible torture. In ancient Greek myths, the sufferings of Prometheus, Sisyphus, Tantalus and Ixion look truly titanic.
In Persian Zoroastrianism Hell is located in the far north, in the depths of the earth. It is a dark place, dirty, smelly and infested with demons. There, the souls of the damned, “followers of lies,” must remain after death in torment and grief until Ahriman himself, the Lord of Darkness, is destroyed.
Hell Aztecs- Mictlan was a kingdom of absolute darkness, ruled by the terrible lord of the dead, Mictlantecuhtli. His face was covered with a mask in the shape of a human skull; black curly hair was dotted with eyes like stars, and a human bone protruded from his ear. In the Aztec tradition, the fate of an individual after death was determined not by his behavior, but by his position and the nature of death. Those of the dead who did not end up in one of the types of heaven were subjected to a series of magical trials in Mictlan. They had to go through nine types of hell before reaching the final refuge. These types of hell should not be seen as places where sinners went to be punished. They were considered a necessary intermediate stage in the cycle of creation. The cosmic process itself predetermined the immersion of all creatures into matter and then the return to light and the creator.
IN Hinduism and Buddhism there are numerous types of hell. Like the heavenly worlds, they are places where the dead remain forever - simply transitional stages in the cycle of birth, life, death and subsequent rebirth.
Don't wait for the Last Judgment. It happens every day. Albert Camus
Another recurring theme in what awaits the dead after death is the Judgment of the Dead. The earliest descriptions of the Judgment are found in funerary texts known as the Egyptian Book of the Dead, dating back to approximately 2400 BC. The trial takes place in the Hall of the Two Truths or the Hall of Ma'at. The heart of the deceased is placed on a precision scale, and on the other is placed the feather of the goddess Maat, a symbol of truth and justice. Libra is ruled by the god Anubis with the head of a jackal, and next to him is the god of wisdom and the heavenly scribe Thoth with the head of an ibis, like a dispassionate judge, writing down the verdict. The three-headed monster Amemet (crocodile - lion - hippopotamus), Eater of Souls, stands here, ready to swallow the condemned. He presents the Righteous Mountains to Osiris, who admits them to the benefits of his kingdom.
In the Buddhist version of the judgment scene, the holder of truth and justice is called Dharma Raja, "King of Truth" or Yama Raja, "King of the Dead." On it hang human skulls, human skin and a snake; in the right hand is the sword of division, and in the left is the mirror of karma. It reflects every good or evil deed of the deceased, symbolized by white and black stones placed on different scales. Six karmic paths lead from the court, each to its own area (loka), where the deceased will be reborn.
In the Old Testament tradition, there is the so-called “day of Yahweh” - the complete and final victory of God over his enemies on earth. Gradually, the concept of the “day of Yahweh” approaches the concept of the Last Judgment. According to the New Testament tradition, Jesus Christ, to the sound of angelic trumpets, will sit on the throne, before which “all nations” will gather, and will administer Judgment. The righteous will stand on the right hand, and those condemned to eternal torment will stand on the left. The general picture of the Christian Last Judgment was finally finalized by early Christian and medieval writers, especially Efim Sirin.
Christian art abounds with images of devils and angels fighting for the soul of the deceased, as well as images of the Last Judgment with the righteous ascending to heaven and the damned descending into the jaws of hell.
Muslim tradition describes Sirat, a bridge over the underworld “thinner than a hair and sharper than a blade,” along which all those who have departed must pass. The faithful are able to maintain balance and successfully overcome it. The disbelievers will certainly slip and fall into the abyss of hell.
Crossing the bridge also plays an important role in Zoroastrianism. The deity called "righteous Rashnu" weighs the evil and righteous deeds of the dead. After this, the soul of the deceased undergoes special tests: it must try to cross the Sinvato Parata or "Bridge of Separation". The righteous easily cross the bridge to eternal bliss, but the sinners are grabbed by the demon Vizarsh.
The fate awaiting the dead is often expressed in terms of a road, a path, or a certain sequence of events. Some of these descriptions seem somewhat naive, while others represent a complex and sophisticated cartography of unusual subjective experiences. The Guarayo Indians living in Bolivia believe that after death the soul must make a choice between two roads. One of them is wide and comfortable, and the other is narrow and dangerous. The soul should resist temptation and, not being deceived by the easy path, choose the difficult one. She has to cross two rivers, one on the back of a giant alligator, the other on a tree trunk. During the journey, the soul faces other dangers. She must make her way through a dark area by the light of a burning straw and pass between two colliding rocks. After successfully overcoming all dangers, the soul reaches a beautiful country where trees bloom, birds sing, and where it will forever remain in happiness.
According to the traditional beliefs of the Huichol Indians of Mexico - as this tradition is passed down orally from generation to generation and captured in colorful fabric designs called nearikas - the path of the soul to the world of spirits is similar to that described above, although more complex. The first part of the journey follows a straight road, but near a place called the "Place of the Black Rocks" there is a fork. Here the Huichol Indian, who has a pure heart, chooses the right path, and those who have committed incest or had sexual relations with a Spaniard or Spanish woman must go to the left. On the left road, the Huichol Indians who have sinned undergo a series of terrible trials. They are pierced by a huge thorn, they are beaten by the souls of people with whom they indulged in forbidden pleasures during their lives, they are burned by a cleansing fire, they are crushed by colliding rocks, they are forced to drink hot, foul-smelling water, infested with worms and filled with dirt. They are then allowed to return to the fork at the Black Rocks and continue their journey along the right path, which will lead to the ancestors. During this part of the journey, they must symbolically please the dog and the crow, two animals that the Huichol traditionally mistreat. Then the souls will meet the opossum and must prove to it that they did not eat its meat, which is sacred to the Huichols. They will then encounter a caterpillar, symbolizing their first sexual experience. At the wild fig tree, souls will be freed from the oppression of the sexual organs, receiving in return the fruits of the tree. After a major celebration with figs, maize beer and peyote, all souls will unite and dance around Tatewari.
The Huichol concept of posthumous travel has something in common with the descriptions of the ancient Aztecs. According to Aztec religion, the dead underwent a series of tests: they had to cross a deep river guarded by a yellow dog, walk between two colliding mountains, climb over an obsidian mountain, be exposed to an icy wind, be pierced by sharp arrows, and be attacked by wild beasts devouring human beings. hearts. The Aztecs resorted to complex rituals to facilitate the post-mortem journeys of their dead.
The afterlife according to the ideas of ancient peoples
As has already been said, at first people did not consider the soul to be an incorporeal, divine being, but endowed it with material qualities and all human needs, believing that, having moved to another world, the soul would continue to lead the lifestyle of a living person. Therefore, in burial places, relatives provided the deceased with everything he used during life, burying with the deceased food, water and things that were needed or especially dear to him.
American Indians sang at funerals:
So let's start the funeral
Choir among the graves;
We will bring a farewell gift
Everything he loved:
Place the onion at the head of the room,
And the ax is on the chest,
At the feet - fur with bear blood
To a friend on a long journey...
Karelian burial grounds from the era of the decay of the primitive communal system, discovered at the end of the last century near the Vuoksa River, indicate that household utensils and things that the deceased most often used during life were placed in the grave of a Karelian. In the men's graves, axes, horse bits, spears and arrowheads were found, in the women's graves - a spindle whorl (from a spinning wheel), sickles, and sheep shearing shears. Consequently, according to the ideas of the Karelians, in the afterlife, men will cut down trees, hunt, fight enemies, and women will spin, reap bread, shear sheep, i.e. carry out work familiar to them in earthly life.
Initially, the afterlife seemed so material to people that they quite clearly imagined how a dead person eats, how he starves and dies, i.e. may simply disappear completely if not taken care of. All ancient peoples were firmly convinced that the deceased had the same needs as the living. They considered it necessary to feed the deceased so that his hungry spirit would not bother his relatives with his visits and cause them trouble. Thus, the Mexicans placed pieces of meat on sticks across the fields, doing this out of fear that the dead would not come to them to demand the cattle that belonged to him during his life. Belarusian peasants, along with the deceased, put some food and some of the deceased’s belongings into the coffin. In remote Russian villages it was the custom to place crumbs of pie on the shelf behind the icon. It was believed that the souls of ancestors were hiding there, and therefore they were “fed.” Christian funerals are also a relic of such ideas.
The ancient Greek historian Herodotus (5th century BC) described the funeral customs of the Scythians. The Greeks used this name to call numerous tribes that lived from the 8th century. BC. in the steppes from the Northern Black Sea region to Altai. They lived in tribal communities, but in the 5th century. BC. there was no longer equality between them. The clan nobility was distinguished, the power of tribal leaders was inherited, and slavery had already arisen, although the labor of slaves was not widespread and the state did not yet exist.
According to Herodotus, when the Scythian leader died, his corpse was embalmed. The funeral took place with special pomp and cruel sacrifices. On the day of burial, one of the wives, several slaves and servants: a cook, a cupbearer, a groom, and a messenger were killed at the leader’s grave and placed next to him. Weapons, jewelry, precious things made of gold and silver were placed in the grave, and with joint efforts they poured a huge mound over it, trying to make it higher.
A year later, a funeral service was held at the grave. They killed 50 of the deceased's most faithful servants and 50 of his best horses. The entrails were taken out of the horse carcasses, the stuffed animals were stuffed with straw and, mounted on poles, they were attached to the ground in a large semicircle; Killed servants were placed on dead horses. Having built this terrible cavalry around the grave, the Scythians left.
Excavations of the Chertomlytsky mound (20 km from Nikopol) and especially the latest interesting discoveries in the Pazyryk mounds of the Altai Mountains confirmed what Herodotus wrote 2500 years ago. Thus, recently an expedition of archaeologists from the USSR Academy of Sciences and the State Hermitage excavated a number of large mounds made of rock fragments and dating back to the 5th century in the Pazyryk tract of the Ulagan Highlands. BC. These were burial vaults of the ancient Saks (Scythians) with representatives of the tribal nobility buried in them. Despite the fact that the burial grounds were looted, they preserved many objects of art and everyday life that were interesting to scientists, the value of which was increased by their excellent preservation in permafrost conditions, although at least 2,500 years had passed since the burial. Some wooden items, leather, carpets and fabrics have not lost their original appearance, and even tattoos have survived on the embalmed bodies of buried men. The corpse of a Scythian warrior was discovered in one of the tombs. His wife and everything he needed during his life were buried with him: horses in full trim, clothes, furs, food - pieces of lamb in leather bags, cheese similar to feta cheese.
Not only among the Scythians, savage murders of people were committed on the graves of tribal elders and leaders. Many other nations also had a custom according to which, along with the deceased rich man, his wives and slaves were buried alive or killed. Here are some examples. In 1870 (!) after the death of Prince Marava (Brazil), his 47 wives were burned alive along with his corpse.
The leaders of African tribes, long before their own death, killed their slaves in order to prepare servants for themselves for the future afterlife. Even a hundred years ago, in front of the leader’s hut one could see sticking out poles with the whitened skulls of his “afterlife servants.” If it occurred to the leader to convey something to his ancestors in the afterlife, he called a slave, gave him the order, and then cut off his head. At the funeral of the mother of Chaka, the South African king of the Zulu tribe, 7 thousand people were killed, and 12 young girls were buried alive to serve the queen in the afterlife. After the death of King Guenzo in the monarchy of Dahomey (tropical Africa), his son Grere ordered the sacrifice of 1000 people. The killings of the unfortunates continued from July 13 to August 5, 1860. During the funeral of the Mongol prince, all people who came across on the road were killed with the words: “Go serve your master in another world.”
Hundreds of murdered slaves are found in the tombs of ancient China.
In ancient India, there was a custom of “sati”, according to which, after the death of her husband, the widow was burned at the grave of the deceased. This ferocious custom lasted until the middle of the 19th century. Religion taught a woman that her husband needed her in the afterlife just as much as during life. And if she does not immediately follow him, then in the end she will still die and appear in the “other world” for eternal and cruel reprisal to her embittered husband. That is why superstitious Hindu women preferred to experience the agony of death at the stake once rather than be tortured by an angry husband for an eternity in the future.
These same superstitious ideas destroyed many blacks when in the 16th century. colonialists began to export them from Africa to America. To get rid of the unbearable torment of slavery, they resorted to suicide, being confident that after death they would return to their homeland and be resurrected there as free people.
The custom of funeral honors and sacrifices, associated with the belief in the afterlife, was also among our ancestors - the Slavs.
Nations at a low stage of development not only killed people, they also “killed” things. Thus, many African blacks have a custom after the death of a king to make all his things worthless: tearing clothes, breaking swords, making holes in boats. These “killed” things are placed in the grave to be used by the dead.
Remnants of primitive ideas about the afterlife and associated customs appeared among the peoples of Western Europe in relatively recent times. So, 200 years ago in Austria, during the funeral of one count, his horse was buried with him. Later, horses were no longer killed, but it was generally accepted to lead the deceased’s horse behind the coffin. There were cases when a needle and thread were placed in graves so that the deceased could, when necessary, repair his dress.
Thus, belief in the afterlife arose in pre-class society and by the beginning of the collapse of the primitive communal system it was widely developed. With the advent of wealth inequality, ideas about the afterlife have changed dramatically. Private property has left its mark on the “other world.” Previously, when there was no difference between rich and poor, the afterlife of all the dead seemed the same. Since all people were equal, their souls had to live in the “other world” in the same conditions, i.e. ideas about the life of the dead beyond the grave corresponded to the social structure that existed among the peoples on earth. The ancient Jews and Greeks imagined the afterlife as a distant underground kingdom of shadows, where everyone is equal and everyone shares the same bleak fate, but without much torment.
With the division of society into classes, tales about the afterlife began to mention two compartments for the dead: the upper (heaven) for some, and the lower (hell) for others; and usually heaven is for masters, for the rich, hell is for slaves and the poor.
As was shown above, a noble person, a tribal leader, a prince or a king, when preparing for a “long journey,” took with him to the grave or funeral pyre everything that he owned during his lifetime. Contrary to the proverb: “If you die, you won’t take anything with you,” the rich man believed: “If I die, I’ll take everything with me.” Bulls and horses were slaughtered at his grave so that the dead prince would have something to eat and something to ride in the “other world.” His wives, slaves, and warriors were killed along with him. These are companions and servants who go with the deceased to protect him and please him in the afterlife. Finally, the dead man himself was placed in a coffin or on a pyre, fully armed and with the best jewelry. Rich relatives did not skimp on funeral feasts, feasting on the burial mound, performing abundant sacrifices and many other magical acts that provided the deceased with the opportunity to get to that happy area of the afterlife, which is called paradise.
And whoever is not rich enough to order the killing of women and servants at his grave, who does not have things to travel to the afterlife and be protected from all disasters there, who cannot finally pay the priests for prayers and spells, will not reach the blissful edge.
Thus, representatives of the ruling classes turned the colorless kingdom of shadows into a cheerful and rich place, resounding with laughter and the clinking of glasses, where earthly pleasures continue, where you can eat and drink without fail, caress as many of the most beautiful women as you like, etc. etc. This is how an imaginary paradise arose, access to which became the property of the rich.
Hell remained for the poor man, not yet a place of torture and torment, but simply a place of sadness and sorrow. If this was retribution, it was retribution for poverty, for the fact that the whole life of a poor man is filled with worries about his existence, and too little attention and resources were given to the gods and priests.
Of course, this general picture of the development of views on the afterlife from their origin to the emergence of the first class societies, inclusive, cannot be unconditionally applied to the history of any people, cannot reflect all the originality of ideas about the afterlife, which are rooted in the material conditions of life of a particular society. There may be deviations and exceptions here, as exemplified by the peoples of the most ancient culture of mankind - Babylonia, Egypt, Greece, whose ideas about the afterlife differ sharply both from each other and from the above diagram. The views of these peoples are all the more interesting to us because their literary monuments already contain the first glimpses of free-thinking, manifested in doubt and even denial of any belief in an afterlife.
The ancient Babylonians pictured the “future” life as an abode of suffering and sadness. They had an idea of the “world of the dead,” filled with disgusting spirits that tormented the souls of the dead. These spirits also come to earth, flying from the terrible desert in the west, to send illness and death to their victims. The gods sometimes descended into the underworld and emerged from there with great difficulty. But man does not have the salvation that exists for God. Death does not let him go free, cuts him down like a blade of grass, pierces him with a knife.
“The Poem of Gilgamesh,” the most remarkable work of Babylonian literature of the 2nd millennium BC, poses in a highly artistic form the eternal question about the meaning of life and the inevitability of death, about what awaits a person beyond the grave. Gilgamesh, the semi-legendary king of Uruk, “two-thirds god, one-third man,” having buried his beloved friend, tormented by sadness and fear of inevitable death, seeks the secret of immortality in difficult wanderings. His ancestor Ut-Napishtim, who received the great gift of immortality from the gods, is trying to get eternal life for the hero using various magical techniques. He advises Gilyamesh to at least overcome sleep - maybe then he will overcome death. But human nature takes its toll, and the hero, tired from the campaign, falls asleep while sitting and falls into a heavy sleep. Everything turns out to be in vain. Gilgamesh again feels the threat of imminent death. He is asking:
What should I do, Ut-Napishtim, where should I go?
Death lurks in my bedroom.
Finally, Ut-Napishtim reveals to him that, by diving to the bottom of the ocean, Gilgamesh will be able to find a plant that gives, however, not eternal life, but constant youth. Having obtained the grass of youth with great difficulty, Gilgamesh sets off for his homeland, deciding to share the grass with his people. But chance ruins everything. When Gilgamesh was bathing in a pond, a snake stole a wonderful plant. Since then, snakes have shed their skin and become younger, while people are destined to grow old without renewal.
The saddened hero asks the gods for one last favor: to call back from the other world at least the shadow of a deceased friend. The poem ends with a dialogue between friends, in which the shadow of the deceased in the darkest colors describes the world of the dead, who “do not see the light, live in darkness, their food is dust and clay.”
Look! The friend whom you hugged in the joy of your heart -
The worms devour him like a decayed shroud.
My body, which you touched in the joy of your heart,
Turned into dust and ashes
It turned into dust and decay, into dust.
Man is powerless against nature, which for the Babylonians was personified as the will of the gods.
The words of the ancient author are permeated with deep pessimism, for even the famous Gilgamesh, “mighty, great, wise,” despite his divine origin, cannot achieve immortality. It is given only to those who, like Ut-Napishtim, fulfill the commandments of religion and the demands of the priests. This thought reflected the later ideology of priesthood, although the roots of the poem undoubtedly go back to folk art. Babylonian literature developed under the influence of a religious worldview, but it was also filled with doubts about the truth of religious dogmas, which promised the righteous immortality as a reward. In the poem, for the first time, with utmost clarity and at the same time with great artistic power, the idea of the inevitability of death is expressed, to which all people are subject, even famous heroes who are ready for any feat in order to overcome inevitable death. In the end, Gilgamesh is consoled by the thought of the immortality of man's glorious deeds, which will forever be preserved in the memory of posterity.
And the question of death and immortality, which so worried man in ancient times, is resolved courageously and essentially correctly: man is mortal, but his deeds are immortal.
The idea of the inevitability of death is also imbued with another work, which is usually called “Conversation between a Master and a Slave,” in which Babylonian religious and philosophical poetry reached its peak.
These are the final strong words of the dialogue, which express the author’s main idea. Disappointed in everything, the gentleman finally exclaims: “What’s good now?” The slave’s answer sounds insolent and mocking: “Breaking my neck and your neck and throwing them into the river - that’s good. Who is so high as to ascend to heaven, and who is so great as to fill the earth!” The angry master threateningly says to the slave: “O slave, I want to kill you and force you to walk in front of me.” But in response the slave’s warning is heard: “Truly, my master will live only three days after me.”
If in Babylonia they had little faith in the afterlife, knowing that, having died, a person turns into dust, into decay, into nothing, then in ancient Egypt the belief in the afterlife was very strong and had a special meaning there. No people ever cared so much about the dead and thought so much about the afterlife as the Egyptians. They did not seek immortality, like the inhabitants of Mesopotamia, because they believed that they possessed it, being confident that death is not the destruction of a person, but only his transition to another world. Such ideas were born under the influence of natural factors, primarily the geographical environment. On the western bank of the Nile, near the sands of the Libyan Desert, where Egyptian cemeteries were located, in a hot, dry climate, the body did not so much decompose as dry out, and the Egyptians managed to protect corpses from rotting.
The magnificent funeral cult of the dead in Egypt was associated with the veneration of the god Osiris, the idea of which, as a dying and resurrecting god, reflected the annual flowering and withering of nature.
From generation to generation, the Egyptians told an endlessly ancient tale about the struggle between life and death - the myth of Osiris. Its content is as follows. Egypt was once ruled by the god of the sun, moisture and vegetation, Osiris. But he was killed by his evil brother Set, who tore the body of Osiris into 14 pieces and scattered it throughout Egypt. Osiris's wife, the goddess Isis, after a long search, collected the remains of her husband, put them together and resurrected the god. But Osiris did not remain on earth, but became king and judge in the afterlife.
The myth of Osiris reflected the Egyptian ideas about the change of seasons and the eternity of constantly regenerating nature: when everything dried up and died from the sultry winds of the deserts, this meant that Osiris was killed; the revival of nature was associated with the resurrection of the deity. The Egyptians believed that just as nature comes to life, so can dead people come to life in the afterlife. Osiris defeated death and came to life. This means, the Egyptians thought, that people who believed in him could rise again and gain immortality. This idea is clearly expressed in the following religious text:
As Osiris truly lives, so do you live.
Just as he truly does not die, so you do not die.
Just as he is not truly destroyed, so you are not destroyed either.
Feeling their dependence on nature, they thought that their earthly and especially future afterlife depended entirely on Osiris, the god of dying and resurrecting nature, the god of “eternal” life and the ruler of the land of the dead. The kingdom of the dead - “Amenti”, where Osiris rules, according to some legends, was in the distant blissful country of the West, where the souls of the dead fly away with the sun, according to others - in the underworld.
The 125th chapter of the “Book of the Dead” - religious and magical collections of texts from ancient Egypt - describes the terrible posthumous judgment of the soul of the deceased, which reflected in a distorted form the earthly and formidable judgment of the pharaoh. Osiris sits on a royal throne under a canopy in the great hall of justice, decorated with tongues of fire and large feathers (a feather is a symbol of truth). Behind him sit 42 monster judges (one from each Egyptian region). In the middle are the scales of justice, on which the heart of the deceased is weighed in order to find out whether he led a righteous life. If a person did not violate the will of Pharaoh and generally committed few sins, his heart should have been light, no heavier than the feather (truth) placed on the other side of the scale. The heart, according to the Egyptians, was a symbol of the soul of the deceased, the focus of his moral life, the receptacle of virtues and vices. Having appeared before the court, the soul makes a negative confession, in which the deceased declares himself innocent of committing 42 cardinal sins.
“I did not speak ill of Pharaoh, did not rebel, did not reduce the sacrifices dedicated to the gods, did not reduce the bread in the temples, did not reduce the food of the gods... did not fish in the ponds dedicated to the gods... did not harm the livestock that belonged to the temple. .."
The class essence of ideas about the afterlife court is clearly reflected in the nature of this confession. If a person did not stain himself with sins and crimes against the pharaoh and the priests, he was acquitted and his soul was allowed to live in the kingdom of Osiris. There was a lot of water there, which was not enough on earth, and in the paradise fields of Iaru wheat grew taller than a man. The Egyptians believed that the deceased would live there forever with the gods, ride in a solar boat along the underground Nile and eat the food of the gods. But if the heart of the deceased weighed a lot, if he was burdened with vices, the scales went down, and the heart and soul of the sinner were immediately devoured by the terrible monster Amamat (half-lion, half-hippopotamus with the head of a crocodile), and the deceased was forever deprived of the right to the afterlife. It is characteristic that the concept of hell did not exist among the ancient Egyptians: losing immortality was generally considered the most terrible thing.
In the class society of ancient Egypt, the funeral cult was a means of ideological influence of the ruling class on the consciousness of the working masses in order to subjugate them. Belief in the afterlife, in the Last Judgment of Osiris, helped the ruling classes intimidate the masses, dull the consciousness of the poor, convincing them to meekly endure earthly hardships and torments, promising them an imaginary heavenly bliss beyond the grave as a reward.
Belief in the afterlife was widespread and developed in Egypt. The living had to prepare for their afterlife, and the dead demanded a complex funeral cult from their descendants on earth.
The desire to ensure eternal life for the deceased was expressed in concern for the preservation of the corpse and the method of its burial. According to the religious beliefs of the Egyptians, posthumous existence depends on the degree of preservation of the body. The Egyptians believed that the soul of the deceased flies out of the body, but then constantly returns to it, bringing food and maintaining contact with the outside world.
Therefore, in order for the soul to find the body, it must be preserved from destruction. This explains the custom of mummifying corpses and building strong tombs. Since at first the embalming methods were imperfect and the body might not be preserved, a statue of the deceased was placed in the tomb, which was supposed to serve as a replacement for the body. Believing that real life begins behind the grave, every wealthy Egyptian, long before old age, due to his means and capabilities, began to build a tomb for himself.
The Egyptians imagined the afterlife as a fantastic reflection and a kind of continuation of the earthly world, where in the land of the dead the soul would lead the same existence as on earth. Relatives tried to provide the deceased with everything necessary, including furniture and musical instruments, in order to ensure his well-being in the afterlife.
At first, since the time of the clan system, genuine things and food were placed in the tomb - “bread, geese, bull meat and beer” - everything that, according to the concepts of the Egyptians, had to be fed to the soul so that it would not starve in the afterlife. The nobility bequeathed their cattle and lands to the priests and temples “for the sake of their souls.” Subsequently, the Egyptians replaced real food with images, all kinds of drawings of food and drinks on funeral tables and tomb walls, firmly believing that all this would turn into real food and drink and provide for the “afterlife needs” of the deceased.
When a slave state emerged in Egypt, the funeral cult strengthened the idea of the immutability and eternity of the existing class system. Pharaohs began to be buried in giant tombs - pyramids, the size of which reflected the social distance between the king and the population under his control, instilled in his subjects fear of the greatness and power of the ancient Eastern despots and faith in their divinity, which was preached by the priests: during life, the pharaohs were considered earthly gods, and after death were equated with heaven. Wealthy officials and priests were buried in massive tombs that looked like huge benches (the so-called mastabas), where the body of the deceased (mummy), embalmed and swaddled in linen bandages, was lowered into several painted sarcophagi. A half-length portrait of the deceased drawn on the board was also placed there. The entrance to the tomb was walled up, but, according to the Egyptians, the deceased himself could go out invisibly or look out with large eyes painted on the wall of the coffin. On the walls of the interior of the tomb they painted the family of the deceased and in the foreground he himself, usually inspecting the possessions and wealth that belonged to him during his life - craft workshops, herds, fields where slaves worked. All this was supplied with inscriptions exalting the owner and was supposed to magically transfer the property of the deceased to the afterlife.
Taking into account the moods and desires of the candidates for the afterlife, the priests composed special prayers and spells for them to the gods, which were supposed to protect the deceased from the dangers that threatened him in the next world and ensure “union with his family in the afterlife”, “eating bread in the afterlife ”, the opportunity “not to enter the courthouse of God.”
All these funeral texts made up the later already mentioned “Book of the Dead,” which was placed along with the deceased and where one could read, for example, “Chapter so as not to die a second time,” “A saying so as not to decay,” “A saying so as not to get caught.” on God’s block”, etc.
According to the Egyptians, everyone did the same work behind the grave as they did during life. And if the poor peasant dreamed of plowing, sowing and reaping in the fields of Osiris in the kingdom of the dead, then wealthy people were not going to do this. For this purpose, special funeral figurines were purchased and placed in the tombs of noble people, which were small figures of servants made of stone, wood or faience with bags of grain on their backs and hoes in their hands, called “ushebti”, which means “respondents”. It was they who had to do the work for their owners beyond the grave. Sometimes up to 365 of these twin dolls were found in tombs, corresponding to the number of days in a year. The Egyptians naively believed that these figurines would come to life one after another in the afterlife and turn into slaves and peasants who would work for the deceased, and the paintings would turn into estates that he would own.
But the rich slave owners, even in the “other world,” were afraid of the possible disobedience of the servants. For this purpose, warning inscriptions were often carved on the figures: “Oh, you, ushabti! If I am called and assigned to perform various works, you answer: “I am here.” Listen only to the one who made you, do not listen to his enemy.” Wooden and earthenware dolls often have their legs broken off; This was done so that the servants could not run away from the master.
It can be assumed that ushabti dolls replaced the more ancient, already mentioned ritual, when his slaves were killed at the grave of a slave owner.
The middle class of the urban population buried their dead in small tombs with modest decoration. The mummies were prepared using a cheap method, and the ushabti placed in the graves was poorly prepared. Sometimes only one “respondent” was placed with the number 365 written on it, and magic spells cast over it ensured that it would work for the deceased throughout the entire year.
The Egyptian poor simply buried their dead in the sand without any embalming. But at the same time, measures were still taken so that the poor could “resurrect.” Their bodies were wrapped in mats and tied to boards with funeral prayers. The board replaced both the coffin and the tomb for the deceased. The names of dishes and drinks were written on it, which, thanks to magical spells, were supposed to ensure the afterlife well-being of the poor. For example, a funeral prayer asking Osiris to give the deceased in the next world 1000 bulls, 1000 loaves of bread, 1000 glasses of beer, etc. The relatives of the deceased could not do more for him. Sometimes a figurine representing the deceased was buried near the grave of a nobleman, so that part of the gifts brought to him would go to the poor man, who, thus, had to depend on the rich man in the afterlife.
The dead slaves did not even have their own graves: they were buried in a common pit.
We have seen that the Egyptians transferred ideas about the relations of production that existed on earth to the afterlife, where people were located in accordance with their social position on earth. The afterlife cult imperceptibly introduced into the minds of believers the idea of justifying and affirming earthly inequality by the presence of heavenly inequality: for the ruler of the dead, Osiris, it was necessary to cultivate the field in the same way as for earthly masters. Although all the dead were declared equal before one master - Osiris, who could call anyone to “labor service”, the rich could get rid of work here too, replacing themselves with “defendants”.
Reduced to extreme poverty, suppressed by the severity of life, the broad masses of the population dreamed of posthumous bliss. Belief in an afterlife was at the same time an effective instrument of oppression in the hands of the ruling class: fearing the judgment of Osiris, believers patiently endured their hard life, hoping after death to receive a reward for humility.
Belief in the “other world” was strong in ancient Egypt, but even then religion could not suppress the glimmers of free-thinking and critical consciousness of people whose life experience inevitably sowed doubts about what the priests taught. Some poetic works contain notes of disbelief in the afterlife and calls for enjoying all the benefits of earthly life, which sharply contrast with the traditional religious worldview. In one feast song it is sung:
Spend your day joyfully, priest,
Inhale the smell of incense and anointings...
Leave all evil behind you.
Think only about joy until
Until the day comes when you land in the country,
loving silence.
Another papyrus describes the indignation of a pious Egyptian at hearing such songs during funeral feasts: “I heard songs in which the earthly is exalted and the afterlife is humiliated.”
In the famous “Harper's Song,” inscribed on the wall of the pyramid, the freethinking author most boldly denies the existence of an afterlife and doubts the benefits of funeral rites and magnificent tombs:
Crying will not bring anyone back from the grave...
And none of those who went there
Not back yet!
And therefore:
Multiply your pleasures even more,
Don't let your heart get sad
Follow his desire and your good,
Do your deeds on earth according to the dictates of your heart
And do not grieve until the day of mourning for you comes...
Everything will perish, the tombs will disappear, “as if it never happened,” the author concludes; only the deeds of people, the works and thoughts of the people are immortal.
In the poetic dialogue, which is usually called “The Disappointed Man’s Conversation with His Soul,” the author’s words convey the deep pessimism of a man disappointed in life and challenging the heavens. The doubt about the existence of eternal life is clearly felt in the following words: “If you remember burial, then this is grief... You will never go out to see the sun. Those who built from granite and erected chambers... they suffered the same fate as the tired ones who died on the rafts, leaving no offspring behind. The heat of the sun and the fish on the shore talk to them.”
Having lost faith in the afterlife, the author also treats funeral rites with contempt, not believing that they can provide a person with afterlife bliss, although they require great expenses. The author’s words sound confident that death will level everyone, both poor and rich, preparing for them the same fate - destruction under the rays of the scorching sun or the all-conquering power of water.
In the literary monuments of other peoples of the Ancient East there are also works that are skeptical about the belief in an afterlife. Such, for example, are the Hebrew parables attributed to King Solomon. The Talmud, a Jewish religious collection of Bible interpretations written more than two thousand years ago, mentions sages who argued that there is no afterlife. Even in the Bible itself, the “sacred” book of the ancient Jews, which was then accepted by Christians as the Old Testament, one repeatedly comes across certain naive materialistic views that deny the afterlife and express thoughts that with the death of a person everything is over for him, he will not be resurrected. and even God himself will not create such a miracle. Thus, the author of the Book of Ecclesiastes concludes that man does not live beyond the grave, “everything came from dust, and everything will return to dust” (chapter 3, v. 20). In the “Book of the Wisdom of Solomon” it is written: “We were born by chance, and afterward we will be like those who never were: the breath in our nostrils is smoke, and the word is a spark in the movement of our heart. When it fades away, the body will turn to dust, and the spirit will dissipate like liquid air” (chapter 2, vv. 2-3). But these “dangerous places” of the “sacred scriptures” have been and are so carefully hushed up by theologians and are so drowned in the sea of biblical teachings about the afterlife that believers usually do not even suspect their existence.
In the religion of the ancient Greeks, based on the deification of various forces of nature and admiration for the memory and exploits of ancestors - “god-like” heroes, there was no clearly expressed idea of the afterlife, of heaven and hell. In Ancient Greece, the priesthood did not develop into a special class, did not represent a strong, centralized organization and did not have much influence on the emerging views of people and folk art. It was, as Marx put it, “the childhood of human society where it developed most beautifully...” The freely developing Greek mythology left humanity with an amazing and beautiful world of wonderful tales that embodied the stubborn struggle of man with nature, glorifying the exploits of the mighty and just heroes of the people.
According to ancient Greek myths, two brothers of the supreme deity of the thunderer Zeus (Jupiter among the Romans), lord of heaven and earth, shared the world with him: Poseidon (Neptune) received power over the seas, and Hades became the ruler of the afterlife, or the underworld (Orcus). Roman Pluto), or Hades, from whose name our word “hell” comes.
The ancient Hellenes imagined the afterlife as a misfortune, and they saw the whole tragedy of people in the fact that they are mortal. There is nothing better than earthly life for a happy person, but it is short. Beyond the grave, only the horrors of the underworld and the sad journey of a homeless soul await a person. The Greeks imagined Hades as inhabited by aimlessly wandering shadow-like, ghostly creatures, devoid of feeling, thought, or consciousness. They run around, moan, constantly tremble and cannot warm up. It is the souls of the dead who spend their sad and monotonous lives in the kingdom of shadows. The kingdom of Hades is terrible, and people hate it.
The heroic epic of the ancient Greeks tells how Odysseus once wanted to summon the souls of the dead in order to learn the future from them: he dug a hole, poured the blood of a sacrificial animal into it and began to utter mysterious words. With pitiful groans, the shadows of the dead, pitiful semblances of living people, flew down; they began to crowd towards the blood, since hot blood is life and warmth; only the soul that drinks blood can speak with the living. Among them was the shadow of the god-born hero Achilles. Odysseus asked: “What is it like for you in the underworld?” Achilles replied: “It is better to be the last farm laborer on earth than to reign here over the dead.” So hopeless, hopeless and gloomy was the existence of souls in the kingdom of shadows.
The god of death Tanat flew on huge black wings to the bed of the dying man, cut off a lock of hair from his head with a sword, tore out his soul and sent it to the king of the dead - Hades. Through bottomless abysses, abysses with a guide, the winged messenger of the gods Hermes, the soul descended - the “psyche” deep into the earth, where black, deadening rivers flow, among them the chilling Styx, separating the underworld from the real world. The terrible kingdom of the inexorable Hades is full of eternal darkness, where neither the light nor the joys of earthly life ever reach.
The deceased, according to the ideas of the ancient Greeks, had to cross the river of sadness and tears - Acheron, and the gloomy old ferryman Charon took him to the other side for a fee. To pay for the move, the Greeks placed a small copper coin in the dead person's mouth. This boatman did not transport a single soul of the deceased back to where the sun of life shines brightly. The three-headed hellish dog Cerberus, on which snakes wriggled, and the tail ended with the head of a dragon, and many other monsters guarded the exit, guarded the eternal joyless existence of the dead.
There is no return from the other world. Only once did the famous singer Orpheus, with his sweet-sounding music, manage to persuade the harsh Hades to mercy: to give him his tragically deceased young wife Eurydice. The condition was this: until they reached the surface of the earth, it was impossible to turn back. Orpheus could not stand it, looked at Eurydice, and immediately the god Hermes took her back to the underworld.
One of the rivers of the underworld in Greek mythology is Lethe, the river of oblivion, the waters of which made the souls of the dead forget all the earthly suffering they had endured. (This is where the expression “sink into oblivion” comes from, that is, to be forgotten forever, to disappear without a trace.) The gods of dreams, joyful and nightmare, also live here, over which the young god of sleep Hypnos reigns; silently he rises on his wings above the ground with poppy heads in his hands, pours a sleeping pill from the horn and puts people to sleep.
Using the example of ancient Greek religion, we see that at an early stage of social development, the idea of individual immortality did not contain something comforting among all peoples: to the Greeks it seemed like an “inevitable fate” and even a misfortune. It can be assumed that the rapid economic development of the Greek states, the class stratification of society and the struggle of classes did not have time to be reflected in religion in a relatively short historical period, and the views on the “future life” of the ancient Greeks had not yet fully developed. But the priests, who expressed the interests of the ruling classes, used and developed existing ideas, extracting income from them and frightening the masses. At the so-called Eleusinian sacraments, for example, an image of a sepulchral kingdom of shadows was shown, from where the sounds of sobs were heard and the ringing of chains was heard - these were the tormented souls of the dead, tormented by eternal suffering and remorse.
Other mysteries, called Orphic, consisted in the fact that the priests communicated to the “initiates” mysterious rituals and the doctrine of the afterlife, allegedly brought from the underworld by Orpheus himself. The priests taught that the performance of Orphic rites would ensure those initiated into these mysteries a blissful life beyond the grave.
Thus, in Greece, ideas about the afterlife as reward for earthly deeds were just beginning to take shape.
The inquisitive mind of the ancient Greeks persistently penetrated into the secrets of nature, which became increasingly difficult to explain by the “otherworldly” world. The development of trade, crafts, and navigation moved science forward, gave birth to brave scientists, great thinkers and atheists who, with their freethinking and materialistic teaching, destroyed faith in the supernatural. Greek historian and geographer Hecataeus of Miletus, who lived at the end of the 6th and beginning of the 5th century. BC, tried to critically reconsider ancient beliefs. So, he decided to explore the cave, which in myths was told that it led to the underworld to his terrible lord Hades and that it was from here that Hercules pulled the hellish dog Cerberus from the underworld to earth, with a dragon or snake instead of a tail. “I,” Hecataeus later wrote, “was in this place myself and descended underground. The cave is shallow. Most likely, it happened like this: a snake lived in this cave, and it bit people, like all poisonous snakes. In the darkness, people mistook the snake for the tail of a dog. And since the snake’s venom was fatal, it was called the hellish dog Cerberus. Hercules actually descended, only not into hell, but into a cave. He saw a snake, caught it and brought this “dog” into the light. Then a legend arose that Hercules descended into hell and brought out Cerberus, who had a snake instead of a tail.”
The greatest materialist of antiquity, Democritus (460-370 BC), in his essay “On the Afterlife,” ridiculed belief in the afterlife as “false fables about what will happen after death,” arguing that “the soul is mortal, it is destroyed along with the body." “Many people do not know that the human body disintegrates into atoms,” Democritus taught, “but these people remember bad deeds behind them, and therefore spend their whole lives in anxiety, fear and torment, believing false fairy tales about the afterlife.”
There is a legend that when Democritus was in the cemetery, where he loved to spend time, some jokers decided to scare him by wrapping themselves in dark cloaks and posing as the dead emerging from their graves. “Stop fooling around,” said Democritus. “You will not frighten someone who knows for sure that if someone is dead, then he is dead and, therefore, cannot get up.”
With the division of society into antagonistic classes, other reasons for religious belief in an afterlife appear. In an exploitative society, in addition to the spontaneous forces of nature, people are also dominated by the forces of a given social system, they experience economic and social oppression. The vast majority of society is in an oppressed position. The feeling of helplessness and powerlessness before nature, although it remains, is now receding into the background; fear arises of the incomprehensible laws of spontaneously formed social relations, about which incorrect, fantastic ideas are created. The oppressed working masses feel defenseless before the blind, inevitable and as if established from above force of social development, which, acting inexorably and mercilessly, makes some slaves, others - slave owners, some - poor workers, others - rich parasites. The main root of religion in a class society and the main reason for belief in an afterlife, and better than earthly life in the “other world”, is social oppression, the unbearable, hopeless situation of the working classes, their seeming helplessness in the fight against the exploiters, hunger, poverty, lack of rights, uncertainty about the future.
Downtrodden and forced laborers, unable to throw off the oppression of the exploiters and rebuild social orders, despairing of finding a real path to salvation, sought illusory oblivion and consolation in anticipation of a future afterlife, hoping at least in the “other world” to receive a reward for their suffering.
“The powerlessness of the exploited classes in the fight against the exploiters just as inevitably gives rise to faith in a better afterlife, just as the powerlessness of the savage in the fight against nature gives rise to faith in gods, devils, miracles, etc.”
These Leninist lines from the wonderful article “Socialism and Religion” reveal the social roots of the working people’s dream of posthumous bliss and heavenly reward.
The developing slave system, supporting religious views on the “otherworldly” world, began to use them as a consolation for enslaved and suffering people, which is especially clearly seen in the example of Egypt. In an exploitative society, a belief in afterlife reward and retribution for earthly deeds begins to develop; concepts of afterlife reward and punishment are developed that are completely alien to people of pre-class society. The oppressors sought not only to suppress the slave, but also to “comfort” him with faith in happiness after death, distracting him from difficult thoughts about his fate on earth and attempts at class struggle. The deceived and robbed working masses were imposed with a cheap hope of “eternal life” and “heavenly bliss” in paradise, for the sake of which they had to put up with their share of being exploited, endure and expect rewards for submission and obedience. The reactionary belief in an afterlife was zealously propagated and developed by the church, which helped the ruling classes to oppress the people and stupefy their consciousness.
From the book God Speaks (Textbook of Religion) author Antonov Vladimir“THE CAVES OF ANCIENT PEOPLES” by Lobzang Rampa Westerners have only two questions: can you prove it? and what will I get from this? Listen to the voices of our souls. This world is a world of illusions; life on Earth is a test so that we can be cleansed of everything unclean. Listen
From the book Afterlife author Fomin A VPETTION OF THOSE ON EARTH FOR THOSE WHO HAVE PASSED ON TO THE AFTERWORLD Everything has its own custom, a reason; there is no action without a reason. If we are sure that they will not accept our offering, that they will resolutely refuse our request, then will we ask? No! It is truth. Hence,
From the book Instructions for Immortals or what to do if you still die... author Sysoev DaniilThe afterlife, ordeals, examples of saints. The Guardian Angel, of course, meets a person after death. The Christian is greeted by two Angels: the Guardian Angel and the Guide Angel. They lead a person to the afterlife. He is also greeted by at least two evil spirits:
From the book Kingdom of the Dead [Rites and Cults of the Ancient Egyptians] author Budge Ernest Alfred Wallis From the book Ancient Scandinavians. Sons of the northern gods author Davidson Hilda Ellis From the book The Illusion of Immortality by Lamont Corliss From the book The Afterlife According to Old Russian Concepts by Sokolov From the book Afterlife author Osipov Alexey IlyichUnderstanding of death among ancient peoples So, what is death? All nations have thought about this. All religions talk about this. True, each in its own way. If we turn to pre-Christian history, we will see many different options for describing the afterlife. But you need to immediately
From the book Magic, Occultism, Christianity: from books, lectures and conversations author Men AlexanderFATE AND THE AFTERWORLD OF THE ANCIENT GREEKS From the book “Magism and Monotheism”<…>The greatest world-historical significance of the Zeus religion lay primarily in the proclamation of the primacy of Light, Reason and Harmony over Darkness, Irrationality and Chaos. In this regard
From the book Evidence of the Existence of Hell. Testimonies from survivors author Fomin Alexey V.The afterlife messenger In 1831, on February 28, Infantry General Stepan Stepanovich Apraksin died in Moscow. In his young years, he briefly met Prince Vasily Vladimirovich Dolgorukov. Both of them served in the same regiment: the first with the rank of colonel, the second - major.
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From the book Difficult Pages of the Bible. Old Testament author Galbiati EnricoThe afterlife in the ancient books of the Old Testament 86. Researchers of the history of religions know that all nations knew that the soul survives the body after its death. Naturally, everyone speculated about the state of souls in the afterlife and believed that the conditions of the afterlife
From the book The Explanatory Bible. Old Testament and New Testament author Lopukhin Alexander PavlovichVI Descendants of Noah. Genealogy of peoples. Pandemonium of Babylon and the scattering of nations. The beginning of idolatry After the flood, everyday life began again, with its usual worries and labors. Noah was an example of piety, hard work and other virtues for his children. But
From the book General History of the World's Religions author Karamazov Voldemar DanilovichThey say that the other world is nearby. How to find out about this?
The Lord is close to us. The shirt we wear on our bodies is further away than the other world and the Lord Himself.
Once I had to drive a Niva car from the village of Palekh to Puchezh. And it was winter, there were potholes on the road. Several people were traveling in the car, one mother (a dentist) began to talk about her trip to Palekh:
Father, when I was going to Palekh, our bus was like...
Before she had time to utter the word “skid,” our car was thrown to the side of the road and hit a tree. It's interesting that she started talking suddenly. Before this we were talking about something completely different.
One day I was talking with the parish priest. He said:
We had a priest in Zharki before me, and one woman came every evening and made scandals for him. When I replaced this priest, she stopped making trouble. I decided: “So it’s my father’s fault.” And just thinking about it, she came that day and threw such a scandal at me! And now he makes trouble every day! I should thank the Lord for protecting me, but I blamed another priest, but thought to myself that I was good.
And another person sitting next to us listened to us and said:
And it was interesting for me too. I was driving a car once and thought: “I’ve been driving for three years and the wheels have never failed or flattened.” I forgot that this was not my merit, but the Lord preserved. I thought so, drove a kilometer, and - time! - the tire went flat. Replaced it. I drove a little - the second tire went flat...
The eyes of the Lord look at us day and night and control all our thoughts, words, and deeds. And we must walk with God and try not to allow sinful habits, and if somewhere we do, repent and live properly, always remember that the invisible world is here with us.
How to explain to non-believers that life beyond the grave really exists?
We know that in the history of the Church there were many cases when the Lord showed miracles of returning from the afterlife. Everyone knows the resurrection of the gospel four-day Lazarus, and today, among our contemporaries, there are many such cases. Usually people who returned from the other world said that their soul continued to think, feel, and experience. They told how the soul entered into communication with angels or demons, saw the abodes of Heaven and Hell. The memory of what they saw did not disappear, and when the soul returned back to its body (apparently, the time for their final departure had not yet come), they testified to this.
Such “travels” to the afterlife are not in vain for the soul. They help many people reconsider their lives and improve. People are starting to think more about salvation, about their soul.
There are many such cases. But ordinary worldly people who live in the bustle, in the difficulties of our time, have little faith in such stories and say: “Well, we don’t know! Whether there is life or not in that world - who knows? No one has returned here yet. We, according to "At least we haven't met such people. We have no experience of spiritual communication with those who died and returned."
I remember such a case. One journalist and I were driving in a car and drove past a cemetery.
This is our future town. “We’ll all be here,” I said.
He smiled and replied:
If at least one person returned from the world you are talking about to the earthly one, then we could talk about it and believe in it. But no one has returned from the grave yet.
I told him:
You and I think like two twins who will soon emerge from their mother's womb. One says to the other: “Listen, dear brother. The deadlines are running out. Soon we will go out into the world where our parents live. It is so great!” And the second, an atheist, says: “You know, you’re saying some strange things. What kind of world could there be there? What kind of independent life? We are now completely dependent on our mother, we feed on oxygen from her. And if we leave, our connection with her will be severed.” and who knows what will happen to us. Maybe we will die? After all, no one has returned to the womb yet! "
This is what I told the journalist of little faith. When we lived without faith, were brought up in an atheistic spirit, this is how we reasoned. All the forces of the devil were aimed at atrophying the most important organ in man - faith. The man became empty. No misfortunes, troubles, like the Chernobyl accident, the Spitak earthquake, the Moscow hurricane, floods in Western Ukraine, terrorist attacks, are capable of awakening the people sleeping in an atheistic coffin. The Lord constantly makes it known that the end of everyone’s life is near, that we all walk and live only by His great mercy. He alone protects us and waits for us to improve.
How do non-believers feel? They usually say: “You can believe in what is, what you can touch, what you can see.” What kind of faith is this? This is knowledge, and even that is biased, inaccurate, and not comprehensive. This knowledge is materialistic. And only the Supreme Mind, which is the Creator Himself, can know everything about everything.
Non-believers say: “We humans are a product of matter. A man died, crumbled to dust in the grave, and there can be no more life.” But man is not made of flesh alone. Every person has an immortal soul. This is an exclusively spiritual substance. Many researchers tried to find it in the body, touch it, see it, measure it, but there could be no result, because they looked at the otherworldly spiritual world with our earthly, material eyes. As soon as the soul leaves the deceased body, it immediately has a vision of the other world. She sees both worlds together: the spiritual world permeates the material, earthly one. And the structure of the spiritual world is much more complex than the visible world.
Recently, one young woman called from Kyiv and said:
Father, pray for me: I will have an operation.
Three days later he reports that the operation went well. When she was placed on the operating table, she asked the surgeon:
Can you baptize yourself with your hand? He replied:
It's better to be baptized mentally. And he goes on to say:
When I mentally crossed myself, I felt that I had left my body. I see my body on the operating table. I felt so free, so easy and good that I even forgot about my body. And I saw a tunnel, and at the end of it there was a bright light. And from there I hear a voice: “Do you believe that the Lord will help you?” They asked me this three times, and I answered three times: “I believe! I believe, Lord!” I woke up - I was already lying in the ward. And I immediately appreciated earthly life. Everything seemed empty and vain to me. All this is nothing compared to the other world, the spiritual world. There is true life, there is true freedom.
Once the priest was talking in the maternity hospital with nurses and doctors. He told them about Dr. Moody, who described cases of clinical death in the book “Life after Death”. People came back to life and talked about what they saw while... dead. Everyone said as one: “Yes, we saw the tunnel, we saw the light at the end of it.”
Hearing this, one doctor said:
Father, how interesting! You know, when a child is in the womb, he also needs to go through a tunnel in order to emerge into our world, into the light. The sun shines here, everything lives here. Probably, in order for a person to go to the other world, he needs to go through a tunnel, and after the tunnel, there will be real life in that world.
What do those who have been to the next world say about hell? What is he like?
Television rarely shows anything soulful or edifying. But then somehow an interesting program was broadcast on the Moskovia channel. One woman, Valentina Romanova, told how she was in the afterlife. She was an unbeliever, was in a car accident, died and saw her soul separated from her body. In the program, she described in detail what happened to her after her death.
At first she did not realize that she had died. She saw everything, heard everything, understood everything and even wanted to tell the doctors that she was alive. She screamed: “I’m alive!” But no one heard her voice. She grabbed the doctors by the hands, but nothing worked for her. I saw a piece of paper and a pen on the table and decided to write a note, but I couldn’t pick up the pen.
And at that time she was pulled into a tunnel, a funnel. She came out of the tunnel and saw a dark man next to her. At first she was very glad that she was not alone, turned to him and said: “Man, tell me, where am I?”
He was tall and stood on her left side. When he turned, she looked into his eyes and realized that no good could be expected from this man. She was overcome with fear and ran. When she met a luminous young man who protected her from a terrible man, she calmed down.
And then the places that we call hellish were revealed to her. The cliff is a terrible height, very deep, and below there are many people - both men and women. They were of different nationalities, different skin colors. An unbearable stench emanated from this pit. And there was a voice to her that said that here were those who during their lifetime committed the terrible sins of Sodom, unnatural, prodigal.
Elsewhere she saw a lot of women and thought:
These are child killers, those who had abortions and did not repent.
Then Valentina realized that she would have to answer for what she had done in her life. Here she first heard the word "vices". I didn’t know what this word was before. Only gradually did I understand why hellish torment is terrible, what sin is, what vice is.
Then I saw a volcanic eruption. A huge fiery river flowed, and human heads floated in it. They plunged into the lava and then emerged. And the same voice explained that in this fiery lava there are the souls of psychics, those who practiced fortune telling, witchcraft, and love spells. Valentina got scared and thought: “What if they leave me here too?” She had no such sin, but she understood that she could have stayed in any of these places forever, since she was an unrepentant sinner.
And then I saw a staircase that led to heaven. A lot of people were climbing up these stairs. She also began to rise. A woman walked ahead of her. She was exhausted and began to feel exhausted. And Valentina realized that if she didn’t help her, she would fall down. Apparently, she is a merciful person and began to help this woman. So they found themselves in a bright space. She couldn't describe him. She spoke only about the amazing fragrance and joy. When Valentina experienced spiritual joy, she returned to her body. She found herself in a hospital bed, standing in front of her was the man who knocked her down. His last name is Ivanov. He told her:
Don't die anymore! I will compensate for all losses on your car (she was very worried because the car was broken), just don’t die!
She was in the other world for three and a half hours. Medicine calls this clinical death, but allows a person to be in this state for no more than six minutes. After this period, irreversible changes in the brain and tissues begin. And even if a person is later revived, he turns out to be mentally disabled. The Lord once again showed the miracle of resurrecting the dead. He brought a person back to life and gave him new knowledge about the spiritual world.
I also knew such a case - with Claudia Ustyuzhanina. This was in the sixties. When I was returning from the army, I stopped by Barnaul. One woman came up to me in the temple. She saw that I was praying and said:
There is a miracle in our city. The woman lay in the morgue for several days and came back to life. Would you like to see her?
And so I went. I saw a huge house, a high fence there. Everyone had such fences. The shutters in the house are closed. We knocked and a woman came out. They said we came from church, and she accepted. There was another boy at home, about six years old, Andrei, now he is a priest. I don't know if he remembers me, but I remember him well.
I spent the night with them. Claudia showed certificates of her death. She even showed the scars on her body. It is known that She had stage 4 cancer and died during surgery. She told a lot of interesting things.
And then I entered the seminary. I knew that Claudia was being persecuted; the newspapers would not leave her alone. Her house was constantly under control: nearby, two or three houses away, there was a two-story police building. I spoke with some fathers at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, and they called her. She sold her house in Barnaul and bought a house in Strunino. The son has grown up and now serves in the city of Alexandrov.
When I was in the Pochaev Lavra, I heard that she had passed into the other world.
Where is hell?
There are two opinions. Saints Basil the Great and Athanasius the Great imagine that hell is inside the earth, because in the Holy Scriptures the Lord, through the mouth of the prophet Ezekiel, says: “I will bring you down /.../ and place you in the depths of the earth” (Ezek. 26:20). The same opinion is confirmed by the canon of Matins on Great Saturday: “Thou hast descended into the lower earth,” “thou hast descended into the nether regions of the earth.”
But other teachers of the Church, for example, St. John Chrysostom, believe that hell is outside the world: “Just as royal dungeons and mines are far away, so Gehenna will be somewhere outside this universe. But why are you asking where and in what place it will be? she? What do you care about that? You need to know that she exists, and not where and in what place she is hiding." And our Christian task is to avoid hell: loving God and neighbors, humbling and repenting, and pass on to that world.
There are many mysterious things on earth. When Archdeacon Stephen was stoned, a temple was built for him in this place, at the gate to Jerusalem. In our time, archaeologists came there from Belarus and Ukraine, opened the entrance under the temple that leads under the city, brought in equipment and suddenly saw black birds in huge underground caves, with wingspans of more than two meters. The birds rushed at the archaeologists and drove them
such fear that they left the equipment, drove an excavator and blocked the entrance with stones and sand, refusing further research...
How many people go to the Kingdom of God, and how many go to hell?
One priest was asked this question. He smiled:
You know, dear! When I climb up to ring the bell tower before the Divine Liturgy, I see: people from nearby villages are walking along the paths to the church. A grandmother with a stick, a grandfather mincing with his granddaughter, young people walking... By the end of the service, the entire temple is filled. This is how people go to the abodes of Paradise - one at a time. And to hell... The service is over. I go back to the bell tower and see: people are all coming out of the church gates together. They can’t get through right away, but they’re still hurrying them from behind: “Why are you standing there! Get out quickly!”
The Holy Scripture says: “Enter at the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many go in through it” (Matthew 7:13). It is very difficult for a sinful person to renounce his vices and passions, but nothing unclean will enter the Kingdom of God. Only souls purified in repentance enter there.
The Lord gave all the days of our life to prepare for eternity - we will all have to go there someday. Those who have the opportunity should constantly go to church - both in the morning and in the evening. Death will come, and we will not be ashamed to appear before the inhabitants of heaven, before God. The good deeds of an Orthodox Christian will intercede for him.
Do you think that a saved person will be completely happy if he knows that his family and friends have gone to hell?
If a person enters the abodes of Paradise, then from the fullness of grace he forgets earthly suffering, he is not tormented by memories and thoughts of his lost neighbors. Each soul unites with God, and He fills it with great joy. A holy man who has found the bliss of Paradise prays for those who remain on earth, but he can no longer pray for those who have gone to hell. We, the living, need to pray for them. To save our family and friends through alms, prayers and good deeds. And we ourselves, while we still have the opportunity, try to live holy, not sin, not resist God, not blaspheme Him. After all, if we throw dirt into the sun, this dirt will fall on our bad head. But God cannot be mocked. We must humble ourselves before Him: “I am weak, I am weak, help me!” Let us ask Him, and He will give what we ask. For it is said in the Gospel: “Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you” (1 Cor. 11:9).
Is it possible to know his afterlife by the death of a person? After all, they say: “The death of sinners is cruel” (Ps.33). But Orthodox Christians also had many deaths that, by outward appearances, could not be called peaceful.
A peaceful Christian death is a state of soul when a person feels the presence of God, the protection of the Most Holy Theotokos and entrusts his soul to the Lord. This is a Christian death, even if outwardly it was martyrdom. “The death of sinners is cruel” not only because it is outwardly ungodly (let’s say someone was killed in a drunken fight), but also because it is sudden. A person does not have time to prepare, confess, cleanse himself, make peace with everyone, and most importantly, with the Lord.
How do monks die? Peacefully. In our monastery, one nun became seriously ill. Mother, who was caring for her, said: “Father, you are leaving, what if something happens?” - “Will wait.” I'm coming in a week. At 3 o'clock in the morning she received communion. I come in the morning and ask: “Will you go to the Kingdom of Heaven?” - She barely moves her lips. As the Monk Silouan taught: if the confessor says: “Go, child, to the Kingdom of Heaven and see the Lord,” knowing that the child lived with dignity, the Lord will accept him in the abode of Paradise.
I crossed her and said: “The Lord is waiting for you. Go to the Kingdom of Heaven.” And he went to confession. The mothers read the canon on the outcome of the soul, and after 30 minutes she went to the Lord.
A person is sick from birth with a serious hereditary illness. All his life he suffers and suffers. What awaits this sufferer in this world and in the next?
If he is sick from birth and does not complain, does not blame anyone for his illness, thanks God and humbles himself, then he is a sufferer, a martyr before God. If his life ends in suffering from illness, he will receive the crown of martyrdom in the Kingdom of God.
Many holy people asked that the Lord, even during this life, would give them suffering, illness for their sins, so that they could temporarily suffer, suffer, and the Lord would forgive them their sins for this suffering. And in that world there will be no more suffering.
To suffer physically is valuable for salvation. If we are sick, we must strengthen our spirit in this test.
I remember such a case. In the thirties of the last century, a rich landowner lived in Moscow. For fifty years he never slept lying down. Wherever I left home, I slept sitting down. And at home I slept in a chair. He didn't even have a bed. And then everything became clear, why he did this, why he took on such a “feat” upon himself. It turned out that some gypsy woman predicted that he would die lying in bed. Then, in order not to die, he decided never to go to bed again. I always just sat. And, of course, he died sitting in a chair.
This “feat” of his was based on superstition, pride and did not lead to salvation.
If we suffer for the sake of the Lord, for the sake of our neighbors, endure illness and do not complain, only then are martyrdom and patience credited to us as a feat; if we take upon ourselves “martyrdom”, indulging our passions, it will lead us to death.
If a person, according to worldly concepts, was quiet, peaceful, calm, did not get irritated, did not swear, and did not murmur even when sick, but at the same time was unchurched, did not repent and did not receive communion, what would be his fate in the next world?
It is said that a person's deeds go to the next world. The Apostle Paul writes: “He who does not believe has already been condemned, but he who believes will be judged.” There are people who would like to be in the Church, but they do not have such an opportunity. But if a person has a temple nearby, at his side, and he does not recognize the sacraments of the Church, then this will be especially blamed on him.
For seventy years, party agitators have been hammering into people's heads that faith is obscurantism, the dark, illiterate Middle Ages. And generations of people who grew up on this “truth” can be called lost to God. Their souls died before their bodies died. It’s rare that someone (only through the prayers of their neighbors) retains the spark of faith in Christ.
A person, even a quiet, peaceful one, without God does not have the fullness of spiritual development that he could have while living in God. A non-church person, even a quiet one, has an unrepentant soul, darkened by sins. The Russian people themselves have a saying about such “quiet ones”: “In still waters there are demons.” That is, a person is afraid to show people his insides and covers it with a beneficent appearance, but there are still passions inside. Without God and repentance you cannot free yourself from them. We know from the Holy Scriptures that “this same generation (that is, the demonic - A.A.) is driven out only by prayer and fasting” (Matthew 17:20). Therefore, we must live like a Christian, and not just be quiet.
A man did good deeds during his life and passed on to the next world. Will these good deeds be his salvation if they were done not for the sake of God, but for the sake of his neighbors, for the sake of his good name?
The Holy Scripture says that everything that is not done for the sake of Christ is sin.
There are people who still live like pagans and do good deeds not for the glory of the name of God. If they do good not for their own glory, but for the sake of their neighbor, over time these good deeds will lead them to God, because God is love, God is good.
I know one woman. She lives in Kineshma. Once she helped a church, and after that her dacha burned down. The woman is inexperienced in spiritual matters. Someone take it and tell her: “You see, you did a good deed, and now you are tempted, the dacha burned down.” This woman answers: “Well, that’s it! Now I won’t help anyone anymore, otherwise I’ll remain a beggar!”
That's how it happens. The man did good and did not understand why. The dacha burned down - no big deal. It is said: “If you lost wealth, you lost nothing; if you lost your health, you lost half of it; if you lost God, you lost everything.” The Lord will multiply many times what evil spirits took from you in retaliation for a good deed.
If a person did good deeds out of the kindness of his soul, then this is a direct path to God. And if he did it to glorify his name, then there is no benefit to him in this, he will not receive a reward in the next world. What is the reward for the communists? They destroyed churches, monasteries, and went against God. It seems that many countries were helped, but the goal was one - to establish their ideology in all countries. Countries passed to another government, their people hated the previous government for its godless propaganda, because it brought death to people. And now we are reaping the fruits of godlessness, and the fruits are bitter. Even nature cannot bear them: tornadoes, earthquakes, and disasters are becoming more frequent.
Our relatives have died, we pray for them, but it is not known where they ended up - in Heaven or in hell. If they ended up in hell, I want to know when they will get relief from our prayers: after the Last Judgment or before?
After the Last Judgment, everything will be finally determined by the Lord and prayers for the departed will not be needed. They need them now. After death, the soul that leaves the body appears before the Lord for a private trial to determine its fate. Through the prayers of the Church, relatives and neighbors left to live, it is possible to change this fate; the Lord sends His angels, and they either transfer the soul to places of lesser torment, or completely remove it from hell.
An angel of the Lord appeared to one man and asked:
Do you want to see the deeds of men?
Yes, I wish.
And the angel led him through underground passages. As they walk, they hear moans, screams, and screams around them. They are approaching a place where there are huge red-hot furnaces, and terrible screams are heard from there. Suddenly an angel rushed into one of the ovens and freed the man, who was engulfed in fire from head to toe. I touched his body, and all the fumes flew off this man. The angel dressed the liberated man in white robes, and his face shone with heavenly joy. Then the first man asked the angel:
What happened to this soul, why such a change?
The angel replied:
This man, when he lived on earth, went to church very rarely, he only lit candles. Occasionally, once or twice a year, he came to confession, he told about his sins, but not all of them, he hid some. He approached the Chalice and received communion in condemnation. He observed the fasts poorly, only the first and last weeks of Great Lent, on Wednesday and Friday, he would allow himself modest meals, saying: “Okay, the Lord is merciful, he will forgive!”
His soul suddenly separated from his body; no one foresaw his death. Relatives, knowing his negligence, knowing that instead of evening and morning prayers he often read the short rule of St. Seraphim of Sarov, began to pray intensely for him, donated to many monasteries, and donated to churches. Forty years passed, and through the prayers of the Church, the Lord freed this man.
Do you know why I showed you these places? Why did you tell about this person? I knew I had to free him, so I took you here. You, just like this man, are leading a careless, sinful life. If you don’t want to get here, you must correct yourself, be a real, living Christian.
The man came to his senses. He realized that the Lord had specifically revealed to him the secret of the other world. He radically corrected himself and repented of all his sins.
And all shameful sins are burned with shame. On the Day of the Last Judgment, demons will not be able to show the sins confessed by a person - they will be forgiven and erased from the demonic charters. And unrepentant sins will be declared before all people, before saints and angels. If we are afraid of our confessor during confession, then what awaits us at the Last Judgment, what a shame and disgrace! Remember: millions have passed before the confessor, all with the same sins. You will not surprise him with your sins, and he will not condemn you, but will help you repent.
What can you say about those who have already gone to that world? How can they influence those who remain on earth?
Certainly. The sins of parents weigh heavily on their children; the holy, God-fearing life of parents accustoms their children to the fear of God.
Many people know that all children are as pure as angels. For example, a girl is pure, kind, but suddenly, by God’s permission, an evil spirit enters her and sometimes beats her, torments her for twenty to thirty years. She is pure, she has few sins of her own and all are childish, but she can bear this punishment for the sins of her ancestors. It happens that her ancestors are in hell, and she has to suffer for her family in order to pray for their sinful souls.
Possessed people sooner or later come to church, to the priest. Often they are able to understand why this happened to them and are ready to bear their cross. These people, in whom the Lord allows the evil spirit to take possession, if they do not grumble about their lot in earthly life, after death they will be martyrs in the Kingdom of Heaven. And martyr's crowns are the most precious in the eyes of the Lord.
The sins of parents up to the third or fourth generation are reflected in the lives of their children. Let's not look far for an example. Those people who, after the revolution, destroyed churches, shot believers (and forty million Orthodox Christians were destroyed), many remained on earth without punishment, but in the future life they will give an answer for all their crimes and will receive eternal hellish torment. And retribution on earth will come through the lives of their children and grandchildren. If children also live without faith in God, their race will end. God will not let it continue.
Those people who live holy, pray, fulfill the holy commandments of the Lord, have joy in procreation. The Lord says to Abraham: “For your pious life, I will multiply your family like the sand of the sea.” And in such a godly manner, believing Christians will live and be saved. They will inherit the heavenly mansions.