What Does Heaven Look Like?
Heaven is a place where gods, angels, souls, and saints are said to reside. According to some religious beliefs, celestial beings live in heaven because of the virtue of their existence, as is facilitated by God. On the contrary, Earthly creatures ascend to heaven after death or, in some cases, enter heaven alive. The act of entering heaven alive is associated with achieving enlightenment in one’s life.
Heaven is usually narrated as the idea of a paradise. Some believe that there may be a Heaven on Earth in the future. All religions believe the way to heaven can be full of dangers and trials like bridges that narrow to an edge and rivers crammed with waters of death. In the Abrahamic faiths of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, it is believed that heaven is where an individual is sent as a reward for all the good deeds they did in their life.
In every religion, whether Abrahamic or Indian, the placement of heaven, earth, and hell is the same. Moreover, the basis on which a human is allocated to be sent to these realms is also similar.
Earth is the realm of mortal people, whose existence is reasoned to serve the gods by supplying them with sacred quarters, food, and tribute; it is also populated with the devil’s aids, who play a role in magic. After death, people descend to the underworld, a dreary place with no return. Only a few remarkable mortals with good deeds are approved to enter heaven.
Good relations with heaven had been considered crucial for the peaceful and prosperous dwelling of humankind.
Rabbinical Judaism
The Jewish concept of afterlife and heaven is rarely discussed and is known to be associated with the ‘world-to-come.’ Jewish writings refer to heaven as a new world that serves as the abode to mankind after their resurrection from death. Originally, the concepts of resurrection and death are discussed separately. However, they are perceived the same in the Rabbinical school of thought. It is because it is linked to another teaching propagated by the religion.
The teaching refers to all mortals being either rewarded or punished based on their actions post-resurrection in the ‘world-to-come.’ Moreover, in Rabbinical Judaism, the world is perceived as the lobby which ultimately delivers humans to the banquet of the world-to-come where G
Christianity
Christianity harbors an excessive conviction that the new heavens and new earth were prophesied through the being of Isaiah and their learnings. They believed that history could quickly locate its consummation in a world where the countries could be judged, the elect redeemed, and Israel restored. Traditional Christian theology says that those who die in a kingdom of grace are admitted to the bliss of heaven, in which they end up like God, witness the Almighty face to face, and notice all things through God’s power.
Islam
Islam has frequently visited the idea of heaven with an understanding of it as a sign of God’s jurisdiction, justice, and mercy. According to the holy Islamic texts, God finished his creation by forming the sky into seven firmaments, decorating the lower firmament with lighting fixtures, and assigning everything with accurate measurements.
The seven heavens and the earth symbolize God’s reward. It also denotes that with their majestic layout, these heavens prove that God indeed has the strength to elevate the dead and evaluate their deeds on judgment day. According to Muslim philosophers and mystics, being in God’s presence is the chief pride of paradise. According to them, a person’s degree of blessedness can be judged based on how close one is to God.
Buddhism
There are multiple heavens in Buddhism, all of which are parts of the notion of “Samsara” (falsehood). According to Buddhist texts, those who practice good karma are more likely to visit paradise. However, their stay in heaven is not permanent. They will eventually apply their good karma to be reborn in another realm, as man, animal, or other creatures. Considering that the sky is temporary and part of the samsara, Buddhist ideologies focus mainly on escaping the cycle of rebirths and attaining enlightenment or “nirvana.” Nirvana is not heaven itself but a way of achieving the state that is heaven.
Hinduism
Heaven cannot be perfect and is just another name for happy everyday life. According to Hindu cosmology, besides the earthly plane, there are other planes of existence: “Swarga Loka” refers to the paradise where good souls reside. This place is a heavenly utopia of happiness where most Hindu Gods or “Devatas” (Deva) except the king of -Devas, Indra, reside. Other such planes are “Mahar Loka,” “Jana Loka,” “Tapa Loka,” and “Satya Loka.” Since the heavenly abode is bound by the cycle of birth and death, any place in heaven or hell is connected to the idea of an individual’s karma.
Other cultures
In Chinese civilizations, the “way of heaven” is a perennial idea that appears in a spectrum of conventions. According to Jainism, heaven is a level of karmic merit. According to Sikh belief, heaven and hell are not the places where the soul goes after death; they are part of a mortal’s surroundings. Other than this, some cultures, such as the native American cultures, are oriented toward the totality of earth, sky, and the four directions rather than towards heaven.
Belief in heaven persists instead of all the criticism that surrounds it. According to critics, the concept is an irrational, desire-pleasing imagination, a symptom of isolation, and an evasion of guilt. In each ancient tradition, the depiction of heaven offers a revealing index of what a society regards as the best truth in a specific context. Heaven, often known as the heavens, is a popular theological cosmology or transcendent supernatural realm where gods, angels , souls, saints, or cherished ancestors are supposed to originate, be enthroned, or live. Heavenly creatures may descend to Earth or incarnate, according to certain faiths, while terrestrial beings can ascend to Heaven in the afterlife or, in rare occasions, enter Heaven alive. In contrast to hell or the Underworld or the “low places,” heaven is frequently described as a “highest place,” the holiest place, a Paradise, universally or conditionally accessible by earthly beings according to various standards of divinity, goodness, piety, faith, or other virtues or right beliefs, or simply divine will. Some people think that in a future world, there will be a paradise on Earth. Another idea is that the heavens, the earthly globe, and the underworld are all connected by an axis mundi, or world tree. Heaven is known in Indian faiths as Svarga loka, and the soul is liable to reincarnation in many living forms based on its karma. After a soul attains Moksha or Nirvana, the cycle may be interrupted. The otherworld is any location where people, spirits, or deities reside outside of the corporeal world (Heaven, Hell, or somewhere else).