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Conception of Hell among Hindus and Christians

By thescian on June 4, 2007.

There was a long discussion about religion and god at home yesterday night. I ought to write it for public consumption some time. For now, I'll just post some thoughts about Hell and Hinduism. For those bought up by religious christian parents, the conception hell is probably as intimate and as vivid as their poop. This is in no small measure due to the emphasis of Christian faith on sin and confessions.

Just like christian religion, hindu religion has also exploited the notion of hell to scare the shit out of its masses but unlike christian religion it has not taken hell to its logical conclusion. Hinduism has a place like the christian Hell called Naraka; but Naraka, unfortunately, does not have eternal damnation. Even when too much of bad karma sends someone (not necessarily humans) to Naraka, a believer of hindu faith would not lose hope completely since - the hindu faithful believe - eventually reprieve arrives.

This discussion came up because my sister and brother-in-law were unable to grasp why Hell figures so prominently in Christian faith. I suggested that to hindus Christian hell would seem somewhat quaint because eternal damnation is an alien notion in hindu faith.

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By Matt Platte (not verified) on 04 Jun 2007 #permalink

Interestingly, the Christian invention most like Naraka isn't Hell; it's Purgatory. You go there for being bad, the badder you are the longer you stay, and it's not a nice experience. But no matter how bad you are, you're guaranteed to get out eventually; if Purgatory is where you ended up, you know you avoided Hell. Which is why, in the second book of Dante's Divine Comedy, everybody is so happy to be suffering in Purgatory, unlike the damned souls we saw in Hell in the first book.

I think Christianity had to invent Purgatory after it invented Hell, because when someone does something you've told them they'll go to the eternal, infinite, and inescapable torment of Hell for, what do you threaten them with after that? That they'll go to Hell more?

Purgatory isn't a Christian invention. First, most protestants usually to buy into a purgatory.

Second, the concept of purgatory comes from Judaism -- which doesn't have an eternal hell.

From JewFaq

Only the very righteous go directly to Gan Eden. The average person descends to a place of punishment and/or purification, generally referred to as Gehinnom (guh-hee-NOHM) (in Yiddish, Gehenna), but sometimes as She'ol or by other names. According to one mystical view, every sin we commit creates an angel of destruction (a demon), and after we die we are punished by the very demons that we created. Some views see Gehinnom as one of severe punishment, a bit like the Christian Hell of fire and brimstone. Other sources merely see it as a time when we can see the actions of our lives objectively, see the harm that we have done and the opportunities we missed, and experience remorse for our actions. The period of time in Gehinnom does not exceed 12 months, and then ascends to take his place on Olam Ha-Ba.

Only the utterly wicked do not ascend at the end of this period; their souls are punished for the entire 12 months. Sources differ on what happens at the end of those 12 months: some say that the wicked soul is utterly destroyed and ceases to exist while others say that the soul continues to exist in a state of consciousness of remorse.

This 12-month limit is repeated in many places in the Talmud, and it is connected to the mourning cycles and the recitation of Kaddish. See Life, Death and Mourning.