When one studies the various scriptures of mankind, scattered descriptions about the truths of regions of life after death will be found.
Each individual life force creates for itself and holds to the particular form of religious faith. This happens to be best suited for its requirements at that particular period of its evolution.
When one is ready for a higher conception, one discards the old belief and eagerly embraces the new one. The world has witnessed many instances of this evolutionary religious thought.
The path of the race is strewn with broken and discarded idols, material and mental, which were once precious to millions of worshippers. As the race advances, many more idols will be overthrown and left crumbling on the paths of time. Each idol had its own appropriate place in the general history of the evolution of the religious thought of the race. Each served its purpose, and its ideals served to aid man in his perpetual and eternal journey towards the absolute truth.
There is a naive belief among many persons which would imply that the disembodied individual life-force is magically and instantaneously transformed from ignorance into absolute knowledge upon passing over to the other side.
This is a naive belief and has no true basis. There is very little difference in the general intelligence or spiritual attainment of the individual life force, before or after death. Soul progress is gradual whether in or out of the body.
In and out of the body are but successive phases of its continuous life, succeeding each other like day and night. Therefore what is true of a particular soul’s feelings and emotions during earth-life will hold good in its life on the astral plane. It will not only find the particular heavens or hells which it expected to find, but it will also find itself in contact with other souls of a similar belief.
Each individual life force is its own absolute law giver; deciding its reward and its punishment. The judge who sentences the individual life force to reward or punishment is not a power outside of itself, but its own conscience. On the astral plane the conscience of the soul asserts itself very forcibly, and the quiet voice, that was perhaps smothered during earth-life, now speaks with authority and the soul hears and obeys.
A man’s own conscience when allowed to speak clearly and forcibly, is the most severe judge that exists.
The article is taken from the book, ‘Life Beyond Death’ by Anil Sharma