Heaven and hell

An old brahmin priest spoke with his Lord Siva about heaven and hell (which is called Narakaloka in Sanskrit and differs from other hells in not being eternal, but a temporary state of souls between births). The Lord said to the aging pandit, “Come, I will show you hell.” They entered a room where a group of people sat around a huge pot of wonderful smelling vegetable curry. Everyone was famished, desperate and starving. Each held a spoon that reached the pot, but each spoon had a handle so much longer than their arm that it could not be used to get the stew into their own mouths. The suffering was terrible. “Come, now I will show you heaven,” Siva said after a while. They entered another room, identical to the first the pot of luscious curry, the group of people, the same long-handled spoons. But everyone was happy and well-nourished. “I don’t understand,” said the Brahmin. “Why are they happy here when they were miserable in the other room where everything was exactly the same?” Lord Siva smiled, “Ah, it is simple,” He said. “Here they have learned to feed each other.” from Hindu Press International