Death

After having read some of the readings listed in our text book associated with “death and the underworld,” I have found an idea that interests me.  It appears that as the texts deal with death and the underworld, a common idea has emerged.  The idea or concept that I have found that is similar to almost all, if not all the texts, is the idea that how we live our life in this life affects our life to come.

The first text that really brought out this idea for me is the “Upanishads” from India.  In the book it talks about Hinduism, and their belief in Karma, and how your actions in this life echoes in the life to come. Karma, as the book points out “means that good thoughts or acts are rewarded with good consequences, bad results in bad.”  It seems that if you are bad in this life, Karma dictates, bad things to come to you, and vice a versa for good actions.

Another text that talks about the actions in this life affecting our lives in the next is “The Republic” by Plato.  In the account Ardiaeus the Great is brought up, who had apparently killed his father and brother, and was an overall bad person. Ardiaeus the Great is then described by Plato to have been in a sort of hell, being “bound hand and foot and neck” and being flayed. Ardiaeus had lived a bad life, so in the next life, it was a kind of hell for him.

I find it interesting that this concept of being punished for wrong doing, and being rewarded for righteous doings, is so prevalent.  As in the book it says “the reward for a life of justice comes in the afterlife.”  The questions that now rise in my mind and I now offer them in a blog is: Is the afterlife true? Will we be rewarded for good deeds, and punished for evil ones? Or is this concept of being punished or rewarded, which is so prevalent in almost every culture, just inspired by men trying to have others live a good lives, instilling in them fear of being punished? I guess the only way to know is wait our turn and experience it.