"A good and pure spirit, they are confident, will not let his soul
revisit the earth, if this soul is equally pure. He is glad to
die and unite himself to Brahma, to live an eternal life in Svarga
(heaven) and enjoy the society of the beautiful Gandharvas or
singing angels. He is glad to slumber whole eternities, listening
to their songs, whilst his soul is purified by a new incarnation
in a body, which is more perfect than the one the soul abandoned
previously."
The Hindus believe that the spirit or Atma, a particle of the
GREAT ALL, which is Parabrahm, cannot be punished for sins in
which it never participated. It is Manas, the animal intelligence,
and the animal soul or Jiva, both half material illusions, that
sin and suffer and transmigrate from one body into the other till
they purify themselves. The spirit merely overshadows their earthly
transmigrations. When the Ego has reached the final state of purity,
it will be one with the Atma, and gradually will merge and disappear
in Parabrahm.
But this is not what awaits the wicked souls. The soul that does
not succeed in getting rid of earthly cares and desires before
the death of the body is weighed down by its sins, and, instead
of reincarnating in some new form, according to the laws of
metempsychosis, it will remain bodiless, doomed to wander on earth.
It will become a bhuta, and by its own sufferings will cause
unutterable sufferings to its kinsmen.
