Hereafter

The Blessed Lord said: O Partha, neither here nor in the hereafter is there ruin for such a one. For truly, dear friend, no one who performs good deeds ever comes to a miserable end.

The utterly deluded, believing ritual sacrifice and pious works to be supreme, know nothing higher. After enjoying the reward at the summit of heaven, they fall back to this world—or to one even lower.

Then Saibya Satyakama asked: Revered one, if a person meditates on the syllable Om until the end of life, which world does he win by it? He answered him.

When the embodied one meets death while sattva prevails, it reaches the pure realms of those who know the highest.

Those who partake of the nectar that remains after sacrifice attain the eternal Brahman. O best of the Kurus, this world is not for one who performs no sacrifice — let alone the other world.

If one meditates with two syllable-measures and becomes absorbed in the mind, the Yajur formulas raise him to the mid-region, to the lunar world. Having experienced greatness in the lunar world, he returns.

Those who know the three Vedas, who drink the soma and are cleansed of sin, worship Me with sacrifice and pray for passage to heaven; reaching the pure realm of Indra's lord, they enjoy in the sky the divine pleasures of the gods.

By giving away land, a person acquires a land that yields nectar in their next life.

The year itself is Prajapati, with its two paths: the southern and the northern. Those who worship through ritual action and charity win only the lunar world and return again. Therefore sages who desire offspring take the southern path — that is Rayi, the path of the ancestors.

Through one of these channels — upward — Udana leads: by merit to meritorious worlds, by demerit to lower worlds, and by a combination of both back to the human world.

These cows — their water drunk, their grass eaten, their milk exhausted, their senses spent — lead only to joyless worlds. To those worlds goes the giver of such gifts.

Saying 'Come, come!' the radiant oblations carry the worshipper on the rays of the sun, greeting and honouring him with sweet words: 'This is your holy, well-won world of Brahma!'

Greed is their covering and their bedding. They are addicted to greed, always indulging in sensual pleasures and gluttony, with no fear of punishment in the afterlife.

In the Kali age, the Name of Rama is the granter of one's desires; it is benevolent in the afterlife and like a father and mother in this world.

The one who is blind in this life will be blind in the next life and stray from the path.

One should praise the deities, the celestial sages, and the royal sages, saying, 'May these lords of creation grant me growth, long life, and fame! May I be free from calamity, sin, and enemies. May I always be victorious and have a blessed afterlife!'

Just like seeds need to be sown to reap a harvest, giving to those in need can bring many benefits in the next life, and respecting the wise can bring intelligence and wisdom.

The ruler who rules and protects his subjects righteously acquires many regions of felicity in the world to come, by virtue of the protection he offers to others.

The ungrateful person, after suffering terribly in the afterlife, will be reborn in this world as a lowly vermin.

Atri picked up some of the figs and found them heavy, so he refused to take them. He said, 'We are not without knowledge, we are not fools. We know there is gold inside these figs. We are aware and awake, not asleep. If we accept these in this world, they will have bitter consequences in the afterlife. One who seeks happiness in both this world and the next should never accept such gifts.'