The Gita according to Gandhi 26

The Gita according to Gandhi -Mahadev Desai

B. THE GITA VIEW 3. KARMA AND REBIRTH The reference, the ancient commentators say, is to the highest type of creation the deities, the middle type man, and the lowest type animals, worms, plants. The Gita does mention 'heaven' about half a dozen times (II. 2; II. 32; II. 37; II. 43; IX. 20; IX. 21) and 'hell' four times (I. 42; I. 44; XVI. 16; XVI. 21); but it is difficult to say whether the author meant by the terms unearthly perpetual abodes of happiness and misery, as the popular judicial notion of the karma theory would have it. The Mahabharata, of which Gita is but a part, thus defines svarga and naraka (heaven and hell): "Heaven, they say, is light and hell is darkness." (Shantiparva). The Tattvakaumudi (9th century A.D.) quotes a definition of svarga (heaven) which has no reference to a perpetual abode, but which means 'unalloyed happiness'. Hell would thus mean 'unalloyed misery'. Dr Radhakrishnan quotes a verse from the Vishnu Parana (belonging to the same or perhaps an earlier date) which would mean by 'heaven' pleasant mental state and by 'hell' the reverse, and identifies one with virtue and the other with vice.