section_path: Indian religions/Hinduism
section_name: Hinduism
paragraph_text: Hinduism
  
  There are two major views of an afterlife in Hinduism: mythical and philosophical. The philosophies of Hinduism consider each individual consists of three bodies: physical body compose of water and bio-matter (sthūla śarīra), an energetic/psychic/mental/subtle body (sūkṣma-śarīra) and a causal body (kāraṇa śarīra) comprising subliminal stuff i.e. mental impressions etc.
  
  The individual is a stream of consciousness (Ātman), which flows through all the physical changes of the body and at the death of the physical body, flows on into another physical body. The two components that transmigrate are the subtle body and the causal body.
  
  The thought that occupies the mind at the time of death determines the quality of our rebirth (antim smaraṇa), hence Hinduism advises to be mindful of one's thoughts and cultivate positive wholesome thoughts – mantra chanting (japa) is commonly practiced for this.
  
  The mythical includes the philosophical but adds heaven and hell myths.
  
  When one leaves the physical body at death he appears in the court of Yama, the God of Death, for an exit interview. The panel consists of Yama and Chitragupta – the cosmic accountant, he has a book which consists the history of the dead persons according to his/her mistakes the Yama decides the punishment is and Varuna, the cosmic intelligence officer. He is counseled about his life, achievements and failures and is shown a mirror in which his entire life is reflected. Philosophically, these three men are projections of one's mind. Yama sends him to a heavenly realm (Svarga) if he has been exceptionally benevolent and beneficent for a period of rest and recreation. His period is limited in time by the weight of his good deeds. If he has been exceptionally malevolent and caused immense suffering to other beings, then he is sent to a hell realm (Naraka) for his sins. After one has exhausted his karma, he takes birth again to continue his spiritual evolution. However, the belief in rebirth was not a part of early Vedic religions and texts. It was later developed by rishi s (sages) who challenged the idea of one's life as being simplistic.
  
  Rebirth can take place as a god (deva), a human (manuṣya) an animal (tiryak)—but it is generally taught that the spiritual evolution takes place from lower to higher species. In certain cases of traumatic death a person can take the form of a preta or hungry ghost – and remains in an earth-bound state interminably – until certain ceremonies are done to liberate them. This mythological part is extensively elaborated in the Puranas, especially in the Garuda Purana.
  
  The Upanishads are the first scriptures in Hinduism which explicitly mention the afterlife. The Bhagavad Gita, a famous Hindu scripture, says that just as a man discards his old clothes and wears new ones; similarly the Atman discards the old body and takes on a new one. In Hinduism, the belief is that the body is nothing but a shell, the consciousness inside is immutable and indestructible and takes on different lives in a cycle of birth and death. The end of this cycle is called mukti (Sanskrit: मुक्ति) and staying finally with the ultimate reality forever is moksha (Sanskrit: मोक्ष) or liberation.
  
  The (diverse) views of modern Hinduism in part differ significantly from the Historical Vedic religion.