What is Hell & what is Heaven

HELL & HEAVEN
The story of a priest wanting to know the difference between hell and heaven.

There was a priest in a famous church in a famous town where hundreds attended his sermons. He was considered the most learned of all the priests and thus the most revered.

The folk would approach him for finding a solution to any of their problems and he was always ready  lend his ear.

He gave sermons about good deeds and noble deeds which take people to heaven and ignoble deeds which would land one in the  hell.

Cutting the story short, the priest was the most learned and a wise man who knew everything about life, death, hell and heaven.

The years rolled by and the priest grew very old and it was time for him to go to the Gods abode.

The messengers of God came to take the priest's soul away to the God's abode and the priest in his normal nonchalant demeanor smiled at the messengers of God and said that he was ready to leave his earthly body and be accompanied by the messengers to be taken to the God's abode.

So the priest renounced  his earthly body and prepared himself to be taken away to the God's abode by the messenger's of God.

The priest had preached about hell and heaven all his life....  as it happens to some people who teach and advise about something, suddenly get doubts about the real meaning of what they were teaching and advising. This priest suddenly had this doubt about hell and heaven and  had an impulse to ask the messengers about 'hell' and ' heaven' and being a humble priest he told the messengers in his innocent words that, though he had  taught about hell and heaven all his life, he was a bit confused at that moment and asked whether the messengers would enlighten him about what really does hell and heaven mean and look like.

The messengers smiled and told the priest that, being a noble soul he would be taken to heaven directly where he could see for himself what heaven is all about, but told the priest that before he was taken to the heaven they may have to make a small deviation for the priest's sake to take a tour of the hell for the priest to know and understand what the  hell meant.

The messengers took him to gods abode, it was milky white everywhere and the priest saw a most beautiful mansion amongst the clouds, which had large doors made of gold and diamonds. The messengers took him near the door and asked the priest to enter the mansion... The priest gently protested and reminded the messengers that they would take him and show what 'hell' looked like before he was taken to the heaven. The messengers smiled and told the priest that they were indeed  taking him to the hell first. The priest was puzzled....a hell with golden doors studded with diamonds? Any when  they took him inside the hell, the priest's surprise doubled. He saw beautiful gardens as good as the garden of Eden, full of exotic flowers, chirping birds and the cool breeze that caressed him and the path laid with flower petals. The Priest felt totally confused but kept quite to avoid the messengers getting upset about any further questions he asked.

The messengers took a tour of the hell and it was an amazing sight of water falls, beautiful snow clad mountains with fairies dancing with melodious music and the most beatific scene he had ever seen in his life time.. He thought if all the best places in the world on the earth were put together in one place, it would not match the scene he saw.

Then the messengers took him to an architecturally designed  circular building and as  he walked near the place he smelled the smell of the most delicious stew. The priest was convinced that the messengers were fooling him. 'Hell' as he had taught was to be a place were people were tortured with all sorts cruel treatments.

He was taken inside the building and he saw a huge round table  with a huge bowl of stew in the middle of the it and the inmates were seated in the most decent attire. Since the table was huge and they could not reach the stew bowl, a long spoon was tied to their hands to reach the bowl.

He then saw the most ironic thing ever that could be imagined... The inmates could reach the bowl and could scoop the stew in the spoon but couldn't reach their mouth since the spoon was so long that  they could not reach their mouth..... they could reach the bowl but couldn't eat the stew. Thus the inmates though were hungry and desired intently to eat the stew, they could not, despite all their efforts. That created hunger pangs among the inmates and and each one of them was crying loudly trying to eat the stew and couldn't. The clamor in that hall was so much, coupled with  the helplessness of the inmates that the priest had tears in his eyes and begged the messengers to take him away from that place as he would not be able to stand there as a mute spectator with the agony of seeing the irony the inmates faced.

The messengers obliged and said to 'now we will take you heaven where you belong' and took him to another mansion floating in the milky white clouds. To the surprise of the priest, the mansion looked identical to that of the hell... diamond studded golden doors! As he walked in side,  the priest was utterly surprised to see an identical scene as he had seen in the hell - the mountains, the cool breeze,the fairies, the music ... Every little thing matched with that of the hell.... The priest felt skeptical about the similarities and as he approached the dining hall, the smell of the same stew hit his nostrils and he saw the same huge bowl in the middle of the table with the inmates seated and tied with a spoon exactly the way it was in the hell.. The priest almost fainted in shock! But when he heard the inmates in heaven chatting with each other and laughing and enjoying .... He recovered a bit and rubbed his eyes and what he saw a simple thing happening around the round table. One inmate would scoop the stew with his spoon and feed it to another to whom he could reach the spoon and similarly every one did the same thing and they were enjoying their meal and chatting and laughing.

The messengers announced to the priest that he had arrived in the heaven and told the priest that they had fulfilled their promise  of showing hell and heaven to the priest and said.. ' sir you have seen for yourself  the difference between heaven and hell' and disappeared.....the priest walked slowly to join the others in the heaven.

Then it dawned on the priest that it is a simple difference between trying to grab for oneself the best in this world without being able to utilize it and be able achieve the best and share it with one another that makes the difference between the hell and heaven.

Hell and heaven have the same ingredients... The selfishness to grab for oneself the best without concerned about others and not being able utilize it and suffering in agony alone, creates the hell for oneself ....... And achieving and sharing the very same things with one another and enjoying the company and the happiness of others while gaining similar experience for oneself creates the heaven for us.

By Sharing ones wealth and time with others.. you create heaven - and merely amassing wealth and leaving no time for oneself to enjoy it in the company of others .. you crete hell for yourself..............Just contemplate!
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Note:Thanks for reading this story.
It will immensely help me in improving my writing, if you share your ideas and thoughts  and suggestions about the story and my writing. You may also suggest topics  for my writing. Please feel free to contact me on my email  for all your comments and suggestions:

vdharmraj@ramaavenkatesh.com.
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