This idea is exceptionally deep. But this is what my mind is busy with – deep ideas. Prepare to be unsettled. This time it is definitely TOO MUCH.
I am taking the risk though.
Somehow one of my conversations turned to hell. The Western world sees hell as a place of eternal suffering and as the worst thing that can happen. Let me disappoint you. I could think of two places that are worse.
If you consider a soul as a form of life that goes beyond lifetimes, incarnating again and again, you may think of it as having a trajectory. Simply put, a trajectory can be forward, stalled, or backwards.
Let me shock you a little: going to hell is still moving FORWARDS. Just through hell. A soul can accumulate so much karma (weight of its actions) that it can hinder further progression. A soul gets sent to hell, karmic weight burns through suffering, and the soul can continue its journey forward. This forge is only a stage in spiritual evolution, and not the final destination. Hell tests resilience but doesn't cancel the journey. It's survivable. And I am sure we all have visited it at some point.
Yet, there are worse places.
Two worse places are:
1. Cosmic Stalling
It is like a circling in one place with no ultimate direction, getting disconnected from the divine source. A soul gets trapped in a cosmic limbo where it can still live through lives, but neither progresses nor regresses.
A state where the soul exists in stagnation, stripped of purpose, unable to create, connect, or evolve. It is a consciousness that has gone adrift, likely replaying all the traumas it accumulated with no resolution. The path to spiritual growth or divine reunion is lost. That soul has lost the point of its own existence or any sense of its own potential. When the soul becomes irrelevant to itself, it has lost its own spark. Eternally.
This trajectory has no direction, no evolution, just endless recirculation of the same unresolved patterns.
Does this sound worse than hell?
Hell at least offers the dignity of struggle, accelerated spiritual purification, and eventual return to the evolutionary process. This stagnation is worse; it is spiritual apathy.
2. Cosmic Regression
This option in a soul’s trajectory is actually what is described in scriptures as the Ultimate Divine Judgement.
It is when a soul gets stripped of all the evolution it acquired through millennia of lifetimes and it has to start again (through all forms of life - minerals, plants, animals, humans, until it can get anywhere close to achieving spiritual enlightenment).
This trajectory is the soul’s full devolution. What can lead there? I am not sure, possibly a profound misuse of free will on a massive scale. Severe negative actions can retrogress the soul, forcing a full recalibration.
The soul experiences erasure and degradation back to the ‘manufacturer’s settings’, back to the cosmic purity, and it has to start again all over, fresh. It could possibly be seen as not a punishment, but as an ultimate cosmic mercy. Yet, it is hard for my mind to shift to the ‘mercy’ perspective, as a soul undergoes active degradation.
Is this worse than stagnation? I am not sure. It is undeniably worse than hell.
With this soul trajectory framework, suffering is no longer just a pain; it is a FAILURE OF DIRECTION. Suffering becomes a SIGNAL. It is a signal to work more on yourself, invest more in your healing, big and small.
You become the BOSS of your evolution. Your steering wheel is the ultimate trajectory – only forward, and away from inertia or reversal.
Yes, there are places worse than hell. They are the derailments of the cosmic trajectory of the soul. And I am holding on to my ‘cosmic steering wheel’ with both hands.
I am taking the risk though.
Somehow one of my conversations turned to hell. The Western world sees hell as a place of eternal suffering and as the worst thing that can happen. Let me disappoint you. I could think of two places that are worse.
If you consider a soul as a form of life that goes beyond lifetimes, incarnating again and again, you may think of it as having a trajectory. Simply put, a trajectory can be forward, stalled, or backwards.
Let me shock you a little: going to hell is still moving FORWARDS. Just through hell. A soul can accumulate so much karma (weight of its actions) that it can hinder further progression. A soul gets sent to hell, karmic weight burns through suffering, and the soul can continue its journey forward. This forge is only a stage in spiritual evolution, and not the final destination. Hell tests resilience but doesn't cancel the journey. It's survivable. And I am sure we all have visited it at some point.
Yet, there are worse places.
Two worse places are:
1. Cosmic Stalling
It is like a circling in one place with no ultimate direction, getting disconnected from the divine source. A soul gets trapped in a cosmic limbo where it can still live through lives, but neither progresses nor regresses.
A state where the soul exists in stagnation, stripped of purpose, unable to create, connect, or evolve. It is a consciousness that has gone adrift, likely replaying all the traumas it accumulated with no resolution. The path to spiritual growth or divine reunion is lost. That soul has lost the point of its own existence or any sense of its own potential. When the soul becomes irrelevant to itself, it has lost its own spark. Eternally.
This trajectory has no direction, no evolution, just endless recirculation of the same unresolved patterns.
Does this sound worse than hell?
Hell at least offers the dignity of struggle, accelerated spiritual purification, and eventual return to the evolutionary process. This stagnation is worse; it is spiritual apathy.
2. Cosmic Regression
This option in a soul’s trajectory is actually what is described in scriptures as the Ultimate Divine Judgement.
It is when a soul gets stripped of all the evolution it acquired through millennia of lifetimes and it has to start again (through all forms of life - minerals, plants, animals, humans, until it can get anywhere close to achieving spiritual enlightenment).
This trajectory is the soul’s full devolution. What can lead there? I am not sure, possibly a profound misuse of free will on a massive scale. Severe negative actions can retrogress the soul, forcing a full recalibration.
The soul experiences erasure and degradation back to the ‘manufacturer’s settings’, back to the cosmic purity, and it has to start again all over, fresh. It could possibly be seen as not a punishment, but as an ultimate cosmic mercy. Yet, it is hard for my mind to shift to the ‘mercy’ perspective, as a soul undergoes active degradation.
Is this worse than stagnation? I am not sure. It is undeniably worse than hell.
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After hitting my readers with that ‘cosmic shock’,
let me offer a flip:
the light at the end of the ‘cosmic tunnel’.
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MAYBE YOU CAN LOOK AT SUFFERING DIFFERENTLY. It is now a COMPASS.
With this soul trajectory framework, suffering is no longer just a pain; it is a FAILURE OF DIRECTION. Suffering becomes a SIGNAL. It is a signal to work more on yourself, invest more in your healing, big and small.
You become the BOSS of your evolution. Your steering wheel is the ultimate trajectory – only forward, and away from inertia or reversal.
Yes, there are places worse than hell. They are the derailments of the cosmic trajectory of the soul. And I am holding on to my ‘cosmic steering wheel’ with both hands.