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Law of Karma
Schopenhauer, in his book, Die Welt als Wille Und Palingenesis', says, "What sleep is for individual, death is for the Will'. It would not endure to continue the same actions and sufferings throughout an eternity without true gain, if menory and individuality remained to it. It flings them ofr, and this is Lethe, and through this sleep of death it reappears filled out with another intellect as a new being ; a new day tempts to new shores."
Now, coming to our main issue, Vivekananda, in his Complete Works, Vol. JI, explains that the spiritual men, when they die, follow the solar rays and reach wbat is called the lunar sphere, and through that they reach what is called the sphere of lightning. There they meet with another soul who is already blessed. This soul guides the new comer forward to the sphere of Brahmā. Good men with selfish motives are carried by the results of their good actions, when they die. They are guided by the lunar sphere where they get heavenly pleasure for a long period. After that period is finished, the old Karma is again upon them, and so they again fall back to the earth. Lastly, the wicked men, when they die, become ghosts or demons and live somewhere midway between the lunar sphere and the earth. Some are friendly to mankind. After living there for for some time, they also fall back to the earth and become animals. After living sometimes in animal body, they get released and become men again. And thus they get one more chance for their salvation.
This earth is called Karma-Bhūmi, the sphere of Karma, Here alone, man makes his own future by performing good or bad actions. Even the man who does good karmas, also has to exhaust evil karmas of his past lives. In the same way, those who become ghosts remain in that state, though not giving rise to fresh karmas, but suffer the evil results of their past misdeeds.
When that state is over, the states of reward and punishment of good and bad karmas come which are devoid of the force generating fresh karmas, They have only to be enjoyed or suffered. If there is an extraordinary evil karma, it bears fruits very quickly. For example, if a man has done many evil deeds, but has done one good act, the result of that one good
