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It is believed by some people that neither heaven nor hell represents a particular locality but is the name of a particular state of mind. This belief is based on a truth but in common people there is almost universally a misconception between knowledge and an object of knowlege. We have heard of realism and idealism in every system of philosophy. In reality however, both, realism and idealism represent a certain state of consciousness and both are equally true. The description of heavens, hells etc. is found in every religious scripture. Nobody can say that it is unfounded but the thing is that the human outlook being progressive, there is inevitable difference between an outlook in the earlier stage of the evolution and the later stage when evolution has been to some extent completed. Realism is true so far as it goes a .d similarly idealism is also true as far as it goes. The real truth however lies beyond both and a direct intuition of this truth accounts for the realistic as well as idealistic view of things. We have to go beyond the so called realism of common sense and the idealism of the abstract philosopher. We shall then find the real foundations of truth. T'hat heaven and hell are mere ideas experienced through our consciousness, is true. It is consciousness itself which takes upon itself different shades and colours and views itself as a reality outside our mental consciousness. When the spiritual principle in man is in a particular state of evolution, it feels that there is a world outside our consciousness which is its positive background. This attitude is perfectly true and cannot be ignored but at the same time it is also true that it is consciousness itself which under certain conditions appears on this and that. There is no objective justification for this consciousness. It must be admitted that on a higher platform when the mind is introverted, the entire world which appears to the outsider as an extramental reality reveals itself to the Yogin as nothing but consciousness itself. Its existence is not objective in the ordinary sense of the world but merely subjective as being within the consciousness of the person experiencing it. There is an entire world but it is
