An Indian Folklore
There was a man. He died.
He went to God of Death, who asked, “Do you want to experience heaven or hell first?”
He began to think [muttering], “Should I say heaven?” He thought and he thought about it.
Then he said [loudly], “I want to experience heaven first.”
He went to heaven, and on the way he saw hell. There was terrible filth there and a lot of noise. And in heaven everything was peaceful.
He was told, “You have just a little bit of heaven allotted to you.”
He said, “Fine, I have just a little heaven, and I’ll experience that first. After that I’ll have to go fall into hell. But at least I’ll have had a small experience of heaven.”
So he went to heaven, and it was wonderful. There he started doing a lot of good work. He kept helping and loving everyone he met. Now by doing these good deeds he earned more heaven.
He was told, “Now you have more heaven.”
He said, “Well, I’ll experience that too, and then I’ll go on to hell.”
Then he went back to heaven and did even more good deeds. He started learning healing methods and now even started giving relief to the ones who lived in hell.
Gradually all his hell was finished off and he only experienced heaven. He became a great soul.
He used to tell everyone, “It’s like this: if you have some heaven and you do some good, then your heaven portion can keep growing from one side and one day it can eat up your hell. The consequences of all bad deeds are quickly dissolved. Your good actions are all accumulated and get pushed towards heaven.”
Here in the story heaven is more about psychological conditions of the living than about the journey of the dead. Hell is a place of strife and thwarted desires; heaven a place of serenity and fulfillment.
The central meaning of the story lay not with heaven or hell but with the power of goodness. Even a bit of goodness could triumph, transmuting the past and redeeming a soul.