According to Jainism what happens to a soul after death?

Answer 1

Jains believe in cycling through birth and rebirth. However their take on things is a little different from most religions that believe this. Not only can you be reincarnated into the earthly realm, but also into their layers of heaven and hells. You are not permanently stuck in hell, once you die there, you may be reincarnated back into the earthly realm. Where you go depends on your karma. Moksha (the end of the cycling through birth and rebirth) comes when one finds enlightenment, like the tirthankaras. In addition, you cannot attain Moksha until you have been a man in at least one of your lives. The layers of heaven and hell consist of... # The supreme abode: This is located at the top of the universe and is where Siddha, the liberated souls, live. # The upper world: 30 heavens where celestial beings live. # Middle world: the earth and the rest of the universe. # Nether world: 7 hells with various levels of misery and punishments # The Nigoda, or base: where the lowest forms of life reside # Universe space: layers of clouds which surround the upper world # Space beyond: an infinite volume without soul, matter, time, medium of motion or medium

Answer 2

Jains believe in cycling through birth and rebirth. However their take on things is a little different from most religions that believe this. Not only can you be reincarnated into the earthly realm, but also into their layers of heaven and hells. You are not permanently stuck in hell, once you die there, you may be reincarnated back into the earthly realm. Where you go depends on your karma. Moksha (the end of the cycling through birth and rebirth) comes when one finds enlightenment, like the tirthankaras. In addition, you cannot attain Moksha until you have been a man in at least one of your lives. The layers of heaven and hell consist of... # The supreme abode: This is located at the top of the universe and is where Siddha, the liberated souls, live. # The upper world: 30 heavens where celestial beings live. # Middle world: the earth and the rest of the universe. # Nether world: 7 hells with various levels of misery and punishments # The Nigoda, or base: where the lowest forms of life reside # Universe space: layers of clouds which surround the upper world # Space beyond: an infinite volume without soul, matter, time, medium of motion or medium of rest.

Answer 3

According to jainism, when a person dies, he is re-born into another living form. The form of his new existence depends upon his deeds done in previous birth. This reminds me of an interesting story. Once there was a butcher who slaughtered many bulls in his life time. One day he meets a jain preacher. The jain preacher informs him about the bad deed he has being doing since long time and makes him aware that his sins will count up and he will have to pay for these in his next birth. The butcher realizes his mistakes, and leaves his job for rest of the life. (As an attempt for pryiyaschit). He dies and gets a new birth in form of a bull in farmer's house who use to beat him and make him work. This was the result of his bad deeds.( slaughtering). But once in a year, the bull also got a chance to carry chariot of the god. This was result of his good deed.( Realising his mistake and leaving slaughtering for rest of his life). so the conclusion is one should not kill anyone and make his bad deed count rise up. :-)

Answer 4

Jainism as also most other religions believe that a soul is immortal.