By themselves, scriptures are nothing more than indicating the availability of a 'promised land', whether that land is on Earth or in a place called Heaven (and conceptual opposite destiny of Hell).

Scriptures are needed from an early age to warn children of these swarg or narak in Hindu parlance, so that they need to live to proper conduct and learn how to do what needs to be done if they wish to end up in Heaven instead of Hell.

Since Time-immemorial under various religions established in humanity from Christianity, Buddhism, Islam and ofcoure some but not all strands of Hinduism, the Heaven and Earth are lands outside this place called Earth, in some spiritual domain somewhere in the skies above. It is also taught in some faiths that the correct actions (dharma)whether to Allah, Jesus, or Jehovah or some of the 300 million Hindu gods in service can take you to Heaven free from this Earth, so that this paradise is so wonderful that children feel like 'yes, I would like to go there'.

In Buddhism, something different is suggested, that the four Noble Truths and the Eight-fold path if incorrectly followed will result in a human being reentering the samsara which is not a good place to be in and one will reincarnate in future lives to get a second bite at the cherry, so to speak to move up the karmic ladder and ascending to try and reach the state of nirvana over repeated lives, and when they in between these lives go to Heaven they live with devas and asuras, until they reenter the Earth in another human being or worse, in a insect if the karma had been so bad in their previous life on Earth that they had become asuras in Hell and so had to be reformed in another life on Earth. This philosophy is probably inherited in Buddhism from an earlier Hindu belief system. And it still forms the basis of life for all Hindus.

For me, I do not reject the truth of the Heaven/Hell and Earth dimensions to Existence of life on Earth today. Let me make this quite clear to Buddhists and Hindus alike. The Abrahamic Religions are one-way traffic to Heaven and Earth and do not subscribe to this division of realms, as far as I know at this moment. This Forum Post is not about the differences between Abrahamic Faiths and Hindu faiths. We Vaishnavists are non-judgemental of the rights or wrongs of the two belief systems that the ancients have left for us.

But in an honest assessment, as a student of sciences, and especially Biology, I could not take the chance of entering into the Heaven Hell transference of the soul until perfection in terms of the purity of the soul was established. As a scientist by first degree, I regarded that this life is my only chance to get it right, and I did whatever I could to survive until the day that I felt that I had attained the promoised land here on Earth in a state of mind that could be termed 'nirvana' for want of a better word, or ananda even for want of another promised land-word from Advaitists in the Hindu fold.

My friends, experience life as comprehensively as possible by immersing yourselves in Creation, for as a Vaishnavist, I do not believe anyone has a second chance to get it right. We perform Sanatan Dharma as perfected within this life only. No rebirths or reincarnations for us whatever these terms mean. I was a man in a hurry.

Scriptures brainwash unless blended with life-experiences. it teaches. So do as much as possible physicicaly in hyperactivity as if there is no time like the present, no time to waste, get it all done now. Experience is what really teaches and places, eventually the Bhagavad Gita to its proper context and perspective in one's mind.