Different religions on the globe have different answers to this fascinating question: 'what happens after death?'. The western and the eastern religions have quite different views on the life after death. These two mainly differ on the issue that whether the 'soul' has rebirth after death or not. The eastern religions hold the belief that the 'soul' indeed could have rebirths after death but, the western religions predict that there is no rebirth after death and the 'soul' either goes to the heaven or hell for eternity depending on whether it had done good or bad deeds on the Earth.
The aim of this article is to explain the major religious beliefs on the 'life after death' but, not to support any one belief or thought.
As already mentioned, the western religions, mainly the 'Christian' and the 'Muslim' religions hold the view that, if the 'soul' had done good deeds and had it lived according to the 'scriptures', the 'soul' would directly go to the heaven and will live there for ever, in the Kingdom of god, along with the god. On the other hand, if the 'soul' had lived in such a way that it is contrary to the 'scriptures', that is if the 'soul' had done many 'bad' things - then it would invariably be pushed into the hell for eternity and there it would suffer for ever.
On the other hand, in contrary to the above western religious answer to the question 'what happens after death', the eastern religions indeed have detailed and elaborate descriptions. The positive point is that, the eastern religions give a 'chance of hope' even to the 'souls' those have led a 'villain or very bad life' on the Earth due to the belief that, the 'soul' indeed takes quite a number of births till it becomes purest. Until the 'soul' turns 'purest' or attains 'enlightenment' it is given a chance to take 'births'.
The eastern religions, hold that belief that, the 'soul' takes many 'births' or more clearly, the soul has to live in many of the possible organisms that are present on the Earth and in other worlds unseen. The 'soul' has to live the life of many of the possible life forms available on the Earth and in other worlds unseen. In each life form the 'soul' gets certain maturity and finally it takes the life as the human birth. This concept is similar to Charles Darwin's evolution theory that states that, life indeed has evolved from the 'singular' cellular beings to the human beings. The Hinduism holds the view that there are about, 84 lack different life forms in the worlds and the 'soul' takes many of these different life forms and before it could take the 'human birth' the 'soul' indeed had taken 1, 86, 000 different births, living in different life forms. Some of these lives might be on others worlds too, not only on the Earth.
The eastern religions hold the view that, the life is a voyage from the 'known to the unknown''; "from darkness to light", "from death to immortality" and until the soul attains immortality or enlightenment it has to take births, it has to struggle in the worlds.
We, people believe that, we have to enjoy as much as possible with this 'body' and this body is meant for enjoyment. But, in contrast to this, the eastern religions hold the view that, the 'birth', what ever life form it might be, it is a 'tumor'; the life itself is a disease and all the purpose of this life is to cure this disease, to get rid of this cycle of births, to attain enlightenment, the formless state, the state of oneness. Once the 'soul' gets that final state, the 'enlightenment' it will not come back again into this cycle of births, it has no life again, it goes beyond the limits of the space and time, the soul attains immortality and this 'immortal' state is beyond the comprehension of the mind, it can't be uttered and this is the final summit of all life. Going to the heaven, leading life in heaven as god is just a part of the cycle of this life. The final state is beyond forms and names. Attaining this final summit is the 'sole purpose', especially of this 'human life', the eastern religions claim.
The eastern religions hold the view that, having luxuries and living with this body is mere stupidity and being a king or being a 'god' is nothing before the final state, the enlightenment. Gods in the heaven are just some advanced life forms than the humans - according to the eastern religions and leading a gods' life, living in heaven is just one facet in the life of the 'soul'.
Now coming to our question, 'what happens after death', if the animals or birds die, they will definitely take birth as some other advanced life form because, the concept of 'good' and 'bad' doesn't apply to them. This rule applies to all the 'beings' except the 'human life' according to the eastern religions.
But, if a 'man or woman' dies then, what would happen to that 'soul' depends on 'how that person had lived' and it is complex to explain in few lines here. I will give only the main concepts here but, not the details.
After death, an average person, who had done 'good' deeds and 'bad' deeds equally - would take birth as a human being again and the very next life depends on those 'goods' and 'bads' as well. The eastern religions holds the view that, different persons differ on different things in life [riches, position, beauty, etc] only due to the difference in their 'good' and 'bad' deeds in their previous lives. The majority of the persons after death would get the human birth.
Out of the rest, a minority of the people, whose good deeds are very more compared to their bad deeds - these would go to the heaven or different worlds that are similar to the heaven [there are different worlds described in the eastern religious books and this description is similar to the modern cosmological 'multiverse' concept] and live there for a very long time. Once their past 'good' is expensed, they will again take birth as human beings.
On the other hand, some of the persons, whose bad deeds are more compared to their 'good' deeds - would go back in the evolution cycle and would take birth as inferior beings, might be as snakes, birds, worms, animals, etc. Which form they would take will depend on the dominant 'sin' or bad things they had committed in their life - the Hindu religious scriptures have details on this too.
Finally, after death, it is possible that one out of a million persons, would be relieved from this 'cycle of births' and will never take birth again in any form. This is in the case of the individual who had done rigorous spiritual practices and had attained enlightenment in life. This is to note that, enlightenment comes while the person is alive and NOT after death.
These are the major possibilities that could happen to a person after death but, there are still some more possibilities too in the case of some persons leading peculiar types of lives and they are NOT general happenings.
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