We Hindus are not waiting for anything. Abrahamic traditions have their Messiahs, their Judgment Days, their Mahdis. Zoroastrianism has its final savior, the Saoshyant of the Frashokereti. But in Hinduism, there is no sense of finality — only the continuous cycle of birth, rebirth, and liberation.
That said, Hinduism is not devoid of saviors. The ten avatars, or incarnations, of Vishnu renovate the world in its darkest hours — most famously, Rama, destroyer of Ravana, and Krishna, slayer of Kamsa. Then we have Kalki, the tenth avatar of Vishnu who is yet to manifest. But who among us shiver, hoping to be the select few whom Kalki spares? Even though our stories speak of a judgmental future, that future is not ingrained into our hearts.
Granted, in the cycle of reincarnation, the “judgment” that determines the vessel of the next life can be considered something we are waiting for. After all, it does occur at the end of our life, and so we expect it. But it is not a universal event — like the lidding of jam jars, it is something that happens sequentially as spirits pass. It is not a collective judgment, but a personal, individual finality at the time of death.
What is the purpose of all this? Why bother waiting for any sort of judgment at all? It seems to me that final judgment is a means to morality, a way to keep ourselves in check. It is much easier to adhere to morals when the Big Brother of final judgment is watching you.
This argument that final judgment is a means to morality is applicable to the judgment of which vessel our soul takes in the next life. After all, once all is said and done, we would like to be liberated, not downgraded into donkeys. But there is something soft about consequences which we will not even remember in our next lives — the harder, more vivid image of our souls burning in hell serves the purpose more effectively. By contrast against this fiery background, Hinduism seems to weakly enforce morality.
Personally, I prefer not having to wait for a judgment day, because it puts the burden of validating my morals upon me, and not upon the agent of final judgment. What do you think? Would we Hindus be more united if we too believed that non-believers are going to hell?
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