“Enq: What do you mean? Why should this interfere with their bliss?
Theo: Simply this; and here is an instance. A mother dies, leaving behind her little helpless children – orphans whom she adores – perhaps a beloved husband also.
We say that her “Spirit” or Ego – that individuality which is now all impregnated, for the entire Devachanic period, with the noblest feelings held by its late personality, i.e., love for her children, pity for those who suffer, and so on – we say that it is now entirely separated from the “vale of tears”, that its future bliss consists in that blessed ignorance of all the woes it left behind.
Spiritualists say, on the contrary, that it is as vividly aware of them, and more so than before, for “Spirits see more that mortals in the flesh do.”
We say that the bliss of the Devachanee consists in its complete conviction that it has never left the earth, and that there is no such thing as death at all; that the post-mortem spiritual consciousness of the mother will represent to her that she lives surrounded by her children and all those whom she loved; that no gap, no link, will be missing to make her disembodied state the most perfect and absolute happiness.
The Spiritualists deny this point blank. According to their doctrine, unfortunate man is not liberated even by death from the sorrows of this life. Not a drop from the life-cup of pain and suffering will his lips; and nolens volens, since he sees everything now, shall he drink it to the bitter dregs.
Thus, the loving wife, who during her lifetime was ready to save her husband sorrow at the price of her heart’s blood, is now doomed to see, in utter helplessness, his despair, and to register every tear he sheds for her loss.
Worse than that, she may see the tears dry too soon, and another beloved face shine on him, the father of her children; find another woman replacing her in his affections; doomed to hear her orphans giving the holy name of “mother” to one indifferent to them, and to see those little children neglected, if not ill-treated.
According to this doctrine the “gentle wafting to immortal life” becomes without any transition the way into a new path of mental suffering!
And yet, the columns of the “Banner of Light”, the veteran journal of the American Spiritualists, are filled with messages from the dead, the “dear departed ones”, who all write to say how very happy they are!
Is such a state of knowledge consistent with bliss? Then “bliss” stands in such a case for the greatest curse, and orthodox damnation must be a relief in comparison to it!”
H. P. Blavatsky