If this is so, then who goes to hell or heaven?
The real experiencer of anything, in an individualistic way, is neither the Self nor the
physical body. It is the mind that is the centre of individuality, that individualizes and imprisons
a ray of the Atman in what is called the individual soul. And it is this mind, as embodied in the
subtle body, that undergoes the pleasure of heaven or the pains of hell, or for that matter, any
experience through a gross or a subtle body.
The mind appears to have consciousness on account of there being a ray of the Atman in
it, in the form of a reflection, very much limited by its own constitution. Hence it will be clear
that the individuality of a person is as much real or unreal as a reflection of a real object.
Though everything happens according to the Supreme Will, the Karma of the individual
determines the form or shape of the experience that is to be had under the dispensation of this
Will. It is not the Atman or the body that has any type of relative experience, though the body is
a gross means of experience; it is the mind that has all this.

From "May I answer that" by Swami Sivananda (1987-1963). More Informations on Swami Sivananda: on the Website of Divine Life Society, Photographs of Swami Sivananda, German Pages on Swami Sivananda

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