"If you asked me 'Is there another world?', and I believed that there was, I should tell you so. But that is not what I say. I do not say that it is so; I do not say that it is otherwise; I do not say that it is not so; not do I say that it is not not so."

In my 'Mythological literature of Ancient India' class we are tracing the line of Indian mythology and religion from its very beginnings (the Vedas) to modern day Hinduism (ie. the Baghavad-Gita). At the moment we are looking at the period around 600 BCE, where several different religious movements arose, as a result of a dissatisfaction and rejection of the widespread sacrifice-based religion of the time (which was largely in the hands of the priests). The beliefs of these new, 'unorthodox' movements were quite diverse, ranging from fatalistic to materialistic views. The quote above is from a teacher of one of these movements, Sanjaya Bellatthiputa, who was probably a sceptic (which is not hard to infer from his quote).

This quote expresses doubt about the existence of a world outside of our own; and this could be interpreted as a spiritual world, heaven, or even vaguely something outside of our own existence. What I like about this quote however, is that the paradoxes seem to suggest that whatever is outside of our own existence (heaven included) is perhaps something that we can't fully understand, regardless of what we believe.