There are two classes of travellers, the noble and the wicked. Each class has its peculiar speed, path, and doom.

Noble souls are divided into ordinary noble ones, and the more advanced. The former attain heaven and the heavenly ranks by following the ascetic practices prescribed by Religion. The more advanced approach Purity by following the path of Devotion.

The wicked, too, are divided into ordinary wicked ones, and the more degraded. The former include some of the believers, leading a sinful life, disobeying the divine injunctions, and addicted to sensual pleasures. They tread the path of trans­gression and go to hell. The latter are the unbe­lievers, solely attending to sensual pleasures and earthly gains, and wholly disbelieving in Religion and the disembodied life. They risk the perma­nent for the sake of the transient, and finally lose this world as well as the next. The former suffer in hell temporarily, but finally escape it by virtue of their faith, albeit imperfect. The latter eternally suffer in hell owing to total absence of faith.

There are different gradations in hell, as there are grades of unbelief or hypocrisy. There are thinkers and blind followers amongst unbelievers as well as amongst believers. As the faith of a thoughtful believer is superior to that of an ordinary believer, so the sufferings of a thought­ful unbeliever are intenser than those of an ordinary unbeliever. Ordinary unbelief is inherited from ancestors and surroundings, and is punished in the first infernal region. Intellectual unbelief does not rest upon tradition, but upon researches carried on for long years, self-denial and discipline of the lower nature, all intended for and ending in scepticism and atheism.—Letter 68.