Another perspective on hell and consequences of actions:
All the good and evil that befall a man during one lifetime cannot be explained if we confine our attention to this life alone. What does he know of life who only one life knows?
“A mortal ripens like corn, and like corn he springs up again.” But the seed is left. We are all born with a blue-print of our life, as it were, mainly prepared by our actions in the previous life. Our present acts and thoughts are the result of our past and create our future. Man is the architect of his own fate and the builder of his own future destiny. As he accepts with serenity his present good or ill fortune, he can also look forward to the future with joy and courage. If present suffering is the result of past wicked action, then, in order to avoid suffering in a future existence, a thoughtful person should desire to engage in right action.
The experiences of the hereafter cannot be demonstrated in public. Time, space, and other conditions would certainly be different on the two sides of the grave. Therefore a living man would not understand the accounts of the dead even if they were to return to earth to tell him of their experiences. For this reason a scientific mind can only accept a plausible theory regarding after-death experiences. The theory of total annihilation is not satisfactory. It gives only a partial picture of existence. This theory is not only inconsistent with the self-love we possess, but also with the intuitive and direct experience of the seers regarding the indestructibility of the Soul and Its freedom from birth and dissolution. The rishis of the Upanishads were not impressed by the theory of eternal retribution in heaven or hell. That theory reveals a total disproportion between cause and effect. Life on earth is short, exposed to error, and bristling with temptations. Many of our wrong actions are the result of faulty upbringing and environment. To inflict upon the soul eternal punishment for the errors of a few years, or even a whole lifetime, is to throw to the winds all sense of proportion. It is also inconsistent with the concept of Love.
According to the doctrine of rebirth, it is the desire for material objects that is responsible for a person’s embodiment. Desires are of many kinds: some can be fulfilled in a human body, some in a subhuman body, and others in a superhuman body. When a man has fulfilled every desire through repeated births, without deriving abiding satisfaction, and finds the relative world to be bound by the law of cause and effect, he longs for communion with Brahman, which alone is untouched by the causal law. In most cases – barring those souls who attain Liberation from Brahmaloka – a human body is the best instrument for the attainment of Knowledge and Freedom; for in a god’s body or in a subhuman body one experiences only the fruits of one’s past action. Neither a god nor an animal reaps the fruits of action. Therefore they cannot be liberated unless they are born again in a human body.
According to the theory of rebirth, a soul is born again and again, high or low, depending on the merit or demerit of his actions, so that in every birth he may acquire a little more understanding and detachment and in the end attain perfect Knowledge and Freedom. This theory is in conformity with the law of cause and effect, which is the very basis of the physical universe. It is also in agreement with the spiritual experiences of the mystics regarding man’s ultimate end, which is the attainment of the knowledge of the Soul’s Immortality. Rebirth is the inevitable corollary of the Soul’s indestructibility and explains the reason for its embodiment in the relative universe.
Where bliss resides, and felicity,
Where Joy beyond joy dwells,
Where the craving of desire is stilled –
There suffer me to dwell immortal.
S. Nikhilananda – The Upanishads Vol. 1, commentary
I merely want to provide information / an alternative view. 
