OVER THERE

The Kauai Hindu Monastery website has an introduction to Hinduism which includes this statement:  Hinduism strongly declares the validity of the three worlds of existence--physical, astral, and spiritual. 

“Astral” is a word you do not hear very often.  In his book Autobiography of a Yogi, Paramhansa Yogananda describes the astral planes as he learned of them from his resurrected guru Sri Yukteswar Giri.

Yogananada explains that following death nearly all individuals enter the astral planes.  It is there that they work out their past karma by way of astral incarnations.  If necessary they return to earthly incarnations for further refinement.

On attaining the meditative state of nirvikalpa samadhi, the soul then progresses upward to what is called the illumined astral planet of Hiranyaloka.  This is a transitional stage following which the soul moves upward to the more subtle causal spheres.
 
It is in these subtle causal spheres that additional incarnations will allow the soul to become further refined before its final unification with God.