Where do souls go after the death of the physical body?
—Gayatri, India
You have very thoughtful question. In Yogananda’s words from a talk he gave in 1933, here is a snippet. “let us see death as a door through which bravely-marching souls of earthly life can enter to find the all-alluring, all-charming, region of our ever-luminous, ever-peaceful common cosmic home. All mortal fears, heartaches, dreams, and illusions fade and the darkness of death changes into another infinitely more beautiful universe. Why pity the dead?”
Of course, the soul who has embraced a spiritual life while on earth experiences a continuation of that spiritual vibration and higher state of existence he has already established. Whereas, the soul who has remained living a worldly life will carry that vibration into his next life. So the degrees of what a soul experiences after death depends on how this earthly life is lived!
Death does comes to the dutiful soul as a ‘promotion’ to more expanded state and comes to an unsuccessful soul to give another chance in a different environment. Many Blessings to you.
