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2024-04-20, 2:18 PM |
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Chapter
26: The
Hellish Worlds or the
Karmic Rebound
(1) The king said: 'O great saint, how came this
variegatedness of life in the different worlds about?'
(2) The sage said: 'Because of the different convictions with which
the
acting person
relates to the three modes of nature, there is the variegatedness of
all the destinations that more
or less can be attained by
everyone. (3) Because of the godlessness
of what we know as forbidden actions
there will, depending the particular conviction of
the one who was engaged that way, be a different consequence in the
form of a karmic rebound. Let me
now in detail explain what kinds of thousands of hellish conditions
there are since
time immemorial, typical
for
those
souls
of
lusty
desire
who
out
of
their
ignorance
in
so
many
ways
wished their
advantage.'
(4) The king said: 'What one calls
hell out here my lord, is that a particular place on earth, is it
found outside of the worlds we know or somewhere in between them?'
(5) The rishi said: 'Hell
is found within the three worlds, towards the south below the earth and
a little above the causal waters [below Pâtâlaloka], in the
region where the forefathers who desire the blessings for their families, headed by
Agnishvâttâ live fully absorbed in the truth. (6) The son of the sun
god
[Yamarâja] has
his kingdom there together with his followers. The deceased brought
there by his people are according to the gravity of their karmic faults
subjected to punishments that are
executed with care not to be in offense with the Supreme Lord. (7) Some
[scholars] mention a number of twenty-one hells o King and some
count twenty-eight. Their names, forms and
characteristics I will one after the other relate
to you. The [28]
names of the hells or different places of requital are: Tâmisra,
Andhatâmisra, Raurava,
Mahâraurava, Kumbhîpâka, Kâlasûtra,
Asipatravana, Sûkaramukha, Andhakûpa, Krimibhojana,
Sandams'a, Taptasûrmi, Vajrakanthaka-s'âlmalî,
Vaitaranî, Pûyoda, Prânarodha, Vis'asana,
Lâlâbhaksha, Sârameyâdana, Avîci,
Ayahpâna, and also Kshârakardama,
Rakshogana-bhojana, S'ûlaprota, Dandas'ûka,
Avatha-nirodhana, Paryâvartana and Sûcîmukha.
(8) Someone
who takes away the money, the wife or children of someone else is sure
to be bound with the fetters of time by the most terrible men of
Yamarâja and by force to be thrown into the hell of
Tâmisra ['the darkness']. Having landed in that darkest of all
conditions being deprived
of
food
and
water,
beaten
with
sticks
and
scolded,
he
sometimes, in his
desperation, loses his consciousness because of the
severe punishments received. (9) The
same way he who
by cheating enjoys the wife,
possessions etc. of someone else, is by force thrown into the hell that
is called Andhatâmisra
['blind
darkness'] because the embodied soul as a consequence of the constant
agony there, next to his mind also loses his sight and thus becomes
as blind as a tree cut by the roots. (10) He
who
in his life on earth, taking his body for his self and property, harmed other living beings while day
after day laboring to support
only his own family, will, upon leaving this
world, because of that sin end up in Raurava. (11) With
Yamarâja presenting the consequences for this offense, the living beings that were hurt by him in
this life will in his afterlife
turn into savage creatures
[called rurus] who then hurt him to the same extent. Because of
these wild beasts
that are more vicious than snakes the scholars speak of Raurava ['the hell of the monsters']. (12) Similarly
there
is
Mahâraurava
[the
'great
monster']
wherein
someone
is killed and
eaten by the ruru beasts named kravyâda when he [himself] solely for the maintenance of his body [kills and eats
what
he kills]. (13) But a
person who
in this life was very cruel towards [land and sea] animals or birds and
cooked them alive,
is condemned by even the most cruel-hearted man eaters. After his death
the servants of
Yamarâja will throw him in Kumbhîpâka ['the
hell of the cooking pot'] to be
cooked in boiling oil himself. (14) And
everyone who in this life kills a brahmin, [will be forced] into a hell
named Kâlasûtra ['the long course of time'] which has a
surface of copper with a
circumference of ten thousand yojanas that is
heated by the sun from above and by a fire from below. With his body
internally plagued by hunger and thirst and externally being scorched,
he at times lays down and then rolls about, then he jumps to his feet
again
and next runs hither and thither - and that for the duration
of as many
thousands of years as there are hairs on the body of an animal. (15) He
who in
this life unnecessarily deviated from his path of self-realization and
yielded to hypocrisy [or heresy] is forced into a hell known as
Asipatravana ['the razor-sharp forest'] where he is beaten with a
whip so that he, fleeing away left and right, cuts his
body on the two-edged razor sharp palm leaves. He in denial of his own
nature [or neglect of his civil duty] will thus have to face the result
of following the wrong track and with a lot of pain, stumbling at every
step, then stupefied think: 'Oh, what have I done to myself?' (16) But
that head of state or
state
official who in this life punishes someone innocent or inflicted
corporeal punishment on a brahmin will in his next life land in the
hell
of Sûkaramukha ['hog's
mouth']. There the different parts of his body will be crushed by the
strong
assistants [of Yamarâja] as if it concerned sugarcane. Just like
someone
who innocently was arrested to be punished, he will then, pitiably
crying out
loud, be overwhelmed by desperation and faint. (17) Some
creatures are by the
Creator
designed to live as parasites unaware of the harm they do to others,
but he who in his will to survive himself causes pain very well
knowing what he is doing to other creatures of God,
lands in his afterlife in Andhakûpa ['the overgrown well'].
With the harm he did to the beings in question, he will experience that
evil himself. Just like the creatures with an inferior body - the game,
the birds, snakes,
mosquitos, lice, worms, flies and whatever - he on his turn everywhere
in the darkness will be persecuted, hurt and disturbed by them and then
wander around without being able to
find a place to rest. (18) He
who in
his life eats whatever he obtained
by the grace of God but does not
share it with others and thus
neglects the five forms of sacrifice [to the
gods, the wise, the ancestors, the needy and the animals], is just like
a crow. Such a person will in his afterlife fall in the most abominable
hell of Krimibhojana ['to feed on worms']
where, having landed in a hundred thousand yojanas wide lake
full of
worms, he as a worm himself may feed on and on his turn be eaten by the
other worms, for as many years as that lake measures in yojanas.
Such
is
the
pain
that
he causes himself who - without atoning for his sins - eats
food that he didn't share and sacrifice. (19) When
one for no apparent
reason in
this life is of theft or violence, stealing gold, gems and so on from a
brahmin or from others o King, one will in his afterlife by
the men of Yamarâja be forced to hold red-hot iron balls with the fingers he used for
stealing. [Because of which that
hell is called
Sandams'a, 'mitts hell']. (20) Any
person, man or woman, who in
this life approaches a partner unsuitable
for sexual
intercourse,
will in his afterlife be beaten by whips and forced to embrace a very
hot iron image in the form of a man when one is a woman or in the form
of a woman when one is a man [: Taptasûrmi, the hell of 'the
red hot
iron
statue']. (21) Anyone who in this life indiscriminately has sexual
intercourse [with both man and animals e.g.], will in his afterlife
land in the hell of
Vajrakanthaka-s'âlmalî ['the thunderbolt-thorn cotton
tree']
where being hung [on the thorns] he will be pulled down. (22)
They who
in this life belonging to the royalty or the government despite of
their high birth transgressed the boundaries of dharma, will after
their death land in Vaitaranî ['the river of impetuous
passion']. Having broken with the code of conduct for the ruling class
they suffer in
the moat around that hell being eaten by ferocious animals in the
stream
here and there. Unable to relinquish the body and carried by the
vitality of their sin, they are
then reminded of their bad deeds as they are pained
in the river of stool, urine, pus, blood, hair, nails, bones, marrow,
flesh and fat. (23) Those
men who
in this life as husbands of lower class women lost their
cleanliness, good behavior and regulated life, and shamelessly behaved
themselves like animals, will, when they have died, land in an ocean
full of pus,
excrement, urine, mucus and saliva, and only be able to subsist on all
of that which is so
extremely revolting [: the Pûyoda hell of 'fetid waters']. (24) The
leaders belonging
to the higher classes - including the brahmins - who in this life
keeping dogs or
asses take pleasure in hunting with them will killing animals other
than prescribed, after their death themselves become the target of
Yamarâja's men who will pierce them with arrows [: the hell of Prânarodha, 'smothering
the breath']. (25) People
who
in
this
life
being
so
very
proud
of
their
wealth
and
position
for their prestige in sacrificing
kill animals, will in the next world fall into the hell of
Vis'asana ['the sleeplessness'], where the helpers of Yamarâja
making them suffer will cut them to pieces. (26) But
he who in
this life as someone of a higher class, bewildered by his lusts causes
his wife
of the same caste to drink his semen, will because of that sin in his
next life
be thrown into a river of semen and be forced to drink it himself [this
is the hell of
Lâlâbhaksha,
'to
have
semen for food']. (27)
Or those
kings and their soldiers who in this world as thieves, arsonists and
poisoners ransack villages and plunder caravans, will after they died
be
devoured by the voracious
seven hundred twenty dogs with mighty teeth of the Yamadûtas [:
the
hell of Sârameyâdana
'the
dogs'
meal']. (28) He
also who
in
this life speaks a lie or bears false witness in exchanging goods, with
giving gifts in
charity or with other matters, will after his death head first free
fall be thrown from the top of a
hundred yojanas high mountain
in
the
hell
of
Avîcimat
['having
no
water'].
There
the
arid
land
consisting
of
stones
waves like a sea where he, with his
body broken everywhere, doesn't die, but instead is dragged to the top
to be thrown down again. (29) When
a brahmin
or his wife, or anyone who took a vow [not to], in a state of illusion
drinks liquor, or when someone of learning, a ruler or a trader drinks soma-rasa
[a sacred intoxicating beverage], they will all,
being
brought to
hell, with the foot on their chest have red-hot molten iron
poured into their mouths [: the hell of Ayahpâna, 'drinking
iron'].
(30) Next to that one must consider anyone a dead man alive who in this life falsely proud and with little
respect proved himself degraded before a more honorable person of a
higher birth, austerity, knowledge, good behavior and faithfulness to
the
principles. He
after dying will head first be thrown in the hell of Kshârakardama [the 'pool of acrid mud'] to suffer there the severest
agony. (31) Men
who in this life sacrificed other people in worship [of
Kâlî] and women who ate men, those kind of murderers will
be slain like animals in the abode
of Yamarâja by groups of punishing Râkshasas who, just like
those man-eaters did themselves, will cut them with swords to pieces,
drink their blood and dance and
sing thereto in delight [: the hell called Rakshogana-bhojana, 'to be the food of the
devil']. (32) But persons who in
this world lured innocent creatures, seeking shelter in the forest
or the village, by making them feel safe, but instead caused them
pain by playing games with them, piercing their bodies or putting them
on a leash, those people after their death can count on it that their
own bodies will be fixed
likewise and that they, starved and thirsty and such, will be tortured from all
sides by sharp beaked birds like herons and vultures so that they may
remember the sins they committed [the hell of S'ûlaprota, 'pierced by
the pike']. (33)
Also those men who like snakes with an angry nature in this
life caused pain to others without any necessity, will after
their death fall down in a hell called Dandas'ûka ['the cudgel in
return'] where o King, five- and seven-hooded serpents raise before
them in order to eat
them just like mice. (34) Or
people
who in this life confine living
beings either in a blind well,
in granaries or in caves, will likewise in their next life be
forced to enter the same places, to be locked up there with poisonous
fumes, fire and smoke [: the hell called Avatha-nirodhana, 'to be thrown in the
dark']. (35) Someone
who
in
this
life
as
a
householder
every
time
he
received guests or visitors
gave them a sinful look of anger as if he wanted to burn them with his
eyes, for sure will land in the hell meant for those with a sinful
vision, where his
eyes will be
plucked out by the powerful
beaks of herons, vultures and crows [the hell of Paryâvartana,
'the eyes plucked']. (36) Also
those egoists who with a look of
disapproval regard all with suspicion, whose heart and face dry up by
the thought of expenditure and loss, and who like
evil spirits protecting their wealth are never happy, will after
their death because of their sinful deeds to protect those riches and
increase their incomes, fall down in a hell called
Sûcîmukha
['the pin first'], where the commanders of Yamarâja like
expert weavers with thread and needle will stitch the limbs of the
bodies
of
those money grabbing ghosts and sinners.
(37) For all those who act
against the dharma as I mentioned and also for those I didn't mention,
there are, according to the degree of sinfulness, all these sorts of
hells to
fall into. There are many hundreds and thousands of them in the realm
of Yamarâja o King. Similarly there are elsewhere in this world
[or in this universe] new lives
to enter for the ones of
principle and piety who reached
the end of their vitue or vice
[compare B.G. 4: 9 and 3.30: 29]. (38) In
the beginning I described to you
the
path of
liberation [in cantos
two and three]. There I showed you how the Supreme Lord
Nârâyana in the stories of the Purâna could
be as much as the universe that is like an egg divided in
fourteen parts. I described His gross form consisting of His energy and
qualities, as being directly the Gigantic Person [the virâth-rûpa].
He
who
with
veneration
hears,
reads
or
explains
that
song
of
the
Supreme
Personality
of the Supersoul will, however
difficult it is to understand, because of his faith and devotion find
his intelligence
purified and arrive at comprehension. (39) Hearing about the
gross as well as the subtle form of the Supreme Lord, the devotee
should lead the mind which is captivated by the gross form, step by step in contemplation to the subtle, spiritual
form. (40) Of
this planet
earth I have described to you the different realms and regions, the
rivers, the
mountains, the sky, the oceans and the direction and positions of the
lower worlds, the hellish worlds and the higher worlds above them o
King. How wonderful is this gross body of the Supreme
Controller wherein the aggregate of all living beings has its place!'
Thus the fifth Canto of
the S'rîmad Bhâgavatam ends named:
The
Creative Impetus.
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