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Karmas and Diseases

By

 

Sri Swami Sivananda

 

 

A DIVINE LIFE SOCIETY PUBLICATION

 

 

First Edition: 1959

Second Edition: 2000

(2,000 Copies)

 

 

World Wide Web (WWW) Edition : 2001

 

WWW site: http://www.SivanandaDlshq.org/

 

 

 

This WWW reprint is for free distribution

 

 

 

© The Divine Life Trust Society

 

 

 

Published By

THE DIVINE LIFE SOCIETY

P.O. Shivanandanagar-249 192

Distt. Tehri-Garhwal, Uttaranchal,

Himalayas, India.

 

 

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Contents

Karmas and Diseases

Karmas and Birth

Karmas and Hells

 

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Karmas and Diseases

(Swami Sivananda)

 

Introduction

It is common nowadays to hear it said that the Puranas are very unreliable

scriptures and that they indulge in unlimited exaggeration about very many

things. These critics say that the Puranas contain gross overstatements and

preposterously puerile attempts to cajole or to cow down the reader with

citations like the grandiose descriptions of heavenly regions and their joys

as also of the awful pictures of hell fires and its torments. To criticise a

subject requires very little wit or wisdom. For simple and direct

condemnation without caring to consider the pros and cons of a matter is the

inborn nature of the human mind. But even to these biased ones a little

thoughtful consideration will forthwith reveal that the sagely writers of

the Puranas had a special purpose in writing certain thing in the manner

they did. They deliberately emphasised and laid particular stress upon some

subjects with a definite end in view. Underneath this graphic and detailed

descriptions of the Karmas and their consequences there is a shrewd

psychology and insight being put to make a practical purpose.

 

Until and unless Self-realisation is attained, Knowledge-Absolute is gained,

there is ever the ebb and flow, the constant see-saw between the animal and

the man in every human being. The beast or the brute is never completely

absent or overcome except through a final Divinisation of the individual. As

long as there is the human, side by side there will be the animal also, now

the one having the upper hand, now the other. It is only when the Jiva gets

above and beyond both these and gets transformed and established in the

third and hitherto dormant aspect of his nature, namely the Divine aspect,

that he becomes "Mriga-Nara-Atita." Then onwards there is no more of this

tug-of-war between the animal and man natures to gain precedence and

dominate over the field of Jiva-consciousness. For now the Divine Kshetrajna

Himself reigns supreme over the Kshetra.

 

Now until this state is attained we find therefore that man is in turn

animal and human according to the Vritti that possesses him. He shows

himself alternately to be noble and petty. He swings between the sublime and

the bathos. His two different aspects react to the external stimuli in their

own distinctive manners. And equally likewise only particular modes of

external approach succeed in evoking the desired response from these dual

aspects in man's consciousness. Thus it is that we find in persons who have

evolved themselves to some fair extent and acquired a good measure of

Sattva, of refinement, culture and character, the purely gross and

degenerate impulses and temptations fail to have effect. They succeed only

in exceptional situations when the person unfortunately happens to be in

some rare moment of weakness due to a revival of Samskaras. Whereas in gross

natures such temptations readily and immediately work havoc, and vice versa,

noble impulses immediately influence a fine nature but fail to evoke any

response in a gross person of low animal mentality. This has given rise to

the proverb in the Marathi language "To the cobbler's deity worship is by

shoes," or again the current Tamil saying "Without the cane the monkey will

not dance." The same is the case with noble sentiments too, as is amply

exemplified by the overcareful psychology applied by the famous Dr. Arnold

of Rugby in appealing to the worthier instincts in his boys. No less

striking is the historic example of Mark Antony skilfully exercising his

persuasive and provocatory eloquence upon his Roman audience, first to evoke

compassion by playing subtly upon their human side, and then rousing a

frenzy of revengeful violence by inflaming their strong animal passion of

anger.

 

It is this deep human insight and admirable penetrating psychology that is

at the basis of the Hell and Retribution ideas in the Puranic Hindu

Religion. They knew that sweet whistling will not make the buffalo move,

whereas whipping will. We know how on the eve of building the great bridge

to Lanka, when requests failed to make the Ocean-King behave suitably, Rama

took out an arrow in anger. The very next instant had the Sagara-Raja

pleading with folded hands before Rama. Likewise to goad man on to noble

deeds, high aspiration and righteous conduct, the Puranic sages held out

before him bright prospects and extolled the untold benefits and blessings

of a good life. Here they tried to appeal to man's human side. But when he

indulged in extreme sin and bestial acts of gross sensuality, they knew it

was not the occasion for mincing matters. The beast could only be chastened

through a true and vivid description of the inevitable results of his

actions. Here we must note that they did not exaggerate or utter any

falsehood, but gave a special importance to and emphasised the matter by

dilating upon it in graphic detail and spared no pains in doing this. They

therefore confronted the Jiva with a terrific array of dire consequences

that would inevitably accrue to the evil actions of the sinner. They gave

graphic descriptions of the various punishments awaiting the wanton

transgressor of moral and spiritual laws. They vividly related past

instances of transgressors and the retribution that overtook them, to

testify to this truth. The Puranas abound in fearful examples of life-long

sufferings in lower wombs suffered by people like Nahusha, Jaya and Vijaya,

the well-known Gajendra and many others.

 

They do not stop with that. As though it were not enough to give instances

of the "Phalas" of positive sinful actions and crimes, they cite certain

cases when even the indulgence in a comparatively harmless, good emotion

like affection, brings about grave suffering upon man. The warning implied

in the story of the past lives of Sage Jadabharata is an instance in point.

Also the accidental participation in a seeming falsehood was enough to send

a soul to take a sight, though but for a moment, of the awful hell-fire. The

incident of the great Yudhishthira's Naraka-Darshan is referred to here.

 

Fortunately or unfortunately, out of the numerous Puranas very few are

studied by the vast majority nowadays. Those few devoted people that read

the Puranas or listen to their recital rarely go beyond the four or five

classical Saivaite and Vaishnavaite Puranas that are popularly current

throughout the country. We may say that Purana perusal is generally confined

to the Skanda, Markandeya, Vishnu or the Srimad Bhagavata. It is not the

scholar or the orthodox Brahmin section that is meant here but the common

man-in-the-street who goes to form a distinct and important part of the

population. Thus this whip-crack of the Karma and Karma-phala citation does

not sound nowadays to chasten the sensual beast in man. And as a result of

this it is running amok as never heretofore. But laws, be they mundane or

divine, are inexorable. The ignorance of the Penal Code does not lay a

premium on indulgence in crime nor does the offender go scot-free. He

burgles and he gets jailed. He murders and is hanged. Likewise also he sins

and he suffers. If this truth of the inescapable order of cosmic Law is

placed before him in unvarnished and distinct outline it may serve just a

little bit to persuade him to give up vice and follow virtue, to renounce

Adharma and embrace Dharma. To do so is the purpose of this little tract on

"Karmas and Diseases." It has purposes confined mainly to the physical and

mental forms that this heavenly retribution takes, and also to the forms it

takes upon this earth-plane. For modern man is held by the motto "seeing is

believing," and he hardly requires to give a second glance to show the

terrible truth of the price man pays in hospitals and clinics for the crimes

against Dharma.

 

The diseases we suffer from the births we get here on earth are all products

of actions done by us in previous times. Every action has its reaction and

no action goes unrewarded in a suitable manner. Evil actions do not go

without their bitter effects upon the doer. Here are given some of the many

pitiable conditions of life which man has to live in due to his careless

sinful deeds.

 

Hells are not an imaginary fiction as ordinarily conceived of by the modern

rationalistic mind. The empiricist believes only in experience of

sense-contact and feels himself unable to rise above the dictates of the

intellect. But it does not mean that man has reason to overlook facts beyond

his comprehension. We have no right to assert that this globe of earth is

the most concrete reality and that others are mere apparitions. The stars do

not become mere spots with a twinkling light in the sky merely for the

reason that we perceive them to be so. If I have not seen America I have no

right to deny the existence of such a country. There are evidences, both

intuitional and rational, for us to accept the existence of worlds beyond,

which are entirely different both in nature and size. The Yogavasishtha says

that our earth is only an atom among many other larger worlds existing

beyond our perception and is of one particular variety among many others

which differ from it in every way. We have no authority to discard the

account given by Vasishtha that there exist worlds which are made of

different materials like copper, iron, gold, etc., filled with water, milk,

and the like and inhabited by serpents, animals, devils, and so on. It is

not necessary that human beings alone should inhabit all worlds and that the

same earthly conditions should prevail in all planes of existence. The

universe is a gradual revelation of the Infinite Absolute in various degrees

of Consciousness, which is inclusive of every sort of life and experience.

The Infinite is a great Wonder and we cannot say what things are thriving in

its womb! We and our world are but one among the many in it! There are many

families in Infinity, and earth, hell, heaven, men, animals, gods, devils,

are all Its children with varying temperaments. The Absolute ranges from

lowest matter to Pure Bliss or Ananda, and between these exist the countless

universe with their contents. They differ both in their individual nature

and in the nature of their contents. It is said that beings take birth in

one or the other of these worlds in accordance with their actions which bear

fruits of a kind that can be reaped only in that particular world. Only fire

can give heat and only food can appease hunger. Even so only a particular

condition and environment can enable us to reap the fruits of a specific

actions. Though punishments need not necessarily be due to the wrath of any

personal Divine Being, it can be asserted that it is necessary, by the very

law of nature, that the soul should manifest itself with a body suited for

its experience determined by its past actions. As such, it is not

unreasonable that variety in the nature of worlds should be real. We have to

remember that the real is unseen.

 

Hells, therefore, are as much real worlds as the regions of Indra or this

mortal earth of ours. They are regions with difference only in the subtlety

of the plane of their manifestation. They differ in the degree of the state

of Consciousness revealed through them. The sufferings inflicted on the

sinners as enumerated hereunder may be taken to mean either an actual birth

in such regions, or an experience of suffering equal to that enumerated

herein, in any other state of existence, or a life on earth with such

entanglements, where one will undergo such pains either directly or through

the agency of others.

 

KARMAS

DISEASES

 

Who insults others, breaks promises, causes great disappointment to another,

deprives one of his property, disgraces others in public,

Gets mental agony and pain.

 

Who plugs up or blocks up the hole of a rat or a snake, who catches fish and

causes them to die by suffocation, who stifles the life of any creature,

Gets Asthma, lung diseases, pleurisy, bronchitis (severe), pneumonia, etc.

 

Who kills or injures another by means of poisoned instruments,

Suffers from scorpion-sting and snake bite.

 

 

Who oppresses others and keeps them in permanent slavery by excessive vanity

and pride,

Gets elephantiasis.

 

 

Who is a miser and money-lender, who ruins, impoverishes and drives his

debtors to starvation through rack renting and abnormal interest,

Suffers from consumption.

 

Who indulges with prostitutes, commits adultery, and leads an impure life,

Gets leprosy.

 

Who is proud of his physical strength and misuses his power in oppressing

and fighting with others,

Suffers from epilepsy.

 

Who casts lustful look on women, who eyes others' property, whose heart

burns at others' well-being, who visits nautch-parties,

Gets permanent eye-diseases.

 

Who sets fire to a house and causes others' death,

Gets erysipelas and fatal hot boils.

 

Who poisons others with irritating, fiery and corrosive foods, who adds

chuna (lime) in rice and serves in hotels, who adds water to milk and sells

it for high price passing it for pure milk,

Gets colic and gastritis.

 

Who is hypocritic, who under the guise of goodness and virtue continuously

torments others with petty tyranny, who constantly ill-treats, beats and

deals harshly with little children,

Gets bad itches and skin diseases.

 

Who indulges in gossip, who likes to hear Paraninda (abusing others) and

Paradooshana (insulting others), who hears obscene songs in dancing shows,

etc.,

Gets ear-sore and painful humming sound in the ears, and suffers from

ear-inflammation.

 

Sons who disobey their fathers and drag them to court,

Get leukoderma and loss of vision.

 

Lawyers and advocates who twist truth and falsehood in court-cases,

Get colour-blindness, saint vitus's dance, squint-eye and cataract; are

born with a deformed body and afflicted with loss of memory.

 

Scientists who invent destructive fire-bombs and those who drop them on the

innocent public,

Get multiplicity of dangerous incurable diseases; being born as insects

will live in the hollow of trees and when the trees are cut and logs used

for firewood will be cruelly burnt to ashes in successive rebirths.

 

Cruel doctors who ill-treat patients, and give worthless medicines charging

high rates, who inject aqua and charge high fees,

Are born as women and have womb-disease. Their conceptions and delivery

will be attended by severe complication, pain and will mostly result in

abortion.

 

Sannyasins who falsely pose to be Siddhas and cheat the people of the world,

 

Will be suddenly overcome by impotency in the prime of their youth and will

suffer terrible disappointment while eagerly hoping to enjoy pleasures.

 

Who drink intoxicants and liquors, and indulge in immoral acts,

Will be born as weaklings, underdeveloped or premature birth and suffer

from neurasthenia and general debility.

 

Who deprive dumb animals of their food and drink, and beat innocent animals

like cows, bulls, etc.,

Get pyorrhoea, lose all their teeth and get ulcers in the throat.

 

Who torture people in prisons,

Will be born cripples and paralytic and will suffer from chronic nervous

pains and rheumatic troubles.

 

Who blaspheme the Supreme Lord, speak ill of saints and scriptures,

Get cancer in the tongue and become dumb.

 

Dacoits who rob people of their possessions and shoot poor people

Will be victims to every visiting epidemic and will suffer every time from

severe relapses and complications.

 

Who burn sacred books and destroy spiritual literature.

Get gastric ulcers and cancer.

 

A twice-born who casts away his thread, does not keep tuft, and does not

perform Sandhya-Vandana,

Gets impotence and fits of insanity.

 

Capitalists who extract forced labour from workers, and pay them very low

wages in factories, etc.,

Suffer from Asthma, great suffocation, and tumour in the brain with

unbearable pain, and will also become subject to gout, rheumatism, lumbago

and hunch back.

 

Who deceive the masses through bogus concerns,

Get chronic diarrhoea and dyspepsia, and diseases of spleen with anaemia

and malnutrition.

 

Who sells stale vegetables and fruits, spoiled wheat and rice for high

price, by making them appear fresh,

Get falling hair, leukoderma, carious teeth and cataract.

 

Profiteers and black-marketeers,

Get incurable obesity, elephantiasis and tumour in the stomach.

 

Back-biters, tale-bearers and treacherous people,

Get boil on the head and shoulders, and internal abscess, eczema on back,

etc.

 

Who refuse food to hungry guest at the door,

Get pyorrhoea and stomach ulcer.

 

Officers who oppress subordinates, clerks and peons by extracting illegal

works from them and fining them unnecessarily,

Get chronic oppressive head-ache, high-blood pressure with acute giddiness.

 

 

Officers who misuse public money and produce false vouchers,

Get dropsy and septic fevers.

 

Husbands who beat their wives, and parents who beat their children without

understanding,

Get angina pectoris (heart-pains), chronic tooth pain and nephritis.

 

Servants who pretend to work and thus ruin their masters,

Get paralysis and trembling of limbs and palpitation.

 

Brahmins who deceive people as Purohits in holy places of pilgrimage and as

worshippers in renowned temples, by demanding money, clothing and

food-materials in the name of God,

Get extreme bilious diseases, vomiting and chronic diarrhoea, and

blindness.

 

Parents who tyrannise and worry their children of a spiritual bent and force

them to lead a worldly life,

Get acute diseases of the respiratory system, diphtheria, pleurisy,

pneumonia, etc.

 

 

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Karmas and Birth

(From Garuda Purana)

 

The murderer of a Brahmin is born as a consumptive, the killer of a cow

becomes hump backed and imbecile, the murderer of a virgin becomes leprous.

 

The slayer of a woman and the destroyer of embryos becomes a savage full of

diseases; who commits illicit intercourse becomes eunuch, who goes with his

teacher's wife is born diseased-skinned.

 

The eater of flesh becomes very red; the drinker of intoxicants is born with

discoloured teeth; the Brahmin, who, on account of greed, eats what should

not be eaten, becomes big-bellied.

 

He who eats sweet foods without giving to others, becomes swollen-necked;

who gives impure food at a Sraaddha Ceremony is born a spotted leper.

 

The man, who, through pride, insults his teacher, becomes an epileptic; who

despises the Vedas and the holy scriptures becomes jaundiced.

 

Who bears false witness becomes dumb; who takes meal separately from

company-row becomes one-eyed; one who upsets a marriage-match becomes

lipless; who steals a book is born blind.

 

Who strikes a cow or a Brahmin with his foot is born lame and deformed; who

speaks lies becomes a stammerer; who listens to lies becomes deaf.

 

A poisoner becomes insane; an incendiary becomes bald; who sells flesh

becomes the most unfortunate and unlucky; who eats flesh of other beings

becomes diseased.

 

Who steals jewels is born in a low caste; who steals gold gets diseased

nails; who steals any metal becomes poverty-stricken.

 

Who steals food becomes a rat; who steals grains becomes a locust who steals

water becomes a Chataka bird; who steals poison becomes a scorpion.

 

Who steals vegetables and leaves becomes a peacock; who steals perfumes

becomes a musk-rat; who steals honey becomes a gad-fly; who steals flesh

becomes a vulture; who steals salt becomes an ant.

 

Who steals betel, fruits and flowers becomes a forest-monkey; who steals

shoes, grass and cotton is born in sheep's womb.

 

Who lives by violence, who robs caravans on the road, and who is fond of

hunting becomes a goat in a butcher's house.

 

Who dies by drinking poison becomes a black serpent on a mountain; whose

nature is unrestrained becomes an elephant in a desolate forest.

 

Those twice-born ones who do not make offerings to the Great Lord and who

eat all sorts of foods without hesitation and consideration, become wild

tigers in a desolate forest.

 

The Brahmin who does not recite the Gayatri, who does not meditate at

twilight, who is inwardly wicked while outwardly pious, becomes a crane.

 

The Brahmin who officiates for one who is unfit to perform sacrifices

becomes a village-dog, and by too many sacrifices becomes an ass; by eating

without the thought of God he becomes a crow.

 

The twice-born who does not impart learning to the deserving becomes a bull;

the pupil who does not serve his teacher becomes an animal, an ass or a

crow.

 

Who threatens and spits at his teacher, or browbeats a Brahmin, is born as a

great dreadful fiend in a waterless wilderness.

 

Who does not give to a twice-born according to his promises, becomes a

jackal; who is not hospitable to the good becomes a howling fire-faced

devil.

 

Who deceives a friend becomes a mountain-vulture; who cheats in selling

becomes an owl; who speaks ill of caste and religious order is born a pigeon

in a wood.

 

Who destroys hope and who destroys affection, who, through dislike, abandons

his wife, becomes a ruddy goose for a long time.

 

Who hates mother, father and teacher, who quarrels with sister and brother,

is destroyed when being in embryo in the womb, even for a thousand births.

 

The woman who abuses her mother-in-law and father-in-law and causes constant

quarrels, becomes a leech; she who scolds her husband becomes a louse.

 

Who, abandoning her own husband, runs after another man, becomes a flying

fox, a house-lizard or a kind of female serpent.

 

He who cuts off his lineage by embracing a woman of his own family, having

become a hyena and a porcupine, is born from the womb of a bear.

 

The lustful man who goes with a female ascetic becomes a desert fiend: who

consorts with an immature girl becomes a huge snake in a wood.

 

Who covets his teacher's wife becomes a chameleon; who tries to go with the

king's wife becomes badly corrupt in character; who goes with his friend's

wife becomes a donkey.

 

Who commits unnatural vice becomes a village pig; who consorts with a

Sudra-woman becomes an ox; who is very passionate becomes a lustful horse.

 

Who eats the eleventh-day offerings of the dead is born a dog; the Brahmin

who subsists upon the offerings made to an idol is born from the womb of a

hen.

 

The wretch among the twice-born who worships the deities for the sake of

wealth is destitute of peace and becomes a forest-bird.

 

Who takes away a plot of land which was given by himself or another, is born

for sixty-thousand years as a worm in excrement.

 

All the creatures of low-births, trees and the like, having come back from

hell, are born again in the human kingdom amongst low outcastes, and even

there, by the stains of sin, become very miserable.

 

They become men and women with oozing leprosy, born-blind, infested with

grievous maladies, and bearing the marks of sin.

 

He who, having become a king, does not give land to the twice-born, is

reborn for many times as a beggar, without even a village-hut. The king who,

through pride, does not make gifts of land, shall dwell in hell as long as

the sun and the moon exist.

 

 

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Karmas and Hells

(From Srimad Bhagavata)

 

There are varieties of hells that a Jiva has to experience in accordance

with the Karmas which he does through sin and passion. Twenty-nine kinds of

regions of suffering are described in the Bhagavata, when Jivas are said to

be born due to their Karmas.

 

There is a place of suffering called Tamisra. Those people who lay hands on

another's wealth, children and wives are born in this region. The Jiva

experiences there extreme pain being bound with mortal cords and violently

hurled into the dark regions. He has no food or drink. He is beaten with

clubs, and by holding out threats and being brought to a state of weary

affliction, the Jiva drops down in a swoon.

 

There is another region called the Andha-tamisra (blinding darkness). Here

Jivas are born who deceive husbands and appropriate to them selves their

wives and other property. Such Jivas are cast down into this hell to suffer

torments where they lose all understanding and sense through excessive pain.

The Jiva suffers like a tree whose roots are cut.

 

Those who grossly identify themselves with this physical body and regard the

wealth of the world as their own, fall into a hell called Raurava. Those

people who torment people here on earth become subject to the torment of

poisonous worms called Rurus in this dangerous region.

 

Maharaurava is of the same type. Those men who indulge in passions are eaten

here by carnivorous (flesh-eating) animals.

 

In the hell called Kumbhipaka, dreadful fiends begin to boil in oil that

cruel and merciless person who cooks and eats living animals, birds and the

like.

 

He is thrown into a hell called Kalasutra who insults spiritual men,

Brahmins, and Pitris. He is placed on the surface of burning copper, forty

thousand miles in extent, and constantly heated by fire below and the sun

above, and being tormented by hunger and thirst, undergoes untold misery.

 

There is a hell called Asipatravan. This is a forest full of leaves made out

of sharp daggers. The Jiva is made to run through the forest and is hunted

like a beast. He who goes against the Vedic Dharma, who embraces

infidelistic religions is thrown here! O pitiable sight! indeed he runs this

way and that way and has every part of his body torn up in those dreadful

woods of sword. The Jiva cries out, "Ah! I am undone!" and falls down in

agony.

 

Kings who inflict punishment on innocent men, or who inflict corporeal

punishment to a Brahmin, fall into the hell called Sukara-Mukha. There every

part of the body of the sinner is crushed like sugarcanes! He shrieks in

distress but none helps him!

 

Those men who having a good position in society inflict pain upon other poor

people fall into a hell called Andhakupa. The Jiva is tormented on all sides

in darkness by varieties of terrible beasts, serpents, etc., and learns such

lessons that will not allow him to do such sinful actions again.

 

Brahmins who do not perform their daily Yajnas, who do not share with others

what they possess, are fit to be called crows, and fall into a hell where

their food are worms. They are cast down into a vast ocean of worms where

they begin to tease the Jiva from all sides.

 

Who robs a Brahmin or a poor man and thus causes him to suffer without

reason, falls into a hell where he is severely pinched by burning iron tongs

and hit by red hot iron balls.

 

Those men or women who abuse innocent poor servants, and coolies who are

rather to be pitied and helped for their miserable condition, fall into a

hell where they are severely thrashed and forced to embrace a burning image

of iron like unto a man or woman. Those who abuse their marriage beds are

given a similar punishment.

 

Whoever here approaches under the force of passion all kinds of beings, is

placed in the Salmali Hell with adamantine thorns and is dragged through the

region of hell.

 

Kings who transgress the limits of righteousness, and administrative

employees who discard the law of justice fall into the river Vaitarani after

their death. The Jivas are bitten by aquatic monsters but are not separated

from their body and are on the other hand supported by their vital breaths

to be ever alive to the consequences of their Karma. This river is flooded

with refuse, urine, puss, blood, hair, nails, bones, marrow, flesh and fat.

 

Those men born of a higher caste who choose to be husbands of unchaste women

belonging to a lower order of life and lead like brutes a life of

shamelessness, fall after death into a pit of hell, a sea of pus, refuse,

urine, phlegm and swallow the same most detestable things.

 

Those Brahmins and others who act like husbands of bitches and asses and

find delight in chasing animals and killing them in violation of Sastra are

after death made the target and pierced with the arrows of merciless beings.

 

 

Those men who mercilessly slaughter animals are born as animals in the Hell

of slaughter house, and are dealt with in a similar manner.

 

Those sinful twice-born men who deluded by passion cause their wives born of

the same blood (Gotra) drink their semen, are thrown into a sea of semen and

made to drink it.

 

Those who set fire to others' houses and administer poison to others or

plunder villages and caravans-be they kings or kings' employees-they fall

after death into a hell where they are voraciously munched by seven hundred

and twenty hounds, with their dreadful teeth.

 

Who utters falsehood in giving evidence or in making gifts, falls into a

hell called Avichimat where there is no support to stand upon. There the

Jiva is hurled headlong from the summit of peaks of mountains four hundred

miles in height. In this hell even hard stony surface appears like water and

thus the Jiva is made to delude himself ever more. Though his body is

shattered to pieces he does not die, and he is repeatedly lifted up to the

top and hurled down again and again.

 

If a Brahmin drinks wine or eats objectionable food, he is made to drink

molten iron in the region of hell. Those who go against the prescribed rules

of Varnashrama Dharma are given suitable punishments here.

 

Those men who praise themselves as great personages, but do not respect

those who are really great by birth, honour and learning, are truly living

corpses and after death are thrown headforemost into a hell of brinish mire

to undergo endless torments.

 

Those who worship gods by offering human victims, are thrown into a hell

where they are cut to slices and eaten by devils, but even then they do not

die but only experience pain.

 

Those wicked people who torment their refugees-because they are under their

control-are made after death to suffer from extreme hunger and thirst and

are on every side assailed by sharp instruments, and are made to recollect

their sins.

 

Those who are here cruel like snakes by nature and terrify other beings,

fall, when they die, into a hell called Dandasuka, where snakes of five or

seven hoods attack them and worry them to death even though they do not die.

 

 

Those who here imprison people in dark holes and dungeons are in turn after

their death imprisoned in dark atmosphere filled with fire and smoke.

 

Those householders who get angry with guests and look at them with cruel

eyes, as if they would burn them, are plucked out their eyes after death by

vultures possessing bills hard like adamantine rock.