Lokas Or Planes: Karmas And Hells

By Sri Swami Sivananda

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 sufferings are described in the Bhagavata, when Jivas are said to be born due to their Karmas.

There is a place of suffering called Tamisra (darkness). 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 Andhatamisra (blinding darkness). Here Jivas are born who deceive husbands and appropriate to themselves 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 one 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 Asipatravana. 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 are thrown here. Oh! 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 sugar canes. 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 is worms. They are cast down into a vast ocean of worms where they begin to tease the Jiva from all sides.

He 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 a 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, pus, blood, hair, nails, bones, marrow, flesh and fat.

Those men, born of a higher caste, 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 slaughterhouse, 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.

He 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 Varnasrama 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 head foremost 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 ten 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.

The eyes of those householders who get angry with guests and look at them with cruel eyes, as if they would burn them, are plucked out after death by vultures possessing bills hard like adamantine rock.

He who having possessed much wealth, constantly suspects others as being thieves, and always watches over his treasure like a devil with a restless mind, becomes a devil in a waterless hell filled with darkness and filth. He falls into a hell called Suchimukha.

There are hundreds and thousands of such hells, which cannot be easily described here. They are only specimens of such hells for suffering sinners and transgressors of law.

Those who control their senses, and lead the path of Nivritti, who absorb themselves in Divine Meditation, who are good, kind and generous, who care a naught for this sensuous earth, who are intent on Supreme Moksha, are liberated beyond embodiment. Virtuous people get the joyous heaven for enjoyment. Others fall into one or the other of these hells, in case they are born again on this earth. (From the Srimad-Bhagavata)

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This was an excerpt from the book What Becomes Of The Soul After Death by Sri Swami Sivananda.

The death and dying and the life after death has always fascinated man. We want to now the truth behind near death experiences and become certain that there really is a life after death.

Many books have been written on the subject of death, but most of the works deal mainly with the astral or other spirit world. It has mostly been the study of the conditions in the Pretaloka which is merely one among the numerous supramundane planes or lokas beyond the grave. Spiritualism, seance and the testimony of recognised mediums have for most part featured prominently in all such works.

What Becomes Of The Soul After Death by Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj is a departure from the usual line in that it is based, to a great extent, upon authoritative scriptural texts and upon knowledge derived through reasoning, deep reflection and personal meditation. It throws a flood of light upon all aspects of life after death not adequately dealt with in other works. The book also gives valuable information about the different beliefs on this subject, of the various races and religions.

The book is dealing with rebirth, the soul, reincarnation, moksha, heaven and hell, karma and different lokas. It even includes death poems and death poetry, giving a complete picture and a new face of death. For more material see this link: What Becomes Of The Soul After Death.

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