Lokas Or Planes: The Way To Yama Loka

By Sri Swami Sivananda

Two fierce messengers of Death stand before the lowest and the worst sinner, with frightful looks. The sinner is bound by the noose thrown by the messengers. Stricken by terror he passes urine. He is endowed with a special thick body called ‘Yatana Sarira’ to undergo the sufferings on the path. The messengers bind him with chords and forcibly drag him along distant routes to the city of Samyamani.

There is no shade of trees on the way. There is neither food nor water. Twelve suns blaze. The sinful soul goes along, pierced sometimes by cold winds, in one place torn by thorns, in another stung by very venomous serpents and scorpions. He is burnt by fire in another place.

With a broken heart, and the threats of a cruel guide, shivering with fear, bitten by merciless hounds, conscious of his past sins, tortured by hunger and thirst, burnt by the fierce sun, marching through red hot sand and severely beaten on the back though half falling down in a swoon, he is made to rise again and carried to the abode of Lord of Death. He is condemned to prolonged sufferings and passing through gradations of grossest animal lives, in the process of evolution like pigs and dogs, he attains gradually a human body after a process of purification of such sufferings.

In one place he falls into a hidden well, in another from a lofty mountain, in another he treads on razor-edges and spear-points. In one place he stumbles in the awful blackness and falls into water, in another in mud abounding in leeches, in another in hot slime. In another place is a plane of hot sand made of smelted copper, in another a mound of embers. In some places are showers of charcoal, showers of stones and thunderbolts, showers of blood, showers of weapons, showers of boiling water.

In the midst of the way flows the terribly horrible Vaitarani river with pus, blood. It is difficult to cross this river.

The sinner is beaten with hammers by the terrible messengers of Yama. He is forcibly dragged by the nooses. He eats the monthly rice-balls given by his son. If the son makes a gift of a cow the departed soul gets a boat to cross the Vaitarani river.

He reaches the abode of Yama at the end of a year. Lord Yama asks Chitragupta about the sins. Chitragupta enquires of the Sravanas who are the sons of Brahma, who know all about the actions of the human beings. The Sravanis, wives of the Sravanas, know accurately all that is done by women. Earth, water, fire, air, ether (sky), the heart, Yama, day and night, the two twilights, justice, the sun and the moon know the actions of man.

Lord Yama, the king of justice, gives fitting punishment to the sinners. Then the cruel messengers take them to hell and torture them. Again and again the messengers beat the sinners with spears, maces and pestles.

The virtuous are wafted in heavenly cars to the gardens of Paradise which they gain by their virtuous acts in life. But the highly sinful soul meets with icebergs and caverns strewn with thorns and pointed steel pikes, and bushes and shrubs on its way, as the punishment for its sins.

Those of the mediocre class, have a clear and fine passage, with soft grassy pathways strewn with cooling arbours and supplied with spring waters on both their sides.

On its arrival there, the soul reflects within itself thus: “Here am I and yonder is Yama, the Lord of death. That other is the judge of our actions, Chitragupta, and this, his judgment given on my behalf.”

Here in Yama’s court, the judgment is pronounced for the Jiva, so that it might reap the reward of its acts, whereby it ascends either to the blissful heaven above or descends to the painful hell below.

After having enjoyed the pleasures of Svarga or suffered the pains of hell, it is doomed to return to this earth again to undergo the result of its acts in repeated births. This is the significance of the periodical ceremonies done for the deceased, for the first one year after a man’s death.

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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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