Guidance, Volume 3

Hell

Many ask: is there any physical place called 'hell' or 'heaven'? Is it present in India or abroad? Are the suffering and enjoyment (happiness, opulence) that we see in this world hell and heaven?

In the present day and age of advanced material science, many interpret hell and heaven as something like a 'bogeyman' that 'old-fashioned' authors of scriptures use to scare the God-fearing people. Some also think that in the twenty-first century hell or heaven is just an outdated coin that has gone out of use. It is not that this is characteristic of only the present day and age—philosophers of previous age, such as Charvaka and others, also declared their strong revolt against existence of 'hell' and 'heaven'. If existence of hell is not hushed up, then the restrictions for free and unrestrained enjoyment and various debauchery will never be lifted.

A thief or a wicked person tries to go underground and escape the king's court of justice or the punishment inflicted on him by the king—there is nothing irrational in that. When conditioned people's listless conscience shows some feeble desire to fight against sin and it is necessary to persecute and completely immobilise this little bit of conscience, then there is no other alternative except for denying existence of hell. Scriptures tell about hell, etc. to scare the hard-core non-devotees and enjoyers given to sinful activates, but if they are to disregard the scriptural dictation, the only weapon of such enjoyers and rebels fighting against the scriptures is to take advantage of empirical knowledge and deny existence of hell. The stronger one hankers to enjoy and the more one relies on empirical knowledge and atheism, the more rebellious one becomes towards this basic dictation of the scriptures (i.e. the more they deny existence of hell, etc.).

Devotees of the Lord, however, do not need to carry out any particular research when it comes to 'hell' or 'heaven'. Whether hell or heaven exists or does not exist does not matter for them much because selfless devotees of the Lord do not run to make religious sacrifices or offerings for fear of hell or for greed for heaven. If people desire to perform some religious rites for fear of hell or coveting the happiness of heaven, this cannot be called pure devotional religion—this is just a populist religion ('laukik dharma', or a religion that caters for the general public). Devotees of the Lord do not want any sin or piety, they do not feel inclined towards that.

One goes to hell as a result of committing sins, and one gets to heaven as a result of piety. If a person is a sinner but is frightened to some extent by the consequences of sinning, he or she becomes motivated to do some piety-producing works. Very often those who have material desires become frightened to go to hell and start performing some religious duties out of selfish motives. If such people come in touch with the association of selfless pure devotees—if they persistently and sincerely aspire and try to hear and follow the instruction of exclusive devotees of the Lord more and more—then this original desire to take up devotion for fear of God can leave their hearts, and, by the natural attraction felt within their hearts, they can understand that devotional activities are the pure religion of the soul.

If such people, who were at first scared of hell and left their sinful life for this fear of hell, aspire and strive to enter simple devotional life, this can be called auspicious; but if the fear of hell makes somebody give up the path of sin only to take up the path of common worldly piety, then this desire for piety is just the lesser of two evils—there is nothing outstanding or eternally auspicious about it. Both hell and heaven are just the top and bottom positions in the ferris wheel of karma. Sometimes the hand of hell drowns the punishable people in the fathomless water of distress; and sometimes the gentle hand of heaven gives these people a break from such suffering and lets them breathe freely for some time—but when this happiness in heaven passes, the cruel hand of the dispenser of hellish punishment is again on standby. Heavenly happiness is an advance messenger of hellish suffering.

Although Charvaka denied existence of hellish planets taking support of his empirical knowledge, he could not deny existence of hell in the form of suffering experienced in this world. He had to admit, "Kantakadi-janyam duhkham eva narakam: hell is the suffering arising from obstacles."

As for the question whether there is a particular physical place of hell, Pariksit Maharaj asks Sri Sukadev in Srimad Bhagavatam (5.26.4), "Sri-rajovacha—naraka nama bhagavan kim desa-visesa athava bahis tri-lokkya ahosvid antarala ita. O Lord, are there any particular hellish places on this earth or within or without this universe?"

Srirsir uvacha: antarala eva tri-jagatyas tu disi daksinasyam adhastad bhumer uparistach cha jalad yasyam agnisvattadayah pitr-gana disi svanam gotranam paramena samadhina satya evasisa asasana nivasanti. Yatra ha vava bhagavan pitr-rajo vaivasvatah sva-visayam prapitesu sva-purusair jantusu samparetesu yatha-karmavadyam dosam evanullanghita-bhagavach-chhasanam sagano damam dharayati.

In reply to that, Sri Ṛsi (Sri Sukadev) said (SB, 5.26.5–6), "All hellish planets are situated within this universe. They are located to the south of the ghost planet and slightly above the Garbhodaka Ocean. There, Agnisvatta and other residents of Pitrloka (planet where ancestors reside) meditate upon the Lord in deep samadhi and bestow their blessings on their families. The opulent king of ancestors, Yamaraj, the son of the sun-god, resides there with his associates abiding by the order of the Supreme Lord—when living beings die, they are brought (by his messengers) here under his jurisdiction and he metes out the punishment for them depending on the faults and merits of their actions."

Srimad Bhagavatam (5.26.7) provides a detailed description of different divisions of different hellish planets, their names, as well as what suffering is inflicted upon the sinners in each of them:

"Tatra haike narakan eka-vimsatim ganayanti. Atha tams te rajan nama-rupa-laksanato 'nukramisyamah. Tamisro 'ndhatamisro rauravo maharauravah kumbhipakah kalasutram asipatravanam sukaramukham andhakupah krmibhojanah sandamsas taptasurmir vajrakantaka-salmali vaitarani puyodah pranarodho visasanam lalabhaksah sarameyadanam avichir ayah panam iti. Kincha ksarakardamo raksogana-bhojanah sulaproto dandasuko 'vata-nirodhanah paryavartanah suchimukham ity asta-vimsatir naraka vividha-yatana-bhumayah."

"Some say that there are twenty-one hellish planets existing in that place. O Maharaj, please listen as I outline to you the name, description and symptoms of each of them. Tamisra, Andhatamisra, Raurav, Maharaurav, Kumbhipak, Kalasutra, Asi-patravan, Sukaramukha, Andhakupa, Krmibhojana, Sandamsa, Taptasurmi, Vajrakastaka-salmali, Vaitarani, Puyoda, Pranarodha, Visasana, Lalabhaksa, Sarameyadan, Avichi, Ayahpana are the twenty-one hellish planets. Besides that, there are seven more hellish planets called Ksarakardama, Raksogana-bhojana, Sulaprota, Dandasuka, Avata-nirodhana, Paryavartana and Suchimukha. In total, there are these twenty-eight hellish planets—places of various sufferings.

Sri Kapiladev told Devahuti in the third canto of Srimad Bhagavatam (3.30.29):

atra iva narakah svarga iti matah prachaksyate
ya yatana vai narakyas ta ihapy upalaksitah

"O mother, those who know the truth say that there is hell here and there is heaven here. The suffering that is experienced in hell can be seen in this world too."

Here, Kapiladev says that just as there are physical hellish and heavenly planets or places, in the same way we find all these hellish and heavenly planets' miseries, etc. present within the different kinds of suffering and enjoyment, happiness on this planet also. Some are stricken with so much pain and misery in the womb of their mother that they die; some experience so much intolerable pain during the delivery; some become afflicted with syphilis, leprosy or other different painful diseases since their birth; some accumulate much knowledge and suffer from mental heat; some take birth in a very poor house and suffer from a lack of food, etc. since their childhood; some suffer in various ways from Pyu or Quetta earthquake, some from wild ferocious animals, some from floods, famine, drought or train, can accidents, etc.

Bound by the result of their previous activities, jiva souls suffer since birth. Lord Kapiladev told His mother Devahuti, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu also told Mother Sachi about the hellish suffering that the soul experiences in the womb of its mother. These descriptions can be found in Srimad Bhagavatam (3.31.5–10, below) and Sri Chaitanya Charitamrta (2.1.203–240).

matur jagdhanna-panadyair edhad-dhatur asammate
sete vin-mutrayor garte sa jantur jantu-sambhave
krmibhih ksata-sarvangah saukumaryat pratiksanam
murchchham apnoty uru-klesas tatratyaih ksudhitair muhuh
katu-tiksnosna-lavana-ksaramladibhir ulbanaih
matr-bhuktair upasprstah sarvangotthita-vedanah
ulbena samvrtas tasminn antrais cha bahir avrtah
aste krtva sirah kuksau bhugna-prstha-sirodharah
akalyah svanga-chestayam sakunta iva panjare
tatra labdha-smrtir daivat karma janma-satodbhavam
smaran dirgham anuchchhvasam sarma kim nama vindate
arabhya saptaman masal labdha-bodho 'pi vepitah
naikatraste suti-vatair vistha-bhur iva sodarah

"The jiva soul's body develops through the food and drink taken by the mother and is forced to lie in the hole filled with stool and urine, a breeding place of various organisms. Bitten again and again all over the body by the hungry worms in this hole, the child suffers terrible agony because of his tenderness. He thus becomes unconscious all the time because of the terrible condition. Whatever unbearable food the mother takes—bitter, pungent, hot, salty, dry, sour, etc.— becomes absorbed into the body of the jiva soul dwelling within the womb, causing pain in all its body. Surrounded by the uterus and confined carefully outside by the intestines, the child lies with its neck and back bent, head pressed against its chest. The child thus remains just like a bird in a cage, unable to move within the womb. At that time, if the child is fortunate, it can remember all the troubles of its past births. Remember the sinful activities of its past hundreds of lifetimes, it keeps sighing. Thus, when the seventh month starts, the jiva soul gains consciousness, but then it is tossed by the airs that occur to stimulate child birth and cannot remain still in one place, just as the worms that are born in the same womb.

During the time when the averse to the service of the Lord and attached to the material world conditioned jiva soul leaves this world, it is afflicted by the same hellish suffering that it experiences in the womb before its birth—suffering continuously from such pain, the soul ends up in hell. Srimad Bhagavatam (3.30.18–28) shows how the soul bound by material attachments is sent there:

evam kutumba-bharane vyaprtatmajitendriyah
mriyate rudatam svanam uru-vedanayasta-dhih
yama-dutau tada praptau bhimau sarabhaseksanau
sa drstva trasta-hrdayah sakrn-mutram vimunchati
yatana-deha avrtya pasair baddhva gale balat
nayato dirgham adhvanam dandyam raja-bhata yatha
tayor nirbhinna-hrdayas tarjanair jata-vepathuh
pathi svabhir bhaksyamana arto 'gham svam anusmaran
ksut-trt-parito 'rka-davanalanilaih
santapyamanah pathi tapta-valuke
krchchhrena prsthe kasaya cha taditas
chalaty asakto 'pi nirasramodake
tatra tatra patan chhranto murchchhitah punar utthitah
patha papiyasa nitas tamasa yama-sadanam
yojananam sahasrani navatim nava chadhvanah
tribhir muhurtair dvabhyam va nitah prapnoti yatanah
adipanam sva-gatranam vestayitvolmukadibhih
atma-mamsadanam kvapi sva-krtam parato 'pi va
jivatas chantrabhyuddharah sva-grdhrair yama-sadane
sarpa-vrschika-damsadyair dasadbhis chatma-vaisasam
krntanam chavayavaso gajadibhyo bhidapanam
patanam giri-srngebhyo rodhanam chambu-gartayoh
yas tamisrandha-tamisra-rauravadyas cha yatanah
bhunkte naro va nari va mithah sangena nirmitah

Engrossed in maintaining his family, unable to control his senses, a materialist householder becomes anxious seeing his family weeping in deep sorrow—in this state he finally loses consciousness and leaves his body.

At death, he sees two fearsome messengers (yamadutas) of Yamaraj, the Lord of Death, come before him, their eyes full of wrath. Grief-stricken at the sight of them, he keeps passing stool and urine.

At first, these yamadutas seize the agonising (subtle) body of the man and detach it from the gross body—they throw a rope on his neck and bind him tight. Then, like constables accompanying a criminal, the servants of Yamaraj take the man far away to their own place.

Hearing the swearing of the yamadutas, the man's heart is torn apart, and he begins to tremble with all his body. On the way, dogs keep gnawing at him—feeling extreme pain, the man keeps walking remembering all his sins. The road that the yamadutas take him is full of scorching sand—with no shelter for rest and no water. He is dying from hunger, scorching heat and forest fires, extremely weak, unable to walk any further, but the yamadutas keep striking his back with a whip trying to impede his agonising walk.

Fatigued, he collapses on the ground and faints, and then, having come round, he again carries on walking. In this way he is brought to the abode of Lord Yama down this dark, swelling with sins path.

The path to the house of Yamaraj that one has to cover is ninety-nine thousand yojanas [one yojana is 8 miles] long, and the some people are forced to pass all this long road within two muhurtas [one muhurta is 96 minutes]. When the sinner appears in the court of Lord Yamaraj, he sees: in some places, bodies are surrounded by blazing coal burning the limbs of the sinner; in some places, the sinners tear off their own or others' flesh and eat it; even if the person is still alive, dogs, vultures and other animals living in Lord Yamaraj's house pull out his intestines; some are bitten and stung by snakes, scorpions, gadflies and other creatures and suffer excruciating pain; others have all their limbs and projecting parts severed piece by piece; some are hurled down from the top of a mountain; some are enclosed in a hole or dunked into water. The sinner has to undergo all these kinds of suffering.

Be it a man or a woman, materialist householders have to suffer after death in a corresponding hell for all the sins they have contracted.

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CONTENTS:

• Foreword
• (Preface) Meaning of Festival
• What Is Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math and Its Distinctions
• "Without Lord Krishna Life Is Meaningless"
• The Unrenounceable
• Sri Radhastami
• Proper Renunciation
• Astakala-Lila
• Is Religion the Cause of National Downfall?
• Householders and Renunciates
• Provincialism and Service to the Lord
• Offenders
• Hell
• Devotional Mood (Bhakta-Bhav)
• Home-interest vs Math-interest
• Samsara and Bhakti
• Questions and Answers