In accordance with the popular beliefs in Hinduism, humans who have committed the worst crimes and lived a sinful life lead their way to Naraka Loka (Hell) after dying. At the time of death of such impious beings, the messengers of Yamaraja, called the Yamadutas, appear at their deathbed and drag him forcibly from his body. In the Brahma Purana, Yamaraja or Yamadharmaraja is the lord of justice and is associated with Dharma. Hence, it is believed that he accounts for all the right and wrong actions (karma) of a person, once he is dead. Yamaraja is the fierce demigod who is in charge of death and punishing the sinful. The dead are forced to take up the punishments and suffer according to their sins. In the Naraka Loka, it is believed that there are twenty-seven sub hells or hellish places. His judgment is said to be binding and final. The below verse aptly describes the greatness of Yamaraja:

“Yatra ha vava bhagavan pitr-rajo vaivasvatah sva-visayam prapitesu sva-purusairjantusu samparetesu yatha-karmavadyam dosam evanullanghita-bhagavac-chasanah sagano damam dharayati.”

Translating to: “The King of the pitas is Yamaraja, the very powerful son of the sun-god. He resides in Pitrloka with his personal assistants and, while abiding by the rules and regulations set down by the Supreme Lord, has his agents, the Yamadutas, bring all the sinful men to him immediately upon their death. After bringing them within his jurisdiction, he properly judges them according to their specific sinful activities and sends them to one of the many hellish planets for suitable punishments.”

Sins & Punishments

The Garuda Purana mentioned about the sins committed by people. The punishments received are in accordance to the severity of their sins. The Garuda Purana is one of eighteen Mahapuraṇa genre of texts in Hinduism. There are twenty-eight Narakas (hells):

  1. Tamisram

Crime: Beings who try to take the possession over others property, be it wealth, money, land, houses, or jewellery. It includes involving in acts such as robbing, surcharging with interests and so on.

Punishment: The sinners would be punished with this punishment by God of Death –  Yamraja’s retainers. They are given a thrashing until they bleed and faint. When they recover their senses, the beating is repeated. This is done until their time is up.

  1. Andhatamtrsam

Crime: Soulmates, husbands and wives who cheat their partners in the relationship are punished with this penalty. It is awarded to people who indulge in unethical practices of a relationship and those who treat their partners well when there is a need of them for profits or pleasure.

Punishment: It involves the agonizing thrashes by tying up victims fast with ropes and making them fall down unconscious circulation in abyss.

  1. Rauravam

Crime: Sinners who enjoy others property or resources without possession

Punishment: It is believed that when these people are thrown into this hell, those whom they have cheated, assume the shape of “Ruru”, a dreadful serpent. The serpents will torment them severely until their time is up.

  1. Mahararuravam

Crime: It involves destroying property of others, staying denial of legitimate heirs, inheritance and possession of others property. It also includes brutally destroying other’s property and family for the sake of acquisition.

Punishment: The sinners will be squeezed and bitten non-stop by numerous terrible serpents coiling around them. It is believed that those who steal another man’s wife or lover will also be thrown here.

  1. Kumbhipakam

Crime: This hell is for people who kill animals for their own pleasure.

Punishment: The sinners are then boiled in huge vessels with boiling oil.

  1. Kalasutram 

Crime: It includes disrespecting, torturing and putting elders and one’s parents in starvation.

Punishment: They are made to run around in this unbearable heat and drop down exhausted from time to time.

  1. Asitapatram

Crime: It is where people tend to abandon, giving up one’s own duty, abetting god and violate Dharma practices.

Punishment: It is known that the sinners are flogged with whips made of asipatra (sharp-edged sword-shaped leaves), stabbed with knives until sinners drop unconscious, tortured by evil spirits resulting fear and repeating the similar process.

  1. Sukaramukham

Crime: Rulers who neglect their duties and oppress their subjects by misrule, are punished in this hell.

Punishment: They are crushed to a pulp by heavy beating. When they recover, it is repeated until their time is up.

  1. Andhakupam

Crime: This is hell for those humans who oppressed the good people and not helping them if requested despite having the resources.

Punishment: The sinners will be pushed into a well, where deadly animals like lions, tigers, eagles and other venomous creatures like snakes and scorpions exist. The sinners have to endure the constant attacks of this creatures until the expiry of the period of their punishment.

  1. Taptamurti

Crime: It includes stealing, snatching other’s property by force, steal gold and jewels care cast into the furnaces of this Naraka. It also includes gaining undue advantage and unlawfully making best out of everything in the world.

Punishment: Sinners are roasted in inverted position in fire. The process is continued until their time is up in that hell.

  1. Vajrakandaka

Crime: People who indulge in unnatural intercourse with animals, humans, unmatching people, and other forced sexual contacts.

Punishment: Here, they are made to embrace iron images full of sharp diamond needles that pierce through their bodies.

  1. Visasanam

Crime: This Naraka is to torture those rich people who look down at the poor and spend excessively just to display their wealth and splendour.

Punishments: These sinners are forced to remain here at the whole term of their punishment where they will be bashed non-stop from heavy clubs from Yamaraja’s Servants.

  1. Dandasukam

Crime: People who persecute others like humans or animals will be sent here.

Punishment: This Naraka homes many beasts, who later on eat such sinners alive.

  1. Sarameyasanam

Crime: People those who participate in unsocial acts of poisoning food, mass slaughter, ruining the country, gutting houses, torturing lives, or involve themselves in massacre.

Punishment: Sinners are casted in this hell with thousands of dogs attacking and tearing their flesh into pieces. These dogs with their teeth torture the sinners, until their term ends.

  1. Lalabhaksam

Crime: This hell is for the lusty men/women who indulge in torturing their soulmate/partner, unchaste intercourse, forcing their wife/husband to swallow genital liquid.

Punishment: Accused souls thrown in river of semen, feeding upon semen alone until his period of punishment.

  1. Pranarodham

Crime: This Naraka is for those who keep dogs and other mean animals and constantly hunt and kill animals for food.

Punishment: The penalty to these sinners is that here the servants of Yama, gather around the sinners. They then cut them limb to limb while subjecting them to constant insult.

  1. Salmali

Crime: it is for the sinners, both men and women who indulge themselves in adultery or unchaste relationships with kamukas.

Punishment: Hot solid figures of gadha’s (maces, clubs) made of iron are heated red-hot and thrashed on the genital spaces of these sinners.

  1. Sukaramukha

Crime: It involves disregarding one’s duties and persecuting their subjects by misrule, punishing innocent people and accomplice unlawful activities.

Punishment: The sinners are crushed to a pulp by heavy beating. When they recover, it is repeated until their time is up.

  1. Sucimukham

Crime: Proud and miserly people who refuse to spend money even for the basic necessities of life, like better food or buying food for their relations or friends will find their place in this hell.

Punishment: The sinners are punished by stinging with nails and torturing with hunger and thirst, constantly pricked and pierced by needles.

  1. Krimibhojanam

Crime: This hell is mostly concerned with hospitality. Those who do not honour their guests and make use of men or women only for their own gain are thrown into this Naraka.

Punishment: This hell consists of worms, insects and serpents that eat the sinners alive. Once their bodies are completely eaten up, they are provided with new bodies. These new bodies are also eaten up in the above manner. This continues, until the end of their term of punishment.

  1. Vatarodham

Crime: This hell is for those sinners who persecute animals that live in forests, mountain peaks, trees, or anywhere else in their natural habitats.

Punishment: Such people who commit these actions are tortured with fire, poison and various weapons during their time here in this Naraka.

  1. Paryavartanakam

Crime: it is where people who deny food for a hungry being and further abuse him, land up after their death.

Punishment: Such a crime leads to his eyes being pierced by the beaks of birds like crows and eagles. They will be pierced later on by these birds till the end of their punishment.

  1. Ksharakardamam

Crime: This hell is for those who insult and abuse the innocent and good people.

Punishment: Yamadootas (Yama’s servants) are said to keep these sinners upside down. They are further tortured in many ways, until the end of their term in that hell.

  1. Ayahpanam

Crime: Consumption of alcohol and other intoxicating drinks or substances leads the people to this hell.

Punishment: After they reach this hell, the women are forced to drink melted iron in liquid form, whereas the men will be forced to drink hot liquid molten lava for every time they consume alcoholic drinks in their earthly lives.

  1. Avici

Crime: This hell is for those people who are guilty for false witness and false swearing, at critical situations.

Punishment: The servants of Yama hurl them from a great height and they are utterly smashed into dust when they reached the ground. They are again restored to life and the punishment is repeated till the end of their time.

  1. Puyodakam

Crime: It is for the men who have intercourse and cheat women with no intention of marrying them. Here, they are considered animals.

Punishment: Such irresponsible men are thrown down into a well filled with excreta, urine, blood, phlegm. They are left to get polluted in this well, until their term ends.

  1. Vaitarani

Crime: This hell is one of the terrible places to end up in. Abuse of power and adulteration are the crimes, if committed would lead one to here.

Punishment: The sinners are thrown into a river with human excreta, blood, hair, bones, nails, flesh and all kinds of dirty substances. They are to live in this river, feeding upon its contents until their term ends.

  1. Raksobjaksam

Crime: This hell is for people indulging in animal and human sacrifices and further eat the flesh of the creature sacrificed.

Punishment: The creatures that have been sacrificed would now avenge their death. They all together start attacking, biting, and mauling the sinners, for their deeds.

 

Avoiding Yamaraja: Ajamila’s story

As mentioned in the Bhagavata Purana, there lived a young brahmin named Ajamila. He was the ideal for a good character and conduct. He was well versed in the Vedic scriptures and their ideals. He was then once sent by his father to the jungle to fetch Samit (leaves and twigs to make the sacrificial fire). It was where he sighted a beautiful woman. Violating all the ideals he was bound by, he then started admiring her and decided to make her his wife. In his lifetime of eighty-eight years, he had ten sons with the woman. It was then the time for his death.

The Yamadoothas come to take him to hell for his sinful acts. Ajamila anxiously shouted the name of his dearest son, Narayana. He was worried about this son amongst the others as he was very close to him. He was repeatedly uttering the name of his son, not knowing that he was chanting the name of Lord Vishnu himself. Then the servants of Lord Vishnu appeared there and dismissed the agents of Yama. From that day, Ajamila became a devotee of Vishnu. He went on and did penance on the bank of the Ganges and after some years attained salvation.

Ajamila was saved from hell because he chanted “Narayana” as the Yamadutas approached him. Such was the power of chanting the name of the Lord. Yamaraja tells his messengers that, “even if by mistake or because of bewilderment or illusion… sometimes commit sinful acts,” because “they are protected from sinful reactions because they always chant the Hare Krishna mantra.” Verses from the Garuda Purana and Bhagavat Gita also indicate that changing the name of Narayana, the Lord himself:

 

सर्वधर्मान्परित्यज्य मामेकं शरणं व्रज |

अहं त्वां सर्वपापेभ्यो मोक्षयिष्यामि मा शुच: || 66||

Translating to: Abandon all varieties of Dharma and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear.

– Bhagavat Gita

 

“If one chants the holy name of the Lord, even in a helpless condition or without desiring to do so, all the reactions of his sinful life depart, just as when a lion roars, all the small animals flee in fear.”

– Garuda Purana

 

 

 

Jyotsna A

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