A Description of the Hellish Planets

The King said: Why is there such variety in the planets?

For the performer of forbidden acts of adharma, as with the performer of dharma, there are varieties of results for actions according to differences in faith of the performer. The destinations for performing acts out of desire caused by beginningless ignorance are merely transformations of those desires, with thousands of varieties. Among these destinations I shall describe in the detail the various hells.

The King said: Are these hells places on earth, outside the three worlds, or in some intermediate space?

Śukadeva said: All the hellish planets are situated within an intermediate space within the three worlds, on the southern side of the universe, beneath the seven lower planets, and slightly above the Garbhodaka Ocean. In that direction, the Pitṛs headed by the Agiṣvāttās1 dwell, desiring virtuous blessings for their family members by great concentration on the Lord.

There, the king of the Pitṛs, the son of Vaivasvata named, Yamarāja, along with his followers, in obedience to the orders of the Lord, awards unavoidable punishment for sin according to the action to the living beings who have been brought to his place after death by his servants.

Some authorities say that there is a total of twenty-one hellish planets. O King! I shall outline all of them according to their names, forms and characteristics. The names of the different hells are as follows: Tāmisra, Andhatāmisra, Raurava, Mahāraurava, Kumbhīpāka, Kālasūtra, Asi-patravana, Sūkaramukha, Andhakūpa, Kṛmibhojana, Sandaṁśa, Taptasūrmi, Vajrakaṇṭaka-śālmalī, Vaitaraṇī, Pūyoda, Prāṇarodha, Viśasana, Lālābhakṣa, Sārameyādana, Avīci, Ayaḥpāna, Kṣārakardama, Rakṣogaṇa-bhojana, Śūlaprota, Dandaśūka, Avaṭa-nirodhana, Paryāvartana and Sūcīmukha. Thus there are twenty-eight hells, places of pain for the living entities.

A person who appropriates another's legitimate wife, children or money, after being bound up with Yama’s ropes of time by the fierce Yamadūtas, is forcibly thrown into Tāmisra. On this very dark planet, the sinful man suffers by chastisement, beating, starvation and lack of water. Severely suffering, sometimes he faints in that very dark place.

The destination of a person who slyly cheats another man and enjoys his wife and children is the hell known as Andha-tāmisra. The jīva, thrown down and full of pain, loses consciousness and sight because of the suffering. He is like a tree cut at the root. Thus this place is called Andha-tāmisra (blind).

A person who, thinking in terms of me and mine, maintains his own body and the bodies of his wife and children by violence against other living entities, falls into the hell called Raurava because of that violence after giving up his body and his family.

The living beings that were injured by him become rurus and commit violence to him while he suffers the pains of Yama. Therefore this place is called Raurava. Ruru is the name of a living entity more cruel than a snake.

In Mahāraurava, ruru animals known as kravyāda torment a person who maintains his body only by harming others by eating his flesh.

Cruel persons who cook poor animals and birds alive and who are condemned even by Rākṣasas are cooked in boiling oil by the servants of Yama in the next life in Kumbhīpāka.

The killer of a brāhmaṇa is put into the hell known as Kālasūtra, which has a circumference of 10,000 yojanas and which has a flat surface made entirely of copper, heated from below by fire and from above by the scorching sun. Suffering from being burned both internally and externally by hunger and thirst, he sometimes lies down, sometimes sits, sometimes stands up and sometimes runs here and there. He must suffer in this way for as many thousands of years as there are hairs on the body of an animal.

If a person deviates from the path of the Vedas in the absence of an emergency and adopts an unauthorized system, the servants of Yamarāja put him into the hell called Asi-patravana, where they beat him with whips. When he runs anywhere to escape, on all sides his whole body is cut by palm trees with leaves similar to sharp swords. Fainting at every step because of the great pain, falling down, he cries out, "I am dying!" One who deviates from the accepted religious principles suffers this result by following unauthorized teachings.

A sinful king or governmental representative who punishes an innocent person or who inflicts corporal punishment upon a brāhmaṇa, falls down to the hell named Sūkaramukha, where the most powerful assistants of Yamarāja crush his limbs just as one crushes sugarcane. Caught in such difficulty, he cries very pitiably and faints. He is punishes as much as the innocent people were punished in this world.

The person who, being given means of maintenance by the Lord and being aware of others’ suffering, causes suffering in this life to other entities who have no awareness of giving suffering to others and whose sustenance is arranged by the Lord from other living entities, falls to Andakūpa after death because of his violence. There he is attacked on all sides by the birds, animals, reptiles, mosquitoes, lice, worms, and flies which he injured. Without sleep or resting place, he wanders about like a living entity in a lower body.

The person who in this life eats what he obtains without sharing, without erforming the five sacrifices, who is praised as a crow, falls to Kṛmibhojana after death. There he becomes a worm in a lake of worms which measures 100,000 yojanas. There he is eaten by other worms and eats worms. As long as that sin remains, that person who eats unshared and unoffered food tortures his own body since he did not undergone atonement.

O King! A person who, in the absence of an emergency, robs a brāhmaṇa or anyone else of his gems and gold is put into a hell known as Sandaṁśa after death. There, the servants of Yama tear his skin with red-hot iron lumps.

A man or woman who approaches an unsuitable member of the opposite sex is punished after death by the assistants of Yamarāja in the hell known as Taptasūrmi. There such men and women are beaten with whips. The man is forced to embrace a red-hot iron form of a woman, and the woman is forced to embrace a similar form of a man.

A person who indulges in sex indiscriminately—even with animals—is taken after death to the hell known as Vajrakaṇṭaka-śālmalī. The agents of Yamarāja hang the sinful man up on a śālmalī tree with thorns as strong as thunderbolts and then pull him off.

A person who is born into a responsible family—such as a kṣatriya, a member of royalty or a government servant—but who neglects to execute his prescribed duties according to religious principles and break the rules, falls down at the time of death into the river of hell known as Vaitaraṇī. He is bitten by the aquatic animals in this river surrounding hell, but does not give his body, being supported by his life airs. Remembering the results of his sinful activities, he suffers terribly in that river, which is full of stool, urine, pus, blood, hair, nails, bones, marrow, flesh and fat.

The husbands of lowborn women, living like animals, with no good behavior, cleanliness or regulated life, after death are thrown into a fearful ocean of pus, stool, urine, mucus, and saliva, which they eat.

The man of the higher classes who, taking his pet dogs or asses, goes hunting in the forest and kills animals against the rules, is placed after death into the hell known as Prāṇarodha. There the assistants of Yamarāja make him their targets and pierce him with arrows.

A person who, in this life, proud of his eminent position, sacrifices animals simply for material prestige is put into the hell called Viśasana after death. There the assistants of Yamarāja kill him after giving him pain.

In this world, persons who are thieves, arsonists, or poisoners, and also, members of the royalty or government officials who plunder mercantile men and villages are put into the hell known as Sārameyādana after death. There, 720 dogs (sārameyas) with teeth as strong as thunderbolts, the agents of Yamarāja, voraciously devour those sinful people.

A person who, in this life, lies as a witness during business transactions or in giving charity is thrown head first, alone, from the top of a mountain eight hundred miles high in the hell known as Avīcimat (waveless) where the stony land resembles water. Although the sinful man is repeatedly thrown from the mountain and his body broken into tiny pieces, he still does not die.

In this life, any brāhmaṇa or his wife, or a person during a vrata who drinks liquor, or kṣatriya or vaiśya who drinks soma out of negligence, is taken by the agents of Yamarāja to the hell known as Ayaḥpāna. In Ayaḥpāna the agents of Yamarāja stand on their chests and pour hot melted iron into their mouths.

A lowborn person who, in this life, because of false ego, fails to show respect to a person more elevated by birth, austerity, education, behavior, caste or spiritual order, is like a dead man even in this lifetime, and after death he is thrown headfirst into the hell known as Kṣārakardama (pool of mud) and suffers.

Animalistic men who sacrifice human beings, and women who eat the sacrificed men, are taken to hell called Rakṣogaṇabhojana, where their victims, having taken the form of Rākṣasas, cut them to pieces with sharpened swords, drink their blood, and dance and sing in jubilation, just as the sacrificers did in this life.

Those who, by acting in a trusting manner, inspire the trust of faultless forest or village animals who, desiring protection, approach them, and who then torture those animals by piercing them with lances and threads as if they were dolls, after dying have their bodies pierced by lances in a hell called Śūlaprota. They are overwhelmed by hunger and thirst, and, attacked by the sharp beaks of herons and vultures, then remember their sinful acts.

Those who in this life are like envious serpents, who are always angry and give pain to other living entities, fall after death into the hell known as Dandaśūka. O King! In this hell, serpents with five or seven hoods eat such sinful persons just as snakes eat mice.

Those who in this life confine other living entities in dark wells, granaries or mountain caves are put after death into the hell known as Avaṭa-nirodhana. There they themselves are pushed into dark wells and locked there, with poisonous fumes, fire and smoke.

A householder who, becoming angry, often glances at guests or visitors with cruel eyes, as if to burn them to ashes, is put into the hell called Paryāvartana, where vultures, herons, and crows pluck out his eyes with great force.

The person in this life who is proud of his wealth, who has distorted vision, who is fearful of all persons, whose heart has dried up because of thoughts of losing his wealth, who is like a ghost, devoid of happiness, and who simply protects his wealth, falls to a hell called Sūcīmukha. The servants of Yama, expert sewers, stitch up all the limbs of that person who committed the sin of hoarding his wealth.

O King! In the kingdom of Yamarāja there are hundreds and thousands of hellish planets. The impious people I have mentioned—and also those I have not mentioned—must all enter these various planets according to the degree of their sin. Those who are pious, however, enter Svarga. Nevertheless, both the pious and impious are again brought to earth, by the remaining results of dharma and adharma.

In the beginning [the Second and Third Cantos of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam I have already described how one can progress on the path of liberation. In the Purāṇas the universe divided into fourteen parts is described as the gross body of the Supreme Lord Nārāyaṇa, made of his material māyā. If one reads the description of this external form of the Lord with great faith, or if one hears about it or explains it to others, and develops faith, bhakti, and pure intelligence, he will understand the topic of the Supreme Lord, which is like an Upaniṣad, difficult to understand.

After hearing of the gross and subtle forms of the Lord, the renunciate, just as he leads the controlled mind by the intelligence to the gross form of the Lord, leads the mind to subtle form of the Lord.

O King! I have now described for you the position of the earth, the islands, the varṣas, rivers, mountains, sky and oceans, the lower planetary systems, the directions, the hellish planetary systems and the luminaries. This amazing gross body of the Lord is the shelter of all the jīvas.