Description of Consequences in Hell

Sanatkumara said

In hell's fires sinners are cooked and dried and suffer many kinds of terrible hardship until their own deeds are exhausted. Metals are melted in fire to cleanse them of their impurities, and so, according to their karma, sinful men are cleansed of sin. The men are firmly bound by the hands and tied in chains. Yama's servants make them hang from the branches of great trees, and, having flung them there, make every effort to set them swinging, for a yojana with great force, until they lose consciousness. As they hang in the air Yama's very strong messengers tie hundreds of weights of iron burdens to their legs, and the men suffer greatly under that burden. They think of their own deeds and stay silent and motionless. From every direction the terrible servants strike those evildoers with goads that glow like fire and terrible iron rods. Acid, fiercer than fire, is heated and repeatedly smeared on them from every direction. After this swift, extreme smearing their limbs are cut and mangled, and all the limbs are struck one after another beginning with the head. They are cooked like brinjals in hot oil in iron cauldrons, then flung into pits full of worms and excrement, then into ponds of fat, blood and pus. They are devoured by worms and by birds with sharp iron beaks, and by dogs, gnats, wolves and tigers with terrible disfigured faces. They are roasted like fish on blazing coals. By their wicked deeds they are pierced with very sharp spears, and by their karma whirled in terrible oil-pressing machines, crushed like sesame seeds in the wheels and reduced to pulp. They are fried and boiled in several hot iron vessels, repeatedly boiled in cauldrons of very hot oil, cooked several times, their tongues, chests and feet crushed. So the body is made to undergo great pain. These men pass through countless hells one after another, and in all of them Yama makes them feel different kinds of pain.

Vyasa, Yama's servants impose great pain on all their limbs. Their mouths are filled with blazing coals and they are struck. They are repeatedly immersed in burning acid, molten copper, very hot ghee and oil, and after these great hardships are beaten again. Sometimes they are stuffed with excrement and worms and made to embrace fierce blazing silk-cotton trees made of iron. They are beaten on the back with flaming, very thick clubs. Saws are driven with great force to reduce their teeth and throats to fragments. By their own deeds all their limbs, from the head down, are struck in this terrible way. They eat their own flesh and drink their own blood. Those who always nourished only themselves are given no food or drink. They are crushed with bludgeons like sugarcane. In terrible Asitalavana they are cut to fragments. Their limbs are pierced with needles and they are impaled on the tips of heated spears and tossed about several times, but though they suffer they do not die. The bodies come to tolerate happiness and misery. Tooth-shaped clubs crush their bodies and extract the flesh, done by Yama's terrible, mighty messengers. They stay a long time in the hell Nirucchvasa, unable to breathe. In Ucchvasa they are imprisoned in prisons of sand and struck. Inflicted with many pains in Rourava they cry, and with greater pain in Maharourava. Sharp, thick, very hot iron stakes strike them on the face, anus, skull, eyes and head. They are repeatedly flung onto very hot sand and, flung into hot mire, wail loudly. The hell Kumbhipaka is full of hot oil, which cruel sinners cannot bear in any way. Sinners fall into Lalabhaksha and suffer miseries there. They are repeatedly cooked in many hells. A man who descends into Suchimukha faces great miseries there. Yama's servants strike a sinner who has no good deeds. They are hurled into iron pots where they sigh deeply. By their own sins men are cooked over great fires, tied with firm ropes and threshed on rocks. They are flung into pits of blinding darkness where terrible bees sting them, hundreds of worms pierce and mangle their limbs, and then they are flung into wells full of stinging acid. In the hell Mahajvala sinners weep in misery, scorched by flames, running here and there. They are bound together, the mouth of one against the back of another or shoulder to shoulder, dragged through the hells with ropes, sometimes with arms tied firmly behind. So all the sinners are tied to each other, and bundles of such sinners, bound together and suffering, can be seen in Mahajvala. They are tied with ropes, smeared with mud and cooked in fires of dried cow dung and husk, but do not die. They are dragged over very sharp, coarse rocks and thrash about, cooked many times like grass. Many worms enter the men's bodies and devour and severely mangle them with sharp mouths. They are flung into heaps of worms, pus, flesh and bones and stay there with anxious hearts, as if crushed between two mountains. Their bodies are smeared with hot, tough pastes. With faces hanging down and legs pointed up they are scorched in flames. Very hot clubs are forced into their mouths, and, subject to others, they are made to gnaw at them while being beaten with them. Vyasa, so evildoers are cooked in hell. Sanatkumara said he would now truthfully describe the karma that takes them there.