Description of What Happens in Hell

Sanatkumara said

A person who follows false agama texts goes to the hell called Dvijihva, where he is tortured with sharp, wide ploughs like tongues, half a krosha long. If a cruel man has reprimanded his mother, father or guru, his mouth is stuffed with excrement and worms and he is beaten. Until the deluge comes the following are cooked in hell's fires: intoxicated men who amuse themselves in Shiva's temples, groves, wells, tanks and ponds and drive brahmanas away, doing as they please there, such as oiling and perfuming the body, bathing, drinking what is not water, eating, sporting, playing, having sex and gambling with dice. They are crushed and made to suffer in sugarcane-pressing machines. Those who lie with other people's wives are also punished in similar ways, made to embrace images of the women they lay with, made of iron and very hot. Likewise women of evil conduct are made to embrace blazing images of the men they formerly lay with, and they are beaten as they do it and weep. The ears of those who hear virtuous people criticised are filled with heated iron, copper, tin, lead or brass pins that glow like fire, or with boiling milk or very hot piercing oil, or stuffed with hard unguents. In one hell after another their ears are filled so, and in order they undergo all these kinds of hardship. If the sin was committed with another part of the body, that organ of action is made in turn to endure terrible pain. A person who foolishly touched another's wife is made to hold red-hot dust in his hands, or his whole body is smeared with acid. There is great pain and hardship in all the hells. A man who frowned at his parents has firm iron spikes drawn across his face. Whichever organ a man used to make another's wife suffer is made to suffer. If he gazed at another's wife with bold, lustful eyes, his eyes are filled with red-hot needles. So Yama in turn imposes pain with flows of acid and other things, tiger among sages, without doubt, and this is true. A person who eats without first offering food to the gods, the fire, gurus and brahmanas has his tongue pierced with hundreds of red-hot iron nails. A man who out of greed plucks flowers with his hands from a god's park, smells them and wears them on his head has his head covered with heated iron stakes and his nose filled with much corrosive acid. There are those who criticise great-souled teachers and expounders of dharma, devotees of the gods, the fire and gurus, and the eternal texts of dharma. Three-pointed red-hot iron spikes are thrust into their chests, throats, tongues, tooth joints, palates, lips, noses, heads and all the joints of the body. They are struck on many parts with clubs, and the whole body is filled with blazing acid, and they suffer great pain. Those who seize others' property or touch a brahmana with the feet go in turn to countless hells. Those who touch objects used in Shiva's worship, cows or texts full of knowledge with hands or feet have their bodies filled in similar ways. There are many kinds of bodily pain in all the hells, and many kinds inflicted on hands and feet. Sinners who pass urine or excrement anywhere in Shiva's temple or the parks meant for the gods have their sexual organs crushed with iron bludgeons, and then stuffed with red-hot iron needles. The organs of those embodied beings are swiftly filled with stinging acid, repeatedly. Great pain is caused to the mind and all the senses. A person who made a true pledge and out of greed does not give the wealth, or who ignores a guest who came to his house at the right time, is an evildoer and goes to a hell of impurities. A person who eats food without first offering some to dogs and crows has two nails driven into his open mouth. Worms and others with sharp iron beaks, like crows, inflict many fierce hardships on them.

Shyama and Shabala are the two who obstruct the path to Yama. One says: I give those two this offering, let them take it; there are crows living in the directions of Varuna, Vayu, Yama and Nirriti, and let those crows, performers of auspicious deeds, take this offering. Having made these offerings with Shiva's mantra and carefully worshipped Shiva and offered oblations in the fire by the rules, a person does not see Yama and goes to heaven. So this offering must be made every day. A square mandala must be drawn and filled with fragrant things. The oblation to Dhanvantari is made in Ishana's direction, to Indra in the east, to Yama in Yama's direction, to Daksha and Uma in Varuna's direction, to the ancestors in the south, to Aryaman in the east, and to Dhatri and Vidhatri at the door of the house. For dogs, the lord of dogs and crows, the offering is laid out on the ground. A householder's livelihood depends on gods, ancestors, humans, pretas, bhutas, guhyakas, birds, worms and insects. The four udders of a cow are said to be the sounds Svaha, Svadha, Vashat as the third, and Hanta. The gods suck at the udder Svaha and the ancestors at Svadha; Vashat is used by other gods and lords of beings; men always drink from the udder Hanta. A man who shows due, progressive devotion to the cow and keeps the sacrificial fire at the right time does not suffer; one who abandons these sinks in the hell Tamisra and suffers. So after making these offerings at the door, a man must reflect for a while. A hungry guest living in the same village must first be fed auspicious food according to one's capacity, and one eats only after. If a guest's hopes are belied and he goes back from a house, he leaves all his bad deeds with the householder and takes away all the householder's good deeds. So a man who loves to eat only by himself is bound in chains for a long time and his tongue is pierced with great force. Bits of his own flesh, small as sesame seeds, are torn out and he is forced to eat them. So he is made to drink his own blood, continuously beaten with whips and made to suffer hunger and thirst. So evildoers pass through very terrible, great hardships. Hear briefly what follows. A man's weight of sins may be great and his adherence to dharma little, or his dharma may be heavier; hear of these two states. If the power of sins is heavier and stronger, it is not worth speaking of the fruits of good deeds, and enjoyment of happiness does not count since many kinds of suffering follow. A tormented, anxious man cannot eat happily; that good food cannot be enjoyed every day and will be missed later. But if a man's dharma is heavier he is like a householder who fasts, like a wealthy person who knows his hardship is only because he has taken up a discipline. But there are terrible sins a man commits on earth which can shatter him into a hundred pieces, like a mountain struck by the vajra.