p135.jpg p134 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p135w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p136
----- bhagap135.html

Suka replied:

They are inside the Triloki on the south side below the earth,
over the waters, where Agnishvatta and other Pitris deeply meditate
on the welfare of their respective descendants.

There, Yama, the Death-god, metes out just punishment to the
dead.

There are twenty-one Narakas:

(i) Tamisra (2) Andha Tamisara (3) Rourava (4) Maha-
rourava (5) Kumbhipaka (6) Kala Sutra (7) Asipatravana (8) Sukara-
Mukha (9) Andha Kupa (10) Krimi bhajana (11) Sandansa (12)
Tapta Surmi (13) Vajra-Kantaka Salmali (14) Vaitarani (15) Puy5-
da (16) Pranarodha, (17) Vaisasana (18) Lalabhaksha (19) Sara-
meyadana (20) Avichi and (21) Ayahpana.

There are seven other Narakas:

(i) Kshara Kardama (2) Rakshogana bhojana (3) Sulapr??ta
(4) Danda Suka (5) Avata-nirodhana (6) Parya vartana and (7)
Suchi mukha.

(For details of these Narakas, the reader is referred to the
original. They are more for the exoteric than for the esoteric reader.)

There are hundreds and thousands of such Narakas in the
realms of Yama. The vicious enter them by turns. The meritorious
go to Svarga. But the Karma of men is not exhausted in Svarga or

O O O

Naraka. For that which remains unexhausted, they enter life again
by re-birth.

(The mention of Pitris and Yama connects the Narakas with
the astral plane.)

THE STORY OF AjAMILA

SKANDHA VI. CHAP. 1-3.
Raja Parikshit asked how men could avoid Naraka.

SUKA replied: It is by Prayaschitta (expiation) that men
can avoid Naraka. But it is not Vedic Prayaschitta, not fasting by
Chandrayana and other Vratas. These Vedic performances cannot
root out vicious tendencies, for the performer is seen again to indulge
in vices. They do not purify the mind. They simply counteract
the Karmic effect of the act for which Prayaschitta is performed.
The real Prayaschitta is devotion to Vishnu.


[[135]]


p134 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p135w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p136


v?

name
e-mail

bad

new


or