Transmigration in the Mahabharatha and Siva Purana, Part 3

The journey to Yama Loka takes a year or more and it is frightening in its form. There is only suffering till the very end of this trail. The trail’s difficulty changes according to the nature of the essence of the person’s past life. To those who have committed grave injuries and injustices to others , the path is very difficult, painful and long. It is almost impossible to obtain any help on the way. Yet, when the time comes, all, even the Devas, the Asuras and all human beings, male female, ungendered, young, old etc. must walk this path leaving their friends and relatives and all of their conveniences. All transient entities (i.e. all living creatures) must someday, be wayfarers on the road to Yama Loka.

Whether, at the moment of one’s passing away, it is day or night, or one is in an alien land or a forest; atop a mountain or on wate; on land or in the sky; at home or away; eating or drinking; awake or asleep; standing or sitting, the Maha Marga (the Great Road) is always open.

On the road to Yama Loka, those who have caused grave injuries to other creatures in their life-time, will be seen, at times in the grip of a great fear along certain stretches of the road, while they are seen stark raving mad along others. They are seen being physically restrained and punished at yet other stretches of the road, crying piteously for help.

The frightening size and form of Yama’s messengers and their fearful language and weaponry; their skill and cruelty cause great fear and consternation in the Jeevi who has caused great suffering in its life to other beings. The fear and the realization that these consequences are the result of their own actions, turns them into completely listless sufferers as they progress slowly forward even as they suffer the abuse of the messengers of Yama.

To the extent that one has failed to perform Dana (Giving or Self-Sacrifice), the road they walk on will appear in stretches to be made of sharp thorns, yet other stretches being filled with extremely hot sand, or dust blown air. Those who failed to strive to uphold Dharma in their lives will receive physical punishments that the Preta Sarira or Yatana Sarira is suited for, with sticks, stones, whips and Ankusa (The small very sharp tool used by the Mahut (rider) to control an elephant).

Those who’ve committed homicide will have extreme physical pain and suffering inflicted on them causing them to convulse, scream and moan continuously. Some of them will have various body parts broken or smashed. Others will have their necks put into a knot. Yet others will have missing ears, noses or lips.  In some stretches of the journey, they will be pursued and hunted by fearsome messengers armed with a variety of weapons such as sakti, sankha, arrow, spears etc. Along some stretches of the path, they will be attacked by packs of dogs, wolves, tigers and aggressive crows. Along other stretches of the road, they will be attacked by the messengers of Yama, who capture and slice the meat off the Jeevis to cook and eat.

Those who steal other’s clothing or beds,causing them humiliation will be made to run naked by pursuing pisacha Messengers. At other stretches, meat eaters will be attacked by bulls, wild animals (including wild boar) and scorpions and will be repeatedly injured or partly eaten by them. (Both the Mahabharatha and the Siva Purana mention the extensive suffering of the meat eaters at the hands of the animals who were their former meals- much of which I have redacted. The premise is that while most animals are tamasic and will accept their fate at the abbatoir, some of them are rajasic and will choose revenge – you killed me, so I will kill you , they say. So these rajasic animals will perform their own yoga and yagna as best they can and receive the opportunity in turn to claim their revenge in this manner. On the other hand, we must also remember that in the Santi Parva, of the Mahabharatha, it is stated that those who give up eating meat and become vegetarian/vegan in this lifetime, even if it be at the very end, will receive justice as if they have been vegetarian all their life, so it is a forgivable offense.)

Those who steal or cheat others out of their cattle, grain, gold, fields, land, house etc will be attacked with stones, sticks and thorny weapons as they stagger on their way to Yama Loka. The attacking messengers will moreover aim for and attack all the different body parts of the Jeevis.

Those who showed no concern for the possibility of a journey to Yama-Loka in the hereafter and therefore freely stole from the Sattvic and silenced them by force from protesting or protecting themselves will make the journey with their hands and feet tightly tied together with jackals frequently attacking them and partly eating them many times along the way. Their throats will be dry, with no water available to them the entire way. Some will lose eyes, or ears or noses. They will be pursued by Messengers intent on inflicting pain.  They will be tossed into the Amedhyakupa, where they will suffer continuously for 10 million years and then spend a further billion years taking birth as worms that nest in excretions.

Those who, out of ego, greed or adherence to untruth refuse to encourage Sattvic behavior and refuse assist the Sattvic in their need, will be repeatedly hanged by the neck and whipped along the way. Their repeatedly pleas for food and water will be ignored the entire way to Yama Loka.

Hearing this detailed picture of the path to Yama Loka, Dharma Raja turned pale and fell into a deep faint. Krishna revived him. Dharma Raja wiped his eyes with the wet cloth offered by Krishna and said, “O God of Gods! Your description of Yama Loka causes great fear in me. Please tell me how one might traverse this road in comfort.

Transmigration in the Mahabharatha and the Siva Purana, Part 2

The Mahabharatha – Aswamedha Parva (Samkshipta M. Dvitiya 761)

Dharma Raja: Kesava (Krishna), You are omniscient. So can you tell me how far is Yama Loka (Naraka) from us? (Hindu theology designates Naraka as the place where the Jeevi, i.e. a dead person's soul + the essences of the good and bad things done by that living being when previously alive. (While the English word 'hell' has many Judeo-Christian implications that do not apply here, it is a rough approximation of Naraka, when one uses Hindu canon to define what such a 'hell' is like.) How vast is it? How does it look like? Where is it? How may human beings escape the miseries of Naraka? When the Jeevi is cast out of this body made of skin, bones and flesh, what will the experience of happiness or sadness feel like? How will the good  who serve the Sattvic reach Svarga? How will those who have caused injury to others travel to Naraka? How will they look like when they travelling to Naraka?

Krishna: O King! Since you are a devotee of mine, I will reveal these facts to you. Between Earth and Naraka ( Yama Loka) is a distance of 86,000 Yojanas (1 Yojana  ~ 8 miles) . On the way there, there will be neither the shade of trees, nor rivers nor lakes nor wells. There are neither buildings nor squares. There are neither houses nor mountains, nor caves, nor villages, nor monasteries, nor gardens nor pleasant paths through a park. There is nowhere to pause and rest.

Upon orders from Yama, at the appointed time of death, Yama’s messengers will appear to the Jeevi and draw the life-force out of the Jeevi against their will. When the time arrives for one to die, one’s life force ascends to the throat. It will become separated from the action-oriented material and become susceptible to the movement of wind. It will then, with the exhalation be expelled against its will from the body. Thus leaving this six-layered body, this wind-like Jeevi will then enter an invisible body.

This Invisible Body (called the Preta Sarira) looks like, is colored like and is sized like the old body, except that no one can see the Jeevi in this body. Not only that, the Invisible Body will not be destroyed even if it is hacked, cut to pieces or burnt. It will cause tremendous pain but it will all slowly heal together again. No matter how badly injured. Thus equipped to suffer, the Jeevi is ready to begin the extremely painful journey to Yama Loka.

At the time, the Jeevi becomes overcome by attachment to the friends and the family members of the just concluded life and falls to the depths of sorrow and humiliation. The Jeevi watches as the near and dear gather and mourn in sorrow.

[Karma Kanda: The Preta Sarira is under Shiva's control.  The body is cremated in a timely manner also called  Agni Samskara - Cleans and purifying by way of Agni i.e. Fire. Shiva is also called Jwala Swarupa – Shaped like Fire. On the 2nd or 3rd day the pyre is cleaned. The few remaining bones and ashes are kept for release in a river of choice of the person who has passed away.

A stone is used by the priest (experienced in the Karma Kanda), to offer through the mantras, a home to the preta sarira for the 10 days of the funeral period.  The stone is kept clean, and dried herbs will be tied to it and water is offered to it daily until the 9^th day. Pindam (balls of rice with white lentils) is offered on the the 9^th, 10^th and 11^th days. This food is accepted by the Jeevi in the Sukshma Rupa – the microscopic or unreachably deep/subtle form or process. This food offered during the 9^th, 10^th and 11^th days, and the Dana (Giving or Sacrifice) practiced by the person are the only aids for the year long journey ahead. (Pindam may also be offered every month for the first year.) ]

By the end of the 10^th day, whether gently through the mantras of a good, well-qualified priest or through the more direct means of Yama’s messengers, the bonds to the people and things of the life just gone by are finally broken. Those who have committed grave injuries to others will perceive the arriving messengers as beings made of strange and terrible looking bodies, with a nasty and terrible temper and with the ability to give the Jeevi a clear picture of the suffering ahead. They will use their many perplexing and powerful weapons to roughly overcome the panic-stricken and futile resistance of the Jeevi and forcibly capture it and take it on its way. Those who have done good throughout their life will perceive the arriving messengers are beautiful and gentle hosts who lead them to the beginning of a year long journey in comfort.

The Jeevi then recognizes that wherever it goes, following behind it, like a shadow, are the essences of the good and bad of its past life. The Jeevi then loses all interest in the mourning family and friends. In a state of complete indifference, the Jeevi leaves it all behind and starts moving away. The family and friends are still in mourning and yet the Jeevi feels no more attachment to anything.  Their faces are streaked with the tears of sorrow as they cry. Yet neither can they see the Invisible Body nor does the Jeevi care. The Jeevi then turns and moves away, in the form of wind, away into the surrounding, all-enveloping darkness, which has no end in sight.