The Duties of the Emissaries of Tama

1. О sage, the rules governing the discipline and conduct of life of the different castes and stages of life have been duly narrated by you. Now I wish to hear the extremely impassable path of Yama.

2. Listen О Brahmana, I shall recount to you the impassable path of Yama that bestows happiness to men of meritorious deeds and that is awe-inspiring unto the sinners.1

3. It has been mentioned by the earlier sages (i.e. philosophers) that the extent of the path of Yama is, О leading sage, eightysix thousand Tojanas.

4. О Brahmana, men who habitually give charitable gifts go through it with great pleasure and happiness. Men devoid of righteous activities go through it miserably as they are pounded and thrashed roundly on the way.

5. Extremely terrified, devoid of garments and with their throats, lips and palates parched up, the sinners traverse that way crying bitterly and pitiably.

7. They run about here and there along that path with great pain and misery. In some places there is deep mud; in some places there is fire; in some places there is red-hot sand; at some places there is forest-fire; while there are sharp-edged rocks elsewhere.

8. In some places there are thorny trees and rocky mountains very difficult to climb; there are many caves with pitch darkness, there are great covering hedges of thorny bushes.

9. In many places, people have to climb to the top of steep bunds and mounds and enter long caves. The path is strewn with gravels, pebbles and clods, as well as thorns pointed like needles.

10. Some places on the way are made slippery with mosses; in some places there are rows of bamboos; tigers roar in some places; in some places paroxysms of fever (overwhelm the people).

11. О Narada, the sinners undergo much distress and move ahead slowly. Crying loudly and weeping they fade and languish.

12. Some of the sinners are bound with nooses; some are dragged with goads and hooks; some are beaten and hit with diverse weapons on their backs — in this way the sinners wend their way.

13. Some are dragged with nooses at the tip of their noses, some are bound with entrails. Some go ahead bearing weighty iron mass with the tip of their penis.

14. Some sinners bear two weighty iron balls by means of the tips of their noses; some sinners bear the same with their ears and go ahead.

15. Some falter at every step and plod on. Others, on being struck, slip down. Some leave deep sighs and some keep their eyes closed.

16. Along the path that contains no shady place to rest nor water to drink, they miserably plod on lamenting their sins committed knowingly or unknowingly.8

17. О Narada, those who are pious and righteous, those who are habitual givers of gifts, those who are of good intention, go to the palace of Dharma (god of death) with great pleasure and happiness.

18-19. Those who had given the gifts of cooked food (on the Earth), О excellent sage, go along that path eating tasty things; the bestowers of water go happily, drinking excellent milk; the givers of buttermilk and curds obtain similar kinds of pleasures (correspondingly). О excellent Brahmana, those who give ghee, honey or milk (on the earth), go to the mansion of Dharma (god of Death) imbibing nectar on the way. He who has given green vegetables, goes ahead tasting milk pudding and he who has gifted lamps, goes there illuminating the quarters.

20. О leading sage, the giver of robes and cloth goes clad in divine garments. He who has given a mine previously goes along the path eulogised by the immortal ones.

21-22a. Thanks to the gift of a cow, a man goes there endowed with all means of happiness on the way; a giver of plots or houses goes riding in an aerial chariot filled with all riches and luxuries. He sports about in the aerial chariot filled with groups of celestial damsels and goes to the abode of Dharma (god of Death).

22b-23. О excellent sage, the giver of horses, vehicles, or elephants goes to the abode of Dharma by means of an aerial chariot equipped with all means of enjoyment. О excellent sage, the giver of bullocks goes riding on a vehicle.

24. The giver of fruits and flowers goes with great contentedness. The man who gives betel-leaves to chew goes to the abode of Dharma with great delight.

25. The excellent man who had rendered service to his father and mother (while on the Earth), walks ahead with a delighted soul honoured and worshipped by the heaven- dwellers.

26. He who renders great service to ascetics who perform great holy rites, and to leading Brahmanas, goes (to Dharma’s palace) with great pleasure.

27. A Brahmana who is endowed with compassion to all living beings is worshipped along the path by the immortal ones and he goes riding in an aerial chariot endowed with all means of pleasures.

28-29a. A person engaged in the gift of learning goes ahead while he is being worshipped by lotus-bom deities. The regular reader of the Purdruis goes ahead as he is being eulogised by leading sages. Thus, those 'who are engaged in righteousness go to the abode of Dharma with great pleasure.

29b-30a. Yama assumes a form with four faces and holds a conch, a discus, an iron club and a sword. He honours the person engaged in meritorious rites duly with great love and affection like a friend.

30b-31a. He says — “O, ye excellent ones among the intellectuals, ye who are afraid of distress in hells, the merit that yields happiness both on Earth and in heaven, has been earned by you all.

31b-32a. He alone who, after attaining a human life, does not perform meritorious deeds, is the vilest of sinners. He is the slayer of his own Atman.

32b-33a. He, who, after obtaining the transient human life does not achieve the permanent one, goes to the terrible hell. Who can be a more senseless person than he?

33b-34. The body is torture itself; it is defiled by impurities (like feces) and the like. Know that the person who places his reliance on it, is one who slays his Atman. Among all things, the living beings are the most excellent and among them the intellectual beings.

35. Men are most excellent among the intellectual beings; among men the Brahmanas are most excellent; the scholars are most excellent among the Brahmanas; really wise ones are most excellent among scholars.

36. Among the wise ones the performers of holy rites are most excellent, the expounders of the Brahmana (or the Veda) are most excellent among them. The person who has no feeling of myness is said to be most excellent among the expounders of Brahman.

37. He who is perpetually interested in meditation should be known as greater than all these. Hence, by all means, piety and righteousness must be accumulated.

38. There is no doubt that a righteous creature is worshipped everywhere. Go, you, to my abode endowed with all means of enjoyment and pleasure. Go there, thanks to your own merits.

39. If at all, there is any sin, you shall experience the fruit thereof here itself afterwards”. Thus Yama greets and honours the meritorious one and enables him to attain the goal of the good.

40. Having summoned the sinners, he would threaten them with his KOladania (rod of punishment or the Black baton). (Now he assumes a terrible form). He roars loudly like the cloud

at the time of dissolution. His lustre is like that of the mountain of collyrium.

41. He appears terrific due to his weapons glittering like lightning. He has thirtytwo arms and his girth is three Tojanas. His nose is long and his eyes are red.

42. His face is terrific due to the curved fangs. His fierce eyes resemble (two deep) wells. Citragupta (the accountant of deeds of all men) accompanied by Mrtyu (Death), Jvara (Fever), etc. is also terrible.

43-44a. All the emissaries roar. They too are as terrible as Yama. Thereafter, Citragupta addresses at the behest of Yama all sinners who quake with fear and who bewail their own sinful fate.

44b-45a. “O ye sinners, О wicked ones defiled by arrogance, why was so much of sin accumulated by you, the thoughtless ones devoid of discrimination?

45b-47a. With a lofty mind defiled by lust and fury you have committed every conceivable form of sin. О people why have you done so? Formerly, at the time of committing sins you were extremely delighted. So the tortures too must be borne by you. Why are you unnecessarily worried too much?

47b-48. As sins had been committed for the sake of servants, friends and wives, so, you have come here drawn by your own sinful acts weighed down with extreme distress and dejection. But those sons and others nourished by you have gone elsewhere.

49-50. The sin has befallen you alone. Is that the cause of your misery? Since too many sins have been committed by you, the miseries too have befallen you. Why do you feel sorry for it? Ponder over what has been committed by you before.

51-52a. Why did you not consider before that Yama would mete out punishment? Yama is equal and impartial to the rich and the poor, the fool and the learned, the daring one and the dastard.”

52b-53a. On hearing this statement of Citragupta, those sinners bewail their actions and their lot. Utterly frightened, they keep quiet.

53b-54a. The ruthless and terrific emissaries such as Candalas and others, the executors of the behests of Yama, throw them forcibly into hells.

54b-55a. They experience the fruits of their sinful actions. In the end, as a result of the residue of their sins they come down to the Earth and become immobile and other beings.”8

55b-56a. ‘О holy Lord, О storehouse of mercy, a doubt has occurred in my mind, which you are competent to eradicate, since you are our eldest brother.

56b-57a. Many kinds of holy rites and duties have been narrated by you. Many sins too have been related by you. You, the knower of many things stated that the fruits (of the sins, etc.) have to be enjoyed by them for a long time (till eternity).

57b. The destruction too of the three worlds at the end of a day of Brahma has been mentioned by you.

58-59a. At the end of two Pardrdhas, the annihilation of the whole Cosmic egg (is going to take place as mentioned by you). О son of Brahma, it has been mentioned by you yourself that the enjoyment of the pleasures of the merits, thanks to the charitable gifts of villages, etc., is great and lasts for thousands and crores of Kalpas.

59b-60a. In the Prakrta-laya (the dissolution into the Prakrti) the destruction of all worlds (has been mentioned by you). It has been said by you that the only one who survives is Janardana.

60b-61a. The doubt that there cannot be any end to the enjoyment of the fruits of merits and sins before the dissolution of the universe, has arisen in my mind. It behoves your honour to dispel it.

61b-62a. Well done, О highly intelligent, one, well done. What you have now asked is the greatest of all secrets, I shall recount it to you. Listen with great attention.

62b-63. Narayana is infinite and imperishable. He is eternal and the supreme splendour. He is the purest one and devoid of attributes. He is perpetually devoid of delusions due to Maya. Although, in reality, he is devoid of Gunas, he is the greatest bliss and appears like one endowed with Gu^as.

64. He appears to be differentiated through the forms of Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, etc. The eternal lord appears to be differently conditioned by these three different Gunas.

65-66a. By employing the entire Maya-power, He performs the function of the universe. He creates (the universe) in the form of Brahma and protects it in the form of Vishnu. It is certain that in the end he swallows everything in the form of Rudra.

66b-67a. At the end of the Pralqya (Dissolution), Janar- dana gets up in the form of Brahma, and creates everything in the whole universe consisting of the mobile and immobile beings as before.

67b-68a. О leading Brahmana, Brahma makes even the immobile beings positioned in the same manner and place as they were before.

68b-69. Hence, О excellent one, the fruit of the actions meritorious or sinful must, compulsorily be experienced. The fruit of an action is inexhaustible or inevitable and must be enjoyed. Even in the course of hundreds of crores of Kalpas, no action perishes without being borne and experienced.

70. The action performed, whether auspicious or inauspicious must, of necessity, be enjoyed. He who is the lord of all worlds is the immanent soul of all and is identical with the universe. He is perfect and eternal and he enjoys through all the fruits of all actions.4

71. The God who pervades all universe and who is. endowed with different Gunas, creates, protects and swallows up everything. The immutable Lord is the enjoyer of everything.

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