Hell in the Vedas: a description of the realm of Yamaraja (5th Canto #37)

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💬 Text of the lesson

The hellish planets

The descriptions of hell in the Fifth Canto are another difficult passage of the text. At first, the punishments described may appear barbaric or disproportionate, but it makes more sense when we understand that they are punishments for specific types of sins. Just as in modern judicial systems, the punishment for a crime has to be significant to discourage people from committing it. If the punishment for stealing were just a small fine, every dishonest person would steal, calculating that if caught, the consequence would be minimal. If instead the punishment for stealing is 10 years in prison, people will think twice.

In Vedic culture, people would know their duties and would also hear descriptions of the punishments for performing grossly immoral acts, and thus would learn to avoid them, understanding the consequences. It is not difficult to understand that one who kills animals or seduces the wives of others will have to face consequences for that.

The greatest risk of modern life is exactly that, because atheistic philosophies are so popular and even established religions more often than not fail to alert their followers to the dangers of animal cruelty and other activities, people are clueless about the consequences of their habits and thus risk falling into very painful situations after death.

There is a phenomenon studied in modern medicine called terminal restlessness, or terminal agitation. People who are about to die commonly become restless, complain about seeing frightening figures and animals in corners or floating around the bed, and even being bound by them, visions that provoke great panic. From the description of the scriptures, we can understand that these are visions of the Yamadūtas preparing to take the soul. The visions usually start a few days before one passes away, and continue until one falls unconscious. Doctors and nurses are trained to deal with these episodes using sedatives, and in this way they just put a person to sleep, trying to create the illusion of a peaceful death. This, however, does nothing to solve the underlying problem. Even if the physical body is put to sleep, one continues to experience the same in the subtle body.

Devotees who h