Vahnijvāla (Naraka)
Vahnijvāla · vahni-jvāla, “the flames of fire”
Vahnijvāla is one of the narakas, the places of suffering ruled by Yama into which those who do pāpa (wrong deeds) are cast. The Brahma Purāṇa tells that those who live by flocks of sheep, the hunters of animals and one who puts fire to what is not to be cooked fall into it. Lomaharshaṇa tells this to the vipras in his account of the narakas and the deeds that lead to each.
Where the account is told
Lomaharshaṇa said to the vipras: “O vipras! Now hear about the narakas, Raurava and the rest, into which those who do pāpa are cast.” He named them in order: Raurava, Śaukara, Rodha, Tāla, Viśasana, Mahājvāla, Taptakuḍya, Mahālobha, Viyocana, Rudhirāndha, Vasātapta, Kṛmīśa, Kṛmibhojana, Asipatravana, Kṛshṇa, Lālābhaksha, Pūyavaha, Vahnijvāla, Adhaśśiras, Sadaṃśa, Kṛshṇasūtra, Tamas, Āvīci, Śvabhojana, Apratishṭha and Māvīci. There are many more narakas, supremely dreadful. These are the domains ruled by Yama, and in them are the servants of Yama, who use weapons, fire and poisons. Then he told which deed leads to which naraka.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 22
Who falls into Vahnijvāla
Vahnijvāla is the naraka of the aurabhrikas, those who live by flocks of sheep, and of the mṛga-vyādhas, the hunters of animals; also of one who puts fire to apāka, things not to be cooked.
In the first list Vahnijvāla is the eighteenth name, after Pūyavaha and before Adhaśśiras. In the second part of the account it comes after Kṛcchra, the naraka of those who transgress the bounds of sadācāra and live by deceit, and before Sandaṃśa-yātana, the naraka of one who breaks a vrata.
“There are hundreds and thousands of such narakas,” Lomaharshaṇa says. Those who do pāpa leave this body, take yātanā-śarīras, bodies made for suffering, and are tormented there; those who act against varṇa and āśrama in mind, speech and body go to naraka. One who does pāpa and does not perform prāyaścitta goes to naraka; but for every pāpa the prāyaścitta is the remembrance of Kṛshṇa, and there is nothing beyond it. If one who has done pāpa feels remorse and remembers Hari, there is no greater means of puṇya than that, and he reaches Nārāyaṇa.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 22
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 22