Yamaloka

Yamaloka · yama-loka, “the world of Yama”

Yamaloka is the realm of Yama, the prabhu (master) of the Pitṛ-devatās, to which the jīvas are brought after death to receive the fruit of their karma. Its city is Saṃyamanī, also called Yamapurī, the city dear to Yama, where Yama is master. Śrī Śuka Maharshi tells Parīkshit that the narakas lie within the three lokas, in the southern direction, below the earth and above the waters of the brahmāṇḍa; there Yama, worthy of pūjā, with his attendants, carries out exactly the command of Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa. His kiṅkaras bring the beings who have died into his kingdom, and Yama gives each a fruit of suffering that matches the pāpa of the karmas they did. The gaṇas of the Pitṛ-devatās, the Agnishvāttas and others, live in that same southern direction, meditating on Īśvara and fulfilling the wishes of the people of their own gotras.

Saṃyamanī, the city of Yama

The elders say that on the Mānasottara mountain there are four cities in the four directions of Meru: Devadhānī, the city of Indra, in the east; Saṃyamanī, the city of Yama, in the south; Nimlocanī, the city of Varuṇa, in the west; and Vibhāvarī, the city of Candra, in the north. In those cities morning, midday, evening and night come in turn, giving beings time to work and to rest. Going from Indra’s city to Yama’s, Sūrya travels two crore thirty-seven lakh seventy-five thousand yojanas in fifteen ghaḍiyas, and so on to the city of Varuṇa, to that of Candra, and back to Indra’s.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 5, Chapters 21, 26; Skandha 6, Chapter 3

The road to Yamaloka

Bhagavān Kapila tells his mother Devahūti what befalls the man who lived only for his body and his family without conquering his senses. At death the Yamadūtas appear to him, their eyes full of anger, and he is terrified. They put him into a body fit for torments, tie ropes tightly round his neck, and lead him along the very long road to Yamaloka, as the king’s soldiers lead a criminal. The two of them threaten him; dogs bite him on the way; remembering his pāpa he goes on grieving. Hunger and thirst torment him, the sun, forest fire and whirlwinds afflict him; there is burning sand, no resting place and no drinking water, and the Yamadūtas whip him on the back. Fainting and rising again, he is taken along that dark road to Yamapurī. The road to Yamaloka is ninety-nine thousand yojanas long, and they take him over it in two or three muhūrtas.

In Yamapurī burning logs are set round his limbs; he is made to cut and eat his own flesh, or others cut it and feed it to him. Dogs and vultures pull out the entrails of the living jīvas, and serpents, scorpions and wild flies bite them. Every limb is cut to pieces; they are trampled by elephants, thrown down from mountain peaks, and held down in water or in pits. For adharma between man and woman there are the yātanās called Tāmisra, Andhatāmisra, Raurava and others. One who feeds his body by betraying other beings goes alone to naraka, and on that road to Yamaloka he suffers only the pāpa he did; the one who supports his family only by adharma reaches Andhatāmisra, the lowest place of naraka.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 30

The narakas of Yamaloka

“In that Yamaloka some count twenty-one narakas,” Śuka tells Parīkshit: Tāmisra, Andhatāmisra, Raurava, Mahāraurava, Kumbhīpāka, Kālasūtra, Asipatravana, Sūkaramukha, Andhakūpa, Kṛmibhojana, Sandaṃśa, Taptasūrmi, Vajrakaṇṭakaśālmalī, Vaitaraṇī, Pūyoda, Prāṇarodha, Viśasana, Lālābhaksha, Sārameyādana, Avīci and Ayaḥpāna. Besides these there are seven more, Kshārakardama, Rakshogaṇabhojana, Śūlaprota, Dandaśūka, Avaṭanirodhana, Paryāvartana and Sūcīmukha, twenty-eight in all, with many kinds of yātanā. Such narakas are in Yamapurī in hundreds and thousands, and only those who have done adharma enter them, in the order of their karmas; in the same way those who practise dharma attain svarga.

The Purāṇa uses the same picture for saṃsāra itself: the jīva fallen into saṃsāra, which flows like the Vaitaraṇī on the road to Yamapurī, suffers the sorrows of the karmas he has done. “Seeing this state, who would put aside the remembrance of the Paramātmā for what is unreal?”

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 2, Chapter 2; Skandha 5, Chapter 26

Those who went to Yamaloka

  • Ajāmila‘s release. When the Vishṇudūtas set Ajāmila free, the Yamadūtas went to their master Yama, the prabhu of Saṃyamanī, and asked who could set aside his command; Yama, remembering the lotus feet of Śrī Hari, told them of the One supreme above him, the Sarveśvara, and of the glory of Śrī Hari’s Name. (Skandha 6, Chapter 3)
  • Prahlāda. Hiraṇyakaśipu called his son insolent and a breaker of the family, and threatened to send him to the city of Yama that very day. (Skandha 7, Chapter 8)
  • The guru’s son. When Śrī Kṛshṇa and Balarāma had finished their studies with Sāndīpani, they went to seek the guru’s son, who had been lost in the ocean. Śrī Kṛshṇa slew Pañcajana in the waters and took the conch Pāñcajanya; then, with Balarāma, whose weapon is the plough, he went to Saṃyamanī, the city dear to Yama, and blew the conch. Yama, who rules all beings, heard it and offered the two a great pūjā full of bhakti. Bowing, he said: “O Vishṇu! You have taken a human body for līlā. What shall I do for you two?” Śrī Kṛshṇa answered: “O Yamarāja, the son of our guru was brought here, his own karma being his bond. Impelled by my command, bring him.” Yama said “So be it” and brought the boy, and the two handed him to their guru. Later Devakī heard with amazement that her sons had brought their guru’s son back from Yamaloka, and Śuka counts it among the proofs of Śrī Kṛshṇa’s power that he brought back his guru’s son from Yamaloka in a human body. (Skandha 10, Chapters 45, 85; Skandha 11, Chapter 31)
  • Pīṭha and his companions. In the war with Narakāsura, Śrī Kṛshṇa cut off the heads, arms, legs and armour of Pīṭha and the others and sent them to Yamapurī. (Skandha 10, Chapter 59)
  • King Nṛga. Nṛga told Śrī Kṛshṇa that when his life ended, the servants of Yama took him to Yamaloka. Yama asked him whether he would first take the fruit of his pāpa or of his puṇya, for he saw no end to the bright lokas his dāna and dharma had won; when Nṛga chose the pāpa first, Yama said “Fall!”, and as he fell he took the form of a chameleon. (Skandha 10, Chapter 64)
  • Arjuna‘s search. When Arjuna had vowed to protect the brāhmaṇa’s children and could not, he went by yoga-vidyā at once to Saṃyamanī, the city where Yama dwells, and did not find the son there; he searched the cities of Indra, Agni, Nirṛti, Soma, Vāyu and Varuṇa, Pātāla and svarga in vain. (Skandha 10, Chapter 89)

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 6, Chapter 3; Skandha 7, Chapter 8; Skandha 10, Chapters 45, 59, 64, 85, 89; Skandha 11, Chapter 31

Sources

  • Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 2, Chapter 2; Skandha 3, Chapter 30; Skandha 5, Chapters 21, 26; Skandha 6, Chapter 3; Skandha 7, Chapter 8; Skandha 10, Chapters 45, 59, 64, 85, 89; Skandha 11, Chapter 31