199 - Torments in Hell (Contd.) 

The Sage’s son Nachiketas said: 

1. The entire ground there is strewn with iron nails and is rugged and dark. 

2. The sinners with their hands, feet and head bruised, are not able to leave that place for long. 

3. But only the sinners are thrown there. Those who are devoted to dharma and have control of self, remain there as in their homes. 

4. Beautiful women wait upon them with sumptuous food and cool drinks. 

5. The sinners are thrown on hard and burning rocks. 

6. They are shown places with trees and as they run to go there with feet and waist scorched, 

7. The servants of Yama rush there and harass them. There is none to save them from the torment. 

8. Then there are others who are bitten by ferocious dogs from head to foot and they cry aloud again and again. 

9-10. In another place fierce beings with projecting canines, pierce the sinful souls with needles and leave them without food and water, when they are hungry and thirsty, for the sin incurred by them in refusing these essentials to those in need. 

11. A cruel woman of a body of brandished steel embraces a man and chases him when he runs away. 

12. She tells him: “I am (the combined form of) your sister, daughter-in-law, 

13. Maternal aunt, paternal aunt, uncle’s wife, preceptor’s wife, friend’s wife, brother’s wife, king’s wife, 

14. The wives of Vaidikas and Brahmins, all of whom you have molested. You cannot escape from me even if you go to the nether world. 

15. For the wrong you have done, I am going to thrash you. shameless man, why do you try to run away?” 

16. She chases him again and tells him repeatedly: 

17. “Even if born among thousands of learned men, a sinner is tormented in this manner, 

18. I, therefore, a low woman, embrace you. Why do you cry? 

19. When I lead you like this, don’t you feel ashamed to entreat me with folded hands? 

20. Why do you try to get away? wherever you go in this abode of Yama, I will pursue you, as you have outraged the modesty of another’s wife.” 

21. (In another place) people are beaten with iron rods like cowherds beating the kine with sticks. 

22. Some are bitten by tigers, lions, jackals, donkeys and dogs and some pecked by crows. 

23. There is a grove of palms of swords enveloped by flames and fumes, resembling a conflagration and glowing all around. 

24. The sinners are thrown there by Yama’s men and scorched. 

25. When they run from there to the trees in the grove of palms of swords, they are cut again and again. 

26. Thus dragged and burnt and mutilated, they cry aloud. 

27. The noble souls that stand at the entrance to the grove of palms of swords, chastise the sinners. 

28. “O you sinners who have destroyed the bridge of dharma for that very reason you have to undergo torments in thousands. 

29. After all this, if at all you are born as human beings, it will be in extremely poor families and you will always be in misery.”. 

30. (In another place) there are birds resembling tongues of fire and raising loud cries. Their beaks are of iron. 

31. These as well as carnivorous animals like tigers and wild dogs angrily bite the sinners. 

32-33. I saw the mighty servants of Yama throwing may persons in this grove of palms of swords which is full of tigers and bears and innumerable worms and ants. 

34. Some were bruised by swords and others pierced by tridents. 

35. There were thousands of wells, pools, ponds, lakes and rivers, all of blood. 

36. O great sages, I saw also places full of marrow, flesh and faeces. 

37. In them were put numerous sinners who have not only to put up with their foul smell, but also to dip themselves in them again and again. 

38. Cranes from above make showers of blood, bones and stones upon them. 

39. I could hear the pitiable cries of those who were floating in them or running out of them and they were bound and beaten again. 

40. Their wailings. filled the entire place. 

41. Bound in some places, blocked in others, struck in yet others and thrown up in still others, their pitiable cries could be heard everywhere. 

42. I saw certain other things in certain other places, the very thought of which will make one shudder.