202 - Punishment according to deeds

The sage (Nachiketas) said: 

1. I was wonderstruck at the instructions given by the wise Yama to Chitragupta. 

2. Those who have swerved from the righteous path have to take the consequences. Some are scorched in fire and some. severely bound. They are tortured as the result of their own deeds. 

34. (Yama says): “Take him away soon, this sinner who has done bad deeds, who is ungrateful and who is of wicked mind. Let him be devoured by pouncing dogs. 

5. Take him who has the sin of killing the father, mother or cow, to the deceptive Shālmali tree and let the sharp thorns in it pierce him. 

1.This shows that the Jvara was the manifestation of Rudra.

6. Fry him in oil or in decomposed ghee and then from the hot vessel throw him in a hot copper plate. 

7. Then throw him in burning fire. He will be then born as a man and will face the torments of debts. 

8. Throw the man, who has stolen a bed or seat or set fire, quickly into Vaitarani. 

9. For the man who defiled holy places for bath is this pike fresh from fire. 

10. Pierce the ears of him who has given false evidence or uttered falsehood otherwise. 

11. Bind the Brahmin who has performed sacrifice for the village, who has been unsteady in mind or boastful or obstinate, and give him nothing. 

12. Cut off the tongue of the man who has offended any one by his words. 

13. Cut off the generative organ of the man who has committed adultery whether without knowing it or deliberately out of lust, and then apply lime and also heat. 

14. Yoke him to the mortar who has ruined his coparceners out of selfishness. 

15. Thrash this usurer all over his body for the great sin he has committed. 

16. The stealer of gold and the ungrateful man should be equated with the person who has killed a Brahmin. 

17. Cut his bones and apply lime and fire. Let five ferocious tigers tear him with their sharp teeth. 

18. Put him in boiling slime who has failed to maintain fire or given it up altogether. 

19. Give him to the fierce scorpions for he has incurred the sin of killing a hero. 

20. Throw him who performed sacrifices for all into the deep pond. Let him carry water to all kinds of beasts. 

21. Let there be none to help him or give him anything. 

22. Let those who performed vows without gifts, those who sold Veda and those that did all kinds of ritual not be given any thing. 

23. Let him who took away the water-vessel and prohibited any one from food, be beaten with strong rods. 

24. He should be beaten with bamboo sticks, whips and iron rods. He should not be given food or water. 

25. Burn him in fire who failed to keep the confidence re posed in him. 

26. Put him in fire for thousands of years who has committed theft of a Brahmin’s wealth. 

27. Afterwards send him to be born as an animal. Let his minute body then enter different kinds of worms and birds. 

28. After thousands of such lives, let him be born as a man again and again in various families, but always as a wicked person. 

29. The man who has killed a Brahmin should be oppressed to the maximum; so too the murderer of the king, the stealer of gold and the drinker of alcohol. 

30. Then he should be afflicted with consumption. 

31. Let this man who has killed a cow be made to climb up the deceptive Shālmalī tree. Let him be dragged by the Rakshasas. 

32. Let him be then put in the hell Pūtīpāka and bitten by beasts. To a period one-fourth of that for Brahminicide, he should remain born as a beast. 

33. He should be condemned wherever he goes and he is to be born again and again doing sinful things. 

34. This man is wicked. He has incurred thc sin of killing his father. Let him be bitten by the beasts for a hundred years. 

35. Let him then be put in different hells. Let him become a human being again, but die even while in womb. 

36. Let him be thus in ten wombs and then released to be born as a man but full of misery. Let him suffer due to hunger and diseases. 

37-38. Let him who has betrayed his friend be quickly crushed in machine and put in fire for two hundred years. 

39. Let him be born as a dog and afterwards as a man full of misery, discarded by all and suffering ailments. 

40. This man has stolen salt and also what belonged to the Brahmin. 

41. Let him be put here for five hundred years. Then he will be born as a worm in faeces. He will then take birth as a bird and afterwards as a pig. 

42. Let this man who used to set fire (to useful things) be put in this fire of burning wood. 

43. When the effect of his actions is over, he will be born. as an animal and then as a man full of misery. 

44-45. Those who jointly persuade one for bad deeds and those that steal the wealth of others, are to be put in the hell Raurava. 

46. And he who does bad instigated thus is to be tortured in Kumbhīpäka. He is to be born as an ass and later as a pig eating filth. 

47. He who commits theft of wealth should undergo severe suffering. He will be born as an ass ten times. 

48. Then taking birth as a human being, he will be a thief and incur all sorts of sins harassing others. Then he will be born as a being hanging head downwards from a tree. 

49. Let the greedy miser be burnt in fire.

50. He is to be released only after a hundred years. 

51. He will be born as a pig and then as an ichneumon and finally as a human being again. 

52. The man who gives false evidence and is wedded to falsehood, never gets peace anywhere, being condemned by his own actions. 

53. Let this liar who has appropriated for himself the field of another, suffer here as long as the result of his actions persists in him. 

54. Let him suffer for his actions one after another. That will be, no doubt, for a lakh of years. 

55. Let him then be born as various animals and later as a man without anything to appease his hunger. 

56. He will be full of sins and his desires will never be fulfilled. He will be born blind or deaf. 

57. He will be born sometimes dumb, sometimes blind and sometimes full of diseases. He will, thus, have only suffering and never happiness. 

58. He who misappropriates the field, even after a thousand lives as various beings, never attains peace. 

59. Let him who takes for himself another’s land, although distressed by his own mental anguish, be bound well and burnt in fire. 

60. After a long period in that manner in my world, let him be born as a cat. 

61. Let his hunger be never appeased and let him continue to be kept bound. Let him be born as fifty kinds of animals. 

62. Let this man who is guilty of killing birds, be bitten by dogs and vultures. 

63. Let him then become a cock eating filth and afterwards as a fly and mosquito. After a thousand of such lives, let him become a man again. 

64. Let this sinner who has killed pigs be hit by buffaloes 

65. Let him be thus hit and smashed by the hoofs and horns for a thousand years. 

66. Released from there, let him become a pig, then a buffalo and later a cock, a hare and a jackal. 

67. In all these lives he will be a prey. There is no other way to mitigate his actions. 

68. Then he will become a man, but as a hunter. There is no other way even after a hundred lives. 

69. Put in glowing cinders for three hundred years this man who has given to others food left after his eating. 

70. Let this bad adulterous woman, who was unfaithful to her husband, embrace these seven men of iron. 

71. She will then become a dog, afterwards a pig and, when the result of her actions is over, a distressed woman. She will never attain happiness. 

72. This man made his servants toil very much and then sent them away without giving them any food or drink. 

73. He was only fond of his own glorification.

74. Let him, therefore, be put in the terrific hell Raurava. 

75. Beat the man who performs all sorts of actions for thou sands of years. 

76. Let him then be born as a robber and afterwards as a serpent. 

77. Let him then be a pig, and then a goat, then an elephant, a horse, a jackal and crane. 

78. After a very long time, let him become a man. 

79. He is to be born dead in five lives and die as a boy in five others. 

80. Only afterwards does he become a man. 

81. Whatever good or bad a being has done, the result of that necessarily accrues to it. 

82. So it is that the great Lord has laid down the results of all actions.”