What after Death ? (Contd.)

SINNERS GO TO HELL

    To those who have not performed sacrifices, etc.the ascent is to the abode of Yama and after having experienced (the results of their evil deeds) they come down to the earth; as such, a course is declared by the Sruti. This is the Siddhanta Sutra.Sinners suffer in Yamaloka and return to this earth. Yama says to Nachiketas: ‘The way to the hereafter never rises before an ignorant person who is deluded by wealth. This is the world—he thinks—there is no other; thus, he falls again and again under my sway’ (Katha Up. I.2.6)/

    Chitragupta and others are only superintendents and lieutenants employed by Yama. They are all under Yama’s government or suzerainty. Chitragupta and others are directed by Yama.

    The sinners never go to heaven because the topic relating to the two paths in the Chhandogya Upanishad is confined to men of knowledge (jnyan) and men of work (karma). It has no reference to evil-doers. The different journeys of the departed souls to the other world through the two roads or paths described in the Panchagnividya of Chhandogya Upanishad are the results of knowledge (meditation) and religious sacrifices (rituals) accordingly, as they were practiced in life; because these two are the subjects and objects.

   The Shruti says that those who do not go by means of Vidya along the path of devayana to Brahmaloka or by means of Karma along the path of pitriyana to Chandraloka are born of ten in low bodies and die of ten. If you say that evil-doers also go to Chandraloka that world would get overfilled. But you may reply that there will be souls going out from there to the earth. But then the Sruti text clearly says that the evil-doers do not go there. The evil-doers go to the third place and not to heaven. The Shruti passage says “Now those who go along neither of these ways become those small creatures continually returning of whom it may be said ‘Live and die’. Theirs is a third place. Therefore the world never be comes full” (Chh. Up. V.10.8).

        Kaushitaki Upanishad, ‘That all departed go to the Chandraloka’. The word ‘all’ has to be taken as referring only to those who are qualified, who have per formed good deeds. All eligible souls only go to Chandraloka. It does not in object mean just the evil doers or sinners.

   If the sinners do not go to the world of moon or Chandraloka, then no new body can be produced in their case: because there is no fifth oblation possible in their case and the fifth oblation depends on one’s going to the sphere of moon. Therefore, all must go to the Chandraloka in order to get a new body. The fifth oblation is not necessary in the case of those who go to the third place, because it is thus declared in the scriptures

   The rule about the five oblations does not apply in the case of evil-doers or sinners because they are born without the oblations.

   The Sruti says, “Live and die. That is the third place.” That is to say these small creatures (flies, worms, etc.,) are continually being born and are dying. The sinners are called small creatures because they assume the bodies of insects, gnats etc. Their place is called the third place, because it is neither the Brahmaloka nor the Chandraloka.

    Hence the heaven world never becomes full, be cause these sinners never go there. More over, in the passage, “In the fifth oblation water is called man” the water becomes the body of a man only, not of an insect or moth etc. The word ‘man’ applies to the human species only. There are, more over, traditions, apart from the Vedas that certain persons like Drona, Dhrishtadyumna, Sita, Draupadi and others were not born in the ordinary way from mother’s womb. In their cases there was wanting the fifth oblation which is made to the woman. In the case of Dhrishtadyumna and oth ers, even two of the oblations, viz., the one offered into woman and the one offered into man, were absent. Drona had no mother. Dhrishtadyumna had neither father nor mother. Hence in many other cases also, procreation or birth may be supposed to take place independently of oblations. The female crane conceives with out a male. The five oblations are not absolutely necessary for a future birth. The rule about the five oblations is not universal. It applies only to those who do sacrifices. Therefore, the sinners need not go to heaven. The five oblations have nothing to do with the third way, i.e., die and be born in low bodies. They refer only to human births in the case of souls who ascend and then descend. In the case of others embodiment may take place in a manner other than through wombs. The two classes spring from earth or water, from something stable. They both germinate: one from the earth and the other from water. It makes no difference because that which springs from moisture is included in the place of plant life (Udbhijja). There is similarity between Svedaja and Udbhijja. Hence there is no contradiction. Those which are born of sweat are called Svedaja. Svedaja and Udbhijja are not born of wombs. The word Udbhijja literally means born by 'bursting through'. The plants burst through the earth. The sweat-born burst through the water. Thus the origin of both is similar, for both are born by bursting through.

    Thus, the evil-doers do not go to heaven. Only those who perform sacrifices go to heaven. This is the settled conclusion. The akasa is, verily, greater than fire. For, in the akasa exist both sun and the moon, as also lightning, stars and fire. It is through the akasa that a person calls another; it is through the akasa that the other hears; it is through the akasa that the person hears back. In the akasa we rejoice when we are together and in the akasa we rejoice not when we are separated. In the akasa everything is born and toward the akasa all things grow. Meditate upon the akasa.