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The Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana of Valmiki, Vol. 4 (of...

CHAPTER CLX. Description of Heaven and Hell.

Project Gutenberg EPUB edition Valmiki and Mitra, Viharilala
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40. Whatever one thinks upon, he feels the same in himself, as long as he possesses his mortal body; and after he loses his material body, he feels it in his mind, which is but a part of the body.
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41. When a living person quits one body for another, he carries with him the same mind into the other that he had in the prior one, and sees the same things in its thoughts, which he was accustomed to look upon before.
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42. A good conscience has all goodly prospects before it, as a vitiated soul meets with ghastly aspects on all sides; the airy mind sees only such aerial shapes in its vacuity.
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43. Pure souls only come to enjoy the sights of these siddha cities in the air, but impure spirits are subjected to suffer their torments in hell.
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44. There is a continual rotation of the unwieldy stones of grinding mills, for crushing the vicious souls; and the hurling of wicked into blind wells or dark pits, out of which they can rise no more.
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45. There some bodies are cast amidst the frozen snows, where they are petrified to stones; and many are thrown into the burning coals of devils, or led amidst the burning sands of trackless deserts.
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46. The clouds dropped down living fire, and the skies poured forth fiery showers; and red-hot bolts and arrows darted down from heaven.
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47. Stones and disks and swords, were floating on the running stream of the sky; and falling like fragments of clouds upon the breasts of the accurst, and breaking them as with the strokes of felling axes.
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48. The hot iron sleets and brimstones, falling with a hissing sound; and weapons were hurled from engines, with a loud tremendous noise.
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49. Missiles and bolts and discs, together with pikes and clubs, and swords and shafts were falling in showers; and traps and tackles and malls and mallets were striking in hundred.
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50. There the hot and burning sands, buried the passengers under the ground; and there burning meteors were falling like torches; while large ravens were devouring the dead bodies around.
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51. Blazing piles also ingulfed the dead, from which they could never get out; while darts and spears and bolts and arrows, were piercing the other bodies all about.
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52. Hunger and dismay and excruciating pains, tormented by turns, the bodies of dead apostates; while others were hurled down from high hills and heights, on rough and hard stones below.
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53. Some were weltering in blood, and rolling in pools of dirt, rotten flesh and disgusting pus; and others were crushed under stones and weapons, and beneath the feet of horses and elephants.
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54. Hungry vultures and owls, were picking up and tearing the dead bodies, out of caves and places; and their limbs and members, were mangled and scattered all over the ground.
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55. It is thus that men are prepossessed, with these thoughts of the punishment of their guilt, from the sacred writings; and thereby come to suffer the same, both in their bodies and minds, from their inward impressions of them.
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56. Whatever form or figure, ever appears in the vacuum of the Intellect; or whatsoever is dreamt or thought of at anytime; the same holds fast the imagination, and presents itself before the mirror of the mind of its own accord.

Source attribution

The Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana of Valmiki, Vol. 4 (of 4), Part 2 (of 2), Project Gutenberg eBook #71249

CHAPTER CLVIX. Wandering of Vipaschit. CHAPTER CLXI. Explanation of Nirvána.