Fell deeds and their consequences: A Puranic view

 Hari Aum.

A very happy Navaratri to all readers. We are currently on the second day of this nine day, or rather nine night ('nava' means 'nine' and 'ratri' means 'night' in Sanskrit) spiritual festival dedicated to the Divine Mother.

The first three days of this auspicious spiritual festival are traditionally dedicated to Mother Durga, the Goddess who destroys evil. The next three are dedicated to Mother Lakshmi, the giver of all that is auspicious, and the final three days are dedicated to Mother Sarasvati, the giver of wisdom. The final tenth day, Vijaya Dashami, is a celebration of the victory of the divine over the undivine, of good over evil.

We are presently on day two of this festival so today is a day dedicated to Mother Durga. In the present state of the world, I was reflecting that it would be nice if Mother Durga could take an avatar to sort things out. 

These days one cannot read the news without coming across endless articles with a 'trigger warning'--something along the lines of "viewers may find this distressing" (these then go on to describe some appalling acts of violence and cruelty). These articles sadly describe the lowest of the low conduct that humanity is capable of (just when one thinks it cannot get any worse, a new low appears). I am of course talking about the recent events that led to the present war in the Middle East.

And, at times like this, when one is confronted with the awful reality that there are people who walk this Earth in human form, but who possess hearts and minds that can only be described as devilish or demonic in nature (they are clearly far from human within), one inevitably finds oneself yearning for an avatar of God. 

"If only You would come now" one cannot help but feel. "There is so much misery here, if not now, then when?" one wonders. "How much worse do things do things need to get before You will take the trouble to manifest" is the natural thought that occurs. 

Traditionally an avatar of God appears when things are very, very bad on Earth. Impossibly, unimaginably bad, in fact. 

Narayana/Krishna declares in the Gita:

"Paritranaya sadhunam, vinashaya cha dushkritam, dharma samsthapa-natharya, sambhavami yuge yuge"

Meaning:

"For the protection of the good, and the destruction of evil, to establish dharma/righteousness, I manifest in age after age".

When Krishna's avatar was due, the Puranas declare that He arrived sooner than expected when an evil ruler called Kamsa began to murder newborn babies in great numbers. Similarly, the Narasimha avatar appeared to protect a child, Prahlada, who was being tormented by his clan. The Rama avatar manifested to defeat Ravana, a demonic being given to pride and lust (he was fond of abducting women from various realms and molesting them/subjecting them to all sorts of torment and cruelty).  

While all killing and cruelty is unjust and unrighteous/adharmic, there is something especially vile, wicked and diabolical about deliberately singling out and targeting/torturing the most weak and vulnerable in society-- babies, children, women, the elderly and the sick. And our Puranas seems to share this view-- as we see with Krishna and Narasimha, even an avatar of God hastens His arrival upon Earth when such groups are targeted.

There is supposed to be a major avatar of Vishnu in every 'yuga' (a very, very long period of time, ranging from hundreds of thousands of years to several million depending upon the yuga). We are supposed to be around five thousand years into the present 'age of quarrels' or Iron Age ('Kali yuga'-- not the same as Mother Kali; pronounced and written differently in Sanskrit). 

This is supposed to have started after the departure of the Krishna avatar some time after the Mahabharata war. There are meant to be many more hundreds of thousands of years remaining of this yuga and it is only at the very end of this period that the next avatar of Narayana known as the 'Kalki avatar' is due. 

But what shall we do in the meantime? Pray, chant and hope for the best, that is all we can do. And maybe, that is enough, that is all that is expected from us.

However, as we watch and hear the news of the fell, evil deeds that occur upon our Earth, we may sometimes reflect upon what our scriptures, our Puranas, say about the karmic consequences of such actions. These are good examples of what to never do, and the scriptures provide some solace with regard to divine justice in the absence of an obvious avatar of God at present.

Most yogis and Gurus do not like to emphasise the subject of sin and punishment very much. They like to be positive and encouraging towards us, their students. They tell us to avoid sin as far as possible to avoid the inevitable suffering that will follow in accordance with the law of karma.

However, while the intellect understands this well, the lower mind in each of us has its own ideas and strength. The majority of us, including spiritual seekers, are not paragons of virtue at all. 

The only change that comes about in us when we become seekers is that we now desire to transform and overcome this lower self and embrace our Higher divine nature. We shrink away from the lower nature and are drawn to the Higher. However, on this spiritual journey, there is many a fall, many a setback, and much overcoming of obstacles and perseverance.

The Christian tradition talks of the 'seven deadly sins', namely pride, anger, lust, jealousy, greed, laziness and gluttony.  The yogis would agree with these-- the yogic equivalent is very similar, namely, the 'shad ripus' or 'six enemies', namely lust, anger, greed, jealousy, pride and delusion.

A sincere effort in overcoming these inner flaws is adequate say the yogis in enabling us to obtain the forgiveness and grace of God. Some form of spiritual practice, some wish and effort to improve, some form of inner struggle to not just give in to these vices that repeatedly attack us from within is a good start say our Gurus. They encouragingly assure us that this will lead to the grace of God, and over time (may be a long time but that is ok), we will triumph in the end. Our divine nature will eventually be victorious.

But what of those who walk the Earth reveling in these vices, these seven deadly sins or the shad ripus? What of those who seem to get away with their crimes and escape human courts of justice? Will there be any divine justice?

Well, like other religious texts, our Puranas declare that there certainly will be divine justice. They state that the suffering that we cause others, must come back to us so that we learn not to repeat this again-- the purpose of this is for the education and evolution of the soul (not merely for crude vengeance or punishment simply for the sake of it), to learn to express our true divine nature. 

Hence, while our kindly, compassionate Gurus do not like to over-emphasise the subject of divine punishment for sins in their teachings, they are very clear that such punishment undoubtedly exists. It is not fiction. 

For those who are foolish enough, daft enough, to commit sin after sin on Earth, they tell us in no uncertain terms, very bluntly in fact, that the consequences will be very unpleasant indeed. These consequences are described in detail in our Puranas.

The Puranas describe various 'hell realms' (seven to be precise) which are are places of temporary suffering. 'Temporary' may be a short or long time; it all depends upon the amount of evil actions performed. In these hell realms, the soul has an opportunity to expiate its sins and learn lessons. 

After the negative karma has been paid off, the soul is permitted to be reborn on Earth and to have a fresh start (hell is not a permanent state according to the yogic scriptures, just as the heaven of the demi-gods is not). The soul is again free to commit good or evil deeds and reap their consequences, or alternatively, seek spiritual liberation, the state beyond the duality of this material universe (this endless cycle of samsara).

In his book, 'What becomes of the soul after death?', Sivananda describes in detail the Puranic view of the afterlife. Each soul's deeds, both good and bad, are said to be thoroughly examined by a team of higher divine beings who work for God (this is Yama, the demi-god of death, and his attendants, including the famous Chitragupta, who notes down all our deeds). 

After a detailed assessment of our conduct on Earth (including our thoughts, words and deeds), we are then given the just and fair consequences of our own actions, both good and bad. Once we have experienced these, we are again reborn on Earth and experience a portion of our past karma while creating new karma (unless we become spiritual seekers who wish to transcend karma and attain liberation).

The details of these hells are quite grisly (not for the faint-hearted) and are not too dissimilar from those described in other religions and spiritual traditions. I do not therefore want to go into too much detail here, but equally, I do feel it is useful to have a broad awareness of what our scriptures say about this topic so I will provide a short summary.

In essence, the purpose of the hell realms is to provide suffering. And, as we know, suffering involves some form of mental and physical pain. The themes of the various hell realms in the Puranas, therefore, are things that inflict pain upon the soul, or rather its 'astral body' (which survives death). Experiences that are unpleasant are given (such as excessive heat, cold, experiencing hunger and thirst, being attacked by other beings and so on and so forth. In one particular hell, it is said that the souls of the creatures we eat on Earth, eat our bodies to return the favour-- not at all pleasant, but from a certain perspective, one may see it as somewhat only fair!).

So, as we read the news, and discover the grisly deeds performed by people who may never face any consequences upon Earth, who commit terrible crimes against humanity in the name of God, we may reflect that sad indeed is their fate. Very tragic was the fate of those they harmed, but more terrible still will be their fate in the future. For, one day or another, divine justice will prevail, and they will face the unfortunate results of their actions. 

One can only hope and pray for the sanity of all beings in the current world situation. One hopes this war does not escalate further and lead to more suffering. And, ultimately we must remind ourselves that, no matter what dreadful things happen here, God is available to each one of us, He/She is ready and willing to help us.

So, on that hopeful note, let us praise the Divine Mother who grants justice, let us remember Mother Durga and repeat Her holy names and mantras during this auspicious Navaratri period.

Om Shri Durgayai Namah.

Om Namo Narayanaya.

Hari Aum Tat Sat.