The Garuda Purana, one of the puranas of Hindu tradition, embodies the Hindu (Vaishnava) understanding of death and afterlife. The Purana is generally perceived as divided into two parts: the first describing death itself, and the second detailing what happens after death. The Purana is often recited during funeral rites in North India, and for this reason, one is generally discouraged from formally reading it. A lot of the Purana is extremely graphic:
30-32. Some go on the way neck, arms, feet and back bound with chains, bearing many loads of iron,
And being beaten with hammers by the awful messengers of Yama; vomiting blood from the mouth, which then they eat again,
Bewailing their own karmas these beings, becoming exhausted, full of very great misery, go on towards the mansion of Yama.
I find the Garuda Purana very interesting, for the simple reason that this Purana is one of the few places where Hinduism formally designates certain actions and thoughts as wrong. For instance:
34. Those who eat, having neglected their wives, children, servants and teachers, and having neglected the offerings to the forefathers and the Shining Ones,–these certainly go to hell.
Or:
52. The very sinful man who sets fire to a house, a village or a wood, is captured by the messengers of Yama and baked in pits of fire.
53. When his limbs are burnt with fire, he begs for a shady place, and then is led by the messengers into the forest of sword-like leaves.
54. When his limbs are cut by its leaves, sharp as swords, then they say, ‘Ah, ha! Sleep comfortably in this cool shade!’
55. When, afflicted with thirst, he begs for water to drink, then the messengers give him boiling oil to drink.
56. Then they say: ‘Drink this liquid and eat this food.’ As soon as he drinks it he falls down, burning inside.
57. Getting up again somehow, he wails piteously. Powerless and breathless he is unable even to speak.
It also showcases a face of Hinduism that I’ve never encountered elsewhere:
49. Some of the sinful are cut with saws, like firewood, and others thrown flat on the ground, are chopped into pieces with axes.
50. Some, their bodies half-buried in a pit, are pierced in the head with arrows. Others, fixed in the middle of a machine, are squeezed like sugar-cane.
51. Some are surrounded closely with blazing charcoal, enwrapped with torches, and smelted like a lump of ore.
52. Some are plunged into heated butter, and others into heated oil, and like a cake thrown into the frying-pan they are turned about.
53. Some are thrown in the way, in front of huge maddened elephants, and some with hands and feet bound are placed head downwards.
Wikipedia lists punishments with corresponding sins:
| Garuda Purana | Wrong doings | Punishment given in Naraka |
| Thamisra | Stealing other’s property including wife, children and belongings | Thrashing with Gadha |
| Andhathamisra | Post marital cheating between husband and wife | Unconscious circulation in abyss |
| Rourava | Destroying, spiliting other’s family and their belongings | Spanking the Life organs with trident by Yama’s kingaras |
| Maharourava | Brutally destroying other’s property and family for the sake of acquisition | A wild animal, Guru, tortures them in various forms |
| Kumbipaka | Destroying innocent lives for food | Roasting in hot oil tank by Yama’s kingaras |
| Kalasuthira | Torturing and putting elders and parents in starvation | Same set of treatment in hell |
| Asipathira | Abetting God and devolve from Dharma practises | Torture by devils; results in fear |
| Panrimukha | Punishing innocent people and serving as an accomplice unlawful activiites | Grinding under the sharp teeth of a animal resembling pig |
| Anthakoopa | Torturing lives and inhumane activities | Biting by wild animals; wild run over by animals |
| Agnikunda | Snatching other’s property by force, gaining undue advantage and unlawfully making best out of everything in the world | Roasting in agni kunda in an inverted position with hands and legs tied under a stick |
| Vajrakandaka | Unchaste people in physical contact with unmatching people | Physical hugging with fire spitting idols |
| Kirumibhojana | Selfish survival; eating other’s work | Insects are left intruding the body |
| Sanmali | Unchaste relationships by kamukas | Thrashing with gadha |
| Vaitharani | Using official stature to attain undue advantage, acting against dharma | Submerging in Vaitharini river where water is mixed with blood, urine and feces |
| Booyoga | Shameless behaviour, mixing with unchaste women & leading the life without any motive | Biting by poisonous insects and animals |
| Prayanyoga | Torturing lives and killing them | Spanking the vital organs with arrows by Yama kinkaras |
| Pasusava | All devatas are in cows; torturing those cows | Slashing by canes |
| Sarameyathana | Gutting houses, torturing lives, poisoning lives, involving in massacre | Torture by unknown wild animals |
| Aveesi | Giving false evidence | Submerging and torturing in livebodies |
| Paribathana | Drinking and making others drink alcohol | Drinking lava |
| Sharakarthama | Involving in bad activities and defaming elders and living with selfish motives | Torture the vital organs by unknown devils |
| Rakshogana | Performing narametha yaga, eating non vegetarian dishes and torturing soft animals | The same victims torture the hecklers |
| Soolaproga | Killing innocent people, masterminding people, committing suicide and doing nambike droha | Unknown birds peck and torture with shoola |
| Susimuga | Not doing any good, amassing wealth by wrong doings and stealing wealth | Stinging with nails and torturing with hunger and thirst |
| Kunthasootha | Not doing any good and always doing bad to others | Stinging by insects like scorpions |
| Vadaroga | Severely torturing living beings | Handcuffed and burnt in fire |
| Piravarthana | Defaming guests and not treating them | Torturing with hunger and thirst |
| Lalapakshuga | Torturing wife and involving her in unchaste relationships | Same set of treatment in hell |
How do we feel about the Garuda Purana? How is it relevant to our every day life? Is it relevant at all? It’s clearly very restrictive, and I’m sure many of us break the “rules” that it lays down. Should this bother us? How does this change our perception of Hinduism?
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I couldn’t make it to the discussion, and I’m curious to know what was said. So does this bother us? Has this changed our perception of Hinduism?
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