‘Yama’ – God of Death

One Who Punishes Sinners

Descriptions of Yamraj as the deity of death can be found in Garud Puran and other mythological texts. Garud Purān and other mythological texts are full of untruth. Yamrāj stands depicted in these texts as having a very fearful body and a width of many kilometres. He is shown as the devta of death, the one who snatches the life of people. He seems to have assistants or messengers who inflict varieties of unbearable torture on sinners in the nether worlds (Hells).

Illogical Description

The description of Yamrāj having a body of many kilometres width and his riding on a male buffalo is false and fictitious. If it is said figuratively that death rides on a dark, ignorant form (tamoguni) of buffalo and whose fear is spread over miles, then it is ok, but taking it literally is a big untruth.

Know the Reality

The reality of Yam has been projected in Ved thus:

“yamen vāyunā sathyarājana”

Rig Ved  1/163/2;  Yajur Ved 20/4; Atħarv Ved  4/39/4

Meaning: The blowing air or wind in the sky is in itself Yam, where the soul resides after the loss of gross body and again manifests in pregnancy at the appropriate time.

Even in Kaŧopanishad, there is an imaginative narration of Yamrāj as the God of death in an episode related to Yam and Nachiketa.

It is so narrated in Kaŧopanishad that when Nachiketa went to meet Yam, he had gone out. Nachiketa had to wait for three days outside the house of Yam. Being pleased with Nachiketa’s patience, Yam told him to ask for three boons.

“thrisro rāthrīryadhavāthsīrgrhe me’anashambrahmanna thitħirnamasyaha.  namasthe’asthu brahmansvasthi me’asthu thasmātprathi thrīnvarānvrnīsva”

Kaŧo. Upanishad  1/9

This episode also proves that Yam is a self-awakened teacher though he is an imaginary character in the dialogue. It is said in Rig Ved that “āchāryo mrthyaha”. Here, the conversation is happening by depicting the teacher as death and the curious seeker as Nachiketa in a figurative sense.

Know the Reality of Chandragupta

There is a description of ‘Chitragupt’ as minister of Yam in mythological texts (Purāns). In fact, the consciousness of all is the means or medium in which every ones’ good and evil deeds are pictured, however confidential or secretive it could be. The consciousness of the inner psyche is, in fact, the minister ‘Chitragupt’.

Separate the Wheat from the Chaff

Now let us look at what is mentioned in Gita.

“nainam cħindhanthi bhāsthrāni nainam dhathi pāvakaha”

Gita 2/23

It means the soul cannot be cut with any weapon, nor can it be burnt with fire. Then, how is it possible for the assistants of Yam to inflict unbearable torture on the subtle bodies of the souls in the nether worlds (hell)? The fact is that only the gross or material bodies can be cut with weapons or burnt with fire to inflict pain but not the subtle bodies.

The reality of Different Hells

It is all other classes of life other than the human through which the soul experiences many kinds of difficulties, hardship and suffering. It is the experience of suffering of different sorts associated with these other classes of life that are said to be reservoirs of hell. The contention of Vedant Darshan is also the same.

“avi cha saptha”

Vedant Darshan (3/1/15)

Meaning: There are many birth classes, but they are divided into seven parts, and these have been said as the seven forms of hell.

They are-

1. Raurav (Dreadful misery);

2. Maharaurav (Unbearable dreadful misery);

3. Bahni (the great unbearable suffering as if burnt or roasted in the fire;

4. Vaitharni (an imaginary river considered to be an unending river of sorrows);

5. Kumbhīpāk (the suffering and uneasiness as if heated in a vessel);

6. Thāmisr (Sufferings due to the darkness of ignorance);

7. Andħathāmisr (Sufferings due to the darkness of ignorance out of the base and negative attributes).

All these are related to the sufferings, miseries, or pains of different birth classes.