The Gâtakamâlâ; Or, Garland of Birth-StoriesAryasura
Religion
The Gâtakamâlâ; Or, Garland of Birth-Stories
Aryasura
Gautama Buddha -- Pre-existence
37. 'There is sawing of others with fiery saws, cutting of others with
sharp razors. Of others the heads are crushed with hammers quickly
swung, so as to make them yell with anguish. There is roasting on a
smokeless fire of others, fixed on broad iron-spits which pierce through
their bodies. Others again are compelled to drink liquid brass looking
like blazing fire, which makes them utter raw cries.
38. 'Some are assailed by spotted dogs of great strength who with their
sharp-biting teeth tear off the flesh from their limbs; they fall on the
ground with lacerated bodies, crying loudly with pain.
39. 'Of such a nature are the tremendous torments in the different
hells. If thou, impelled by thy karma, shalt once have reached that
state[210], who then would think of calling upon thee for that debt at
that time, while thou art sore with sorrow and thy mind is afflicted
with exhaustion and sadness?
[210] The second pâda of this stanza is wanting an iambus in its
middle part. I think it is thus to be supplied: prâpto bhavishyasi
(yadâ) svak_ri_tapranunna_h_.
40. 'It may happen that thou art staying in the hell of brazen jars
filled with the corpses of wicked people and hard to approach because of
the fire-flames, which heat them and make thee move helplessly exposed
to the suffering of being boiled. Who then would think of calling upon
thee for that debt at that time?
41. 'Or thou mayst lie with tied limbs on flaming iron pins or on the
earth made red-hot by a blazing fire. While thou wilt be weeping
piteously, thy body burning away, who then would think of calling upon
thee for that debt at that time?
42. 'Who would require that debt from thee, when thou wilt have reached
that wretched state of humiliation, undergoing terrible sufferings and
not even able to make any answer?
43. 'Or suppose thy bones to be pierced by the icy wind which destroys
even the power of groaning, or thy voice uttering roaring cries of pain,
when thou wilt be torn asunder, who would dare ask thee for that money
in the other world?
44. 'Or, if rather thou wert to be exposed to the injuries of Yama's
attendants, or to lie in the midst of fiery flames, or if dogs and crows
were to feast on thy flesh and blood, who would urge thee with a call
for money in the other world?
45. 'Besides, when thou wert to undergo an uninterrupted torture by
striking or cutting or beating or cleaving, by burning or carving or
grinding or splitting, in short, by the most different modes of tearing
up (thy body), how shouldst thou be able to give back that debt to me at
that time?'
This extremely fearful account of the hells missed not its effect upon
the king. Hearing it, he became alarmed and left his attachment to the
false lore. And having obtained faith in the world hereafter, he bowed
to that illustrious _Ri_shi and spoke:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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