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BOOK I, LECTURE 5, CHAPTER 1.
279
FIFTH LECTURE,
CALLED
DESCRIPTION OF THE HELLS.
FIRST CHAPTER. I once asked the Kêvalin, the great sage1: What is the punishment in the hells ? Knowing it, O sage, tell it me who do not know it! How do sinners go to hell ? (1)
When I thus questioned the illustrious Kâsyapa, the omniscient one 2 spoke as follows: I shall describe the truly insupportable pains where there is distress and (the punishment of) evil deeds. (2)
Those cruel sinners who, from a desire of (worldly) life, commit bad deeds, will sink into the dreadful hell which is full of dense darkness and great suffering. (3)
He who always kills movable and immovable beings for the sake of his own comfort, who injures them, who takes what is not freely given, who does not learn what is to be practised (viz. control); (4)
The impudent sinner, who injures many beings without relenting 3, will go to hell; at the end of his life he will sink to the (place of) darkness; head downwards he comes to the place of torture. (5)
They hear the cries of the punishers: Beat, cut,
i I. e. Mahâvîra. Sudharman speaks to Gambûsvâmin.
? Â supanna=âsupragña 'quickly comprehending.' I usually render this word intelligent,' when it is used of common monks.
3 Anivvuê=anirvritah.
