Durgadas explains how the Puranic concept of "Narakas" are not Hells in Hinduism, but symbolic as per the lower netherworlds and also lower states of birth from the human state. 

 


Narakas are not "Hells" in Hinduism

by Ved Kovid, Durgadas

(c) Ved Kovid, Durgadas. All Rights Reserved. 
 

Later Hindu texts as Puranas talk about narakas, which some translate as hells. Yet, they connect to lower patalalokas or netherwords, of which there are seven and also represent lower forms of limited birth that cause duhkha (suffering) due to limitations (compared to human birth).

Naraka means "that pertaining to man" and hence karmas accrued from human life. Yama represents vyoma or atmosphere, the soul goes after death. Yamadutas are the pranas that leave the body and guide the astral and causal bodies there that the jivatman remains trapped within. Chitragupta the "scribe" is simply the canvas of the chitta or mind-stuff that records impressions, attached to the causal body. Thus his name "hidden pictures (vasanas or samskaras)" or the "hidden (latent vasanas and samskaras) of the chitta (mind-consciousness)".

"Narakas" such as Raurava mean of a dog or antelope, meaning one is reborn into the yoni (womb) of such in the next birth, due to acting like a parshava (animal), a naga (serpent) - hence one having to survive without legs in that birth and so on. Duhkha (suffering) is related to various stages of birth, the entrapment in these lower life-forms to the asuric, rakshasa and pishacha life-forms on lower-astral planes in simply deluded forms of life are also forms of suffering. One is not tormented in a supernatural realm with fire, brimstone, beaten etc. Such may however occur in human and other births as a consequence of one's past actions (as cause and effect; if one drowns a person, they will be reborn with a disease that causes such suffering or be drowned themselves by another). These are also described as psychological states in the Ayurvedic texts of the tamasic or ignorant minded.

We can classify 9 types of birth as per the Ayurvedic Samhitas, as "narakas" (one goes there, is reborn from the human state), or rather, the "narakas" signify "yonis" (wombs one is born into):

Asura - Master of the underworld
Rakshasa - Agent of the underworld
Pishacha - Lower scavenger-type Ghoul
Sarpa (serpent) - Kakola or Dandasukha "Naraka"
Preta (ghoul or other, like vulture or spirit) - a ghost trapped in between worlds
Shakuna (bird life) - Suchimukha "Naraka"
Pashava (animal life) - Raurava "Naraka"
Matsya (aquatic life) - Confined to waters
Vanaspatya (tree life) - Confined to not-moving as a plant / vegetable or consumed

The Lavana (salt) naraka for example would be rebirth in aquatic oceanic life-forms, wile krimisa that of worms, bacteria and insects and tala (lock), being that of a prison-cell in the current or future life for capital punishments or as a consequence in next life for karmas; adhomukha or downward-head represents rebirth into an animal-life form as a cat, dog etc. where heads often face downwards rather than upwards as humans (meaning quadrupeds), mahajwala (great flame) means one is reborn where he is burnt alive or suffers from burn injuiries as a result of past actions or reborn in desert regions as a poor person without foods, water etc., while rudhirarandha implies one is reborn as a lowly animal-sacrificer or butcher etc. or carnivorous animal as a lion, tiger etc. or as a rakshasa in the netherworlds in states of tamas or ignorance and delusion (moha).

Here, various diseases, would also be "narakas" in the next life, as Kushta (leprosy), andha (blindness) etc. as a human.