Too weak to walk any distance, he had his remaining disciples carry him to Jetavana in a litter. The Buddha’s disciples heard of this and informed the Blessed One who said, “It is not possible, bhikkhus, that Devadatta will see me again in this existence.” The bhikkhus were puzzled by this, but it was a matter of natural law (dhammatā) that through creating a schism, Devadatta had made such weighty kamma that he would never again be able to see the Buddha, and that his next birth would be in niraya.
On approaching the bank of the pond outside Jetavana Vihāra (“Jeta’s Grove Monastery” where the Buddha was in residence), Devadatta asked to be let down to bathe. As soon as his feet touched the earth it opened up to swallow him. He sank gradually into the ground, up to his ankles, his knees, his waist, his chest, his neck. Just before his jaw bone disappeared, he uttered a stanza in praise of the Buddha, thereby making merit with his last utterance.
He reappeared in the Mahāniraya with a hundred yojana body. The top of his head was buried in the red-hot iron ceiling, his feet in the red-hot iron floor. Stakes protruding from the walls pierced his body from every direction, passing right through him and leaving him standing there immobile. There he will remain among the flames of niraya enduring great suffering for the duration of the present kappa (world-age).
But the Buddha predicted that after the passage of one hundred thousand kappas more, Devadatta will become a Paccekabuddha named Aṭṭhissaro, on account of the merit made by him at the end of his life.401
Nor was this the first time that Devadatta had fallen directly into niraya. There are many Jātaka stories in which the villain is said to be Devadatta in a previous birth. In a few of these, the earth opens up at the end of the story and the wrong-doer falls directly into Mahāniraya.402 In the Sīlavanāga Jātaka (Jāt 72) the Bodhisatta is an elephant and Devadatta a forester. The forester is saved by the elephant but then cruelly mistreats him, sawing off his tusks at the root.
The forester taking his prize went on his way. No sooner had he left the sight of the Bodhisatta when the great earth, two hundred and forty thousand yojana thick, able to bear Mt Sineru and the Yugandhara Mountains, able to bear smelly loathsome dung and urine, was, as it were, unable to bear his wickedness and tore open a fissure. The flames of the great niraya Avīci issued forth and enfolded the ingrate like a blanket and he fell into the earth.
Including Devadatta, five persons during the Buddha’s life-time were swallowed by the earth and fell directly into niraya. The others were:
Ciñcā, the female wanderer who falsely accused the Buddha of getting her pregnant.
Suppabuddha, the father of Devadatta and of Rāhulamātā (the Buddha’s former wife). Suppabuddha got drunk and insulted the Buddha.
Nandamāṇavaka, whose crime was raping the arahant bhikkhunī Uppalavaṇṇā.
Nandaka the yakkha who struck Sāriputta a blow on the head also suffered this fate.403
The normal mode of arriving in niraya, however, is spontaneous rebirth (opapātikā yoni) which means that after death, a being simply appears fully formed with a body appropriate for the realm in question. Even in the rare cases of those who reach niraya by falling directly through the earth, it stated that the being does not go to niraya in their human body, but dies during the process and there is then spontaneously reborn (Ud-a 4:4).
3:3:9 LIFE-SPAN IN NIRAYA
The span of time a being suffers in niraya is determined by its individual kamma. In most cases it is very long, many hundreds of thousands of years.404 Causing a schism in the saṅgha, as Devadatta did, leads to a kappa spent in niraya, although the commentary qualifies this as meaning an antarakappa, (It-a 1:2,8) which is a subdivision of a full kappa (depending on context it might be anywhere from one fourth to one eightieth of a mahākappa). The most extreme example of a prolonged period of suffering in niraya is the case of Kokālika who repeatedly reviled Sāriputta and Moggallāna and refused to apologize or admit his fault. When he died, the Buddha declared that he had gone to Paduma Niraya, “The Red-Lotus Niraya”, and would stay there for a very long time:
The bhikkhus asked the Buddha how long was the span of life in the Paduma Niraya. The Buddha replied it was not easy to reckon the years, as so many thousands of years or so many hundreds of thousands of years. The bhikkhus asked if it were possible to give a simile to illustrate the length of time.
The Buddha said it was possible. “Suppose, bhikkhus, there were a Kosalan cart-load (which is four times the measure of a Magadhan cart-load) full of sesame seeds. If a man were to remove one seed every hundred years, this would complete the period of one life-time in Abbuda Niraya. Twenty of these make the life-span in Nirabbuda Niraya. Twenty of these make the life-span in Ababa Niraya … (this continues for ten multiples of twenty altogether concluding with … ) twenty lives in Puṇḍarīka Niraya equals one in Paduma Niraya. (AN 10: 89)
The commentary to this text, true to the ancient Indian love of manipulating huge numbers, if not to the Buddha’s injunction, specifies this period as a number of years. It calculates the length of time of one abbuda by beginning with a koṭi (ten million) of years and multiplies that by further factors of ten million six additional times. Thus, one koṭi of koṭis equals one pakoṭi, one koṭi of pakoṭis equals one koṭipakoṭi etc. If this calculation is done in full and expressed in modern notation we would have a life-span in Paduma Niraya equal to more than 5.12 times 10 to the 53rd power years!405
If the story of Kokālika represents the longest life-span in niraya, surely the case of Queen Mallikā, told in the Dhammapada Commentary, represents the shortest. Mallikā was the queen of King Pasenadi of Kosala. She was a devout follower of the Buddha and had made many meritorious offerings to the Saṅgha. She and the king were very much in love. Mallikā led a virtuous life with only one lapse:
One day Queen Mallikā went into the bathing room to wash herself. Her favourite pet dog followed her in. As she was bending over to wash her calves, the dog began to have sexual relations with her. She enjoyed the sensation and stayed there, allowing the act to continue. Just then, King Pasenadi approached and looked into the window of the bathing room.
When the queen emerged, the king confronted her. “Perish you vile woman! How could you do such a thing?” “What have I done, deva?” (kings were often so addressed) “You were having sex with a dog in there!” “No, I did not” “I saw it with my own eyes! I do not believe you, you vile woman.” “Great King, whoever looks through that window sees two persons where there is one.” “You are lying!” “Great King, if you want proof, you may go into the bathing room and I’ll look through the window and tell you what I see.”
Being of a foolish nature (mūḷhadhātuko) King Pasenadi believed her words and entered the bathing room. Mallikā peered through the window and said, “Foolish fellow! Why are you having sex with that she-goat?” “My dear, I have not!” “I do not believe you; I saw it with my own eyes.” (Dhp-a 11:6)
In her mind, Mallikā could never forget that she had committed two grave offences, having sex with an animal and falsely accusing her husband of the same. When her time came to die, instead of recollecting her many meritorious deeds, she thought about this incident at the last moment and was subsequently reborn in Avīci niraya.
After her death, King Pasenadi went to see the Buddha to ask him where Mallikā had been reborn. The Buddha gave a talk on the Dhamma and made the king forget to ask his question. So Pasenadi returned on the following day and the same thing happened, and so on each day for one week. On the eighth day, Mallikā deceased from niraya and reappeared in the Tusita devaloka (one of the heavenly worlds). And the Buddha was able to tell Pasenadi where she was (ibid.).
3:3:10 NERAYIKASATTA AND NIRAYAPĀLA
—THE BEINGS IN NIRAYA
The beings dwelling in niraya may be divided into nerayikasatta and nirayapāla. Nerayikasattas are the beings whose bad kamma has caused them to be reborn into that state of suffering. The Nirayapālas are their wardens an
d torturers. The bodily form of a nerayikasatta seems to be generally anthropomorphic since in the descriptions of the tortures we find references to familiar body parts like heads, arms and legs. However their form might be described as “deformed and loathsome” (virūpā jegucchā), (Jāt 541) and in one incident we hear of a being with a human body and a fish’s head (MN 50). Despite the extreme tortures of burning, dismemberment, crushing and so forth experienced by these beings they cannot die until their kamma is exhausted (MN 129). The ordinary rules of nature do not apply in niraya because this is a realm generated by the evil kamma of its beings. It is, for instance, stated that the reason the fire of niraya, much hotter than any earthly fire, does not consume the nerayikasattas is because of the power of kamma (Mil 2–3:4,6 Eng. v1 p91f.). The nerayikasattas are cited as examples of beings who do not enjoy any meritorious kamma and who experience only painful sensations (AN 4:233).
The nirayapālas, lit. “niraya guards” are the beings who torture the nerayikasattas in various ways. There was a controversy in early Buddhism as whether these are actual beings, i.e. possessed of consciousness and subject to death and rebirth, or merely illusory projections generated by the kamma of the sufferers themselves (Kv 20:3). The Theravāda position is that they are actual beings. People who act as torturers in the human realm may be reborn as nirayapālas (AN-a 3:36). In another passage it is stated that teachers who led their disciples astray with false teachings can be reborn as nirayapālas, and their students as the nerayikasattas they torture.406 The nirayapālas are occasionally referred to as rakkhasās, (Jāt 530) a rather loose designation in Pali usage derived from a class of Vedic demon. The nirayapālas are said to enjoy their work as they run about to and fro hacking at the nerayikasattas with various weapons. “They like nothing better than causing pain, for them it is like sport” (Jāt 530). Sometimes they feign compassion, for example one may ask a nerayikasatta, “Are you hungry, my dear?” (Using mārisa, an affectionate mode of address) and when answered in the affirmative, the nirayapāla forces a red-hot iron ball into the mouth of the victim (M 129).
3:3:11 YAMA
One being of great importance in the niraya realm is Yama, the King of niraya or Lord of Death. The figure of Yama has his roots in the Vedic period. In that mythology, Yama was the first human, and also the first man to die, so he became the King of the Dead. He had a twin sister named Yamī, and although there is a passage in the Ṛg Veda where he refuses her sexual advances because of the incest taboo, it is also assumed that they were the progenitors of the human race. The Buddhist Yama is not to be confused with the devas of the Yāma realm, the third kāmavācara devaloka (sensual heaven), although there may be an ancient link between the two in that the Vedas also describe a paradisiacal realm of the righteous dead ruled by Yama, and this is also the third level of heaven.407
The Buddhist Yama, as found in the canon and commentaries, is not a very well defined character. There is even some confusion as to how many Yamas there are. Most references to him use the singular and it is generally to be assumed that Yama is an individual. The Mahāsamaya Sutta (DN 20) mentions a long list of beings coming to see the Buddha among whom are “the two Yamas” (duve yamā). This is a text much influenced by pre-Buddhist sources and may reflect the Vedic idea of Yama having a twin. Another text speaks of four Yamas, one at each gate-way to the Mahāniraya.(AN-a 3:36).
Although he is called King Yama (yamarājā) in a couple of places, (MN 130 & AN 3:36) and the four unhappy states of rebirth are said to be his domain..408 In the text where we have the only significant glimpse of Yama in action, he seems more to be acting as a door-keeper, admitting wrong-doers to niraya:
When, after death, a wrong-doer reappears in niraya, the nirayapālas seize him by his arms and take him to King Yama. “This person, oh king (deva) has no respect for mother or father, for samaṇas or brahmins, or for the clan elders. Inflict punishment on him, oh king.”
Then Yama examines and questions the man in regard to the first divine messenger (devadūta). “Good sir (ambho purisa) have you never seen in the world of men the appearance of the first divine messenger?” “I have never seen it, venerable sir (bhante).”
“My good sir, have you never then seen in the world of men a young tender infant lying in its own excrement and urine?” “I have seen this, venerable sir.”
“My good sir, you are a learned man, intelligent and old in years. Have you never thought that you too are subject to birth (i.e. rebirth), that you have not transcended birth, that you had better do good deeds with body, speech and mind?” “I was not able to, venerable sir, I was negligent.”
“My good sir, you have been negligent in not making good kamma with body speech and mind. Certainly, they will deal with you according to your negligence. These bad kammas (actions) were done by you alone, not by your mother, your father, your brother or sister, nor by your friends or your relatives, nor by the devas. By you were these deeds done, and it is you who will experience the results.”
(Then King Yama questions him in a similar way about the remaining divine messengers: an old person, a sick person, a criminal being tortured or flogged and a dead body. The man’s replies are the same in each case and so is Yama’s final admonishment).
Then King Yama is silent and the man is taken by the nirayapālas to be tortured.409
The Aṅguttara Commentary tells us that not every being comes before Yama after death. Only those with little evil are questioned in this way, the great evil-doers go to niraya straight away, “just as a thief caught red-handed does not need an inquiry” (AN-a 3:36).
It seems from the passage above that King Yama is not at all eager to see the man condemned to the sufferings of niraya and is seeking to find some possibility of escape for him. It is significant that the man’s own kamma is responsible for his doom, and that in the end Yama merely acquiesces in silence. There are other indications that Yama is not entirely happy with his role. It is said that he wishes for a human birth, and to have the chance to hear the Dhamma taught by a Buddha (AN 3:36). Yama is said to be a vemānikapeta, a type of being with mixed kamma who spends part of his time enjoying deva-like pleasure and part of it in peta-like suffering.410 He is not to be considered an evil or demonic being; he is called a “righteous king” (dhammiko rājā) (AN-a 3:36). In the end, Yama comes across as a tragic figure.
There is an amusing anecdote in one of the Jātaka tales about a palace gate-keeper who wept when the evil king died, while the rest of the city rejoiced. When asked why he wept, he said that he was afraid that the king, who would regularly punch him on the head as he walked by, would strike Yama and be sent back to earth, being deemed too evil for niraya (Jāt 240).
Yama is also associated with death. A series of stanzas in the Dhammapada speak about the danger of facing death unprepared, and two of them mention Yama:
You are a withered leaf, now the servants of Yama approach
You stand at the mouth of death, with no provision for the journey. (Dhp 18, verse 235)
Now he is brought to loss, he has come into the presence of Yama.
There is no dwelling place between, you have no provision for the journey. (Dhp 18, verse 237)
Finally, there is one detail about Yama that seems somewhat out of line with the rest of what we know about him. Yama is said to possess one of the Four Great Weapons.411 This is the nayanāvudhaṃ, “the eye-weapon”, meaning that he can kill with his gaze. It is stated than when Yama is angry, with a single glance he can scatter and destroy many thousands of kumbhaṇḍas like sesame seeds on a hot pan (SN-a 10:12). Why he would destroy kumbhaṇḍas in particular, who do not seem otherwise to be associated with him, we are not told.412
3:3:12 SUFFERINGS OF NIRAYA
Niraya is a place of unceasing torment. Fire and burning feature prominently in descriptions of the pain endured by the beings there:
With bodies burning constantly, inside and outside …
Like an angry poisonous snake, the fl
ames difficult to cross (Jāt 530)
Tossed into a pit of blazing charcoal, the beings cry out with burning bodies … Jāt 541)
Burning charcoal rains down, stones fall on the doers of cruel deeds,
Hot winds hard to bear blow in niraya, there not the least happiness can be found … (Jāt 545, Eng. 544)
Sometimes this takes the form of boiling in a cauldron filled with molten metal.
The destroyers of beings cook them like a piece of fish …
He is boiled in an iron cauldron, he is cooked and his hide pierced with spears … (Jāt 530)
Blazing, burning, afire, I see a very large iron cauldron,
(Big as a mountain, filled with molten metal),
Grabbing and twisting their necks, they pour boiling water over them.
(They wrap a hot cord around their necks and throw them into the cauldron)
(This is the kammic result of catching and killing birds and beasts)413
This form of torture is so prevalent that the verb paccati which means, “to be boiled, to be cooked”, is sometimes used figuratively to refer to suffering in niraya generally.
Various and ingenious kinds of cutting, hacking and stabbing are also frequently mentioned:
With sharp arrows and spears, struck and pierced, he is tortured (paccamittā) …
He has killed, now he wanders in niraya, his belly and sides torn open,
His body torn, flowing with blood.
Spears, arrows, lances, various kinds of weapons rain down …
He climbs a mountain covered in razors, horrible blazing and frightful,
The Buddhist Cosmos Page 30