Nâraka
(Sk.)
In the popular conception, a hell, a “prison under earth”. The hot and cold hells, each eight in number, are simply emblems of the globes of our septenary chain, with the addition of the “eighth sphere” supposed to be located in the moon. This is a transparent blind, as these “hells” are called vivifying hells because, as explained, any being dying in one is immediately born in the second, then in the third, and so on; life lasting in each 500 years (a blind on the number of cycles and reincarnations). As these hells constitute one of the six gâti (conditions of sentient existence), and as people are said to be reborn in one or the other according to their Karmic merits or demerits, the blind becomes self‐ evident. Moreover, these Nârakas are rather purgatories than hells, since release from each is possible through the prayers and intercessions of priests for a consideration, just as in the Roman Catholic Church, which seems to have copied the Chinese‐ritualism in this pretty closely. As said before, esoteric philosophy traces every hell to life on earth, in one or another form of sentient existence (TG).
DATA
To show: Nâraka; sortable: Naraka
Lifetime:
Shortly: In the popular conception, a hell, a “prison under earth”. The hot and cold hells, each eight in num...