Life and death of a materialistic person –a description of hell (Srimad Bhagavatam #43)

We receive the human form of life as an opportunity to realize our eternal position as servants of Krishna. It is a great blessing, but it also entails great responsibility.

Jan 09, 2025

In chapter 30, Lord Kapila describes the negative results of sinful activities. The problem with material activities connected with sense gratification is that they are almost always sinful and thus result in quite painful results in the long run. We receive the human form of life as an opportunity to realize our eternal position as servants of Krishna. It is a great blessing, but it also entails great responsibility. The danger starts when we become enamored by the opportunities of material sense gratification offered by our current body and forget about the goal of life. Studying the adverse results of our actions is part of the process of development of knowledge that can free us from this material world.

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Adverse Fruitive Activities (Chapter 3.30)

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Playing with the material energy

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Although we are practicing Krishna Consciousness and hearing spiritual instructions, maybe for many years, we often don't really have a desire to leave this material world. Of course, we understand that it would be nice to be with Krishna in the spiritual world, sitting under the kalpa-vriksa trees, never having to fear death and disease, but at the same time we may feel that this material world is not so bad, and don't really feel an urgency of leaving it.

When a person who is really suffering in life comes in contact with Krishna Consciousness, often he or she starts practicing very seriously. Because of the past suffering, there is an understanding that the material world is not a good place and thus one has a strong impetus to get out of it. Even the austerity of living in a temple, waking up early to attend morning programs, sharing a room with others, fasting on festival days, and going out daily on harinama or book distribution may not be perceived as something difficult in the beginning.

However, as one practices spiritual life, the past karma is cleared, and life improves. One doesn't suffer as much as before, and often there is even a sense of satisfaction. This is one of the early results of chanting the holy names, but it is also a test.

Because one's previous karma is cleared, the material suffering subsides. Simultaneously, there is a feeling of internal satisfaction that comes from the contact with the mode of goodness. In this platform, the material world stops looking like such a terrible place. It's like the material energy saying to us "See, you wanted to become free because your life was miserable, what about having another go as a first-class prisoner?"

At this point, one usually starts to remember whatever material attachments he or she still has, and starts to forget about how painful it was in the past. At this point there is a strong urge to go back to material life, at least partially, to continue chanting Hare Krishna while trying to enjoy a little more. One can then settle into just living piously, enjoying the pleasures of life, but at the same time continue chanting and following basic regulative principles. At this point, the material world stops looking like such a dangerous place and one has the impetus to continue playing with it. There is no urgency in going back to Godhead.

This is a trap for which most of us fail at some point in our spiritual lives. Many will later come out of it, and again become serious in spiritual life, while others may just continue like this until the end and have to accept another body. It comes from two misunderstandings about the nature of this material world.

The first misunderstanding is the idea that we can safely play a little with Maya without risks. Maya is so powerful that even great sages like Mārkaṇḍeya Rishi and even Narada Muni came under illusion after requesting the Lord to show them the power of the illusory potency.

The story of Mārkaṇḍeya Ṛṣi is narrated in the 12th canto of Srimad Bhagavatam. After practicing austerities for six manvantaras, he became so fixed in his spiritual practice, and so powerful that he could defeat Kamadeva (the Cupid) and his associates when they came to test him. When later he had the opportunity to meet with Nara-Nārāyaṇa Ṛṣi, he asked for an unusual benediction: to see the Lord’s illusory energy. He was curious to understand the exact process by which Maya, the illusory potency of the Lord put the souls into illusion.

The Lord, in the form of Nara-Nārāyaṇa Rshi mildly smiled, understanding that seeing Maya would just bring grief to the Rshi, but since it was his desire, he agreed and then left.

After this, Mārkaṇḍeya Ṛṣi continued his practice of austerities and worship. One day, as he was offering his evening prayers, the water of devastation suddenly flooded the three worlds. Somehow, time passed imperceptibly and it was already the end of the day of Brahma. Not only he experienced the destruction of the universe, but for many millions of years, Mārkaṇḍeya Rshi struggled alone in these turbulent waters. It's described that he was tormented by hunger and thirst, attacked by gigantic aquatic animals, and battered by the wind and waves. In this way, he became absorbed in fighting for his life and completely forgot who he was or why he had fallen into this ocean. Over time he became completely exhausted. He completely lost his sense of direction and could not even discern the sky from the earth. At this point, he was just trying to survive. It's described that "Sometimes he felt lamentation, bewilderment, misery, happiness or fear, and at other times he experienced such terrible illness and pain that he felt himself dying."

Mārkaṇḍeya Rshi asked the Lord to experience the potency of the illusory energy, and by the Lord's arrangement, he was able to experience this struggle in the cosmic ocean for an extremely long period, just like a living being has to struggle life after life for his existence in this material world, forgotten of his real eternal position.

Finally, after this long period of suffering, he came upon a small island on this ocean of devastation, where a banyan tree grew. On a branch on the northeast portion of that tree, he saw a small boy laying down on top of a leaf sucking the toe of His foot. This infant boy was no one but Krishna himself, executing His pastime of sucking His own toe during the devastation of the universe. When he approached the baby, he saw himself being inhaled inside his body, just like a mosquito. Mārkaṇḍeya Rshi then saw the universe again as it was before, with the Earth and other planets arranged in the sky, oceans, mountains, and so on. However, as the baby exhaled, he was put back into the ocean of dissolution. In that ocean, he again saw the island with the banyan tree, and the same boy laying on top of the leaf. Understanding that this boy was the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Ṛṣi ran to embrace Him, but as he came close, the boy disappeared, together with the island, the banyan tree, and the ocean. Suddenly, Mārkaṇḍeya found himself back in his own hermitage, just as before.

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In his book Maya, The Divine Energy Of The Supreme, Bhakti Purusottama Swami tells another similar history: When Narada Muni asked Lord Vishnu to show him the power of his illusory energy.

As a response to his request, the Lord invited him for a walk, and while in a forest Narada Suddenly felt very thirsty. Lord Vishnu pointed to a nearby river and told Narada he could go there and drink and He would wait. Narada excused himself and promised to return quickly.

He arrived at the river and prepared to drink water with his joined pals when a girl appeared and asked him to instead come to her house, where they had some nice pure water. Narada accepted the invitation and was served very nicely by the girl and her father, who received Narada with all the respect deserved by a great Sadhu. When Narada became pleased with their service attitude and asked if there was anything he could do for them, the father humbly asked him to marry his daughter and become his son-in-law. Attracted by the beauty of the girl and at the same time obliged by their service, Narada agreed.

Narada spent many years involved in family affairs and had a few children with the girl, who served him as a faithful wife. However, one day there was a great storm, and the river overflowed, inundating the village. The children fell into the water and were pitifully drowning. The wife jumped in to try to save them, just to be defeated by the power of the currents and also start drowning herself. Narada jumped into the river to try to save his family, but he was also overpowered by the currents and started drowning. When he was almost dying, he somehow remembered the Lord and loudly called: Vishnu!

Suddenly he was back on the bank of the river where everything started. Immediately he remembered that he had left Lord Vishnu waiting for such a long time and hurried back to Him. Lord Vishnu smiled and asked if he now understood.

The history of Mārkaṇḍeya Ṛṣi illustrates how the illusory potency of Krishna is powerful, counteracting our tendency to have a romantic view of the material world as a place where we can safely satisfy our desires. There is nothing for us here apart from the continuous struggle for existence that Mārkaṇḍeya Ṛṣi experienced in his ordeal in the ocean. There is no safety margin, the smallest mistake can result in billions of years of struggle in a very long sequence of births.

The history of Narada Muni, in turn, gives us a sample of how one can fall under the grip of material energy and forget Krishna for a long time. Of course, Narada is an eternally perfect soul, and he never falls into Maya like us. However, because he specifically asked, Lord Vishnu gave him a demonstration of how Maya is powerful.

Srila Prabhupada explains that even if one takes birth in a good family in his next life there is no guarantee that he will become serious in the spiritual path since birth in a good family also entitles one to many material opportunities. The only real guarantee we can have is to be serious now.

We then come to the second misunderstanding: failing to understand the real nature of this material world. The idea of continue living in this material world as a pious person, or pious devotee, or maybe as a demigod, enjoying beautiful women or beautiful men may not sound so bad, but the problem is that these are very small, privileged classes. The absolute majority of the souls in the material world live in the lower species, such as animals, plants, insects, microorganisms, and so on. Living as a demigod may not sound so bad, but living as a cockroach is a completely different story. One may think that he or she can remain in a privileged position in life after life by doing the right things, but all it takes is a small mistake to go back all the way down to the lower species. One may take his next birth in a wealthy family and become a materialist, or one may offend some pure devotee for example, and once one falls back into the lower species the way back is extremely long.

In Vedic cosmology, we study that time passes very fast for the demigods on the high planets, and it goes progressively slowly the lower we go. A demigod lives for a whole manvantara (306.72 million years), but in his perception, this is somehow like 100 years for us. On the other hand, many insects and bacteria live for just one day, and in their perception, this amount of time also equals 100 years. Time passes so slowly for them because such entities have to endure trillions of lives until they have a new opportunity in human life. This means that if we become demigods we will enjoy what we will perceive as 100 years, but if we fall into the lower species we will have to endure what we will perceive as hundreds of trillions of years in very harsh conditions until we come back to where we are now. It's not worth the risk.

The material world works in such a way that almost everyone is suffering in the lower species just to maintain a few privileged souls living as human beings and demigods. We can just try to calculate the volume of food and other resources we use during our lives: this is all produced by trillions of living beings living in the lower species.

It's like a five-star hotel where thousands work in very harsh conditions to maintain the luxuries of a few guests. The real nature of this material world is not the comfortable (or not so comfortable) life we have now, but the perpetual struggle for existence in the lower species. It's a nasty place, and a small mistake can put us back in the meat grinder. A trip into Maya is not worthy the risk. Our place is not here.

The deluding effect of material energy

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"The Personality of Godhead said: As a mass of clouds does not know the powerful influence of the wind, a person engaged in material consciousness does not know the powerful strength of the time factor, by which he is being carried. Whatever is produced by the materialist with great pain and labor for so-called happiness, the Supreme Personality, as the time factor, destroys, and for this reason the conditioned soul laments. The misguided materialist does not know that his very body is impermanent and that the attractions of home, land and wealth, which are in relationship to that body, are also temporary. Out of ignorance only, he thinks that everything is permanent. The living entity, in whatever species of life he appears, finds a particular type of satisfaction in that species, and he is never averse to being situated in such a condition. The conditioned living entity is satisfied in his own particular species of life; while deluded by the covering influence of the illusory energy, he feels little inclined to cast off his body, even when in hell, for he takes delight in hellish enjoyment." (SB 3.30.1-5)

The influence of Maya is such that a soul can always find some kind of happiness in any position he finds himself in and never wants to leave such a position. Although Mārkaṇḍeya Ṛṣi suffered so severely during his struggle in the ocean, to the point of forgetting who he was or how he had fallen in such a position, at no point did he desire to give up his struggle. Even in this situation, he found some momentary happiness in the form of brief periods of absence of suffering, and due to this, he continued struggling to maintain his life for billions of years. Similarly, when Indra was cursed to become a pig on Earth, he became attached to his new home and lost the desire to return to the celestial planets.

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Prabhupada makes a series of powerful points in his purports to these five verses:

a) We live for a limited amount of time and thus have to be attentive to make the best out of it. The limited amount of time we have in this life is an opportunity to become free from the influence of time, by completing our practice of Krishna Consciousness. This should be our priority, otherwise, it is very easy to lose track of time while involved in material life and be carried away, just as clouds are carried by the wind.

b) All our effort in building and achieving things in this material world is ultimately in vain, because everything we worked so hard to achieve will be destroyed due to the influence of time. The few decades we live in this body are just an insignificant blip of time compared to eternity, but materialists take this time as being everything, without caring for what comes later. To avoid wasting our energy in this way, we need to understand our eternal nature and our eternal engagement in the spiritual platform.

c) The material world is not false, but it is illusory. Maya means to accept home, country, society, etc. as permanent, and forget about self-realization. Economic development under this false concept is just illusory. However, when we become Krishna Conscious, we can use economic development and all material resources for Krishna. When we do that, they bring us to real prosperity.

d) How is it that the soul can become attached even to very dificult, unpleasant material circumstances? That's due to the spell of māyā, the external energy. Maya has two features, āvaraṇātmikā and prakṣepātmikā.

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By āvaraṇātmikā, Maya covers reality, creating a layer of ignorance that makes the soul misunderstand this word and his position in it. From the outside, we can understand that the life of a pig is miserable, but the pig thinks he is doing just fine. By the influence of this potency, the soul's knowledge becomes covered, and one becomes satisfied with whatever position he is put in, no matter how miserable, and never desires to leave his conditioned life. Even if offered a better position, or even if offered liberation from material entanglement and eternal life in the spiritual world with Krishna, still the soul is reluctant to leave.

By prakṣepātmikā Maya makes the soul actively chase different types of desires and attachments, which increases one's conditioning and makes him gradually go lower, in the direction of hell. Animal life is thus a necessary feature of this material world, a way to gradually recover the consciousness of the souls who become degraded, bringing them back to human life, albeit slowly. Another feature of prakṣepātmikā is that when one comes to the platform of self-realization and tries to break free, this potency tests him by creating distractions and doubts. If one is not determined, prakṣepātmikā will pull him back to material life and make him forget everything.

We can see that these two potencies work together. By their influence, souls can remain in the material world almost eternally. Practically speaking, the only way to get out is when a soul meets devotees and starts the process of devotional service. If one remains firmly under the shelter of the spiritual master, one can wake-up from the influence of āvaraṇātmikā and resist the influence of prakṣepātmikā. In this way, one can finally break free. Otherwise, it is practically impossible to become free from the influence of Maya.

Prabhupada further explains the influence of these two features of Maya in his purport to CC Madhya 20.6:

"There are innumerable conditioned souls rotting in the material world, imprisoned by māyā under the spell of sense gratification. The living entity is so entranced by the spell of māyā that in conditioned life even a pig feels satisfied. There are two kinds of covering powers exhibited by māyā. One is called prakṣepātmikā, and the other is called āvaraṇātmikā. When one is determined to get out of material bondage, the prakṣepātmikā-śakti, the spell of diversion, impels one to remain in conditioned life fully satisfied by sense gratification. Due to the other power (āvaraṇātmikā), a conditioned soul feels satisfied even if he is rotting in the body of a pig or a worm in stool. To release a conditioned soul from material bondage is very difficult because the spell of māyā is so strong. Even when the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself descends to deliver conditioned souls, asking them to surrender unto Him, the conditioned souls do not agree to the Lord’s proposal. Therefore Śrī Sanātana Gosvāmī said, “Somehow or other, if one helps another gain release from the bondage of māyā, he is certainly recognized immediately by the Supreme Personality of Godhead."

Life and death of a materialistic person

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Now that the powerful influence of Maya was described, Lord Kapila proceeds to explain the symptoms of someone deluded by this influence and the results.

In the Bhagavad-Gita, Krishna explains that "The spirit soul bewildered by the influence of false ego thinks himself the doer of activities that are in actuality carried out by the three modes of material nature." In reality, the soul, being spiritual, performs no actions in the material sphere. All actions are actually performed by the three modes of nature, with the sanction of the Supersoul. If the soul is not the one performing actions, why then has the soul to suffer the karmic reactions?

As we studied, when the soul comes in contact with material energy and takes part in the material creation, a new identity is formed by the combination of material consciousness, false ego, mind, intelligence, etc. This material identity is different from the soul, but the soul identifies with it and thus shares its pains and pleasures. The material mind desires, the material intelligence makes plans to fulfill such desires and these plans are fulfilled by the actions of the three modes of material nature, and the results of such actions are enjoyed or suffered. In reality, these actions and reactions affect only this material identity, and not the soul proper. As explained in the Bhagavad-Gita, the soul can't be burned by fire, moistened by water, wittered by winter, and so on. However, because of identification, the soul shares the pains and pleasures of this material identity, following it wherever it goes, just like a husband following his wife.

For example, let's imagine that the soul identifies with the material identity of a man called "Napoleon". Napoleon has the ambition of becoming the emperor of the world and thus commits many sinful activities by waging war, killing opponents, and so on. These actions are carried by the three modes of material nature, but everything ultimately happens due to the desire of the soul to enjoy the material world. At the end of his life, Napoleon dies and goes to hell. There, it suffers the results of its actions through many torments. The soul is not directly affected by such torments, but because the soul identifies with "Napoleon", the soul shares its suffering. Finally, "Napoleon" is no more, this temporary identity is reset into a plant or some lower animal, from where it goes through the evolutive cycle until a new human consciousness is formed. Because the soul identifies with this particular material identity, the soul follows the whole process. Eventually, it comes again into the human form, where it assumes a new identity, "Sara". The soul identifying with "Sara" then lives as a lady, wishing to get married, attached to her home, and so on. This continues until one of these material identities comes in contact with devotees, and starts to practice devotional service. By practicing devotional service under this material identity, the soul has the opportunity of remembering his original nature and becoming finally free of material entanglement.

This process of acting sinfully due to the influence of the material energy and suffering the results is explained by Lord Kapila in the next verses:

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"Such satisfaction with one’s standard of living is due to deep-rooted attraction for body, wife, home, children, animals, wealth and friends. In such association, the conditioned soul thinks himself quite perfect. Although he is always burning with anxiety, such a fool always performs all kinds of mischievous activities, with a hope which is never to be fulfilled, in order to maintain his so-called family and society.
He gives heart and senses to a woman, who falsely charms him with māyā. He enjoys solitary embraces and talking with her, and he is enchanted by the sweet words of the small children. The attached householder remains in his family life, which is full of diplomacy and politics. Always spreading miseries and controlled by acts of sense gratification, he acts just to counteract the reactions of all his miseries, and if he can successfully counteract such miseries, he thinks that he is happy. He secures money by committing violence here and there, and although he employs it in the service of his family, he himself eats only a little portion of the food thus purchased, and he goes to hell for those for whom he earned the money in such an irregular way. When he suffers reverses in his occupation, he tries again and again to improve himself, but when he is baffled in all attempts and is ruined, he accepts money from others because of excessive greed.
Thus the unfortunate man, unsuccessful in maintaining his family members, is bereft of all beauty. He always thinks of his failure, grieving very deeply. Seeing him unable to support them, his wife and others do not treat him with the same respect as before, even as miserly farmers do not accord the same treatment to their old and worn-out oxen. The foolish family man does not become averse to family life although he is maintained by those whom he once maintained. Deformed by the influence of old age, he prepares himself to meet ultimate death. Thus he remains at home just like a pet dog and eats whatever is so negligently given to him. Afflicted with many illnesses, such as dyspepsia and loss of appetite, he eats only very small morsels of food, and he becomes an invalid who cannot work any more. In that diseased condition, one’s eyes bulge due to the pressure of air from within, and his glands become congested with mucus. He has difficulty breathing, and upon exhaling and inhaling he produces a sound like ghura-ghura, a rattling within the throat.
In this way he comes under the clutches of death and lies down, surrounded by lamenting friends and relatives, and although he wants to speak with them, he no longer can because he is under the control of time.
Thus the man, who engaged with uncontrolled senses in maintaining a family, dies in great grief, seeing his relatives crying. He dies most pathetically, in great pain and without consciousness. At death, he sees the messengers of the lord of death come before him, their eyes full of wrath, and in great fear he passes stool and urine." (SB 3.30.6-19)

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In the verses, Lord Kapila emphasizes the negative nature of materialistic life, making us see through the influence of the āvaraṇātmikā feature of Maya and understand the real nature of it.

Human life is very rarely achieved. To obtain a human body a soul has to accumulate lots of pious merits by going through millions of births in the lower species. As a plant, the soul can accumulate some pious merits by producing fruits, as an animal by giving milk, carrying loads, or performing some other beneficial activity, and so on. After accumulating the necessary merits through such hard work, the soul finally receives the opportunity of a human birth. However, even as a human, the influence of Maya does not cease. As humans, we have free will, something that becomes covered in animal life, but free will doesn't come without risks. Due to the prakṣepātmikā influence of Maya, we mostly go after sense gratification, and even if we start practicing spiritual life we tend to procrastinate, not having it as a priority.

Material enjoyment is centered around family life. No one can enjoy alone, enjoyment can exist only through relationships. One may try to enjoy alone by buying things and trying to stimulate his senses, but this type of solitary enjoyment is not very satisfying and usually leads to depression and degradation. Family life is better, because not only does it make one happier, by developing relationships with the spouse and children, as well as friends and family members, but it can be conducted piously if one follows the recommendations of the scripture. Nowadays, most people are afraid of getting married and having children, but if one wants to find material happiness, that's the way.

Family life however is not free of risks. When we don't have a higher goal, is easy to get lost in the material illusion, performing all kinds of sinful activities to maintain a materialistic lifestyle. One has the right to maintain a family through honest work, and thus live a progressive life, but if one maintains his family through sinful activities, he has to pay the reactions for it. At the same time, if one becomes devoid of higher purposes in life, he can't expect that the wife and children will be any different. Materialistic people by nature care about themselves, and not for others, and as a result a materialistic man ends up being mistreated by his own family as he becomes old and incapable of maintaining them. He then suffers due to his attachment, and at the end has to leave, carrying with him only his sinful reactions. The other family members, who enjoyed the money he obtained by dishonest means don't share his sinful reactions. He takes everything alone. Terrified, he is carried to hell by the angry Yamadutas.

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In his purports, however, Prabhupada emphasizes also another aspect: how we can become free from this entanglement. Thus, when we read the verses followed by the purports, we have the two sides simultaneously.

Family life in this material world is a perverted reflection of family life in the spiritual world. There, there are also families, fathers, mothers, children, etc. However, this original, eternal family life is pure and centered around Krishna. In this material world, we try to create a separate family centered around ourselves, and that leads to the shortcomings described by Lord Kapila. Such materialistic family life becomes a type of prison for the soul.

Family life therefore doesn't need to be rejected, but it has to be connected with Krishna. That's the whole purpose of the grihastha asrama. A grihastha learns to connect his family life with Krishna, conducting his family life in a spirit of service and detachment, different from the ordinary materialist, who just tries to use his family to satisfy his senses. A grhamedhi searches for happiness in this material world, but what we call happiness here is just the absence of suffering. Real happiness can exist only in connection with Krishna.

As Prabhupada explains: "The gṛhastha’s concern is to get out of the family life created by illusion and enter into real family life with Kṛṣṇa, whereas the gṛhamedhi’s business is to repeatedly chain himself to so-called family life, in one life after another, and perpetually remain in the darkness of māyā."

The purpose of this passage is to open our eyes to the pitfalls of materialistic family life. Once we understand these points, we may either become proper grhasthas, conducting our family life in Krishna consciousness, with a spirit of detachment, or become renunciants. Both paths can work if conducted with the proper mentality.

The dark side of the material world

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Although life in this material world is full of difficulties, there is always some enjoyment present even in the most dificult conditions. Even a person who has to work very hard the whole day just to eat finds some enjoyment in being able to finally sleep at night. In reality, this is not enjoyment, but just the absence of suffering, but still a conditioned soul can become easily attached even to that.

The problem is that even when we decide to settle into our current condition, just living life the best we can, tolerating the difficulties, and looking for whatever small enjoyment is available, still we are not allowed to stay. Time ticks and when it is finished, we are forced to leave.

The ultimate goal of human life is to become a devotee of Krishna and dedicate our actions, words, and thoughts to Him in devotional service. Krishna Consciousness is the normal, healthy condition of the soul, and human life is an opportunity to revive it.

If one is not ready for it, the scriptures offer a second option in the form of a pious life, following the rules and regulations. Apart from these two paths, there is only sin, and when we go in this direction, we are forced to face the consequences of our choices at the end of life. A materialist thus suffers two times: first by living a life full of illusion and anxiety, and finally by suffering the reactions of his sins after death. Lord Kapila explains this path in detail so we may understand how painful it is. The hellish punishments described in the Srimad Bhagavatam are not just metaphorical: they are real, and sinful people are liable to be punished in this way. Such hellish punishment is usually followed by a very long path through the lower species of life until one can again accumulate enough merit to obtain a human birth again. When one becomes too sinful, one gradually exhausts all his pious merits, and once these merits are finally exhausted, he goes to hell, where this sinful identity is destroyed through the sufferings imposed, forcing the soul to develop a new material identity through the slow progression in the lower species. Hell offers thus an opportunity for rectification to the soul, but one that is extremely painful. One who voluntarily accepts to correct himself avoids all this suffering.

The ultimate purpose of this description is to not just convince us to avoid it but to also invoke our compassion for the precarious condition of general people, who we can help by spreading Krishna Consciousness. In the age we live in, the sincere practice of Krsna Consciousness is the only process that can truly save one from hell, as described in the beginning of the sixth canto of Srimad Bhagavatam. Other processes are not very effective in this age. Devotees who use their lives to serve the Lord are avoided by the Yamadutas, who fear being punished for wrongly approaching them. As Yamaraja himself instructed: "Please do not even go near them. They are always protected by the club of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and therefore Lord Brahmā and I and even the time factor are not competent to chastise them." (SB 6.3.27)

Here is the description of the punishment of sinful souls in hell by Lord Kapila:

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"As a criminal is arrested for punishment by the constables of the state, a person engaged in criminal sense gratification is similarly arrested by the Yamadūtas, who bind him by the neck with strong rope and cover his subtle body so that he may undergo severe punishment. While carried by the constables of Yamarāja, he is overwhelmed and trembles in their hands. While passing on the road he is bitten by dogs, and he can remember the sinful activities of his life. He is thus terribly distressed. Under the scorching sun, the criminal has to pass through roads of hot sand with forest fires on both sides. He is whipped on the back by the constables because of his inability to walk, and he is afflicted by hunger and thirst, but unfortunately there is no drinking water, no shelter and no place for rest on the road. While passing on that road to the abode of Yamarāja, he falls down in fatigue, and sometimes he becomes unconscious, but he is forced to rise again. In this way he is very quickly brought to the presence of Yamarāja. Thus he has to pass ninety-nine thousand yojanas within two or three moments, and then he is at once engaged in the torturous punishment which he is destined to suffer. He is placed in the midst of burning pieces of wood, and his limbs are set on fire. In some cases he is made to eat his own flesh or have it eaten by others. His entrails are pulled out by the hounds and vultures of hell, even though he is still alive to see it, and he is subjected to torment by serpents, scorpions, gnats and other creatures that bite him. Next his limbs are lopped off and torn asunder by elephants. He is hurled down from hilltops, and he is also held captive either in water or in a cave. Men and women whose lives were built upon indulgence in illicit sex life are put into many kinds of miserable conditions in the hells known as Tāmisra, Andha-tāmisra and Raurava.
Lord Kapila continued: My dear mother, it is sometimes said that we experience hell or heaven on this planet, for hellish punishments are sometimes visible on this planet also. After leaving this body, the man who maintained himself and his family members by sinful activities suffers a hellish life, and his relatives suffer also. He goes alone to the darkest regions of hell after quitting the present body, and the money he acquired by envying other living entities is the passage money with which he leaves this world. Thus, by the arrangement of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the maintainer of kinsmen is put into a hellish condition to suffer for his sinful activities, like a man who has lost his wealth. Therefore a person who is very eager to maintain his family and kinsmen simply by black methods certainly goes to the darkest region of hell, which is known as Andha-tāmisra. Having gone through all the miserable, hellish conditions and having passed in a regular order through the lowest forms of animal life prior to human birth, and having thus been purged of his sins, one is reborn again as a human being on this earth." (SB 3.30.20-34)

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The hellish planets are situated at the bottom of the universe. The path is perceived by the sinful soul as a tortuous road on which he is forced to move quickly by the servants of Yamaraja, although he is very tired. Crossing the road he reaches the abode of Yamaraja, where he listens to a description of his sins and is sentenced to be punished according to their gravity. While in hell, the soul has no gross physical body, but the subtle body assumes a form that allows him to experience the sufferings inflicted there. Different from a physical body, that is killed when cut, burned, etc. the subtle form the soul assumes in hell is never destroyed, allowing him to experience such sufferings again and again.

While thus suffering, one remembers the sins he committed and the pain he inflicted on others, and this trauma creates impressions in the subtle mind that may make him avoid repeating the same sins in the future. If one is destined to go down to the animal species, the punishments also have the function of forcing him to adapt to the conditions he will be living in the next lives. Some of the conditions experienced in the lower species are considered an extension of the punishments in hell, as indicated by Lord Kapila when He says that hellish punishments are sometimes visible on this planet also.

Once in the plant and animal species, a soul is forced to act according to the laws of nature. Because animals don't have free will, there is no accumulation of karma for them. They are allowed to live and enjoy whatever they are entitled to without fear of punishment. Similarly, devotees who are seriously practicing Krsna Consciousness are above the jurisdiction of Yamaraja, as he directly explains: "Considering all these points, therefore, intelligent men decide to solve all problems by adopting the devotional service of chanting the holy name of the Lord, who is situated in everyone’s heart and who is a mine of all auspicious qualities. Such persons are not within my jurisdiction for punishment. Generally they never commit sinful activities, but even if by mistake or because of bewilderment or illusion they sometimes commit sinful acts, they are protected from sinful reactions because they always chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra." (SB 6.3.26)

Of course, we can't use this to willingly commit sinful activities thinking that because we are chanting the holy names, everything will be automatically pardoned. If we do that we incur the offense of committing sinful activities intentionally on the strength of the holy names. However, if a devotee commits sins due to accident or weakness, he is purified by the process itself. Different from a materialist, a devotee doesn't have to follow any separate process of atonement, he has just to continue chanting and following the devotional process.

In our times, people like to think that there is no afterlife or no hell, and based on this conception, abortion, animal slaughter, and other sinful activities are encouraged. These descriptions of the scriptures remind us of the danger of this lifestyle, and of how important is to bring people to the path of Krishna Consciousness. It's not necessary to scare people with descriptions of hell since once one comes to the path of Krsna Consciousness, hell is automatically avoided.

In the Garuda Purana, it is described that Yamaraja has two countenances. For the sinful he appears very fearful, as one who ministers punishment. To the pious, on the other hand, he appears to be compassionate, calm, and welcoming, describing their pious activities and sending them to heaven to enjoy the results. Similarly, the path they go through also differs. For the sinful, the Yamadutas appear in terrifying forms and the path is tortuous, as described, while for the pious the Yamadutas appear to have pleasant forms and gently guide him through a pleasant path for his meeting with Yamaraja.

We can thus see that the terrible path the sinful soul has to travel to hell and the punishments one is inflicted there are not accidental, but the results of his activities and the consciousness he developed due to these activities. Apart from being a system of justice, these punishments have a function: to purify the soul of the excessive load of sins and correct one's mentality, making him regret them, and hopefully not doing the same thing in his next lives. When we adopt the process of Krishna Consciousness, however, whatever sins we may have committed in the past are cleansed and we have the opportunity of a clean start.

Even if a devotee commits mistakes and can't finish his process of Krishna Consciousness in this life, he doesn't have to meet Yamaraja. He is helped by the Vishnudutas to go to his next body, where he can continue his practice of Krishna Consciousness. In the Brhad Bhagavatamrta is described how the Vishnudutas are constantly engaged in numerous missions in different universes, protecting and assisting devotees in their spiritual path. Even if a devotee is not advanced enough to have completely destroyed his past karma, the Lord protects him from the reactions, allowing him to receive just a sample of these reactions, just enough to help him learn his lessons and complete his path of Krishna Conscious. Different from a gross materialist, who is rewarded or punished for his actions due to the automatic works of the law of karma, a devotee is under the protection of the Lord, who makes sure that despite any setback, he will eventually attain perfection an return back home, back to Godhead.