“When the soul leaves the body it assumes a form as small as a thumb. At this very moment it is caught by the servants of Yama while he is crying out ha! ha! looking at its corporal receptacle.”
And again:—
“Covering the body of the soul (which suffers intensely) and strangling it forcibly, the servants of the god Yama carry it away just as a culprit is carried by a king’s soldiers.”
The verses that follow describe the miseries inflicted upon the poor thumb-shaped soul for the sins committed by him during his life-time. The sinful soul has to undergo similar miseries in hell. From hell it returns to this world guarded by the servants of Yama, to partake of the rice-balls and other articles of food offered by the sons or other relatives. It is then again taken to hell to suffer more miseries and penalties in expiation of past sins. Then it returns once more to receive the offerings of rice-balls made at shrāddha ceremonies. If, even after this, any desires remain unfulfilled, it has to continue a wretched existence in the other world.[57]
In a chapter of the Pretamanjari of the Garud Purān it is stated that the souls of righteous men go to the next world unmolested.[58]
Some people believe that the departing soul assumes a form like a thumb, and remains in that state until relieved by the performance of shrāddha by his heirs. It then enters the other world to enjoy the fruits of its good actions. The Yamapuri or the city of the god of death is 8,6´0 Yōjans—a Yōjan being equal to four miles—to the south of the earth. The lord of this place is Dharmarāja. Yama is his servant, whose duty is to carry the soul from one place to another.[59]
Others maintain that two states await the soul after death according to whether it has performed righteous or sinful acts during life.
The righteous attain to heaven and enter the Pārshad Vaikunta of Vishnu. The sinful go to hell or Yamaloka.[60]
The sinful souls go to Yamaloka and are made to suffer the miseries of twenty-eight naraks or hells in proportion to the sins perpetrated by them, after which they return to the earth.
The following are some of the punishments meted out to wicked souls for their sins, in their next lives:—