After death, the soul has to cross the river Vaitarna (vide the fifth rung above) on its way to the next world. Those who have given cows in charity can cross this river without difficulty by holding the tails of the cows, who present themselves to help them.
Those who have given shoes in charity can tread the third step with ease.
The sinful have to walk barefooted on ground studded with pointed spears, and to embrace red-hot iron pillars. It is with the object of avoiding these miseries that people distribute shoes and clothes in charity.[65]
The sinful expiate their sins by passing through a cycle of 8,400,000 births.[66] They have to be born 2,100,000 times in the class of creatures born of eggs, 2,100,000 times in the species of worms produced from sweat, 2,100,000 times from embryonic birth and a similar number of times in the vegetable kingdom.
Those who lack virtue but commit no sins are born in the divine order of a low grade such as the servants of Kuber, the attendants of the god Shiva, Gandharvas, Vaitāls, Brahmarākshasas, Kushmānds and other demigods. Virtuous women are born as goddesses or devis or as apsarās or celestial songstresses. Those who have performed only a few acts of righteousness enter the ranks of Jakhanis, Kinnaris, Mātrikās, and the maid servants of the goddess Durga.[67]
The souls of the righteous are carried by Yamadutas or the messengers of the god of death through five cities, by a route passing through beautiful gardens; while those of the sinful are led barefooted over brambles and pointed spears by roads running through dense forests hidden in pitchy darkness. The latter have also to cross large rivers and pass through streams filled with blood and puss. As they pass, eagles prey upon their bodies and they are bitten by venomous snakes.[68]
The souls of those who have in life performed good actions pass through the sun and assume divine forms; while those of ordinary beings pass through the moon and return to this world.[69]
A sinful soul has to go to Yamaloka or hell through sixteen cities. On its way it has to cross the river Vaitarna, which consists of blood mixed with puss. He who has presented a cow to a Brāhman can cross this river with ease. Beyond this river lies a land which is covered with spikes. Those who have given in charity ashtamahādān, that is, sesamum seeds, flour, gold, cotton, salt, clarified butter, milk and sugarcandy, can walk over this ground without being hurt. When the soul has reached Yama or the god of death, the sun and the moon, the ever-living witnesses of human actions, testify to its virtues and sins, and it is meted out a punishment appropriate to its sins.[70]
In order that the departed soul may not find its way difficult, his heirs make a gift to a Brāhman of a bedstead, bedding, a lamp, corn, a pair of shoes and other articles, on the thirteenth day after death. This gift is called seraja.[71]
One enters the human order after passing through 8,400,000 species of living beings. It is in the human life that one can accumulate merit, and wipe out the influence of past sins.