CHAPTER IV.

An Account of the Kinds of Sins which lead to Hell.

1. Garuda said: For what sins do they go on that great Way? Why do they fall into the Vaitarani? Why do they go to hell? Tell me this, O Kes'ava.

2. The Blessed Lord said: 'Those who always delight in wrong deeds, who turn away from good deeds, go from hell to hell, from misery to misery, from fear to fear.

3. The righteous go into the city of the King of Justice by three gateways, but the sinful go into it only by the road of the southern gate.

4. The Vaitarani River is only on this very miserable way. I will tell you who the sinners are who go by it.

5-12. Slayers of Brahmins, drinkers of intoxicants, slayers of owe, infanticides, murderers of women, destroyers of the embryo, and those who commit secret sins,

Those who steal the wealth of the teacher, the property of the temple or of the twice-born; those who take away the possessions of women, and those who steal the possessions of children;

Those who do not repay their debts; those who misappropriate deposits; those who betray confidence; and those who kill with poisonous foods;

Those who seize upon the fault and depreciate the merit, who are jealous of those who have merit, who are attached to the wicked, who are foolish, who turn away from the company of the good;

Those who despise places of pilgrimage, good men, good actions, teachers and Shining Ones; those who disparage the Puranas, the Vedas, the Mimamsa, the Nyaya and the Vedanta;

Those who are elated at seeing the miserable, who try to make the happy wretched, who speak evil words, and are always evil-minded;

Those who do not listen to good counsel nor even to the word of the S'astras, who are self-satisfied, who are unbending, who are foolish, who thinks themselves learned;--

These, and many others, very sinful, devoid of righteousness, certainly go on the Way of Yama, weeping day and night.

13. Beaten by the messengers of Yama, they go towards the Vaitarani. I will tell you what sinners fall into it.

14. Those who dishonour their mothers, fathers, teachers and preceptors and the reverend,--these men sink in it.

15. Those who wickedly abandon their wives, faithful, of good qualities, of noble birth, and modest, fall into the Vaitarani.

16. Those who ascribe evil to the good, possessed of thousands of merits, and treat them disrespectfully, fall into the Vaitarani.

17. Who does not fulfil promises made to Brahmins, and who, having called them, says, 'There is nothing for you,'--of these two the stay is continued.

18-24. Who takes away what he gave; who repents of his gifts: who takes away another's livelihood; who hinders others making gifts;

Who obstructs sacrifices; who prevents the telling of stories; who removes field-boundaries; who ploughs up pastures;