Garuda Purana: The Spirit's Journey After Death
Lord Vishnu's conversation with Garuda discussing Lord Yama's kingdom and how the spirits travel after death.
In the conversation between Garuda and Lord Vishnu, Garuda asked about the Kingdom of Lord Yama. Lord Vishnu not only explained the Kingdom of Yama, but also described the procedure to be followed after death. At the time of death, Lord Yama's messenger arrives on the scene. The soul can see Lord Yama's messenger and Lord Vishnu's servant. The soul has to undergo a long journey to reach the world of Yama. The path becomes difficult for sinners, while do-gooders find the path comfortable.
Lord Vishnu then described Lord Yama with four arms, holding a conch, disk, bow and staff. Lord Yama treats good people with respect, while sinners are treated harshly. Lord Yama uses iron rods and clubs to punish them, while sitting on a buffalo. His appearance was frightening to sinners and radiant to good people.
Then Lord Vishnu explains that the bodies of sinners are tortured by Lord Yama's messengers on the 18th day after death. The soul is drawn to the Kingdom of Yama, where many souls rest before reaching the final destination. While resting, the subtle body reflects on past actions and is able to look back on its life journey.
When the soul reaches Lord Yama's Kingdom, it is confronted with the beauty and majesty of the kingdom. The souls have to pass through all the cities that are heavily guarded by Lord Yama's messengers. Only on the sixth month, the soul is allowed to rest. While undergoing torture, the soul realizes its mistake and crosses the Vaitrarani river as one of the tests.
Lord Yama's messengers treat the subtle-body with anger and beat it for its bad deeds during life. They conveyed that only good deeds alone can save the soul. After a year, the soul reaches Lord Yama's abode known as the Dharma King. There, the soul sees the Celestial Musician and the heavenly nymphs. The place is inhabited by subtle-bodies living in human or Divine form.
Within Lord Yama's abode, live the eight Sravanas, and sons of Lord Brahma, who have the ability to move according to their own will. They travel from heaven, earth and hell. They have the ability to know the details of one's life and thoughts. When reporting to Citragupta, they reminded him that every good and bad action is recorded in the karmic cycle.
The sinner is sent to hell, facing different types of suffering according to his deeds. Lord Yama decides where the subtle body should go. If a person has performed many dharmas, he should be reborn as a human being. Sinners are made to be reborn as worms, insects, animals, plants or they are made to return again to hell to undergo further suffering. All this depends on the number of noble actions performed by a person when he was alive. Some sinners are reborn as ghosts, and they will torment their relatives for not performing sraddha rituals and not offering pinda to them.
There is no point in performing any number of ceremonies or giving any number of gifts if one neglects parents in their old age. Neglecting parents is considered the worst form of sin.
