युधिष्ठिर उवाच कीदृशं निरयं याति जापको वर्णयस्व मे। कौतूहलं हि राजन् मे तद् भवान् वक्तुमर्हति॥
Yudhishthira said Tell me what sort of hell is obtained by a Reciter? I am curious, O king, to know this. You should describe this subject to me.'
भीष्म उवाच धर्मस्यांशप्रसूतोऽसि धर्मिष्ठोऽसि स्वभावतः। धर्ममूलाश्रयं वाक्यं शृणुष्वावहितोऽनध॥
Bhishma said “You have originated from a portion of the good of righteousness. You are by nature observant of righteousness. Listen, O sinless one, with undivided attention, to these words having righteousness for their root.
अमूनि यानि स्थानानि देवानां परमात्मनाम्। नानासंस्थानवर्णानि नानारूपफलानि च।॥ दिव्यानि कामचारीणि विमानानि सभास्तथा। आक्रीडा विविधा राजन् पद्मिन्यश्चैव काञ्चनाः॥ चतुर्णा लोकपालानां शुक्रस्याथ बृहस्पतेः। मरुतां विश्वदेवानां साध्यानामश्विनोरपि॥ रुद्रादित्यवसूनां च तथान्येषां दिवौकसाम्। एते वै निरयास्तात स्थानस्य परमात्मनः॥
Those regions that are owned by the great gods, that are of various aspects and colours, of various descriptions and productive of various fruits, and that are of great excellence, those cars again that move at the desire of the riders, those beautiful palaces and hells, those various pleasure-gardens decorated with golden lotuses, those regions that belong to the four Regents and Shukra and Brihaspati and the Maruts and Vishvedevas and Saddhyas and the Ashvins, and the Rudras and the Adityas and the Vasus, and other dwellers of heaven, are, O sire, spoken of as hells, when compared with the region of the Supreme Self.
अभयं चानिमित्तं च न तत् क्लेशसमावृतम्। द्वाभ्यां मुक्तं त्रिभिर्मुक्तमष्टाभिस्त्रिभिरेव च॥ चतुर्लक्षणवर्जं तु चतुष्कारणवर्जितम्। अप्रहर्षमनानन्दमशोकं विगतक्लमम्॥
The region last spoken of it shorn of fear, increate, without pain of any sort, without any agreeable or disagreeable element, beyond the reach of the three qualities, freed from the eight things (viz., the five primal elements, the senses, the mind, and the intellect), without the three (distinctions between the knower, the known, and act knowing); freed also from the four attributes (seeing, hearing, thinking, and knowing), without the fourfold causes (of knowledge) without joy and delight ard sorrow and disease.
कालः सम्पद्यते तत्र कालस्तत्र न वै प्रभुः। स कालस्य प्रभू राजन् स्वर्गस्यापि तथेश्वरः॥
Time makes it appearance there for usc. Time is not the ruler there. That supreme region is the ruler of Time as also of Heaven.
आत्मकेवलतां प्राप्तस्तत्र गत्वा न शोचति। ईदृशं परमं स्थानं निरयास्ते च तादृशाः॥
That Reciter who becomes identified with his Soul (by withdrawing everything into it) goes there. He has, after this, never to experience any sorrow. This region is called Supreme. The other regions are hell.
एते ते निरयाः प्रोक्ताः सर्व एव यथातथम्। तस्य स्थानवरस्येह सर्वे निरयसंज्ञिता:॥
I have not told you of all those regions that are called hell. Indeed, as compared with that foremost of regions all the others are called hell.'