Ruler Of Unseen World |
Ruler or the king of the unseen world or to be precise the God of the dead as he is with whom the soul of the departed meets. He was the son of Sun god and had a twin sister ' Yami ' or 'Yamuna'. They are also looked upon by some as the first human pair or the originator of the race. There is a hymn that yama was the first man to die and the first that went to the unseen or celestial world. Those who are born now ultimately in the end follow the path there taken by our departed ancestors. But the Rig-Veda has no mention of Yama or as having anything to do by punishing the wicked nor any prominent mention of such penal action. He is always taken as an object of terror. The road to his abode are guarded by two dogs with four eyes each and wide nostrils. The departed are adviced to pass this stretch with utmost hurry. He is god of the departed souls and the judges the dead. After a soul leaves this mortal world and returns to his abode beyond life and finds Chitra-Gupta waiting there to read out from his great register which is called ' Agra - Sandhani ' followed by a sentence which tells either the particular soul ascends higher up to the abode of ' Pitris ' (Manes) or is asked to return to one of the twentyone hells according to his guilt or returns back to earth in another form. Yama is also called the 'Dakshina- pati'. He is represented by green colour and dressed in red. He rides on a buffalo carries a mace and a noose to secure his victims and has a crown on his head. The names of his wifes are Hemamala, Susila and Vijaya. He lives in the lower plane in his city called Yama - Pura. His palace is called ' Kalichi ' and sits upon his throne Vichara - bhu ' and is assisted by Chitra - Gupta and waited upon by two custodians Chanda or Mahachanda and Kalpurusa. The souls of the dead are brought upon by his messangers or ' Yama - dutas ' and the door of his judgement hall is mentained by his porter 'Vaidhyata'. The dogs stated earlier move about among the men only for the purpose for asking their presence before the master Yama. After the mortal remains are put to flames the soul proceeds along the path taken by his or her forefathers soars high up to an eternal light not visible to the naked eye in a car and gradually recovers its earlier form and meets with his forefathers who left before. The kingdom of Yama is a place where the departed meets the departed. Husbands meets their wives, friends meet friends and so on only to be perpetually free from any bindings and enjoy their fruits of karma or work done on earth till they are reborn. The Puranas hold Yama as the judge of men who holds the rule of the hell where the wicked are made to suffer. The Padma Purana gives an interesting description which says that all those who die appear before him and the recorder Chitragupta reads out his deeds good or bad from the register and then the virtuous are sent to the Swarga (Indra's heaven) whereas the wicked are sent to hell. The Vishnu Purana gives out the names of various hells and many are fearful hells being terrible with instruments of torture and fire. The soul is said to reach the Yama's abode by four hours and forty minutes and hence a dead body cannot be burned by that time after his or hers passing away. The Vavishya Purana gives an interesting story of his marriage. Vijaya who was a Brahmin's daughter initially was alarmed at the appearence of her would be husband Yama after coming to know who he was and allayed her fears. But inspite of that she consented to be his wife though her brother tried to dissuade her. After their marriage in Yama's abode he specifically cautioned her not to visit the southern part of his kingdom. Thinking that he might be having another spouse there was unable to resist her curiosity and went there to see for herself the forbidden region. On visiting she was greatly traumatised to see the wicked in torment and amongst them was her own mother! On witnessing this she prayed to her husband for her release which was turned down by him but with an option that if someone living on earth can perform a certain sacrifice thereby transferring the merit of the same to the poor woman can she be freed. After a painstaking search one person was found who was willing to perform this act and Yama's mother was released. The following are some of the popular names by which Yama is known:- Dharmaraja, Pitripati, Samavurti, Kritanta, Dandadhara etc.
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