{"collection":"Anguttara Nikaya","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/suttacentral_an3.36/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/suttacentral_an3.36","id":"suttacentral_an3.36","license":"CC0","rights_basis":"suttacentral_bilara_data_cc0","source":"suttacentral","source_url":"https://suttacentral.net/an3.36/en/sujato","summary":null,"tags":["Anguttara Nikaya","Early Buddhist Texts"],"text":"\u201cThere are, mendicants, these three messengers of the gods. What three? Firstly, someone does bad things by way of body, speech, and mind. When their body breaks up, after death, they\u2019re reborn in a place of loss, a bad place, the underworld, hell. The wardens of hell take them by the arms and present them to King Yama, saying, \u2018Your Majesty, this person did not pay due respect to their mother and father, ascetics and brahmins, or honor the elders in the family. May Your Majesty punish them!\u2019 King Yama pursues, presses, and grills them about the first messenger of the gods: \u2018My man, did you not see the first messenger of the gods that appeared among human beings?\u2019 They say, \u2018I saw nothing, sir.\u2019 King Yama says to them, \u2018My man, did you not see among human beings an elderly woman or a man\u2014eighty, ninety, or a hundred years old\u2014bent double, crooked, leaning on a staff, trembling as they walk, ailing, past their prime, with teeth broken, hair grey and scanty or bald, skin wrinkled, and limbs blotchy?\u2019 They say, \u2018I saw that, sir.\u2019 King Yama says to them, \u2018My man, did it not occur to you\u2014being sensible and mature\u2014 \u201cI, too, am liable to grow old. I\u2019m not exempt from old age. I\u2019d better do good by way of body, speech, and mind\u201d?\u2019 They say, \u2018I couldn\u2019t, sir. I was negligent.\u2019 King Yama says to them, \u2018My man, because you were negligent, you didn\u2019t do good by way of body, speech, and mind. Well, they\u2019ll definitely punish you to fit your negligence. That bad deed wasn\u2019t done by your mother, father, brother, or sister. It wasn\u2019t done by friends and colleagues, by relatives and kin, by the deities, or by ascetics and brahmins. That bad deed was done by you alone, and you alone will experience the result.\u2019 King Yama grills them about the second messenger of the gods: \u2018My man, did you not see the second messenger of the gods that appeared among human beings?\u2019 They say, \u2018I saw nothing, sir.\u2019 King Yama says to them, \u2018My man, did you not see among human beings a woman or a man, sick, suffering, gravely ill, collapsed in their own urine and feces, being picked up by some and put down by others?\u2019 They say, \u2018I saw that, sir.\u2019 King Yama says to them, \u2018My man, did it not occur to you\u2014being sensible and mature\u2014 \u201cI, too, am liable to become sick. I\u2019m not exempt from sickness. I\u2019d better do good by way of body, speech, and mind\u201d?\u2019 They say, \u2018I couldn\u2019t, sir. I was negligent.\u2019 King Yama says to them, \u2018My man, because you were negligent, you didn\u2019t do good by way of body, speech, and mind. Well, they\u2019ll definitely punish you to fit your negligence. That bad deed wasn\u2019t done by your mother, father, brother, or sister. It wasn\u2019t done by friends and colleagues, by relatives and kin, by the deities, or by ascetics and brahmins. That bad deed was done by you alone, and you alone will experience the result.\u2019 King Yama grills them about the third messenger of the gods: \u2018My man, did you not see the third messenger of the gods that appeared among human beings?\u2019 They say, \u2018I saw nothing, sir.\u2019 King Yama says to them, \u2018My man, did you not see among human beings a woman or a man, dead for one, two, or three days, bloated, livid, and festering?\u2019 They say, \u2018I saw that, sir.\u2019 King Yama says to them, \u2018My man, did it not occur to you\u2014being sensible and mature\u2014 \u201cI, too, am liable to die. I\u2019m not exempt from death. I\u2019d better do good by way of body, speech, and mind\u201d?\u2019 They say, \u2018I couldn\u2019t, sir. I was negligent.\u2019 King Yama says to them, \u2018My man, because you were negligent, you didn\u2019t do good by way of body, speech, and mind. Well, they\u2019ll definitely punish you to fit your negligence. That bad deed wasn\u2019t done by your mother, father, brother, or sister. It wasn\u2019t done by friends and colleagues, by relatives and kin, by the deities, or by ascetics and brahmins. That bad deed was done by you alone, and you alone will experience the result.\u2019 After grilling them about the third messenger of the gods, King Yama falls silent. The wardens of hell punish them with the five-fold crucifixion. They drive red-hot stakes through the hands and feet, and another in the middle of the chest. And there they suffer painful, sharp, severe, acute feelings\u2014but they don\u2019t die until that bad deed is eliminated. The wardens of hell throw them down and hack them with axes. \u2026 They hang them upside-down and hack them with hatchets. \u2026 They harness them to a chariot, and drive them back and forth across burning ground, blazing and glowing. \u2026 They make them climb up and down a big mountain of burning coals, blazing and glowing. \u2026 The wardens of hell turn them upside down and throw them in a red-hot copper pot, burning, blazing, and glowing. There they\u2019re seared in boiling scum, and they\u2019re swept up and down and round and round. And there they suffer painful, sharp, severe, acute feelings\u2014but they don\u2019t die until that bad deed is eliminated. The wardens of hell toss them into the Great Hell. Now, about that Great Hell: \u2018Four are its corners, four its doors, neatly divided section by section. Surrounded by an iron wall, of iron is its roof. The ground is even made of iron, it burns with fierce fire. The heat forever radiates a hundred leagues around.\u2019 Once upon a time, King Yama thought, \u2018Those who do such bad deeds in the world receive these many different punishments. Oh, I hope I may be reborn as a human being! And that a Realized One\u2014a perfected one, a fully awakened Buddha\u2014arises in the world! And that I may pay homage to the Buddha! Let that Buddha teach me Dhamma, so that I may understand his teaching!\u2019 Now, I don\u2019t say this because I\u2019ve heard it from some other ascetic or brahmin. I only say it because I\u2019ve known, seen, and realized it for myself. When warned by the gods\u2019 messengers, those sons of Manu who are negligent sorrow for a long time when they go to that wretched place. When warned by the gods\u2019 messengers, the good and true persons here never neglect the teaching of the Noble One. Seeing the danger in grasping, the origin of birth and death, the unattached are freed with the ending of birth and death. Happy, they\u2019ve come to a safe place, quenched in this very life. They\u2019ve gone beyond all enmities and fears, and risen above all suffering.\u201d","title":"Messengers of the Gods","tradition":"Anguttara Nikaya","translated_text":null,"word_count":1123}