[386] When this was said, a certain bhikkhu said to the Blessed One: "How long, venerable sir, is the life-span in the Paduma hell (niraya)?"
"Long, bhikkhu, is the life-span in the Paduma hell. It is not easy to reckon it thus: 'so many years,' or 'so many hundreds of years,' or 'so many thousands of years,' or 'so many hundreds of thousands of years.'"
"But is it possible, venerable sir, to make a simile?"
"It is possible, bhikkhu," the Blessed One said. "Suppose, bhikkhu, there were a Kosalan cartload of sesame seed, twenty khārīs in measure, and from it, at the end of a hundred years, of a thousand years, of a hundred thousand years, a man were to take out one sesame seed at a time. Sooner, bhikkhu, would that Kosalan cartload of sesame seed of twenty khārīs come to exhaustion by this means than a single Abbuda hell. As are twenty Abbuda hells, bhikkhu, so is one Nirabbuda hell; as are twenty Nirabbuda hells, bhikkhu, so is one Ababa hell; as are twenty Ababa hells, bhikkhu, so is one Ahaha hell; as are twenty Ahaha hells, bhikkhu, so is one Aṭaṭa hell; as are twenty Aṭaṭa hells, bhikkhu, so is one Kumuda hell; as are twenty Kumuda hells, bhikkhu, so is one Sogandhika hell; as are twenty Sogandhika hells, bhikkhu, so is one Uppalaka hell; as are twenty Uppalaka hells, bhikkhu, so is one Puṇḍarīka hell; as are twenty Puṇḍarīka hells, bhikkhu, so is one Paduma hell. And it is in the Paduma hell, bhikkhu, that the bhikkhu Kokālika has been reborn, having harbored hatred in his mind (citta) against Sāriputta and Moggallāna."
This is what the Blessed One said. Having said this, the Well-Gone One (Sugata), the Teacher, further said this:
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.