[52]
When a man long absent from home
returns safely from afar,
his kinsmen, friends, and well-wishers
rejoice at his coming;
even so, when one who has made merit
goes from this world to the next,
his merits receive him,
as kinsmen receive a dear one who has returned.
"Rise up, Revatī, woman of utterly evil nature!
The door stands open — you who never gave.
We shall lead you where the wretched groan,
beings of hell, consigned to suffering."
Having spoken thus, Yama's messengers,
those two yakkhas, red-eyed and huge,
seized Revatī each by an arm
and set out for the presence of the host of devas.
"Sun-hued, lovely, radiant,
a beautiful palace covered with a net of gold —
whose is this mansion (vimāna) thronged with people,
shining like the rays of the sun?
Troops of women anointed with sandalwood essence
grace the mansion on both sides;
it appears in hue the equal of the sun:
who is it that rejoices, arrived in heaven, in this mansion?"
"In Bārāṇasī there was a lay follower (upāsaka) named Nandiya,
free from meanness, a lord of giving, open-handed;
his is this mansion thronged with people,
shining like the rays of the sun.
Troops of women anointed with sandalwood essence
grace the mansion on both sides;
it appears in hue the equal of the sun:
it is he who rejoices, arrived in heaven, in the mansion."
"I am Nandiya's wife,
the lady of the house, mistress of the whole family;
now I shall delight in my husband's mansion —
I have no wish to look upon hell."
"This very hell is yours, woman of utterly evil nature!
No merit was made by you in the world of the living;
for the mean, the wrathful, the one of evil nature
gains no companionship with those who go to heaven."
"Why now do dung and urine, this impurity, appear?
What is this foul-smelling filth?
What is this stench that blows this way?"
"This is the hell called Saṃsavaka,
a hundred man-lengths deep,
where for thousands of years
you shall be boiled, Revatī."
"What misdeed, then, was done by body, by speech, by mind?
For what was the hell Saṃsavaka gained,
a hundred man-lengths deep?"
"Ascetics and brahmins, and other wayfaring beggars too,
you deceived with false speech:
that is the evil that was wrought by you.
For that was the hell Saṃsavaka gained,
a hundred man-lengths deep;
there for thousands of years
you shall be boiled, Revatī.
They cut off the hands and then the feet,
they cut off the ears and then the nose;
and then flocks of ravens gather
and, flocking together, devour her as she writhes."
"Pray lead me back! I will do abundant wholesome deeds (kusala)
through giving, righteous conduct, restraint, and self-taming —
that which, having done, people are happy,
nor do they repent hereafter."
"Formerly you were heedless; now you lament.
You shall undergo the result (vipāka) of the deeds (kamma) you yourself have done."
"Who, going from the deva world to the human world,
when asked by me, would say this:
'Give gifts to those who have laid down the rod —
clothing, a bed, and food and drink —
for the mean, the wrathful, the one of evil nature
gains no companionship with those who go to heaven'?
Surely, when I have gone from here
and obtained a human womb,
open-handed, endowed with virtue,
I will do abundant wholesome deeds
through giving, righteous conduct, restraint, and self-taming.
I will plant parks, and causeways in rough places,
and a drinking-place and a well, with a mind full of confidence.
On the fourteenth, the fifteenth,
and the eighth day of the fortnight,
and through the special period of the fortnight (pāṭihāriyapakkha),
I will keep the Uposatha
complete with its eight factors,
always restrained in the precepts,
and I will not be negligent in giving —
for this I have seen for myself."
Even as she lamented thus,
writhing this way and that,
they hurled her into the dreadful hell,
feet upward, head below.
"In the past I was a mean woman,
a reviler of ascetics and brahmins,
and, deceiving my husband with what was false,
I am boiled in a hell of dreadful form."
The Revatī Mansion, the second.
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.