[789] **Fear is born from one's own rod (attadaṇḍā bhayaṃ jātaṃ)**: "Rod" (daṇḍa): there are three rods — the bodily rod, the verbal rod, and the mental rod. Threefold bodily misconduct is the bodily rod; fourfold verbal misconduct is the verbal rod; threefold mental misconduct is the mental rod. "Fear" (bhaya): there are two fears — fear pertaining to the present life (diṭṭhadhammika) and fear pertaining to the life to come (samparāyika). What is fear pertaining to the present life? Here someone conducts himself wrongly by body, conducts himself wrongly by speech, conducts himself wrongly by mind: he destroys life, takes what is not given, breaks into houses, carries off plunder, burgles an isolated house, waits in ambush on the highway, goes to the wives of others, and speaks falsehood. Having seized him, they show him to the king: "Sire, this man is a robber, an evildoer. Impose on him whatever punishment you wish." The king reviles him. Even on account of the reviling he experiences pain (dukkha) and grief. This fear, this pain and grief — whence has it come for him? It is born, produced, generated, engendered, and made manifest from his own rod.
Even with this much the king is not satisfied. The king has him bound — with binding by stocks, or binding by ropes, or binding by chains, or binding by cane, or binding by creepers, or binding by guard, or binding by encirclement, or binding to a village, or binding to a city, or binding to a country, or binding to a district — or at the least places him under command: "You are not permitted to depart from here." Even on account of the binding he experiences pain and grief. This fear, this pain and grief — whence has it come for him? It is born, produced, generated, engendered, and made manifest from his own rod.
Even with this much the king is not satisfied. The king has his wealth brought in — a hundred, or a thousand, or a hundred thousand. Even on account of the loss of wealth he experiences pain and grief. This fear, this pain and grief — whence has it come for him? It is born, produced, generated, engendered, and made manifest from his own rod.
Even with this much the king is not satisfied. The king has various tortures inflicted upon him: he has him flogged with whips, beaten with canes, beaten with cudgels; he has his hand cut off, his foot cut off, his hands and feet cut off, his ear cut off, his nose cut off, his ears and nose cut off; he has him subjected to the "porridge pot" (bilaṅgathālika), to the "polished-shell shave" (saṅkhamuṇḍika), to "Rāhu's mouth" (rāhumukha), to the "fiery wreath" (jotimālika), to the "flaming hand" (hatthapajjotika), to the "blades of grass" (erakavattika), to the "bark dress" (cīrakavāsika), to the "antelope" (eṇeyyaka), to the "meat hooks" (balisamaṃsika), to the "coins" (kahāpaṇika), to the "lye pickling" (khārāpatacchika), to the "pivoting pin" (palighaparivattika), to the "rolled-up palliasse" (palālapīṭhaka); he has him splashed with boiling oil, has him devoured by dogs, has him impaled alive on a stake, has his head cut off with a sword. Even on account of the tortures he experiences pain and grief. This fear, this pain and grief — whence has it come for him? It is born, produced, generated, engendered, and made manifest from his own rod. The king is master over these four punishments.
Through his own kamma, with the breakup of the body, after death, he reappears in a state of deprivation (apāya), a bad destination, a place of ruin, hell (niraya). The hell-wardens inflict upon him the torture called the fivefold binding: they drive a red-hot iron stake through one hand; they drive a red-hot iron stake through the second hand; they drive a red-hot iron stake through one foot; they drive a red-hot iron stake through the second foot; they drive a red-hot iron stake through the middle of his chest. There he feels painful, racking, piercing feelings (vedanā), yet he does not die so long as that evil kamma is not exhausted. This fear, this pain and grief — whence has it come for him? It is born, produced, generated, engendered, and made manifest from his own rod.
The hell-wardens make him lie down and trim him with axes. There he feels painful, racking, piercing feelings, yet he does not die so long as that evil kamma is not exhausted. The hell-wardens seize him, feet up and head down, and trim him with adzes. The hell-wardens harness him to a chariot and drive him back and forth over ground that is burning, blazing, glowing … The hell-wardens make him climb up and down a great mountain of coals, burning, blazing, glowing … The hell-wardens seize him, feet up and head down, and plunge him into a red-hot copper cauldron, burning, blazing, glowing. There he is cooked in a swirl of froth. Being cooked there in a swirl of froth, he is swept now upward, now downward, now across. There he feels painful, racking, piercing feelings, yet he does not die so long as that evil kamma is not exhausted. This fear, this pain and grief — whence has it come for him? It is born, produced, generated, engendered, and made manifest from his own rod. The hell-wardens throw him into the Great Hell. Now that Great Hell is:
Four-cornered, with four doors, divided into measured portions,
encircled by a rampart of iron, roofed over with iron.
Its floor is made of iron, blazing, endowed with heat;
pervading a hundred yojanas all around, it stands for all time.
Merciless, scorching, dreadful, flame-filled, hard to approach,
hair-raising in aspect, awful, terrifying, painful.
From the eastern wall a mass of flame springs up
and, burning those of evil deeds, strikes against the western wall.
From the western wall a mass of flame springs up
and, burning those of evil deeds, strikes against the eastern wall.
From the northern wall a mass of flame springs up
and, burning those of evil deeds, strikes against the southern wall.
From the southern wall a mass of flame springs up
and, burning those of evil deeds, strikes against the northern wall.
Springing up from below, a terrifying mass of flame,
burning those of evil deeds, strikes against the roof.
Springing up from the roof, a terrifying mass of flame,
burning those of evil deeds, strikes against the floor.
As an iron bowl, burning, thoroughly heated, ablaze —
such is the Avīci hell to one who looks below and above.
There beings of utmost cruelty, doers of great atrocities,
whose deeds are utterly evil, are cooked, yet do not die.
The bodies of those dwellers in hell are like unto fire itself;
behold the firmness of kammas — they become neither ashes nor even soot.
They run to the east, and thence they run back to the west;
they run to the north, and thence they run to the south.
To whatever direction they run, that very door is shut;
hoping to get out, those beings go seeking release.
They cannot get out from there, because of kamma as condition,
for much of the evil kamma they have done has not yet ripened.
This fear, this pain and grief — whence has it come for him? It is born, produced, generated, engendered, and made manifest from his own rod. And the sufferings (dukkha) pertaining to hell, the sufferings pertaining to the animal realm, the sufferings pertaining to the realm of ghosts, and the sufferings pertaining to human beings — whence are they born, whence produced, whence generated, whence engendered, whence made manifest? They are born, produced, generated, engendered, and made manifest from one's own rod. Thus: fear is born from one's own rod.
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.