Study a Verse

• Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura explains that the different hellish planets within this universe are held slightly above the Garbhodaka Ocean and remain situated there.
• This chapter describes how all sinful persons go to these hellish planets and how they are punished there by the assistants of Yamarāja.
• Different individuals with different bodily features enjoy or suffer various reactions according to their past deeds.

Śrīla Prabhupāda's own sentences, chosen from the purport as its central points. Read the full purport on Vedabase to see them in place.

Moral dread → Wakefulness. Consequences of action are rendered emotionally vivid.

Chapter 26 of Canto 5: The hellish planets. An editorial reading of the story's mood, not the text itself. See the emotional arc

Chapter 26: A Description of the Hellish Planets

From the chapter summary, the lines nearest this verse:

A foolish person absorbed in the bodily concept of life, who on the basis of this principle maintains himself or his wife and children by committing violence against other living entities, is put into the hell known as Raurava. There the animals he killed take birth as creatures called rurus and cause great suffering for him.