3:10 Kokṅlika
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('â', Lord, the monk Kokṅlika has died and, having died, has reappeared in the Paduma hell for engendering hatred in his heart against Sṅriputta & Moggallṅna.â That is what Brahmṅ Sahampati said. Having said that, having bowed down, he circumambulated me, keeping me to his right, and disappeared right there." When this was said, a certain monk said to the Blessed One, "Lord, how long is the measure of the lifespan in the Paduma hell?" "Long, monk, is the measure of the lifespan in the Paduma hell. Itâs not easy to calculate ),
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('â', this many yearsâ or ),
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('â', this many hundreds of yearsâ or ),
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('â', this many thousands of yearsâ or ),
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('â', this many hundreds of thousands of years.â" "But, lord, can a simile be made?" "It can, monk," said the Blessed One. "Suppose that there were a twenty-measure Kosalan cartload of sesame seeds. From that, a man would remove a sesame seed every hundred years.4 That twenty-measure Kosalan cartload of sesame seeds would come to an end in this manner more quickly than a single Abbuda [Swelling] hell. Like twenty Abbuda hells is one Nirabbuda [Free from Swelling] hell. Like twenty Nirabbuda hells is one Ababa [Alas!] hell. Like twenty Ababa hells is one Ahaha hell. Like twenty Ahaha hells is one Aṭaṭa hell. Like twenty Aṭaṭa hells is one Kumuda [White Water Lily] hell. Like twenty Kumuda hells is one Sogandhika [Fragrant White Water Lily] hell. Like twenty Sogandhika hells is one Uppalaka [Blue Lotus] hell. Like twenty Uppalaka hells is one Puṃṇarīka [White Lotus] hell. Like twenty Puṃṇarīka hells is one Paduma [Red Lotus] hell.5 "The monk Kokṅlika has reappeared in the Paduma hell, for engendering hatred in his heart against Sṅriputta & Moggallṅna." That is what the Blessed One said. Having said that, the One Well-Gone, the Teacher, said further: "Surely, when a person is born, an axe is born in his mouth, with which he cuts himself— the fool saying a bad statement. Whoever praises one deserving censure or censures one deserving praise, accumulates wickedness6 with his mouth, and in that wickedness finds no ease. Next to nothing is the bad throw when one loses money at dice. But great is the bad throw when one gets angered at those well-gone. For one hundred thousand Nirabbudas and thirty-six and five Abbudas, one who maligns noble ones, directing his words & heart toward evil, goes to hell.7 He goes to hell, the one who asserts what didnât take place, as does the one who, having done, says, ),
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('â', I didnât.â Both—low-acting people— there become equal: after death, in the place beyond.8 Whoever harasses an innocent man, a man pure, without blemish: The evil comes right back to the fool like fine dust thrown against the wind.9 One devoted to the strings of greed slanders others with his words: faithless, stingy, miserly, mean, devoted to divisive tales. You with your hard road of a mouth, untrue, ignoble, destroyer          of progress, evil, doer          of wrong, lowest of men, wicked, degenerate: Donât speak a lot here. You are headed to hell. You scatter dust to your harm. You, an offender, malign the good, and, having engaged in many sorts of bad conduct are going for a long time to the pit. For no oneâs action is annihilated. Surely its owner gets it back. An offender, the fool, sees suffering for himself in the next world. He goes to the place set with iron spikes, the sharp-bladed iron stake, where the food, as is fitting, resembles a ball of heated iron. When they [the hell-wardens] speak, they donât speak lovingly. They [the hell beings] canât run away. Theyâre not going to shelter. They lie on ashes strewn about. They enter a blazing mass of fire. Tying them up with nets, they [the hell-wardens] strike them with hammers made of iron. Truly, they go to a blind darkness that spreads out like a fog. Then they enter a copper pot, a blazing mass of fire, in which they cook for a long, long time, bobbing up & down in a mass of fire. There the offender then cooks in a mixture of blood & pus. In whatever direction he leans to rest he festers at the touch. There the offender then cooks in an ooze where worms live, and there is no shore to which he can go, for the cooking pots all          around are all          the same. Then they enter the sharp sword-leaf forest where their limbs are cut off. Seizing them by the tongue with a hook, they [the hell-wardens] strike them, dragging them back & forth. Then they come to the Vettaraṃin,10 hard to cross, with sharp blades, razor blades, and there they fall in, the fools, evil-doers having done evil deeds. There, while they wail, voracious black & spotted dogs, jackals, & flocks of ravens chew on them. Vultures & crows pick at them. How hard, indeed, is this way of life there that offending people come to see.11 So, for the remainder of life here, a person, heedful, should do his duty. Those loads of sesame seeds compared to the Paduma hell have been calculated by those who know as five times ten thousand crores,12 plus twelve times one hundred more. The length of the hells of suffering described here is how long [the hell-beings] will have to dwell there. So when in the company of those who are pure, admirable, excellent, one should constantly guard oneâs words & heart. vv. 657–678 Notes 1. Kokṅlika is a bhikkhu, or Buddhist monk. Normally, the texts refer to Buddhist monks as Ven. So-and-so, but in this case, the following story will show why posterity did not accord this honor to Kokṅlika. According to SnA, this Kokṅlika was not the same Kokṅlika who was one of Devadattaâs followers. If that is so, itâs remarkable that both Kokṅlikas expressed mistrust of Ven. Sṅriputta and Moggallṅna in exactly the same words (see Cv VII.4.2). An alternative possibility is that the two Kokṅlikas were actually the same person, and that he participated in Devadattaâs schism during the "not long" period mentioned in this sutta separating his denunciation of Sṅriputta and Moggallṅna from the onset of his resulting disease. 2. This is an exaggerated form of address. See Ud 8:7, note 1. 3. See SN 6:1. 4. Reading vassa-satassa vassa-satassa with the Burmese edition. The Sri Lankan version reads, "every hundred years, every thousand years." The Thai edition reads, "every hundred years, every thousand years, every hundred thousand years." 5. Perhaps it goes without saying that the names of some of worst hells are ironic. SnA asserts that these are not separate hells, but simply different periods of time in the single Avīci hell, but it gives no explanation or justification for its assertion. 6. The word for wickedness, kali, is the same as the word for a bad throw at dice, which becomes the image in the following verse. 7. The version of this sutta at SN 6:10 ends here. 8. This verse = Dhp 306 and is also found in Iti 48. 9. This verse = Dhp 125. 10. Vettaraṃin: Literally, "having a battle of twigs/canes." SnA identifies this as the river of lye-water mentioned in MN 130, which contains a similarly graphic description of hell. 11. Reading passati with the Thai and Sri Lankan editions. The Burmese edition has phusati, "touch." 12. A crore is a large number that SNA calculates as equal to ten million. See also: MN 45; MN 97; MN 130; MN 135; MN 136; SN 35:135; SN 42:8; AN 3:101; AN 4:111; AN 5:129; AN 8:7–8; AN 8:40; Dhp 306–319; Iti 18; Iti 20; Iti 30; Iti 32; Iti 64; Iti 70; Iti 81 - --> - - - -