One Who Commits Evil Acts Will Suffer In This Life And In Future Lives
The first chapter is named “Yamaka vagga” meaning the chapter of “The Twin Verses”, which contains 20 verses said by the Buddha. The background story of the verse 15, which is the 15th verse of the Yamaka vagga is about a cruel pig butcher during the time of the Buddha, who faced a painful death behaving like a pig and was reborn in hell.
The background story of verses 15
At one time, the Buddha was staying at the Veluvana monastery in Rajagaha donated by King Bimbisāra.
In a certain village outside Rajagaha, there lived a pig butcher named Cunda, who was a pig butcher for fifty-five years. He used to kill the pigs in an extremely cruel manner either to eat the flesh or to sell it to others. He had never performed any meritorious action during all his life. The Buddha was staying in the Veluvana monastery which was not far from him, but he never visited the Buddha to pay homage or to make any offering to the Buddha.
He was then affected by a certain serious illness, and for seven days before his death, he suffered from excruciating pain grunting like a pig and crawling on his hands and knees like a pig. His family members had to barricade him in the house to prevent him from leaving the house. Finally, on the eighth day, he died and was reborn in the hell called Avīci Niraya. During their alms rounds, some monks had heard the grunting noise of pigs coming from the house with its doors locked and had thought that pigs were being killed in the house during those seven days. They reported to the Buddha that the door of the house of Cunda the pig butcher, had been closed for seven days and that perhaps he had been killing pigs in his house. Then the Buddha said to them that Cunda had not been killing pigs in those seven days but had suffered torment as the result of his cruel acts of killing pigs for fifty-five years and that he had been grunting like a pig and crawling on his hands and knees like a pig until he died on that day to be reborn in the Avīci Niraya. The Buddha said to the monks that those who commit evil acts will suffer in this world and would be reborn in a suffering world thus having to face suffering in both worlds.
Then the Buddha recited the following verse which is recorded as the 15th verse of the Dhammapada.
“Idha socati pecca socati,
pāpakārī ubhayattha socati,
so socati so vihaññati,
disvā kamma kilitthamattano.”
“Here he grieves, hereafter he grieves,
the evil-doer grieves in both places,
he grieves and he suffers anguish,
seeing the impurity of his own deeds.”
- The text explains that sometimes when someone is destined to be reborn in an apaya, their mental state begins to align with that realm. Many people die troubled and afraid because they did not take refuge in the Triple Gem. There are several types of Nirayas. Some are ice and cold, some are thick darkness, some are acid, Some are hot and incandescent, some are sharp and many others. Avīci Maha Niraya is considered the worst of the hells, the scariest and most painful. This is why it is called Maha Niraya, the Great Hell, in the commentaries. Most of those who are reborn there have committed extremely immoral actions or an anantariya Kamma. Devadatta is currently in Avīci for many Kappas. However, even those who have not committed such actions can be reborn there if they have not reached the sotāpanna stage. In a sutta (I forget the name), Lord Buddha said that once someone falls into Avīci Niraya, it is extremely difficult to escape and they may be trapped there for Kappas. When they finally manage to come out, they are reborn in another niraya and so on. However, there are a few exceptions, like Queen Mallika, who was only in Avīci for 7 days before being reborn in the Tusita paradise.