Srimad Bhagavatam — Panchama Skandha, Shloka 3
Naraka-varṇana: The Hellish Planets and the Karmic Logic of Punishment
अथेदानीं प्रतिषिद्धलक्षणस्याधर्मस्य तथैव कर्तु: श्रद्धाया वैसादृश्यात्कर्मफलं विसदृशं भवति या ह्यनाद्यविद्यया कृतकामानां तत्परिणामलक्षणा: सृतय: सहस्रश: प्रवृत्तास्तासां प्राचुर्येणानुवर्णयिष्याम: ॥ ३ ॥
athedānīṁ pratiṣiddha-lakṣaṇasyādharmasya tathaiva kartuḥ śraddhāyā vaisādṛśyāt karma-phalaṁ visadṛśaṁ bhavati yā hy anādy-avidyayā kṛta-kāmānāṁ tat-pariṇāma-lakṣaṇāḥ sṛtayaḥ sahasraśaḥ pravṛttās tāsāṁ prācuryeṇānuvarṇayiṣyāmaḥ.
Just as by executing various pious activities one achieves different positions in heavenly life, by acting impiously one achieves different positions in hellish life. Those who are activated by the material mode of ignorance engage in impious activities, and according to the extent of their ignorance, they are placed in different grades of hellish life. If one acts in the mode of ignorance because of madness, his resulting misery is the least severe. One who acts impiously but knows the distinction between pious and impious activities is placed in a hell of intermediate severity. And for one who acts impiously and ignorantly because of atheism, the resultant hellish life is the worst. Because of ignorance, every living entity has been carried by various desires into thousands of different hellish planets since time immemorial. I shall try to describe them as far as possible.
FAQs
This verse says karmic fruits become varied because forbidden irreligious acts and the doer’s faith/disposition are diverse; under beginningless ignorance, countless paths of consequences arise.
In Canto 5, Chapter 26, Parīkṣit hears about the workings of karma and the hellish destinations; Śukadeva explains how sinful, prohibited actions generate specific sufferings and then proceeds to describe them.
It encourages careful ethical choices—avoiding prohibited, harmful actions—and cultivating purified faith and knowledge, since desires shaped by ignorance multiply suffering through many consequences.