Garuda Purana — Preta Kalpa, Shloka 33
Yama-mārga (Adhvan) and the Courts of Yama: Vaivasvatī and Chitragupta
यत् कर्म कुरुते कश्चित्तत् सर्वं विलखत्यसौ / धर्मराजगृहद्वारि दूतास्तार्क्ष्य तथा निशि / तिष्ठन्ति पापकर्माणः पच्यमाना नराधमाः
yat karma kurute kaścittat sarvaṃ vilakhatyasau / dharmarājagṛhadvāri dūtāstārkṣya tathā niśi / tiṣṭhanti pāpakarmāṇaḥ pacyamānā narādhamāḥ
လူတစ်ယောက်က ပြုလုပ်သမျှ ကမ္မအားလုံးကို မှတ်တမ်းရေးသူက အကုန်ရေးမှတ်ထားသည်။ ဓမ္မရာဇာ၏ နန်းတံခါး၌၊ အို တာရ္ක්ෂျာ၊ တမန်တို့သည် ညအချိန်တောင် စောင့်နေကြ၏။ ထိုနေရာတွင် အပြစ်ကမ္မပြုသူ အနိမ့်ဆုံးလူများသည် ဒုက္ခအပူဖြင့် လောင်ကျွမ်းကာ နေကြရသည်။
Lord Vishnu (narrating to Garuda/Tārkṣya)
Afterlife Stage: Yamaloka Journey
Concept: Karmic accountability: every act is recorded and yields inevitable consequence under Dharmarāja’s order.
Vedantic Theme: Ṛta/dharma as moral causality; karma-phala-niyati (inevitability of results) within saṃsāra.
Application: Cultivate vigilance over actions (kāya-vāk-manas), practice restraint and confession/prāyaścitta, and orient life toward dharma to avoid papa-phala.
Primary Rasa: bhayanaka
Secondary Rasa: bibhatsa
Type: threshold/gate
Related Themes: Garuda Purana Pretakalpa: Yama’s court, Yamadūtas, karmic ledgers (lekhyaka/recording motif); Garuda Purana: descriptions of narakas and karma-vipāka sequences in adjacent adhyāyas
FAQs
This verse teaches that every deed is precisely recorded, implying that moral consequences are unavoidable and justice in Dharmarāja’s realm is based on one’s actual actions.
It places the sinful at the very threshold of Dharmarāja’s abode, under the watch of Yama’s messengers, indicating a transition into judgment and the experience of suffering corresponding to wrongdoing.
Live with accountability: treat choices as “recorded,” avoid harmful actions, and cultivate dharma (truthfulness, non-injury, self-restraint) to reduce future suffering.