Varaha Purana 136.69: Adhyaya 136, Shloka 69
A Sūtra-like Manual of Expiations for Ritual Transgressions
Uttara Bhāga · Prāyaścitta (Expiations) and Karmic Consequences
नरके पच्यते घोरे दश पञ्च च सूकरः ॥ ततो गच्छेच्छ्वयोनौ च त्रीणि वर्षाणि जम्बुकः ॥
narake pacyate ghore daśa pañca ca sūkaraḥ | tato gacchec chvayonau ca trīṇi varṣāṇi jambukaḥ ||
narake pachyate ghore dasha paMcha cha sUkaraH || tato gachChechChvayonau cha trINi varShANi jambukaH
स घोरनरके पच्यते; दश पञ्च च वर्षाणि सूकरो भवति। ततः श्वयोनौ गच्छेत्, त्रीणि वर्षाणि जम्बुकः।
Varāha
Concerned
What are the concrete karmic consequences—hells and specific yonis—resulting from violating the stated conduct (especially vow/food/ethical rules)?
Actions shape post-mortem destiny; grave breaches precipitate naraka and successive low births, emphasizing accountability beyond one lifetime.
Use consequence-awareness to strengthen restraint (niyama), avoid intoxicants/impure conduct, and maintain devotional discipline to prevent tamasic descent.
Varāha, as moral instructor, details punitive consequences in naraka and animal rebirths, using boar/dog/jackal imagery to impress dharmic fear and restraint upon Earth’s audience.
The ‘boar’ here functions not as the saving Varāha but as a karmic mirror: misuse of desire/impurity drags one into tamasic yonis, contrasting the divine Boar who lifts Earth upward.
Contrastive (implicit): divine Varāha elevates Bhū; sinful being becomes ‘sūkara’ as a fall into animality—an inversion of yajña-Varāha’s uplift.
Ethical causality (karma) governs embodiment; tamas-dominant actions yield tamasic births, underscoring the need for sattva and devotion for upward movement.
Transgression leads to cooking in a dreadful hell, followed by rebirth as a boar for fifteen years, then as a dog and a jackal for three years.
Severe post-mortem suffering and degraded rebirth sequence; implied deterrent against the preceding violations.
Varāha Purāṇa 136.73–75 (the conduct/prāyaścitta frame that culminates in consequences)
FAQs
It reflects a common Purāṇic didactic pattern: consequences of wrongdoing are narrated through hell-imagery and successive non-human births to communicate moral causality.
No specific geographic site is named in this verse; it focuses on post-mortem states (naraka) and rebirth categories.
Actions are presented as having consequential outcomes; the verse functions as a warning-framework supporting later discussion of expiatory practices.
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