Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 5.26.6

yatra ha vāva bhagavān pitri-rājo vaivasvatah sva-vishayam prāpiteshu sva-purushair jantushu sampareteshu yathā-karmāvadyam dosham evānullańghita-bhagavac-chāsanah sagano damam dhārayati

SYNONYMS

yatra — where; ha vāva — indeed; bhagavān — the most powerful; pitri-rājah — Yamarāja, the king of the pitās; vaivasvatah — the son of the sun-god; sva-vishayam — his own kingdom; prāpiteshu — when caused to reach; sva-purushaih — by his own messengers; jantushu — the human beings; sampareteshu — dead; yathā-karma-avadyam — according to how much they have violated the rules and regulations of conditional life; dosham — the fault; eva — certainly; anullańghita-bhagavat-śāsanah — who never oversteps the Supreme Personality of Godhead's order; saganah — along with his followers; damam — punishment; dhārayati — executes.

TRANSLATION

The King of the pitās is Yamarāja, the very powerful son of the sun-god. He resides in Pitriloka with his personal assistants and, while abiding by the rules and regulations set down by the Supreme Lord, has his agents, the Yamadūtas, bring all the sinful men to him immediately upon their death. After bringing them within his jurisdiction, he properly judges them according to their specific sinful activities and sends them to one of the many hellish planets for suitable punishments.

PURPORT

Yamarāja is not a fictitious or mythological character; he has his own abode, Pitriloka, of which he is king. Agnostics may not believe in hell, but Śukadeva Gosvāmī affirms the existence of the Naraka planets, which lie between the Garbhodaka Ocean and Pātālaloka. Yamarāja is appointed by the Supreme Personality of Godhead to see that the human beings do not violate His rules and regulations. As confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (4.17):

karmano hy api boddhavyam

boddhavyam ca vikarmanah

akarmanaś ca boddhavyam

gahanā karmano gatih

"The intricacies of action are very hard to understand. Therefore one should know properly what action is, what forbidden action is, and what inaction is. "One should understand the nature of karma, vikarma and akarma, and one must act accordingly. This is the law of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The conditioned souls, who have come to this material world for sense gratification, are allowed to enjoy their senses under certain regulative principles. If they violate these regulations, they are judged and punished by Yamarāja. He brings them to the hellish planets and properly chastises them to bring them back to Krishna consciousness. By the influence of māyā, however, the conditioned souls remain infatuated with the mode of ignorance. Thus in spite of repeated punishment by Yamarāja, they do not come to their senses, but continue to live within the material condition, committing sinful activities again and again.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness