The Questions Garuda Asked

The sages of the Naimisha forest were holding a long sacrifice, and between its rites they liked to ask questions. One day they asked the storyteller Suta about death.

"We know what to do when someone dies," they said. "We do not know why. Tell us what happens to them."

"I will tell you what Vishnu once told Garuda," said Suta.

Garuda, the king of birds, was resting in Vaikuntha at Vishnu's feet. He had flown over all the worlds. He had seen the heavens and the oceans, the cities of men and the countries of the serpents and the mountains at the edge of the earth.

"I have seen everything that lives," he said. "I have seen the creatures you have made, all of them, in every shape. But I have never seen what comes after. Tell me about the road of Yama, which those who die must take."

Vishnu was silent for a moment.

"Listen, then, lord of birds," he said, "and I will describe the road of Yama. It is terrible even to hear about."

He told him that when the breath leaves the body, the person does not simply vanish. The messengers of Yama come for them. For the first days, the dead one lingers near home, and takes a body, little by little, from the balls of rice that the family offers each day. On the tenth day the body is complete. On the eleventh and twelfth days it eats.

"And on the thirteenth day," said Vishnu, "the messengers of Yama bind it and lead it away, alone, along the road."

"How long is the road?" asked Garuda.

"Very long," said Vishnu. "Eighty-six thousand yojanas. It passes through sixteen cities, and in each one the traveller stops, hungry and thirsty, and eats what the family has offered in its name. Those who were cruel in life find the road hard. Those who were kind find it easier."

He told Garuda about the river Vaitarani, which runs across the road, full of blood and things that bite, and which the wicked must cross. He told him about the hells that wait for those who harmed others, and about the gifts that a family can give, of a cow, of lamps, of water, to make the way lighter.

Garuda listened to all of it. When Vishnu had finished, Garuda asked the one question left.

"Is there no way off the road?"

"There is," said Vishnu. "Whoever turns to me with love does not walk it."