Talk:Mṛtyu

By Swami Harshananda

Mṛtyu (‘that which brings about death’)

According to the Hindu scriptures, the concept of death has to be looked at, from two different standpoints. The first is as a deity or a goddess who brings about the separation of the jīva (individual soul in bondage) from its body. The second is as Yama, the king of the world, to where the souls are taken, before disposing off their cases according to their good or bad deeds.

Mṛtyu as the goddess of death is said

to have manifested out of the anger of Brahmā (the creator) who had been moved by the piteous wailings of Bhudevī (Mother Earth) since she was overburdened by the ever increasing number of living beings, who never died! When she was assigned her duty of killing the living beings, she was horrified and started crying, shedding copious tears. However, Brahmā assured her that she would never incur any sin by this. But, at her special request, Brahmā also created the six enemies (ariṣaḍvarga) like lust, anger and greed, to be embedded in the hearts of the living beings making them vulnerable to death (vide Mahābhārata, Dronaparva chs. 53 and 54).

See also YAMA.

References

• The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore