History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c95.236

v7.c95.236

The V. S. (III. 1. 13-17) further explains that all men do not go to the moon, but only those that perform sacrifices &c. and those that do not perform sacrifices or works of public utility but are guilty of evil acts go to the abode of Yama for undergoing tortures of hell ²⁵³⁴ (which are seven, according to V. S. III. 1. 15) and after that they come to the earth. Those who follow the path of faith and austerity go by the Devayāna path (Chān. Up. V. 10. 1 and Muṇḍaka I. 2. 11) and those who perform sacrifices, charity and works of public utility go by the pitṛyāna path (Chān. Up. V. 10. 3 and Muṇḍaka I. 2. 10)²⁵³⁵ and those that do not follow any one of the two have to go to a third place and be born as worms &c. (Chān. Up. V. 10. 8), that when a śruti text like Kauṣītaki Up. (I. 2) states that all those that depart from this world go to the moon, what is meant by 'all' is all those that have the *adhikāra* (capability or fitness) to go to the moon.