History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c95.365

v7.c95.365

Some of the Purāṇas declare that a man who is very sinful may reach lower and lower states e. g. the Vāyupurāṇa²⁵⁹⁹ (chap. 14 verses 34–37) provides that a very sinful man may become *paśu* (cattle or a beast), then deer, then a bird, then a creeping insect and then a tree or other immobile object. Theosophists and some modern scholars hold that once the human state is reached there is no regression at all. It may be noted that the Kaṭhopaniṣad expressly states (in V. 6–7) that after the death of the body the souls take up birth in other bodies, while some become tree-trunks according to their actions and knowledge. The Ch. Up. V. 10. 7 says 'those whose conduct has been evil will quickly attain an evil birth, the birth of a dog or hog or cāṇḍāla.' Manu (XII. 9) avers that a man is reduced by bodily sins to the stage of a tree-trunk, by sins due to speech to being a bird or a beast and by mental sins to lowest births (of a cāṇḍāla etc.). In verses 62–68 of chapter XII, Manu describes the different births of various animals by the commission of thefts of various articles and in verses 52–59 the births due to the grave sins of brāhmaṇa-murder, drinking liquor, incest. The Yājñavalkya Smṛti (III. 213–215) also contains provisions similar to Manu XII. 53–59. The Yogasūtra II. 13 also suggests that the retribution for various sins results in being born in low births or dying prematurely or experiencing misery and suffering.