The Tuta Sutta
On the Three Kinds of Divine Messengers
“Listen, bhikkhus. These three kinds of divine messengers (devadūta — deva = heavenly being, dūta = messenger) — what are they?
[1] There are persons in the world who behave wrongly by body (kāya — kāya = body), by speech (vacā — vacā = speech), and by mind (citta — citta = mind). When such a person commits wrong by body, speech, and mind, and then dies with the body broken up, they go to the abodes of woe (apāya — apāya = unhappy destination; often rendered “hellish realms”), to the bad destinations (duggati / dukkhata — duggati = wrong course / bad destination), to the suffering states (niraya — niraya = hell). The wardens/keepers of those hell-realms (niraya-pālaka — pālaka = keepers/wardens) seize that person by the arms and lead them before King Yama (Yama — the judge of the departed).
They say: ‘O Lord (Yama), this man is one who did not show kindness to mother... to father... to the monks and brahmins; he was not respectful to elders and his family. We beseech you to mete out punishment to this man.’
Yama questions the first celestial messenger (the first devadūta) in relation to that man: ‘Did you not see the first messenger who appears among humans?’
The man answers: ‘No, Sir, I did not see him.’
Yama says: ‘Did you not see among humans old men and women — eighty, ninety, a hundred years old — crooked, bent, walking with a stick, whose youth is gone, with broken teeth, hair white or shaved, scrawny, shrunken, worn-out? Did you not see such people?’
The man replies: ‘I did, Sir.’
Yama: ‘You are a mature person — did you not reflect that aging is natural and will come to us too, and that none can avoid aging? Why did you not do good deeds with body, speech, and mind?’
The man: ‘No, Sir; I was heedless and negligent.’
Yama: ‘Because you were heedless, you did not do deeds of goodness by body, speech, and mind. Therefore you must suffer according to your heedlessness. The evil actions you performed, your mother did not perform for you, your father did not perform for you, your brothers, sisters, friends, patrons, kin, the devas, or the monastics did not perform for you — you did them yourself; you must bear their results yourself.’
[2] Then Yama questions the second devadūta: ‘Did you not see the second messenger which appears among humans?’ The man replies, ‘No, Sir,’ and Yama says: ‘Did you not see among men and women those who are grievously ill, bedridden, lying in their excrement and urine, being helped to rise or helped to lie down?’
The man admits: ‘I saw them, Sir.’
Yama: ‘You are mature and knowing — did you not reflect that sickness is natural and will come to us, cannot be avoided? Why then did you not do good deeds by body, speech, and mind?’
The man: ‘No, Sir; I was heedless.’
Yama: ‘Because you were heedless, you did not do goodness with body, speech, and mind; therefore you must suffer the consequences. Those evil deeds were not done for you by mother, father, kin, friends, devas, or monastics — you did them yourself, and their results fall to you.’
[3] Yama then questions the third devadūta: ‘Did you not see the third messenger appearing among humans?’ The man replies, ‘No, Sir.’ Yama says: ‘Did you not see those who have died — one day dead, two days dead, three days dead — swollen, green, with pus and fluids running?’
The man: ‘I saw them, Sir.’
Yama: ‘You are a mature person — did you not reflect that death is natural and will come to us, cannot be avoided? Why then were you not doing good deeds with body, speech, and mind?’
The man: ‘No, Sir; I was heedless.’
Yama: ‘Because you were heedless, you did not do good deeds with body, speech, and mind; therefore you must suffer accordingly. The evil deeds you committed were not done by mother, father, kin, friends, devas, or monastics for you — you did them yourself and you must bear the result.’
Then, after questioning the three devadūta and the man, Yama is silent.
Now the hell-wardens (niraya-pālaka — keepers of hell) bind that man by five golden fetters (pañcapiṭṭhipañcaka-kamma? — here described as fivefold binding): they fix red-hot iron spikes through his two hands, two feet, and his chest, and he experiences intense burning pain and suffering there, without end while the heavy evil deed’s result lasts.
The wardens throw the man down and maim him with axes and cleavers; they set him with feet up and head down and saw with knives; they put a spiked wheel over a hot, blazing floor and force it to roll; they make him climb and descend mountains of burning embers; they hurl him down into a cauldron of boiling pitch so that his body swells and blisters — sometimes he floats up, sometimes sinks down; he suffers fierce, heavy, burning pains and does not die while his evil kamma endures.
These wardens take that man and consign him to the great hells (mahā-niraya — mahā-niraya = great hell), which have four corners and four gates, divided into sections, surrounded by iron walls, enclosed by iron lids, with iron floor throughout, all aglow with heat that radiates a hundred yojanas (a vast distance) around, ever blazing.
[Final admonition and conclusion] — It has been heard that King Yama, deeply moved, said: ‘I have heard that those who do evil in the world — these persons — will be punished by such prison-keepers and wardens. May I be reborn as a human. May the Blessed One (Tathāgata — Tathāgata = the Buddha) appear in the world. May I have access to the Blessed One, hear the teaching, and thoroughly know the Dhamma.’ Thus the story is told; it is not hearsay but is spoken of as something seen and known.
Those who are warned by the messengers (devadūta — devadūta = heaven’s messengers) and remain heedless, those persons will enter an evil, miserable rebirth and long endure sorrow.
But those who are good persons (sattubhāva / satta — satta = beings, here “good folk”) in this world, who, having been warned by the devadūta, become heedful and do not remain heedless with regard to the Dhamma of the Noble One, who see the danger arising from clinging that becomes the basis for birth and death and who renounce clinging and are freed through the ending of birth and death — those persons reach bliss, they end suffering in this very life, they are free from hostile peril and past suffering.
— End of the Messengers Sutta (Tūta/Devadūta account)