Description of The River
This river is very frightening and when seen inspires misery. Even hearing an account of this river arouses fear. It is a hundred yojanas in width and it does not contain water. It is a river full of blood and pus with heaps of bones on its banks and mud of blood and flesh. It is impossible for a sinful soul to cross this river as he is obstructed by hairy moss and the river is filled with huge crocodiles and crowded with hundreds of flesh-eating birds. When a sinner comes near the river in an attempt to cross, it seethes and becomes overspread with smoke and flames like butter in a frying pan. It is also covered with dreadful throngs of insects with piercing stings and vultures and crows with metallic beaks. In addition to crocodiles it also contains leeches, fishes, turtles and other flesh-eating water animals. It is said that the hungry and thirsty sinful souls drink the blood flowing in the river. The sinners who fall into it wail with pain and fright. There is no rescuer for them. The hundreds of whirlpools in the river takes the ones fallen in to the lower region. They stay for a moment in the lower region and then they rise again.
The river was created only for the sinful. It is extremely difficult to cross and the other bank cannot be seen.
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