12.190
Yudhiṣṭhira said.
Among all paths, the highest attainment is described here for those who recite. For them, there is only this one path, yet they also reach another.
Bhīṣma said.
O king, listen attentively to the fate of the chanters, O mighty one, as they go to various hells, O best of men.
If a reciter does not follow what has been previously stated, or performs only partially here, he goes to hell.
A reciter who acts with disrespect neither pleases nor grieves, but such a person certainly goes to hell; there is no doubt about this.
All those who act out of ego, and all who insult others, will go to hell; a man who is arrogant and disparages others will surely attain hell.
If a deluded person performs recitation with malice, wherever he harbors malice, he certainly goes to hell.
Now, the one who is engaged in sovereignty and causes others to recite becomes attached there. He himself is the cause of his own downfall; he is not released from that.
The reciter, deluded by attachment, performs the mantra. Wherever his attachment falls, there it arises again and again.
A person of wicked intellect and undeveloped wisdom remains in an unsteady mind; such a one attains only instability or even descends to hell.
A reciter who lacks developed wisdom, like a child, falls into delusion. Due to this delusion, he goes to hell and, having reached there, regrets his actions.
If a reciter, thinking 'I do this firmly', recites the mantra but is neither complete nor properly qualified, he attains hell.
Yudhishthira said.
Why should the one who has realized the supreme, unmanifest, causeless reality established in Brahman, having become real, again enter the body?
Bhīṣma said.
Many hells have been described due to faulty understanding; being a reciter is praiseworthy, and these faults are of that nature.
