Hindu Views on Blasphemy
1. Blasphemers will become demons and animals
📚Gita 16.18-20📚
Bewildered by false ego, strength, pride, lust and anger, the demons become envious of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is situated in their own bodies and in the bodies of others, and blaspheme against the real religion. Those who are envious and mischievous, who are the lowest among men, I perpetually cast into the ocean of material existence, into various demoniac species of life. Attaining repeated birth amongst the species of demoniac life.” (source)
📚Skanda Purana 5.2.68.24-33📚
Those who commit breach of trust, those who have sex with other men’s wives and those who speak ill of the Vedas, attain the state of Piśāca.” (source)
📚Skanda Purana 1.3b.5.23📚
A person with malice towards Viṣṇu shall become a lizard and one who is malicious to Śiva shall become a mouse.” (source)
2. Punishments for Blasphemers
📚Atharva Veda 12.5.65-71📚
So, Goddess Cow, do thou from him, the Brahmans’ tyrant, criminal, niggard, blasphemer of the Gods, With hundred-knotted thunderbolt, sharpened and edged with razor-blades, Strike off the shoulders and the head. Snatch thou the hair from off his head, and from his body strip the skin: Tear out his sinews, cause his flesh to fall in pieces from his frame. Crush thou his bones together, strike and beat the marrow out of him. Dislocate all his limbs and joints.” (source)
📚Shiva Purana 5.10.21-23📚
Red-hot three-pointed iron rods are thrust and pushed through the chest, neck, tongue, tooth-joints, palate, lips, nostrils and all the limb-joints of those persons who slander and censure the noble-preacher of virtue, devotees of the gods, fire-god and preceptor as well as the eternal scriptural texts.” (source)
📚Kurma Purana 2.34.87-89📚
If one spits at or reviles in front of Devas and the sages, one should burn one’s tongue by means of a firebrand. Gold too should be given as gift. If any Brahmana passes urine in the garden of Devas (i.e. in the precincts of shrines) even for once, his penis should be cut off for the sake of expiation and he should perform Candrayana rite. If out of delusion, an excellent Brahmana passes urine in the sanctum sanctorum of a temple; his penis should be cut off. He should perform the Candayana rite.” (source)
📚Kurma Purana 2.4.16📚
I alone am the unchanging (eternal) preceptor of all Yogins; I am the protector of the virtuous and the slayer of those who hate the Vedas.” (source)
📚Markandeya Purana 14.43-45📚
For so many years the dreadful adamant-beaked birds will pluck out the tongues growing anew again and again of those persons who, for destroying completely the spiritual sight of the enemies, instructed people in bad scriptures, gave dishonest counsels, explained the scriptures falsely, uttered untruths, reviled the Vedas, the deities, the twice-born ones and the preceptors.” (source)
📚Markandeya Purana 14.64-65📚
Those wretched sinners, who have suffered their preceptors, deities, Brähmanas and the Vedas to be vilified and have taken delight in that, have, although crying, iron pins, showering fire, driven repeatedly into ears.” (source)
📚Shiva Purana 2.3.28.38-39📚
[Parvati said]: A person who disparages Siva is definitely worthy of being killed by Siva’s attendants. If it is a brahmin he must be dismissed or the hearer shall go away from that place immediately. This wicked man will again disparage Siva. Since he is a brahmin, he is not to be killed. He shall be abandoned. He shall not be seen at all.” (source)
📚Shrimad Bhagavatam 4.4.17-18📚
Satī continued: If one hears an irresponsible person blaspheme the master and controller of religion, one should block his ears and go away if unable to punish him. But if one is able to kill, then one should by force cut out the blasphemer’s tongue and kill the offender, and after that one should give up his own life. Therefore I shall no longer bear this unworthy body, which has been received from you, who have blasphemed Lord Śiva. If someone has taken food which is poisonous, the best treatment is to vomit.” (source)
📚Shrimad Bhagavatam 4.14.30-35
My dear Vidura, all good fortune unto you. The foolish King, who thought himself very learned, thus insulted the great sages, and the sages, being broken hearted by the King’s words, became very angry at him. All the great saintly sages immediately cried: Kill him! Kill him! He is the most dreadful, sinful person. If he lives, he will certainly turn the whole world into ashes in no time. The saintly sages continued: This impious, impudent man does not deserve to sit on the throne at all. He is so shameless that he even dared insult the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Viṣṇu. But for King Vena, who is simply inauspicious, who would blaspheme the Supreme Personality of Godhead, by whose mercy one is awarded all kinds of fortune and opulence? The great sages, thus manifesting their covert anger, immediately decided to kill the King. King Vena was already as good as dead due to his blasphemy against the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Thus without using any weapons, the sages killed King Vena simply by high-sounding words. After all the sages returned to their respective hermitages, the mother of King Vena, Sunīthā, became very much aggrieved because of her son’s death. She decided to preserve the dead body of her son by the application of certain ingredients and by chanting mantras [mantra-yogena].” (source)📚
3. Hell for Blasphemers
📚Kurma Purana 1.16.168b-170a📚
Those who consider Visnu as the unmanifest Atman and who are endowed with faith, but who worship Isana with a different vision (i.e. regard him as different from Visnu) are not my beloved ones. Those deluded persons who hate the creator of the world are roasted and cooked in Raurava and other hells and are not released there from even after hundreds and crores of kalpas.” (source)
📚Gita 9.11-12📚
Fools deride Me when I descend in the human form. They do not know My transcendental nature as the Supreme Lord of all that be. Those who are thus bewildered are attracted by demonic and atheistic views. In that deluded condition, their hopes for liberation, their fruitive activities, and their culture of knowledge are all defeated.” (source)
📚Brahma Vaivarta Purana Krishna Janma Khanda 40.116-141📚
A sinner who slanders Brahma, the creator of the world, the goddess Durga who is the best of female deities, Laksmi, Saraswati, Sita, Tulsi, Ganga, the Vedas, the mother of the Vedas, a vow, devotion, mystic formula pertaining to worship of the spiritual guide who gives formula will dwell in the hell called the ‘Blind well’ for half the period of the longevity allotted to Brahma, where bitten by snakes he will scream dreadfully. Whoever slanders Lord Harisikesa Visnu, literally, lord of senses) regarding him as an ordinary god or talks ill of the Puranas (which engender faith in Hair and are more praiseworthy than the S’rutis) or blames the cow herdess, Raddha, who sprang out of half of the body of Krisna or the ever-adorable Brahmins must dwell in the hell called Avatoda so long as Brahma exists. He dwells there with his feet upwards and face downwards surrounded by snakes. There, bitten by fearful snakes, he screams horribly and oppressed by hunger, he consumes saliva, ordure and urine. Then the fearful myrmidons of Yama in anger thrust torches into his mouth, chastise him in the morning, noon and evening, storm and thunder. He is then very much frightened and with the torments caused by beating he is rendered thirsty and drinks urine to quench his thrust.” (source)
📚Padma Purana 4.17.14-28📚
Formerly in Tretayuga there was a sinful brahmana by name Sudarsana. O best brahmana, on the day of (i.e. sacred to) Visnu he would always eat (food, i.e. would not observe a fast). He always censured the sacred texts and always condemned the vows…O brahmana, when once the time of death arrived, he died. The messengers of Yama came (to his place), and binding him they took him to Yama’s abode…Suta said: O brahmana, then, by Yama’s order his terrible messengers threw him into faeces (where he remained) for more than a hundred ages of Manu. Freed from there he became (i.e. was born as) a village pig on the earth. For a long time he would remain in hell due to his having eaten food on the day of (i.e. sacred to) Visnu…” (source)
📚Skanda Purana 4.2.75.41📚
Those who are engaged in censuring Śiva in the midst of the devotees of Śiva, fall into the terrible hell as long as the Sun and the Moon (shine).” (source)
📚Shiva Purana 1.24.45-46📚
Fie upon the forehead that is devoid of ash. Fie upon the village that has no Śiva temple. Fie upon that life that does not worship Śiva. Fie upon the lore that does not refer to Śiva. Great indeed is the sin accruing even from the sight of those who censure Śiva who is the support of three worlds and those who censure the man wearing Tripuṇḍra on his forehead. They are on a par with pigs of rubbish heap, demons, donkeys, dogs, jackals and worms. Such sinful persons are hellish fiends even from their very birth.” (source)
📚Padma Purana 5.20.39-44📚
Those sinners who (even) once censure the śālagrāma stone, are cooked in the Kumbhīpāka (hell) till deluge. The mother, the father, the groups of relatives of that foolish man who prohibits a man on the point of worshipping (a śālagrāma stone), rot in hell…” (source)
📚Vamana Purana 12.3-4📚
Those who always censure the Vedas, gods and the Brahmanas, and the sinners who do not respect the teachings of the Puranas and Itihasas, those who find fault with their preceptors, those who hinder the performance of sacrifices, those who prevent donor from making gifts – all fall in these hells.” (source)
📚Vishnu Purana 2.6.11-13📚
and he who is disrespectful to his spiritual guide, who is abusive to his betters, who reviles the Vedas, or who sells them, who associates with women in a prohibited degree, into the Lavaṇa (salt) hell…” (source)
📚Mahabharata 3.31📚
A rejector of proofs, a slanderer of the interpretation of the Vedic scriptures, a transgressor urged by lust and covetousness, that fool goes to hell.” (source)
📚Brahma Purana 106.135📚
There is a hell named Atratistha. It contains putrescent urine and faeces. Those who censure Smrtis and the Vedas fall into it with faces downwards” (source)
📚Brahma Purana 105.40-45📚
All these have death under delusion-the perjuror, he who tells lies, he who kills others and he who censures the Vedas. The attendants of Yama are terrible. They have putrid odour. They have massive iron clubs in their hands. These persons are wicked in their designs. When they appear in front of him the dead man begins to tremble. He cries incessantly calling out his mother, father and brothers, O brahmins. That word Yama is indistinct…” (source)
📚Vayu Purana 2.39.156-157📚
He who sells the Vedas, he who blasphemes the Vedas, those who abuse or disrespect elders or hit them with wounding words and one who carnally approaches forbidden women – all these fall into hell named Sabala, A thief or a trespasser falls into the hell Vimoha…Those who hate Devas and Brahmanas, those who do not worship preceptors and those who contaminate precious gems fall into the hell Krmibhaksya.” (source)
📚Kurma Purana 2.16.38-40📚
One should scrupulously avoid blaspheming Devas and the Vedas. O great sages, no atonement is seen ordained in the scriptures in the case of a Brahmana who censures Devas, sages, Brahmanas, or the Vedas. If a man loudly decries or censures the preceptors, Devas or the Vedas, he shall be cooked in the hell Raurava for hundreds of crores of Kalpas and even more.” (source)
📚Skanda Purana 1.3b.5.17-18📚
Sinners are made to bear heavy burdens by the messengers of Yama. A Brahmana-slayer shall be (reborn as) a tuberculosis patient…He who censures the Vedas shall become a Candala.” (source)
📚Vishnu Purana 1.6.29-31📚
Those, however, in whose hearts the dross of sin derived from Time (Kála) was still more developed, assented not to sacrifices, but reviled both them and all that resulted from them, the gods, and the followers of the Vedas. Those abusers of the Vedas, of evil disposition and conduct, and seceders from the path of enjoined duties, were plunged in wickedness…For those who neglect their duties, who revile the Vedas, and obstruct religious rites, the places assigned after death are the terrific regions of darkness, of deep gloom, of fear, and of great terror; the fearful hell of sharp swords, the hell of scourges and of a waveless sea.” (source)
📚Brahmanda Purana 3.19.59b-60📚
One who censures and reviles at yogins, meditators and those who desire Moksa, shall fall into a terrible hell. There is no doubt that even he who listens to the same falls into the hell of terrible appearance and is enveloped in darkness al round. By reviling at leading Yogins a man never goes to heaven.” (source)
📚Brahma Purana 20.12-13📚
He who indulges in sexual intercourse with his ■daughter or daughter-in-law is hurled into Mahajvala hell. He who insults preceptors and elders, he who reviles at them, he who slanders the Vedas, he who sells the Vedas and he who cohabits with the forbidden women falls into Sabala hell, O brahmins.” (source)
4. Cannot converse with Blasphemers
📚Kurma Purana 2.16.16📚
One should not even mentally think of those people who censure the Vedas, Devas and the Brahmanas.” (source)
📚Skanda Purana 4.2.74.120📚
Those who censure Mahādeva, those senseless ones who censure the holy spot and those who censure the Purāṇa, should never be talked to.” (source)
📚Skanda Purana 4.2.75.33-40📚
A deluded fool engaged in censuring Śiva, a censurer of Śaivite scriptures—there is no expiation for him. No such redemption is seen in any scripture by anyone. He who performs the act of censuring Śiva should be known as a soul-killer, a murderer of the three worlds. He is baser than the basest. He should not be talked to.” (source)