“I, the Lion King must get my mother out of hell. If you insist on hindering me, I will destroy your Fearless City here in hell. I will destroy your life-and-death book and eradicate the Five Poisons of the Soul, so as to deliver all flesh to the Pure Land.”
Seeing Gesar wanted to flaunt his superiority again, Yama uttered with a sneer:
“It is not because your mother didn’t perform good deeds but because your evil deeds came back on her. Even though you said nothing, we’ve already known all the good you performed. Now, you have to keep doing good deeds to get your mother out of the hell. Go ahead! Your mother is suffering from the cutting and the chopping and she still has to experience the hot and cold reincarnation. Be quick, the boiling iron liquid is about to be poured into your mother’s mouth ….”
In the Cold Hell, a huge iron ball could be frozen into 1,000 pieces. Gesar looked around the Cold Hell but didn’t find his mother. Then he asked the judge with a tiger head:
“Where is my mother? And what kind of crimes these people have committed in the world so they have to experience such suffering?”
The judge roared with laughter:
“Everyone says that you, King Gesar, know both the past and the future. These people killed each other, set fire to the woods and poisoned the drinking water in the world, so they were thrown into the Cold Hell to be tortured. If you can release their souls from purgatory to a place of happiness, you will be able to meet your mother.”
Gesar couldn’t help shedding tears when he saw all the people around him suffering torture. So he prayed to the deities for help. Then a strong wind from his veins blew over everyone. Along with an overwhelming sound of a “twang” from Gesar, all of the sufferers were saved from the Cold Hell to the Pure Land.
The tiger-head judge then brought Gesar to the eight storied Hot Hell where each floor was nine times hotter than the one before. There was a big copper boiler filled with molten iron. Numerous men and women were rolling around in the boiler with an earthshaking wail. Gesar still couldn’t find his mother Gormo here. He could not bear to look at the scene, so he asked the judge to take him to another place.
Then the judge with a tiger head brought Gesar to the Lonely Hell. Here there was a red iron beach with big fires. Many people were farming in the fire. Their tongues were hanging out fully and on each tongue there were four iron cups with fire in them. The tiger-head judge explained that this suffering was designed to punish those people who told lies or spread rumours in the world. Gormo wasn’t there either.
Then Gesar went to the Blood Sea, the Iron Mountain, the Iron City, the Iron House, the Poisoned Sea and the Fire Pit. After seeing how people there were suffering, he suffered great pain in his heart and prayed to the deities:
“Saviour Buddha,
have you seen all these sufferings of hell?
Please release the people out of the blood sea and the poisoned sea.
Master Padmasambhava,
have you seen the six kinds of suffering?
Please deliver the souls from the Iron City and the Iron House to the Pure Land!”
In an instant, everyone in hell was released to the Pure Land. The tiger-head judge said to Gesar:
“Your mother has already gone to the Pure Land and it’s time for you to go back to Ling.”
When Gesar returned to Ling, Prince Zhalha came to meet him with many others. The people of Ling were deeply shocked after the Lion King narrated all the things he had seen in Hell.
