ccd:<<In Vedic tradition hell is only temporary.>> For a small exception of Madhva sampradaya. Madhva accepted eternal damnation, much to the dislike of Hridayananda dasa Goswami I think.That is not really true. Madhvacarya accepted that some living entities (nitya-baddha) never make it out of this material world. That is his interpretation of shastra. Eternal hell implies infinite punishment for finite wrong doing - that is nowhere supported in the shastras.
Madhva supported both that some souls do not make it out nityabadhas AND that some special souls are punished by eternal hell. That is his interpretation of them being 'perpetually cast in the demoniac wombs'.I have read quite a bit of Madhva's works and did not get the impression that he is speaking about eternal hell for some living entities. Based on what I know 'perpetually cast in the demoniac wombs' simply means for Madhvas that they are perpetually born among demons (daitya), based on their taste and desires. Some daitya planets are far, far nicer and more pleasant than our world and are not to be confused with the hellish worlds (naraka).
GopalaGuru:Hare Krishna, But then the verse in Gita where SP says that if we like kill some animals we will be born as an animal in our next life and be killed, etc, and so on, and with the 8.400 000 species and infinite karmas, how does hell appear in this equation?Hellish worlds are places of special punishment. Some of these worlds are physical, some are only mental (illusion of suffering, as in a nightmare). Some types of bad karma can only be received in these hellish regions. Other types of karma are received here on earth, in various species of life.
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