In His Kapila avatara, Lord Narayana tells Devahuthi about how people sin and how souls get liberated, said P.T. Seshadri, in a discourse.
A man gets attached to his body, his wife, his children, his relatives and his house. In order to protect these, he resorts to sinful acts. He does things that go against dharma; he earns through wrongful means to support his family. He is happy with his ill gotten gains and spends his days in pleasure. In the early stages he tries to earn just enough to make both ends meet.
Soon the desire to earn just enough yields place to greed, and he begins to covet what belongs to others. His greed leads him to commit more and more sins. When he becomes old, those who lived on his earnings treat him disrespectfully and ignore him. Because of this neglect, he falls ill, and eventually he dies. Yama’s messengers drag him to Yama Loka, where he is punished for every sin of his. After he has paid for all his sins, he is born again.
Devahuthi wants to know how the dead are reborn, and Kapila explains. A person who has sinned would also have done some good deeds and earned some merit. His rebirth depends on these punyas.
Krishna paksa, Dakshinayana, Pitru loka, Akasa and Chandraloka these together constitute Dhumati marga. Dead souls come back in one of these, according to their punyas. Dead souls will come back to earth through the sky, the wind or the rains. Jnanis perform karmas with detachment and they reach the Lord’s feet, after death, during the day, in Sukla paksa, Uttarayana, through Vayu, Surya, Chandra, lightning, Varuna, Indra, Prajapati and 12 Adi vahikas. This is called krama mukti. Such jnanis never return to the earth.
