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Naraka (Sanskrit: नरक) is the realm of existence in Jain cosmology characterized by great suffering. Naraka is usually translated into English as "hell" or "purgatory".
Naraka differs from the hells of Abrahamic religions as souls are not sent to Naraka as the result of a divine judgment and punishment. Furthermore, the length of a being's stay in a Naraka is not eternal, though it is usually very long—measured in billions of years. A soul is reborn into a Naraka as a direct result of their previous karma (actions of body, speech and mind), and resides there for a finite length of time until their karma has achieved its full result. After their karma is used up, they may be reborn in one of the higher worlds as the result of an earlier karma that had not yet ripened.