The Three Worlds (Trailokya / Loka)
Earth, mid-air, and heaven — three worlds, later a whole ladder of planes, all of them turning with rebirth.
From the earliest Vedic vision the cosmos is pictured in three tiers: the earth, the mid-region of the atmosphere, and the heaven above — the 'three worlds' invoked in countless prayers. Later cosmology expanded this into a towering hierarchy of lokas, planes of existence from the lowest depths to the highest heavens, peopled by every kind of being. One's deeds determine which world one is born into; even the heavens, won by merit, are temporary, and the wheel of rebirth turns through all of them. Liberation alone steps off the ladder entirely.
Key passages(13)
Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad · Vedic Revelation (śruti)
Yagnavalkya said: 'That of which they say that it is above the heavens, beneath the earth, embracing heaven and earth, past, present, and future, that is woven, like warp and woof, in the ether.' Garg
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Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad · Vedic Revelation (śruti)
Next there are verily three worlds, the world of men, the world of the Fathers, the world of the Devas. The world of men can be gained by a son only, not by any other work. By sacrifice the world of t
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Let a man meditate on the fivefold Sâman as the five worlds. The hinkâra is the earth, the prastâva the fire, the udgîtha the sky, the pratihâra the sun, the nidhana heaven; so in an ascending line.
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The space betwixt heaven and earth and all the quarters are filled by Thee alone; having seen this, Thy marvellous and awful Form, the three worlds are trembling with fear, O Great-souled One.
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'From the months they go to the world of the fathers, from the world of the fathers to the ether, from the ether to the moon. That is Soma, the king. Here they are loved (eaten) by the Devas, yes, the
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As in a mirror, so (Brahman may be seen clearly) here in this body; as in a dream, in the world of the Fathers; as in the water, he is seen about in the world of the Gandharvas; as in light and shade
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Some call him the father with five feet (the five seasons), and with twelve shapes (the twelve months), the giver of rain in the highest half of heaven; others again say that the sage is placed in the
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