Introduction to Tantra Sastra - Aghori

THE WORLDS (LOKAS)
THIS earth, which is the object of the physical senses
and of the knowledge based thereon, is but one of fourteen
worlds or regions placed “above” and “below” it, of
which (as the sūtra says 1 ) knowledge may be obtained
by meditation on the solar “nerve” (nāḍ i) suṣumṇ ā in
the merudaṇ ḍ a. On this nāḍ i six of the upper worlds
are threaded, the seventh and highest overhanging it in
the Sahasrāra-Padma, the thousand-petalled lotus. The
sphere of earth (Bhūrloka), with its continents, their
mountains and rivers, and with its oceans, is the
seventh or lowest of the upper worlds. Beneath it are
the Hells and Nether World, the names of which are
given below. Above the terrestrial sphere is Bhuvarloka,
or the atmospheric sphere known as the antarikṣā,
extending “from the earth to the sun,” in which the
Siddhas and other celestial beings (devayoni) of the
upper air dwell. “From the sun to the pole star”
(dhruva) is svarloka, or the heavenly sphere. Heaven
(svarga) is that which delights the mind, as hell
(naraka) is that which gives it pain. 2 In the former is
the abode of the Deva and the blest.
These three spheres are the regions of the consequences
of work, and are termed transitory as compared
1 Bhuvanajnānaṃ
sūrye saṃ
yamāt, Patanjali Yoga-Sutra (chap. iii, 26).
An account of the lokas is given in Vyāsa’s commentary on the sūtra, in the
Viṣṇu-Purāṇa (Bk. II, chaps. v-vii): and in the Bhāgavata, Vāyu, and other
Purāṇas.
2 Viṣṇu-Purāṇa (Bk. II; chap. vi). Virtue is heaven and vice is hell, ibid,
Narakamināti = kleśaṃ
prāpayati, or giving pain.