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osmos
The soul in its wanderings is limited to the knowable universe
Jainism appears to teach a dualistic cosmology. The cosmos is divided in loka and aloka - world and not-world, or universe and not-universe. Within loka is every form of existence. Outside loka is only space (alokākāśa), but soul (= life-consciousness), matter, time, movement and opposition to movement do not exist there. Within loka, the universe or manifested cosmos comprising all existing things, there is a lower or hellish world, a middle world (Madhyaloka) and an upper world where the heavenly or celestial beings live. The lower world consists of seven “earths” (bhūmi), which are depicted as a column of horizontal discs with spaces in between, and which become more and more unpleasant in a downward direction. Within these seven “earths” are seven narakas or infernal realms, which are further subdivided into a total of 8,400,000 hellish locations.
The Middle World is pictured as a horizontal disc without thickness. On a small part of it we live at this moment. Literature, paintings and relief sculptures depict mountains, rivers, lakes, oceans, islands and continents in detail.
Above the higher world is an upper world which consists of dozens of heavens or paradises. Above the highest heaven, but of course still within loka, the universe, is
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