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INTRODUCTION TO JAINISM
understood. Even the Jinas live within loka, in which they possess omniscience. This does not necessarily imply that there is "nothing” outside, but only that our knowledge, even if omniscient in loka, can not reach there. Why else would the Jain philosophers have created the concept of “aloka”?
What follows is a summary of the teachings of the Tattvārthadhigama Sūtra on cosmology, interspersed with my own comments.
The lower worlds
The lower worlds as a whole, which together comprise the underworld, have a depth of 7 rajjus“, i.e. many light-years. The seven bhūmis or earths below Madhyaloka have the shape of seven discs with a space of seven rajjus in between them. Each bhūmi is surrounded by three atmospheres: a coarse air atmosphere, a moist atmosphere and a thin air atmosphere, and the whole is surrounded by ākāśa (space). In a downward direction they become darker, and their colors are described as jewel, sugar, sand, mire, smoke, darkness, and pitch darkness respectively. Beneath all these is a hell, the severest of all, called Nigoda Hell, from which no return is possible.62 The topmost of the seven bhūmis is 180,000 yojanas 3 thick, and the subsequent ones are far thinner; the ratio of the thickness of the seven is 45, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4 and 2 times 4000 yojanas. The first consists of three layers of 4, 21, and 20 times 4000 yojanas. In the lowest of these three layers the first hell is situated – that is to say, only in the so-called mobile channel (trasi nadi) which has the form of a vertical column. The second to seventh hells are found in the mobile channels of the second to seventh bhūmis. Between each of these bhūmis is one rajju of space. So the thickness of the bhūmis is negligible compared to the distances in between.
In each of the seven bhūmis are layers in which the hells are located, and from the first to the seventh downward these have 13, 11, 9, 7, 5, 3, and 1 layers, totaling 49. The
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