Jain Journal 1968 10

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 45

OCTOBER, 1968
nothing. Their dwellings vary in size, the largest being as big as the Jambudvipa, the middle-sized ones as big as Videha and the smallest ones no bigger than khettasama. Theirs is a happy life free from age or anxiety.
10. Jaina view of Upper Sphere (uddha-loga or urdha-loka)
Needless to add that the scriptural views about the Lower and Upper Spheres are beyond the ken of modern sciences; perhaps even a good part of the Central Sphere is so excluded. Therefore the scientific validity of these views cannot be tested with the tools of materialistic sciences. One is free to believe or disbelieve the outcome of spiritual insight. Now, if the Jaina view of the Lower Sphere as delineated above is pretty interesting, no less so is their view about the Upper Sphere, which, again, is very exhaustive. This too consists of layers, more in number than in the case of the Lower Sphere, which are arranged one above another, till one reaches the highest which is occupied by the liberated souls. Before, however, presenting the Jaina model for the Upper Sphere, let us start with the Jaina view of loka which is an alternative way of comprehending all the spheres and which has some similarity with the Hindu view on the subject. The Jaina and the Hindu models of the lokas are presented below side by side :
Jaina model
Hindu model
siddha-loka
satya (brahma)-loka
tapah-loka
jana-loka
maha-loka
89
sura-loka
jyotih-loka
vyantara-loka
tiryak-loka (nara-loka)
bhavana-loka
näraka-loka
sāmānya-loka (?)
If nara-loka
The difference between the two models should be clear. of the Jainas be equivalent to the bhur-loka of the Hindus, then the Jainas have five more lokas above unlike six in the case of the Hindus. And secondly, in the Hindu model, the munis and siddhas live in the bhuvar-loka, which is just above the Earth but in the Jaina model, not only the Earth lies in the Central Sphere, beneath the Upper Sphere,
dhruva (pole star)
svra-loka
surya (sun)
bhuvar-loka (abode of
munis & siddhas) bhür-loka
Hells