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not an extramental world which is objective in character. It is really mind or consciousness itself functioning as this or that. Nothing beyond this consciousness exists. From this point of view, there is no room for realism and all things are different forms of knowledge and nothing else. This shows that the whole world is a mental picture without any extrinsic reality. To say that heaven exists as an external world of reality is as true as to say that heaven in all its glory is a manifestation of the inner consciousness as such. Both the attitudes are equally true, but true from its own point of view. It is possible to go beyond the mind and to say that neither the external objective reality nor the ideal counterpart really exists. What exists is neither real nor ideal but lies beyond both as the inmost soul of each of the two. Whatever we may say by way of an argument it is true that the real Anubhava exists on its own plane which is neither real nor ideal and which partakes of the nature of each.
It may be remembered that even the idealist Buddhists believe in heavens and hells as strongly as the realist philosophers of the Nyāya-Vaiseșika Schools. It has been universally admitted that all differences in creation as spheres of human experience are due to subtle shades of difference in the structure of karma.
Not only this, consciousness of individual beings in each plane . of existence is exactly in correspondence with the state of inten
sity of karma. By way of example we may refer to the account presented by Patañjali's Yoga system. Every school of thought in its own way follows the same principle. Patañjali locates a particular individual from the view point of the evolution of his consciousness. Progress in Sanprajñāta Samādhi corresponds to similar progress in the evolution of status of an individual Sãdha. ka. Unless there is a definite progress in Dhyāna (meditation), there cannot be an attainment of heavenly life corresponding to it. Evolution of the heavens beyond Svarga or Mahendraloka is in exact proportion to the evolution of meditation or concentration upto the limits of Brahmaloka. This is exactly what we find in the statement of progression in Rūpadhyāna in the Rūpāvacāra
