With a broad enough idea of everything that exists – living and non-living from our previous three sessions dealing with classification of everything, a fundamental question persists where do all these exist. In one of the previous sessions, we had briefly touched upon the same. Anyone for a refresher?
“Everything exists in lok, which is humongous but finite”, recalled Dhyān.
Good. All except ākāshastikāy, which exists both in lok and beyond, in the all infinite alok, as well. So, if we leave out the alok ākāsh, then all matter, energy, infinite living beings exist in the finite lok.
But, how do infinite exist in the finite?
How many points are there on a line?
Infinite.
What if the line is of fixed length?
Even then infinite.
Now you see that’s how infinite (points) can exist in finite (length line).
But points are infinitesimally small to fit in.
Similarly, the infinite living beings are also infinitesimally small compared to the size of lok.
But we human beings are so big?
But then we are not infinite.
So, being finite, lok must have some definite shape as well.
Yes, it has. And that’s what our topic of discussion today would be – structure of lok.
“Wow! So I hope, today we are talking about our unanswered questions also”, interrupted Ātmā.
Which questions?
How big actually is the lok?
“And yes, where exactly in the lok, do the various beings, especially celestial & hellish beings live?”, added Danḋak.
“Seems like, you guys are totally into it, holding onto getting all the answers to the unknowns”, smiled the prof.
Couldn’t help, the way you have created the curiosity for the world around us – making us feel that how little do we know about it.
Okay. So, coming to the point, the shape of lok is sort of one and a half sand clock. Imagine a sand clock and then bottom half of an another sand clock placed over the first sand clock, making it one and half sand clock.
Beautiful. How tall would be this structure, I mean the lok?
It is 14 rajju. However, the middle point is the slimmest part of the sand clock. The bottom half sand clock is 7 rajju and the upper half plus the another half at the top is 7 rajju.
What is this rajju?
Just hold on. For time being, just assume some unit of length. 1 rajju height of the slimmest portion is the madhya (middle) lok, with its width also of 1 rajju. The portion below it, is the adho (bottom) lok, with the seven hells, one after the other – seventh one being the bottom-most, with the maximum width of 7 rajju. The portion above the madhya lok is the ūrdhva (upper) lok, having maximum width of 5 rajju at its middle and topmost width of 1 rajju again, where the mokṡ-shilā is situated. Between the madhya lok and the mokṡ-shilā are the planetary, moon, sun, and star systems, followed by the 26 heavens one after the other.
Everyone was mesmerized, visualizing the lok in all its glory, interrupted by, “Hey friends, don’t just get lost in the heavens. Come back. Your goal should be not that but beyond that.”
“Yes! yes! we know – it should be mokṡ”, came a chorus, after an awakening.
“Where do the bhavans of the bhavanpati beings exist?”, jump started Gati.
They are in the adho lok above all the hells but below the madhya lok.
With such a detail and I guess there is more to it, we should definitely be able to reach at least the closest ones.
Not really, because even they are away in rajju.
Tell us what rajju is and possibly over time, humans would work out, how to reach there.
We are not yet able to reach beyond our solar system itself – so reaching even a fraction of rajju is unimaginable. One rajju consists of an innumerous (mahā) yojan, where a (mahā) yojan is 4000 miles.
But what is this abstract innumerous? How do you even define this?
That’s what – it is so huge that it is inexpressible.
Meaning infinite.
No. It is finite, but huge.
How can that be? If finite, it has to be expressible.
Not really. If you want to just get a feel of innumerous, mathematically, check this video out:
Morover, the overall volume of the complete lok is 343 cubic rajju. In case you are interested in more details like the curve equation of lok, volume calculation of lok, how to define innumerous, varieties of infinity, you may refer to the book: ‘The Enigma of the Universe’ by Prof. Muni Mahendra Kumar.