About Me
There are more than one myths detailing the creation, one being the tale of earth as a cosmic egg in the Rigveda, the other tells of earth and everything else being made from the mangled limbs of Purusha, who had been sacrificed by the gods as was a non-natural man. In a third story, the god Vishnu jumps in to the cosmic waters in the shape of a boar and brings forth the earth. In the Shatapatha Brahmana, Prajapati, the first father was all alone. He split himself in to 2 persons, a male and a female. The wife runs away and hides herself as various animals, he follows, becoming the male of each type of animal and in this way, all animals were created. In the Puranas, Vishnu was the first being and he thought about creation and Brahma came from a lotus out of Vishnu’s navel. The universe was then said to be created by Brahma, Vishnu keeps it preserved and Shiva (Maheshvara) destroys it again, beginning the cycle anew.
In Hinduism there are 14 worlds, there are 7 heavens (upper worlds) and 7 underworlds. Earth forms the lowest level of the 7 heavens. The 7 higher worlds are bhuloka (Earth), Bhuvarloka, Svarloka, Maharloka, Janarloka, Tapoloka and Satyaloka while the seven underworlds are known as Atala, Vitala, Sutala, Talatala, Mahatala, Rasatala and Patala. When you die, you are judged by Lord Yama or yamaduts and you then go to one of the worlds in an appropriate body. The soul returns to earth and is reborn once it’s time is done in that specific world to repeat the cycle until you have reached a state of supreme salvation and can enter in to swarga (uppermost heaven).