THE TWENTY-EIGHT HEAVENS AND TWENTY-EIGHT HELLS
According to the Vedic seers, there is a correspondence between the visible physical universe and the invisible spiritual worlds that underlie and pervade the physical universe. The same set of metaphysical layers that uphold the form of the visible universe as a whole also uphold the spectrum of spiritual worlds, which are experienced on different scales of consciousness.
Whereas the visible universe is experienced by the mortal soul while it is in an embodied state, the spiritual worlds are experienced by the soul when it is in a disembodied state, after physical death. According to the seers, this is not a random affair. After death, a given mortal soul will either ascend to a heavenly world or descend to a hellish world in accordance with divine will. The decision depends upon the thoughts, words, and deeds performed by the soul when it was in an embodied state.
If the sum total of all the actions (karma) performed by a soul during life serves to fulfill the purpose of creation, then that soul will be rewarded with a vacation in the heavenly realms. If, however, the sum total of action is contrary to the purpose of creation, then that soul will be punished by a visit to the hellish realms. Heaven and hell were viewed as a system of rewards and punishments.
According to the ancients, the spiritual experience of the mortal soul after death is not so different from our dreaming experience when we sleep. If our minds become filled with pleasant impressions during the day and our actions are born of selfless kindness, then we are likely to have pleasant or heavenly dreams when we go to sleep at night. If, on the other hand, our minds become filled with unpleasant impressions and our actions are born of selfish unkindness, then we are likely to have unpleasant or nightmarish dreams. The same principle holds true after death. Based upon the thoughts, words, and deeds performed during life, some souls ascend to a heavenly spiritual world filled with pleasant dreamlike experiences, while others descend to a hellish spiritual world filled with nightmarish dreamlike experiences.
Rather than having a specific location within the physical universe, these spiritual worlds exist on different scales of time and space.
The heavenly worlds exist on scales above the half measure and are filled with the synthetic power of consciousness, while the hellish worlds exist on scales below the half measure and are filled with the analytic power of consciousness. The heavenly worlds are thus more unified and coherent than the hellish worlds, which are diversified and incoherent. Whereas the heavenly worlds exist above, in heaven (the macroscopic half of the spectrum), the hellish worlds exist below, on earth (the microscopic half of the spectrum).The Vedic seers held that there is a limit to the spectrum of heavens and hells that can be experienced by the mortal soul after death. More specifically, they counted a total of twenty-eight heavens (nakshatras) and twenty-eight hells (narakas), which represent the spiritual worlds supported by the first twenty-eight layers above and below the half measure. The highest or twenty-eighth heaven was variously called dyaus (the shining heaven), svarga (the moving world of the self), or abhijit (the victorious world). It was also known as the world of Indra, the king of the gods. In the alphabetical model of the spectrum of layers, the highest heaven was represented by the twenty-eighth consonant, the phoneme la, which was also viewed as the seed formula (bija mantra) of Indra.
This represents the highest heaven that could be obtained by a mortal soul through the performance of action—including the action of thinking. It was not, however, the highest heaven that could be experienced by an immortal or enlightened soul.