The Human Abode - Jain Cosmology Part 2

Jain cosmology tells us about "15 special planets". Human beings living on only these planets can attain salvation or moksha. Our Earth is one of them. However there are time cycles on 10 of these 15 planets and only during special phases of that time cycle can salvation be attained. At this juncture we have moved into 5th part of the time cycle on Earth and salvation or direct moksha from here is not possible. Roughly after another 81,000 years humans can again start achieving Moksha from our planet Earth! We will dig in this more when we talk about time cycles. (Note: There exists a path to attain Moksha for our souls earlier than this too, so keep working on principles of Ahimsa, we will discuss more in later blogs on this)

In this blog, we will discuss Madhya Lok (middle part of entire universe) , planets with human life and more. Let me start with our planet and go in reverse order. We live on Earth (or the Bharat Kshetra as it is called as per Jain Aagams), which is one of the 7 planets (or kshetra) in a cluster called Jambudweep. 





Humans live on all 7 planets but only 3 out of 7 planets are special planets (also called karma bhoomi's) aka liberation is possible only from these 3 planets in our cluster.  These 3 planets are: Bharat Kshetra (or our Earth as we know it), MahaVideh Kshetra and Airavat Kshetra.

Humans living on rest of the 4 planets (called as Akarm bhoomi, names in Appendix below) live a sinless life of pleasure, but there is no religion there nor liberation is possible. Only Bharat and Airavat planets have time cycles. Time is a constant (no regeneration or degeneration) in rest of the 5 planets and is always equivalent to 4th Ara on our planet Earth. All Tirthankars took birth in 4th Ara on our planet too. Age of humans living in Haimvata, Hari and Devakuru planets is one, two and three palyas respectively (life is blissful but no salvation is possible there. We discussed Palyas in the last blog)

Where are the other special planets?
Similar to our cluster, Jambudweep, there are many other similar clusters. Names of the first 8 clusters am sharing in the appendix below. Humans can reside only on three clusters - Jambudweep, Ghati Khand and Pushkaradweep (only half portion of this cluster can be inhabitated by humans). Even achharyas (monk gurus) with very special powers (vridhidhari) cant go beyond this). Jambudweep is the center of the world. And Mount Sumeru is the Center of Jambudweep (pls see appendix fo rmore details on Sumeru Parvat).  All planets in Jambudweep cluster have characteristics of salty oceans surrounding the land masses. Similarly in Ghatikhand (next cluster of planets) all landmasses are surrounded by Black sea on those planets (more details in appendix). 




Each of these clusters have these special planets - Bharat, Airavat, Mahavideh and other planets too where humans reside. As per Jain books, GhatiKhand is 2x the size of Jambudweep and similarly other other clusters are 2x the size of previous one.

In total there are 5 Bharat, 5 Airavat and 5 Mahavideh Kshetras in these 3 clusters where humans live. These are the 15 special planets where salvation is possible for human being. On other planets, humans live a comfortable life but cant progress on path of moksha.

Humans resides on a number of planets, but only above 15 are called Karma Bhoomi's and given special importance - our earth being one of them. In total there are 30 pleasure planets (liberation is not possible here) and 15 special planets (like our Earth), making it total 45 planets where humans exists in the universe.


There are in total 5 Mahavideh Kshetras  - 1 in Jambudweep, 2 in Ghatikhand and 2 in Half Pusharvar. Given Ghatikhand is 2x the size of Jambudweep there are 2 Mahavideh, 2 Airvat and 2 Bharat Kshetras there. Similarly, Pushkarvar is 4x the size of Jambudweep (or 2x of Ghatikhand), but only half of that is livable for humans therefore it also contains 2 Bharat, Airavat and Mahavideh Kshetras each.


Where and how many Tirthankars can co-exist in human form?
Each of the Mahavideh Kshetras (Kshetras or planets) has 32 continents. There can (potentially) be a living Tirthankar on each of these continents. Therefore a maximum of 32 x 5 = 160 Tirthankars can exist on all Mahavideh Kshetras at a given point of time. in total there can be 5 x 32 = 160 Tirthankars. There can be a maximum of only 1 Tirthankars on each of Bharat and Airavat Kshetras at any given point of time (so  5 +5 = 10 Tirthankars on Bharat and Airavat planets).

So there can be a time, where in total a maximum of 170 living Tirthankars can be present at the same time together in this universe. Infact it happened during the time of our 2nd Tirthankar on earth Lord Ajithnath Ji - during his lifetime there were a total of 170 Tirthankars living on these 15 special planets.

How many Living Tirthankars are present currently?
At present there are 20 living Tirthankars (in human form) in the 5 Mahavideh Kshetras. The closest one to us is Lord Simandhar Swami. We must all pray to him with deep devotion. Trivia: At any point in time, there will always be minimum 20 Tirthankars living in human form.

Madhya Loka
So the Madhya Loka, is the middle part of universe where humans and plants/animals live.  It contains many "clusters of planets", Jambudweep is one of them. There are many planets in each clusters, our Earth is one of the planets in Jambudweep cluster. Every cluster has a very well defined size, characteristics (for example Jambudweep's total land area roughly is equal to 100,000 yojans.  And all planets in Jambudweep have salty oceans surrounding land masses. Madhya Loka is also the place where all Tiryanch (plants, animals etc) live on various planets. This forms the middle part of the universe (pls refer to the structure in Part 1 of this blog series for the overall structure). The Jyotiska and Vyantar Devas reside around 900 yojans above and below the human plane, this is also part of Madhya Loka.


Fun Facts/Appendix:

Whats the width of Bharat Kshetra as per Jainism?


It says the width is roughly 1/190 of that of Jambudweep. This translates to 1/190 * 100,000 Yojans = 526.315 Yojans. Curious minds here can do some google to find out what would have been the width of Pangea when all continents were united in one on Earth (or the Bharat Kshetra)

Which are the remaining 4 Akarm bhoomis, or planets in Jambudweep? On these Akarm bhoomi's/planets, no liberation is possible, but Humans do live here.
  1. Ramyak Kshetra
  2. Hiranya vant Kshetra
  3. Hemvant Kshetra
  4. Hari Varsh Kshetra

Name the first 8 clusters of planets in Universe:
  1. Jambūdvīpa (surrounded by Salt ocean)
  2. Ghatki Khand (surrounded by black sea)
  3. Puskarvardvīpa (surrounded by lotus Ocean)
  4. Varunvardvīpa (surrounded by varun Ocean)
  5. Kshirvardvīpa (surrounded by ocean of milk)
  6. Ghrutvardvīpa (surrounded by butter milk ocean)
  7. Ikshuvardvīpa (surrounded by sugar ccean)
  8. Nandishwardvīpa
Human can reside on first 3 only. Commonly it is said that humans live in "Aadhai Dweep" or 2.5 dweeps aka clusters (Jamabu, Ghati and half of Pushkar)

Who lives on rest of clusters?
Beyond the 2.5 dweeps/clusters only animals live. Humans cant go beyond it.

Are there time cycles on all planets?
In Mahavideh Kshetras, time is always a constant, like our 4th Ara of time cycle on Earth. Its only on Airavat and Bharat Kshetras that we have time cycles, 6 rising (regeneration) and 6 falling (degeneration) periods. Other regions are constant always.


Whats the importance of Sumeru Parvat?
Sumeru Moutain - Center of the Madhya Loka, center of the universe.  Situated in the large middle portion of Mahavideh region, it is of golden colour and is of peak-shaped. There are total five Sumeru mountains - one in Jambudvipa, 2 in Dhatkikhanda and 2 in Pushkardhadvipa. There are 16 Jina temples in each of the Sumeru, thus total 80 Jina temples in all and total 8640 Jina idol are enshrined in them. This mountain is regarded as the seat of birth-anointment of Tirthankaras. You must have heard stories of Janma Kalyanaks of Tirthankar lords, this is the place where Saudharma Indra takes the baby boy to perform Janma Kalyanaks.

Whats so special about NandishwarDweep?
This is the 8th cluster of planets, however no humans live here. But the place holds significant importance for Celestial Beings or Devas. Hence there are 52 natural Jina temples. Each Jina temple is enshrined with 108 Jina idols of gems. The stature of these Jina idols is 500 Dhanusha. The gleam of millions of Suns & Moons is feeble before the light of those jewels-made idols! Saudharma Indra and various other Celestial beings, come with their families here to worship.

Note: Total height of our Universe is 14 Rajju as per Jainism. I am working to find the actual conversion of Yojan, Rajju as mentioned in our texts converting into modern day distance measuring units like Kms. Lot of theories exist but still working to verify/corroborate with some measurements we know as per modern science to arrive at conclusion.


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