8

If the heaven/hell aren't imaginary, can we go to those lokas with space crafts?

As Lord Krishna said in Bhagavad Gita

a-brahma-bhuvanal lokah punar avartino 'rjuna mam upetya tu kaunteya

punar janma na vidyate [BG - 8.16]

Meaning

From the highest planet in the material world down to the lowest, all are places of misery wherein repeated birth and death take place. But one who attains to My abode, O son of Kunti, never takes birth again.

  1. Here he talks about highest/lowest planet, can we go there in a space craft?
  2. Does this physical body stay for those conditions?
  3. Can siddhas go there? If so, should they have to leave their physical body here and go there?
  4. Can siddhas, if they wish, take others too to those lokas?
Improve this question
9
  • "who attains to My abode...never takes birth again." So Shri Krishna's Loka is beyond Time. Where as other Lokas, however present in different spacial realm, has to come under one temporal realm. Hence are all bounded by Birth-Death, or Time too. You can move between spacial realms of course. But your "perception", based on your senses, may change in other spaces. Actually, Siddhas are the masters of Prana, the spiritual energy that pervades the whole creation. There nothing they can't do in here (but with in the limits of TIME).
    – Hindu
    Dec 8, 2014 at 2:41
  • 1
    On a side note I think that the translation for this statement is "The beings of all lokas from Brahma's loka to the material loka (bhuvana loka) are subject to repeated birth and death. But the one who reaches Me (mam upetya) is freed from rebirth". The word mam-upetya has been translated as 'realizes Me' by advaitins, 'takes refuge in Me' by Vishishtadvaitins and 'reaches my Abode' by ISKCON. While the meaning is more or less same. Sri Krishna is not talking of a physical (or metaphysical) place called as His Abode. His Abode is above and beyond all other lokas and cannot be called a 'loka'
    – Sai
    Dec 8, 2014 at 17:05
  • See "Extent and situation of the seven spheres, viz. earth, sky, planets, Mahar-loka, Janaloka, Tapo-loka, and Satya-loka." sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp065.htm
    – Pradyumna
    Dec 14, 2014 at 15:16
  • Good question! Reading at title, I almost laughed, but seems logical. Do you have any good source which states "Heaven/Hell are not imaginary."? Sometimes I wonder that during ancient times, people hadn't moved much out of Asia. Probably due to that, some part of Russia or Europe might be considered as heaven/devloka due to its inherent natural beauty.
    – iammilind
    Jul 20, 2015 at 13:01
  • @iammilind You may be interested in my answer here, where I give the distance between the Earth and various Lokas: hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7262/36 I think they're probably not reachable by spaceship though; I think in addition to special separation they're located in separate universes. As far as your comment regarding Devaloka being on Earth, there are reference to the land of the Uttara-Kurus, i.e. the land on the other side of the Himalayas, being a land of the gods.
    – Keshav Srinivasan ♦
    Jul 20, 2015 at 14:44

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
6

Lokas are planes of existence, not to be confused with physical planets. There are beings all around us living at different vibrational levels, you pass through them and they pass through you. When you die, you don't physically go anywhere. Your fine body is all that remains and it exists on a different vibrational level. All the lokas are around you all the time.

All the stories about this person or that person going here or there are in the Puranas. They are not in the Upanishads. The different myths in the Puranas are meant to teach, not meant to be taken literally.

Are you such a materialist that you can only believe in the physical world?

Rather than arguing on whether this or that scripture is true, if this person or god did this or that, do your own austerities, realize God, and ask God directly what is true and not true. Trust no scripture, realize God for yourself. Scriptures are like maps of a city. Seeing a city for yourself is entirely different than looking at the map of the same city. Some maps look different that other maps for the same city. See God yourself, ask Him directly what is true and not true in the scriptures.

Follow the scriptures that most appeal to your heart, even if they conflict with others, but use them as a tool to realize God.

Improve this answer
1
6

Short answer to your question is -- Yes. Then comes the question , how?

You needed to have special kind of vehicles for that.

Trishanku travelled into svargaloka using celestial airplanes. Same case with Arjuna . He travelled to svarga along with a deva called matali in a celestial chariot. When he is going to svarga in devayana(path of gods) , he encountered various strange things.

Mahabharata briefly describes the travel as follows

"As they moved along the paths of the gods, Arjuna saw Siddhas, Charanas, rishis, Guhyakas and Apsaras. The region glowed with a brilliance born of the ascetic merits of such beings. Amazed, Arjuna inquired into their identities. The charioteer replied, "These are pious persons, O son of Kunti, stationed in their respective spheres. You have seen their shining abodes from the earth as stars in the firmament."

http://vahini.org/Discourses/d9-arjunagoestoheaven.html

Improve this answer
2
  • What about their physical body? Do they need to change it? Is traveling means, traveling with physical body or in the mind? Is it something that occurs in self-realization or without self-realization can they go?
    – user12458
    Dec 9, 2014 at 5:42
  • 1
    Arjuna(first time) , Trishanku , yudhistira all travelled to heaven with physical body.
    – tekkk
    Dec 9, 2014 at 5:43
4

I think yes, people can go and have gone to Heaven or other spacial realms. Some examples are:

  1. King Muchukand, fought alongside Devas and later got the boon of having sleep where the person disturbing him will be burnt to ashes.
  2. King Kakudmi, father of Revati, went to meet Lord Bramha and later his daughter got married to Lord Balarama.
  3. Arjuna, ie, one of the Pandava brother went to heaven to meet Indra and learned Music and Dance from his Gandharva friend.
  4. Yudhisthir went to heaven when all Pandavas in the end of Mahabharta went to go directly in heaven. While other Pandavas and Draupadi died in between, Yudhisthir was the only successful one.
  5. Meghnaad, son of Ravana, defeated Indra and was named Indrajeet.
  6. There are examples of various Rishi, Munis who time to time went to heaven either to meet with some Deva or to discuss some problem.
  7. Bala Kand of Ramayana states that King Satyavrat, who was an ancestor of Lord Rama was also being taken to heaven by the powers of Rishi Vishwamtira but was thrown out by Indra. He was later known as 'Trishanku'.

There can be many more examples found in various books where people use to visit heaven but not sure everytime we will find any reference to any spacecraft being used for such visit.

Improve this answer
4
  • Dasharatha didn't go to Devaloka to help the Devas fight Shambara. The battle with Shambara took place in the city of Vaijayanta in the Dandaka forest, the same forest where Rama was later exiled to; see my question here: hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3820/36
    – Keshav Srinivasan ♦
    Dec 8, 2014 at 9:27
  • Sorry, my mistake. I thought I heard him helping Devas somewhere. Anyways, I will edit my reply now.
    – Aby
    Dec 8, 2014 at 10:00
  • Yeah, it was helping Indra and the gods, it was just helping them on Earth rather than in Devaloka.
    – Keshav Srinivasan ♦
    Dec 8, 2014 at 17:37
  • You should add scriptural citations to your answer.
    – Keshav Srinivasan ♦
    Jul 20, 2015 at 14:59
0

No. The heavens and hells (plural, not singular) are places, but their mode of material existence is completely different from our mode of material existence. They are not in any physical direction.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .