The Three Worlds (Trailokya / Loka)

From the earliest Vedic vision the cosmos is pictured in three tiers: the earth, the mid-region of the atmosphere, and the heaven above — the 'three worlds' invoked in countless prayers. Later cosmology expanded this into a towering hierarchy of lokas, planes of existence from the lowest depths to the highest heavens, peopled by every kind of being. One's deeds determine which world one is born into; even the heavens, won by merit, are temporary, and the wheel of rebirth turns through all of them. Liberation alone steps off the ladder entirely.