Dictionary of Pali Proper Names v2.c29.983

v2.c29.983

**Brahmaloka.**—The highest of the celestial worlds, the abode of the Brahmas. It consists of twenty heavens: the nine ordinary Brahma-worlds, the five Suddhāvāsā, the four Arūpa-worlds, the Asaññasatta and the Vehapphala.¹ All except the four Arūpa-worlds are classed among the Rūpa-worlds (the inhabitants of which are corporeal). The inhabitants of the Brahma-worlds are free from sensual desires.² The Brahma-world is the only world devoid of women³; women who develop the jhāna in this world can be born among the Brahmapārisajjā (see below), but not among the Mahābrahmas.⁴ Rebirth in the Brahma-world is the result of great virtue accompanied by meditation.⁵ The Brahmas, like the other celestials, are not necessarily sotāpannā or on the way to complete knowledge (*sambodhiparāyaṇā*); their attainments depend on the degree of their faith in the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Saṅgha.⁶ The Jātakas contain numerous accounts of ascetics who practised meditation, being born after death in the Brahma-world.⁷ Some of the Brahmas—*e.g.*, Baka (*q.v.*)—held false views regarding their world, which, like all other worlds, is subject to change and destruction.⁸ When the rest of the world is destroyed at the end of a kappa, the Brahma-world is saved,⁹ and the first beings to be born on earth come from the Ābhassara Brahma-world.¹⁰ Buddhas and their more eminent disciples often visit the Brahma-worlds and preach to the inhabitants.¹¹ If a rock as big as the gable of a house were to be dropped from the lowest Brahma-world it would take four months to reach the earth travelling one hundred thousand leagues a day. Brahmas subsist on trance, abounding in joy (*sappītikajjhāna*), this being their sole food.¹² Anāgāmins, who die before attaining arahantship, are reborn in the Suddhāvāsā Brahma-worlds and there pass away entirely.¹³ The beings born in the lowest Brahma-world are called Brahmapārisajjā; their life-term is one-third of an asaṅkheyya-kappa; next to them come the Brahma-purohitā, who live for half an asaṅkheyya-kappa; and beyond these are the Mahā Brahmas who live for a whole asaṅkheyya-kappa.¹⁴