The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c40.s6.51

v2.c40.s6.51

In detail we learn very little indeed of the creation of the earth and the world: the old Vedic ideas coexist, according to which there are three worlds, earth, air, and heaven, but the primeval waters are regarded in the Aitareya Upaniṣad³ as lying above and below these regions. They are also said to be interwoven in the ether, by which space may be meant, as the latter is in the Brahman. From the practice of equating the regions with the worlds of the sacrifice, Bhūḥ, Bhuvaḥ, and Svar, a fourth region is added as Mahas, in the Taittirīya Upaniṣad⁴ denoting the Brahman: the Muṇḍaka⁵ adds three more, Janas, Tapas, and Satya are given as their names in the Mahānārāyaṇa:⁶ still later, seven lower worlds are invented to correspond with them. A different conception is, however, found in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad,⁷ where on the basis of the old cosmic egg there is devised the view that the inhabited world is surrounded by the earth, and this again by the ocean, the world being 32 days’ journey of the chariot of the sun in breadth, the earth 64, and the sea 128. Where the heaven and the earth as the two layers of the egg of the universe meet, there is the space of a razor edge or the wing of a fly, by which access is attained to the place of the offerers of the horse sacrifice, no doubt the back of heaven. A divergent view⁸ is found shortly after, in which there are ten layers over the universe, the worlds of the wind, the atmosphere, the Gandharvas, the sun, moon, stars, the gods, Indra, Prajāpati, and Brahman. The only importance of these questions attaches to the case of the sun and the moon, which become associated with the doctrine of transmigration: the sun, indeed, is actually apparently deemed nearer⁹ the earth than the moon.