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Loka



 
 
Loka (Thai
Thai language

Thai , is the national language and official language language of Thailand and the mother tongue of the Thai people, Thailand's dominant ethnic group....
: ???), a word in Sanskrit
Sanskrit

Sanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India....
, in Hinduism
Hinduism

'Hinduism' is the predominant religion of the Indian subcontinent. Hinduism is often referred to as , a Sanskrit phrase meaning "the eternal dharma", by its practitioners....
 and Hindu mythology
Hindu mythology

Hindu mythology is the large body of traditional narratives related to Hinduism, notably as contained in Sanskrit literature, such as the Sanskrit epics and the Puranas....
, means world, dimension, plane, abode, and/or place or plane of existence.

ckquote>The concept of a loka or lokas develops in the Vedic literature.






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Loka (Thai
Thai language

Thai , is the national language and official language language of Thailand and the mother tongue of the Thai people, Thailand's dominant ethnic group....
: ???), a word in Sanskrit
Sanskrit

Sanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India....
, in Hinduism
Hinduism

'Hinduism' is the predominant religion of the Indian subcontinent. Hinduism is often referred to as , a Sanskrit phrase meaning "the eternal dharma", by its practitioners....
 and Hindu mythology
Hindu mythology

Hindu mythology is the large body of traditional narratives related to Hinduism, notably as contained in Sanskrit literature, such as the Sanskrit epics and the Puranas....
, means world, dimension, plane, abode, and/or place or plane of existence.

Puranas


In the Puranas there are seven lokas (realms), Bhuloka (earth), Bhuvarloka (air), Svarloka or Svargaloka (heaven), Maharloka, Janaloka, Tapoloka (abode of tapas) and Satyaloka (abode of Truth), also called Brahmaloka or the world of Brahma.

The scholar Deborah Soifer describes the development of the concept of lokas as follows:
The concept of a loka or lokas develops in the Vedic literature. Influenced by the special connotations that a word for space might have for a nomadic people, loka in the Veda did not simply mean place or world, but had a postivie valuation: it was a place or position of religious or psychological interest with a special value of function of its own.
Hence, inherent in the 'loka' concept in the earliest literature was a double aspect; that is, coexistent with spatiality was a religious or soteriological meaning, which could exist independent of a spatial notion, an 'immaterial' significance.


The most common cosmological conception of lokas in the Veda was that of the trailokya or triple world: three worlds consisting of earth, atmosphere or sky, and heaven, making up the universe."


Theosophy


The concept of Lokas was adopted by Theosophy
Theosophy

Theosophy is a doctrine of religious philosophy and metaphysics originating with Madame Blavatsky . In this context, theosophy holds that all religions are attempts by the "Mahatma" to help humanity in evolving to greater perfection, and that each religion therefore has a portion of the truth....
, and can be found in the writings of Blavatsky. There is also reference to kamaloka (world of desires) as a sort of astral plane
Astral plane

The astral plane, also called the astral world, is a Plane postulated by classical , mediaeval, oriental and esotericism philosophies and Mystery cult....
 or temporary after-life state, according to the teachings of Blavatsky, Leadbeater, and Steiner
Rudolf Steiner

Rudolf Steiner was an Austrians philosopher, literary scholar, educator, architect, playwright, social thinker, and Esotericism. After gaining initial recognition as a literary critic and cultural philosopher, at the beginning of the twentieth century he founded a new spiritual movement, Anthroposophy, as an esoteric philosophy growing...
.

System iteration and feedback of meme
Meme

A meme is a unit or element of culture ideas, symbols or practices; such units or elements transmit from one mind to another through speech, gestures, rituals, or other imitable phenomena....
 


In contemporary Vedanta
Vedanta

Vedanta is a spiritual tradition explained in the Upanishads that is concerned with the self-realisation by which one understands the ultimate nature of reality and teaches the believer's goal is to transcend the limitations of self-identity and realize one's unity with Brahman....
 these Theosophical ideas in turn influenced Indian conceptions, so that the Lokas are equated with Theosophical-style planes (see Sivananda link below)

Six Lokas
Six Lokas

Six Lokas refers to a B?npo and Nyingmapa spiritual practice or discipline that works with chakras and the six loka that is dimensions or planes as well as the six classes of sentient beings in the Bhavachakra....
 

Six Lokas refers to a Bön
Bön

B?n is the oldest spiritual tradition of Tibet. Tenzin Gyatso, the fourteenth Dalai Lama, has recently recognized the B?n tradition as the fifth principal spiritual school of Tibet, along with the Nyingma, Sakya, Kagyu, and Gelug schools of Buddhism, despite the long historical competition of influences between the Bon tradtition and Buddhis...
po and Nyingma
Nyingma

The Nyingma tradition is the oldest of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism . "Nyingma" literally means "ancient," and is often referred to as the "school of the ancient translations" or the "old school" because it is founded on the first translations of Buddhist scriptures from Sanskrit into Tibetan language, in the eighth century....
pa spiritual practice or discipline that works with chakra
Chakra

Chakra is a Sanskrit word that translates as wheel or disc.Chakra is a concept referring to wheel-like vortices which, according to traditional Indian medicine, are believed to exist in the surface of the etheric double of man....
s and the six dimensions or classes of beings in the Bhavachakra.