The 14 Worlds in Hindu Tradition as Mentioned in the Puranas

Those Worlds that are above earth are –

Bhuloka – Earth – the places that our feet touch
Bhuvarloka – This world is between earth and sun. Siddhas and Saints live here.
Swargaloka – Indra and other Devas live here
Maharloka – Hindu God Vishnu resides here
Janaloka – Dead souls reside here.
Tapaloka – Mahrishis reside
Satyaloka – Brahma resides here



The Worlds that are below earth are:

Athalam – Place associated with Yama
Vithalam – Place associated with Shiva
Suthala – King Bali resides here
Rasathala – Rakshasas reside here
Talathalam – Spot associated with Mayamayi
Mahathalam – Place associated with Serpents
Pathalam – Place associated with Yama and Nagas.

When the great cosmic dissolution takes place all the worlds, undergo transformation except for Maharloka the world of Vishnu.
Please note that there are few other such categories of the worlds. This is one among them.

Spiritual Importance of Navratri – Sri Sri Ravishankar

Sri Sri Ravishankar in this article explores the symbolic meaning and spiritual importance of Navratri.
What is the meaning of Navaratri? Ratri, "ra" means giving solace. Solace from three types of problems, that is "tri" - physical, ethereal and causal. Ratri relieves you and puts you to sleep. No animal needs to worry at night. Whether happy or unhappy everybody goes to sleep. In Sanskrit, words are connected to the meaning.
Navaratri has two meanings - “New Night” and “Nine Nights”. It takes nine months for a child to be born. The child rests in the womb during this period. Similarly in Navaratri you get back to the Self - self referral. Dip into yourself and then you come out with more creativity and be victorious. Negative forces - craving and aversion - get relief from all these. Go to the source of energy.

Craving and aversion are two asuras (demons) like "Madhu" and "Kaitabha". Then there is also "Raktabijasura", that which is in your genes. "Rakta" means blood, "bija" means seed. Raktabijasura is like gene in the blood. Sometimes your behaviour is not in your control - it's in your genes, Raktabijasura. Medication and meditation are required to tackle Raktabijasura. When such energy comes to you, transformation happens, the genes change.
Then there is "Mahishasura" - dullness. Dullness like a buffalo. You need "Shakti" (energy) to deal with this. When Shakti comes, inertia is lifted out. "Shumbha" and "Nishumbha" - doubting on everything. "Shumbha" means doubting oneself and "Nishumbha" means doubting others. Doubting at every step. These days people are so busy. Mind is so clogged, so occupied, no time to think of oneself. If someone insults you, don't think it as intentional.
"Chanda" and "Munda". Chanda means opposite head. Chanda will oppose anything you say. One who cannot agree with anything. "Munda" does not have a head at all. Whatever you tell them, it will all go in air. Then there is "Dhumralochana", "Dhumra" means smoke and "lochana" means eyes – smoky eyes. They see everything hazy.

All this is due to lack of Shakti. When you are full of energy and enthusiasm none of these rakshasas (demons) can come in you.
The nine days of Navratri are also an opportunity to rejoice in the three primordial qualities that make up the universe. The first three days of Navratri are attributed to tamo guna, the second three to rajo guna and the last three to sattva guna. Our consciousness sails through the tamo and rajo gunas and blossoms in the satva guna of the last three days. Whenever sattva dominates in life, victory follows. The essence of this knowledge is honoured by celebrating the tenth day as Vijaydashmi.

By worshipping the Mother Divine during Navratri, we harmonise the three gunas and elevate sattva in the atmosphere. Though Navratri is celebrated as the victory of good over evil, the actual fight is not between good and evil. From the Vedantic point of view, the victory is of the absolute reality over the apparent duality.
The Mother Divine or the pure consciousness itself pervades all the forms and has all the names. Recognising the one divinity in every form and every name is the celebration of Navratri. Hence, special pujas honouring all aspects of life and nature are performed during the last three days.

Hindu Blog: Modern Notions of Evolution and Ancient Hinduism

Hindu Blog: Modern Notions of Evolution and Ancient Hinduism:.

In an article titled ‘Ancient Hinduism enlightens modern notions of evolution’ in the Washington Post, Aseem Shukla, Co-founder, Hindu American Foundation, suggest that the concept of modern evolution is nothing new to Hinduism as the concept was detailed in Hindu scriptures.

Excerpts from the article

                 ...cosmology, science, and the ancient Vedas--Hinduism’s sacred scripture--are eerily complementary. Lord Brahma, the Lord of Creation, often depicted as one of the Hindu Trinity of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, is described as creating the universe in an unending cycle over each of his days and nights.
If the Big Bang theory is posited to have occurred 13 billion years ago, Hindus would have no trouble at all agreeing that an Intelligent Designer, Lord Brahma, indeed guides the creation of the universe. Even more, Swami Vivekananda, one of modern Hinduism’s intellectual giants wrote in the early 20th century, whether an intelligence made the material world, or whether, as some scientists believe, the material world led to the creation of intelligence, does not much matter. For in his words, “Indian philosophy, however, goes beyond both intelligence and matter, and finds a Purusha, or Self, which is beyond intelligence, of which intelligence is but the borrowed light.”


And as to evolution, more than 2,000 years before Darwin rocked Christendom with his heresy, the Hindu Puranas described the “Dasha Avataras”--the ten Avatars, or incarnations, of Lord Vishnu. Lord Vishnu is said to assume an avatar at various periods in history to guide creation and preserve its eternal dharma--meaning that which is necessary to sustain and uphold. And so God is described in the earliest of creation to have taken the avatar of a fish, followed by a tortoise (amphibian), boar, half man-half lion, short human (scientists only recently found that early humans were likely short-statured), and then a warrior with an axe. The latter incarnations are the well known avatars of Lord Rama, Lord Krishna, and Lord Buddha as the most recent.


The Hindu and Abrahamic conception of time, human origins, and creation, then, are diametrically divergent. Hindus conceive of creation as part of an ongoing cycle of creation and destruction, with our current universe forming several billions of years ago, and God manifesting along the spectrum of evolutionary speciation when necessary.