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its energies to the next higher plane, and is re-born with every Day of
Brahma. Mahar is intermediate between Triloki and the three higher
Lokas of Universality.
The Vedic school laid great stress on communion with the Devas
of Svar Loka or Svarga or Indra Loka, and this was pre-eminently
known as Vedic Yajna. The performance of Vedic Yajna led only to
a prolonged gratification of kama in Svar Loka. But however long
the period might be, it was limited by the magnitude of the force
(Apurva) which buoyed up the individuality in the Svar Loka. As
the Gita says, when the merits are exhausted the observer of Vedic
Dharma enters again into the transitory plane. The course of births
and re-births is then set up anew, with constant transformations and
with all the miseries of existence conditioned by personality.
This was not Mukti or liberation. The followers of the post-vedic
or Upanishad school contended that liberation lay in crossing the
triple plane of individuality to the higher cosmic planes of universality.
When an individual reaches the higher planes, he does not again be-
come subject to transformations, and to the constant recurrence of births
and re-births. There is one continued life, one continued existence in
the higher planes, till the end of cosmos or the Life of Brahma. This
life is not measured by personalities but is the cosmical life, and the
individuality becomes a cosmical entity. Further there is life also
beyond the cosmos, in the highest plane, the abode of the Supreme.
The Gita only incidentally describes the highest plane in the
following sloka:
"That is my supreme abode, by reaching which (Jivas) do not
recur (to fresh births). Not the Sun, not the Moon, not even fire
illumines that." XV. 6.
Krishna also refers to that plane in VIII. 20 and XV. 4. 5.
The Gita lays down Nishkama Karma, or the unselfish perfor-
mance of the duties of life (Sva-dharma) as the first step towards
reaching the higher planes. The sense of separateness is killed by
Nishkama Karma. Then the Gita takes the disciple to Upasana or
communion with the Purusha of the highest plane, but scarcely a
glimpse is given of that plane and its surroundings. The Mahabha-
rata does not throw any light on the dwellers of the higher planes,
nor does it give any details of those planes. Without any dis-
tinct prospect of trans-Triloki life, one is asked to adhere to the duties
appertaining to one's own sphere of life (Sva-dharma) and to perform
those duties unselfishly. However transitory the things of Triloki
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