Dr. N.L. Kachhara
Celestial beings are of four main types:
- Mansion dwelling celestial beings (Bhavanvasi deva)
- Wandering celestial beings (Vyantar deva)
- Stellar celestial beings (Jyotishka deva)
- Empyrean celestial beings (Vaimanic deva).
The part of loka above the base of mount Sumeru is called upper loka. Only empyrean celestial beings (Vaimanic deva) habitat the upper loka, the other three types of celestial beings lives in the middle loka. There are sixteen heavens (Digambara belief, 12 in Swetambara) in the 6 raju region of upper loka as shown in fig. 6.4. After these heavens, nine Graiveyaka, nine Anudisha and five Annuttar celestial lands are there in a region of one raju. The region between the last Annuttar land and the first outer layer (vata valaya) is called the Eighth Land (Ashtam Prithvi) having a height of 8 yojana. The Sidhha loka, abode of liberated souls, is situated in the middle of this Eighth Land.
There are 10, 8, 5 and 16 subtypes of the four main types of celestial beings respectively. The mansion dwelling and wandering celestial beings have two kings (Indras) in each subtype so that there are 20 and 16 kings for the two types of celestial beings. There are also opposition kings (Pratindra) of the same number.
The ten subtypes of mansion dwellings celestial beings are:
- Fiendish youths - Asur Kumar
- Serpentine youths - Nag Kumar
- Lightening youths - Vidyut Kumar
- Vulture youths - Suparna Kumar
- Fiery youths - Agni Kumar
- Stormy youths - Vata Kumar
- Thundering youths - Stanit Kumar
- Oceanic youths - Udadhi Kumar
- Island youths - Dweep Kumar
- Guardians of cardinal points youths - Dik Kumar
The eight subtypes of wandering celestial beings are:
- Deformed humans - Kinnara
- Deformed persons - Kimpurusa
- Great serpent - Mahorag
- Musician - Gandharva
- Treasure keeper - Yaksha
- Demon - Raksasa
- Devil - Bhoot
- Goblin - Pisach
The subtypes of stellar celestial beings are
- Sun - Surya
- Moons- Chandra
- Planet - Graha
- Constellation - Nakshatra
- Scattered stars - Tara
The stellar celestial beings orbit the mount Sumeru in the respective island. The time (conventional kala) - hour, day, night etc. exist due to motion of these celestial beings. The stellar celestial beings outside the Two and Half Islands are supposed to have no orbital motion.
There are two main divisions of empyrean celestial beings - ranked (Kalpopanna) and nonranked (Kalpateet). In the first category the celestial beings have various ranks such as chiefs or assistant chiefs etc. In the second category there are no ranks among the celestial beings.
There are sixteen ranks in the ranked category of empyrean celestial beings living in sixteen heavens respectively.
- Righteous - Saudharma
- Great lord - Isana
- Perpetual youth - Sanata Kumar
- Supreme lord - Mahendra
- Big Lord - Brahma
- Super Lord - Brahmottara
- Mysterious - Lantava
- Banyan - Kapistha
- Radiant - Sukra
- Supremely radiant - Mahasukra
- Hundred faceted - Satar
- Thousand faceted - Sahastrar
- Bent - Anata
- Prostrated - Pranat
- Beat - Arana
- Unswerving - Achyuta
There are twenty-three types of non-ranked empyrean celestial beings living in lands beyond the sixteen heavens as follows.
(a) Nine are neck dwelling (Nav Graiveyaka)
- Three lower neck dwelling (Adho Graiveyaka) - Sudarshana, Amogha and Suprabuddha.
- Three middle neck dwelling (Madhya Graiveyaka) - Yasodhara, Subhadra and Suvishal.
- Three upper neck dwelling (Urdhva Graiveyaka) - Suman, Saumanashya and Pritinkara.
- Nine sub directional heavens (Anudisa) - Aditya, Archi, Archimalini, Vajra, Vairochana, Soumya, Saumyarupaka, Ank and Sphatika.
- Five excellent (Anuttar) - Victory (Vijaya), Victorious (Vaizayan) Conquering (Jayant), Unvanquished (Aparajita) and fully accomplished (Sarvarthsiddhi).
The age, power, happiness, radiance, purity of emotions (lesya), purity of senses and power of clairvoyance of the empyrean celestial beings is minimum in the first heaven and increases as we go up to higher heavens. The empyrean celestial beings of non-ranked category do not leave their lands (Vimana). The first four excellent empyrean celestial beings (Ahamindra) are liberated after two births as human beings as a rule. The last fully accomplished beings are emancipated in the next birth as human being. A soul has to have a human body for liberation; liberation is not possible from celestial body.
