The two dimensions of the material space.

      There are two dimensions in the material space: (1) The visual world in the material space and (2) the celestial world in the celestial space, which is not visible to the human eye. There are seven main celestial worlds (abodes) also called the heavens: bhu, bhuv, swah, mah, jan, tap and satya lok of Brahma (lok means abode). Brahma is the supreme god of the entire celestial phenomena. He is a Divine personality, and he is the creator of heaven (celestial worlds) and earth. Brahma first created the celestial worlds (also called the celestial abodes) with gods and goddesses, and then he created the sun, moon and earth with its atmospheric sky to accommodate the living beings on the earth planet. The illusive energy, which is manifested in the form of the universe, is called ‘maya’ and it has three characteristics: sattvagun (the pious or good quality), tamogun (the evil or bad quality) and rajogun (the mixture of good and bad qualities). Brahma created the celestial worlds of gods and goddesses with sattvagun predominance, demonic worlds with tamogun predominance and the material world of human beings with rajogun predominance. All the three gunas reside within all the three, yet one gun remains in predominance.

The luxuries of the celestial abodes are much higher and superior to that of this world. The Upnishad describes that the quality of the luxury which is enjoyed in the lowest celestial abode (the manav gandharv) is one hundred times greater than the highest luxury of this world, and it goes on increasing in the same manner up to Brahma’s abode, called satya lok. The sequence described in the Upnishad is: the abodes of the gods called manav gandharv, dev gandharv, pitradev, ajanaj karmdev, karmdev and nityadev; then the abode of god Indra, Brihaspati, Prajapati and Brahma. The first five abodes are generally known as bhu lok, then bhuv lok, and thereafter swah lok is the abode of god Indra. Those souls who do honest and selfless good deeds reach these celestial abodes for a certain length of time and then they are reborn on the earth planet. There is an abode called mah lok where highly evolved gyanis and yogis go but they are again reborn on the earth planet. There is no liberation of a soul in these abodes. They are all revertible up to the abode of Brahma, except for one exception that, very highly evolved selfless gyanis and yogis who desire only liberation and nothing else, if they reach the satya lok of Brahma they may receive liberation from the mayic bondage and the cycle of birth and death.

There are millions of original gods and goddesses living in all of the celestial abodes described above (like the human population in various countries of this world). They are all produced from the sattvagun of maya. There are eight prime gods: Brahma, Prajapati, Brihaspati, Indra, Kuber, Varun, Agni and Vayu. Their references come in all of the Puranas and the Vedas. Then there are Dikpal, Yamraj or Dharmraj and Kamdeo and his wife Rati. Out of them Brahma and Indra are most important and are popular. All of these gods and goddesses live in the celestial abodes in their physical form and they remain the same in all the ages. They represent various aspects of maya.

Brahma. He is the creator of this world. He is the supreme god of the celestial world (also called the heaven), living in the topmost seventh celestial abode called satya lok. He has created all the gods and goddesses, the demons, and all of the beings of the earth planet. He is the foremost Yogi and Gyani and he represents the true form of piousness (sattvic quality). So, directly or indirectly, the pious people and yogis and gyanis whose spiritual experiences refer to the Divineness of the soul are related to the Divinity of Brahma. He is accessible to Sages and Saints and only to the prime gods and goddesses, not all. He is the giver of the reward or punishment of the actions of all souls through one of his assistants Dharmraj and has a very long life, beyond human imagination.

Indra. He is the king of gods and goddesses of bhu, bhuv and swah lok. He is also god of rain, thunder and lightning. His wife is Shachi. There are rivers of sweet water in his kingdom whose water is the giver of life, youth and beauty.

The descriptions of the NT (Cor. I. 1/25; and Peter II. 3/12) distinctly indicate that the ‘God’ and ‘heaven’ of the NT are only celestial.

Thus, the imagination of the chief god of Greek and Roman mythology is related to god Indra, and only the high end concept of the one God of the Bible or the God of Moses and Jesus, if he could be shown to be wrathless, may relate to the creator Brahma or it may also refer to the impersonal (nirakar) aspect of God.