Patala (Sanskrit) [possibly from the verbal root
pat to sink, fly down or alight] Nethermost, farthest underneath; the reference being not so much to locality or position in space, as to quality -- grossness, heaviness, or material substance. The seventh, lowest, and most material tala. It is used in Hindu literature to signify the hells, underworlds, or infernal regions, or the antipodes or Myalba. The corresponding loka or pole is bhurloka. "Meru -- the abode of the gods -- was placed . . . in the North Pole, while
Patala, the nether region, was supposed to lie in the South. As each symbol in esoteric philosophy has
seven keys, geographically,
Meru and
Patala have one significance and represent localities; while astronomically, they have another, and mean 'the two poles,' which meaning ended by their being often rendered in
exoteric sectarianism -- the 'Mountain' and the 'Pit,' or Heaven or Hell" (SD 2:357).
Patala, from one aspect, corresponds to the lower hierarchies of the Gandha, elementals ruling the sense and organ of smell. This lowest tala is the sphere of irrational beings, including animals, having little or no sense or feeling save that of self-preservation and the gratification of the senses -- attributes of materiality which might include a vast number of the human species. Patala is also the sphere of intensely human as contrasted with human-spiritual beings, and is likewise the abode of the animal dugpas, elementals of animals, and multitudes of nature spirits, all belonging to the bipolar planes of bhurloka-patala.
to be continue "
Patala2 "
