Loka (Sanskrit) Place, locality; in Brahmanic literature, heavens; in theosophical literature, world, sphere, plane. Used in the metaphysical systems of India, both in contrast to and in conjunction with tala (inferior world). "Wherever there is a
loka there is an exactly correspondential
tala, and in fact, the
tala is the nether pole of its corresponding
loka.
Lokas and
talas, therefore, in a way of speaking, may be considered to be the spiritual and the material aspects or substance-principles of the different worlds which compose and in fact are the kosmic universe" (OG 168). The lokas and talas must be thought of by twos: a loka and its corresponding tala can no more be separated than can the two poles of a magnet. They are the two sides of being, the two contrasting forces of nature, the light-side and the night-side.
There are many different divisions of the lokas and talas used in Hindu literature, but many are merely exoteric blinds. Dividing the universe into seven manifested grades or planes of being, which are really worlds, these worlds are polarized into lokas and talas, two by two throughout. The seven lokas and seven talas together form the seven cosmic planes. Of these seven loka-tala pairs, the three highest belong to the relatively arupa (formless) or spiritual worlds, and are often called arupa lokas and arupa talas.
to be continue "
Loka2"
