The Structure of the Universe (Vedic) - Viswaroopa 
K. Sivananda Murty 
Preface 
1
In the very remote (pre-historic) past, the Aryavarta became the seat of tapas, which was a way of life by itself for many sages. This tapas revealed a thousand aspects of this creation through the voices of many Rishis. This is the birth of Veda. Such knowledge revealed is obviously meant for the benefit of mankind. Vedas were put to use in the Yajna as guided by the Brahmana texts that accompanied them. The Yajnas had a wide range of purposes like having a benign and merciful seasonal cycle, growth of progeny, cattle and crop which are the earthly benefits. Starting with these mundane benefits obtained as boons from the Devas, the Yajnas, in an ascending order sought a place for men in the higher worlds after departing from the Earth. The underlying feature is addressing and propitiating the many Gods who dwell in the higher worlds. These Devas are free from a material physical body, from hunger, aging, death and are endowed with powers to control the elements, conquer space and distances in creation and ability to grant boons to the mortals on the Earth. The concept of there being higher worlds occupied by beings far superior to the human-beings is the basic foundation on which the Vedic religion is built. This hard fact is reflected in every Vedic and Puranic text endlessly. The interaction between men on the Earth with the Gods in the higher worlds is the subject matter in the Puranas, showing Yajna or tapas as a linking medium. Rise of men to the higher worlds by merit after death here or the fall of a God to the Earth by curse or descent of a God to the Earth by invocation, is a commonplace event in the Puranas. The Vedic religion repeatedly speaks of the departed souls being in Pitruloka, Yamaloka, etc or the Swargaloka by merit.
The question arises, what are the placements of these other words or the higher worlds in the vast space we behold? What are the mutual placements of these Lokas? Where are we on this Earth in the space? The word Brahmanda is often used in our literature. What does it mean in terms of shape, contents, and the directions of their places from the Earth etc?
We do not find a comprehensive, singular description of this Universe anywhere in our literature. But the various names of Lokas, the Devas, and their relation with the earthlings repeatedly occur in our literature. This Brahmanda is also called Jagati or Viswa. It is common knowledge that we have a Solar system with planets and our Earth revolving round the Sun. Where is the Solar system in space and why these movements and revolution and rotation? Astronomy, ancient and modern, speaks of the planets, Moon etc. with calculations of their periodicities, but the science of this astronomical phenomenon is not the knowledge of this Brahmanda or the Universe.
We have thousands of references to the Lokas of this Brahmanda. There is a whole Purana dedicated to this name. There are instances described where a divine chariot arrived to take a noble soul to Swarga. In the Yajna performed by Dasaratha the Yajna- purusha, the God appeared and handed a vessel of Payasam to be distributed to his wives. There is an ocean of literature of this nature routinely speaking of Gods appearing before men and disappearing or vanishing i.e. returning to the heaven. There are several instances where departed souls of one’s ancestors appear before them for a reason. They are said to be in-dwellers of Pitruloka. Bhishma in Mahabharata is said to belong to a higher Loka called Vasuloka. He was a divine being lower than the Gods of Swargaloka. And where is this Vasuloka? Purana tells us that this Brahmanda consists of 14 Lokas, 7 higher and 7 lower with our Earth at the centre. Pitruloka, Yamaloka and some others are not among these. Similarly Gandharva Loka is often mentioned not as one of the 14 wor
The Structure of the Universe (Vedic) - Viswaroopa - K. Sivananda Murty 
Preface 
2
The Puranas speak of individuals going up and down between these proximate higher worlds and the Earth is often mentioned. The individuals from these proximate higher worlds came down to the Earth either by curse or by invocation and prayers. Yudhishtira was an aspect of the Dharma Devata , Arjuna was an aspect of Indra, Bhima was an aspect of the God Vayu and Nakula and Sahadeva are an aspect of the twin Gods Ashwins. These Pandavas came down in human form by invocation and prayer. Hence the Pandavas represented the nobler and righteous aspect of the Gods. The birth of Bhishma was a result of curse on a God Vasu for misconduct. His conduct as a man on the Earth was a sad association with the evil and ending up in no noble achievements of any kind. Karna was the result of an indiscreet invocation of the Sun-God, by an immature mind of a girl. When born he was unwelcome and deserted. This caused an evil association in his life, an evil conduct and a nature that consisted of hatred and jealousy against the noble Pandavas with no provocation. Bhishma however was a highly knowledgeable being and he enlightened Yudhishtira about Dharma.
Circumstances of descent on the Earth of these superior beings made all the difference. Fundamentally, however, the beings in the superior worlds are noble. It is therefore very clear that these superior beings are closely related to the men on the Earth. The Mahabharata tells us that evil persons like Duryodhana entered the regions of Yama to suffer from their sins on earth. Another version tells us that Duryodhana ‘s soul merged into the Kalipurusha. The five sons of Pandavas are Gandharvas. Even Dhritarashtra belonged to the Gandharvaloka who was born on the Earth by Vedavyasa. Abhimanyu was an aspect of the moon God. Then the others like Drupada, Virata and others were aspects of Yaksha, Gandharva, Guhyaka etc. They left the Earth by fighting on the side of righteousness and reached their happy abodes. Draupadi was born as an aspect of Mahalakshmi from out of Yajna- fire by invocation but not from the womb of a woman-(Ayonija). She left the Earth to merge into the universal mother the Mahalakshmi. Many others like Uttara, Salya joined the Vishwedevas. Drishtadhyumna joined the God of fire Agni. The great Yadavas like Satyaki, Kritavarma etc joined the Siddha, Sadhya and the Vishwedevas. Such a detailed description of the Mahabharata shows the existence of nearby superior worlds in the northern regions of our outer space and their inter-relationship with beings on Earth. In this context there is no mention of Swargaloka, with reference to these great departed souls of the Earth. Swarga is one of the 14 major worlds of Brahmanda, long distance away.
Vedic Cosmology also describes the different worlds of Brahmanda. The texts like Purushasukta, Taittiriya Brahmana, and Satapatha Brahmana indicate the creation of the superior worlds. Prajapati is the origin personality of the creation and he is none else than the Brahma himself as a physical creative aspect. Brahma is mere thought-conceiver of the creation.

The Structure of the Universe (Vedic) - Viswaroopa - K. Sivananda Murty 
Preface - 3
About the creation there are sentences like
Veda: 
Naabhya Aaaseed Antariksham. 
Sirshno dyou 
padbhyam bhumih,
Disahasrotrat
tadhaa lokagam akalpayan. 
Thus he created the Lokas from out of his limbs. 
The Veda says
Veda: Hiranyagarbhaha samavartaagre.
There existed Hiranyagarbha at the beginning. The cosmic golden Egg was created by the Hiranyagarbha the first Prajapati. The golden egg is the Brahmanda itself inside of which the Lokas were delivered as above; the physical, elemental Earth from his feet, Antariksha from his navel region, all light from his head, and the directions from his ears. This indicates the four directions, the four sub directions and the two directions above and below which is the cosmic form, compared here to a human form. This is to indicate that the Prajapati’s form itself is the shape of the universe in the three dimensional space. It is said that having created the Universe he himself entered into it.
Veda: Tat srushtvaa tadeva anupraavishat
This simply means that the universe is fully living and dynamic in nature. The men have to understand this for realising an all pervasive truth for the sake of elevation to higher and higher consciousness. The path may consist of Vedic rituals worshipping the higher beings at various levels, through tapas or meditation on this wonderful all pervasive truth, or through Yoga in which the earth and body consciousness are left behind and the self rising to levels of higher Universal consciousness.
On a repeated reading of Puranas on this subject we find several fragments of references to the contents in the Brahmanda, relation between the earth and the higher worlds. The Puranas speak of the worlds, like Pitru, Gandharvas etc which we should identify as proximate Lokas situated south and north of the earth’s path around the Sun, much more often than references to the seven higher worlds like Swarga, Maharloka, Janoloka, Tapoloka etc. This is to say that the human souls of the earth have more to do with these proximate worlds like Vasuloka, Gandharva, Yaksha, Kinnera....... The Yama, Rakshasa, the Guhyaka lokas etc, and not directly with the higher worlds like Swarga and above. The Antariksha –the space between this cluster of Lokas at the centre of the Brahmanda and the Swargaloka above is known as the Antariksha in which there are no worlds or Lokas, but the space is occupied by a million Rudras. They are similar in form to Rudra Mahadeva.

The Structure of the Universe (Vedic) - Viswaroopa - K. Sivananda Murty 
Preface - 4
The Directions 
There is a Vedic text known as “Ghosha Shanti”. It describes an abhisheka-kriya (Worshipful bathing) addressed to the almighty Mahadeva who occupied the Universe from the lowest Patala to the end of the space above (aapaatala nabhasthalaanta...). The Astha Vasus pour the nectar on the Supreme being from the east praising Him in ‘Gayatri Chandas’. The Rudras do the abhisheka from the south praising Him in ‘Trishtup Chandas’. The Adityas or the Sun does the Abhisheka from the west chanting the praise in the ‘Jagati Chandas’. From the north Viswedevas.worship the Mahadeva praising Him in the ‘Anushtup Chandas’. High above in the Brahmanda, Brihaspati worships Him from all the directions in the ‘Pankti Chandas’. This is because far above our mid regions of our Solar system there can be no directions whatsoever. It is just an open space all round. In our region of our Solar system there are directions due to the Earth’s rotation causing apparent sunrise and sunset and there is a southern course and northern course of the Earth’s path around the Sun. The existence of various Lokas around us finds a clear mention here. In fact, references to this effect are aplenty in our literature.
Yajnas and Astronomy
Long ago in the Vedic age itself a clear identification of the Nakshatras with their limits in the Zodiac, the moments of Sun’s entry into the Nakshatras, exact moments of the beginning of Uttarayana and Dakshinayana, and many other Astronomical phenomena were known to the Aryan society. This formed the basis for their ritual calendar. Heliacal rising of Stars and Planets were correctly predicted. Auspicious moments for various Vedic rituals or for mundane activities were being fixed with precision. Most important of all, precession of Equinoxes was noticed and calculated. All this is evident from Puranic and Vedic records. Mahabharata was recorded with Astronmical particulars. Even in Ramayana description of Moon in Rohini for its brightness is mentioned for a poetic use. There is the story in the Purana that Moon married the 27 star daughters of Daksha and was partial to Rohini. This astronomical knowledge was accompanied by the Aryan’s faith and belief in the benefic and malefic nature of stars and planets and their various combinations. Thus arose a whole elaborate Astrological religion ranging from a daily ritual to month long, yearlong Yajnas etc. This is the pre-history of the Vedic religion.
Recent Literature
Researchers place Mahabharata War in and around 1500 B.C. as against its traditional placement before 3100B.C. There are reasons to believe that the truth is somewhere in between these dates. We are aware that the Vedas were spread over the Aryavarta in Rishi families and that Vedavyasa collected all of them, edited and divided them with a clear classification and then a new era began in the Aryan culture. Many oral traditions entered into books for the sake of preservation in a modern society. Earliest of them is Vedanga-Jyotisha assigned to 1300 BCE. It provided a ready calendar- form based on the mean motions of the Sun and Moon and many other astronomical phenomenon like the solstices, eclipses etc. The text contains 36 verses in essence which are important and some more verses are related to Rigveda and Yajurveda. It’s a guide for sacrifices right from Darsapoorna, Yishtis to Agnichayana and seasonal Yajnas. This era introduced mathematical devices instead of observational procedures. By this time the yuga calculations, the year cycles, prediction of eclipses etc were established. Sage Laghada was the author of Vedanga-Jyotisha . Later the Siddhanta works came up one by one and Suryasiddhanta in the 2nd century A.D. Although it is a book of astronomy, it treats with the malefic aspects of combinations like Vaidhriti etc. The Aryan knowledge of astronomy was totally religion oriented. Our Panchangas today are not work-a-day calendars but religious guides with astronomical details for the good of man on Earth vis-a-vis pleasing the higher Lokas and the Gods therein.