Higher-Dimensional Travel In The Vertical Direction

One aspect of our interpretation of the planetary distances in Table 8 is that the vertical dimension in Vedic cosmology is more than just a third coordinate axis, as understood in ordinary geometry. It also involves a higher-dimensional aspect that goes beyond the range of our senses. We can obtain one indication of this by considering the highest destination that one can reach within this universe by traveling in this vertical direction. This is the planetary system called Satyaloka, which is the abode of Brahmā, the secondary creator of the universe.
According to the Bhāgavatam, Satyaloka is located near the top of the universal globe, in the direction of the north celestial pole. Since the earth is located near the center of this globe, this means that Satyaloka is about 2 billion miles from the earth. A spaceship traveling at 500 miles per hour (a moderate speed for a jet plane) could cover 2 billion miles in 457 years, and thus it would seem that it might be feasible for human beings to reach Satyaloka using mechanical technology.

Yet in SB 5.1.21p we read the remarkable statement that Satyaloka “is situated many millions and billions of years away.” Similarly, SB 1.9.29p states that “even attempting to reach the highest planet will take millions of years at a speed of millions of miles per hour.” And SB 2.2.23p completely rules out the possibility of going beyond Svargaloka or Janaloka by “mechanical or materialistic activities, either gross or subtle.”

SB 5.1.21 describes the abode of Brahmā as being “indescribable by the endeavor of mundane mind or words.” In the terminology adopted in this book, this means that to describe Satyaloka adequately, we would have to make use of higher-dimensional concepts that cannot be grasped by our present minds and senses. At the very least, this implies that our ordinary concepts of space and time might break down when applied to this region of the universe.

An interesting indication of the form this breakdown might take is given in the following story from the Bhāgavatam:
Taking his own daughter, Revatī, Kakudmī went to Lord Brahmā in Brahmaloka, which is transcendental to the three modes of material nature, and inquired about a husband for her. When Kakudmī arrived there, Lord Brahmā was engaged in hearing musical performances by the Gandharvas and had not a moment to talk with him. Therefore Kakudmī waited, and at the end of the musical performances … [he] submitted his long-standing desire.

After hearing his words, Lord Brahmā, who is most powerful, laughed loudly and said to Kakudmī, “O King, all those whom you may have decided within the core of your heart to accept as your son-in-law have passed away in the course of time. Twenty-seven catur-yugas have already passed. Those upon whom you may have decided are now gone, and so are their sons, grandsons, and other descendants. You cannot even hear about their names” [SB 9.3.29-32].

Here we see that when one visits Satyaloka, one experiences a transformation of time reminiscent of the time dilation of Einstein’s theory of relativity. King Kakudmī and his daughter were evidently advanced yogīs who were able to travel to Satyaloka by nonmechanical means. Although for them the trip took only a short time, when they returned to the earth they found that millions of years had passed. We may then ask, Did the distance that they traveled seem like two billion miles to them? If so, then it might also be that from our perspective the distance was billions and billions of miles. Although this is merely a conjecture, it does indicate some of the things that are possible in a universe that is ultimately inconceivable by our mundane minds. (Note, by the way, that Revatī is the name of the star Zeta Piscium, which is used as the zero point for celestial longitudes in the jyotiṣa śāstras.)

Between the earth and Satyaloka there is a standard path traversed after death by transcendentalists and highly elevated persons. This is called the uttarāyaṇa path, and it is mentioned in the Bhagavad-gītā (8.24). A more detailed description of the various stages of this path is given in the Vedānta-sūtra commentary of Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa:

(1) Archis, the Deva of light, (2) Dinam, the Deva of day, (3) Śuklapaksam, the Deva of the Bright-fortnight, (4) Uttarāyanam, the Deva of the northern progress of the sun, (5) Samvatsaram, the Deva of the year, (6) Devalokam, the world of the Devas (the same as Vāyuloka, according to some), (7) Vāyu, the world of Vāyu, (8) Ādityam, the world of the sun, (9) Chandram, the world of the moon, (10) Vidyut, the world of lightning, (11) Varuṇam, the world of water, (12) Indram, the world of Indra, (13) Prajāpati, the world of Prajāpati, or of the four-faced Brahmā [VSB, p. 729].

Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa comments that in this list, the various items refer not to landmarks on the path, but to various demigods who make arrangements for the passage of the soul (see BG 8.24p also). This indicates that higher-dimensional travel along the “vertical dimension” of the universe involves more than a simple ballistic trajectory of the kind followed by a rocket. It also involves the action of a hierarchy of beings, all of whom are inaccessible to our ordinary senses. The motion towards the north celestial pole is simply the three-dimensional aspect of this higher travel.

The descent of the Ganges River from the upper regions of the universe to the earth provides another interesting indication of the nature of travel along the vertical dimension in Vedic cosmology. According to the Bhāgavatam, the Ganges consists of water from the Kāraṇa Ocean that entered the upper portion of the universe through a hole kicked in the universal covering by Lord Vāmanadeva (SB 5.17.1). This water takes a thousand yugas to reach the planet Dhruvaloka, or the polestar, which is situated approximately 30 million miles above the sun. (Here the term yuga indicates a divya-yuga of 4,320,000 years.) Since the sun is situated vertically in the center of the universe (SB 5.20.43), this means that the Ganges covers a distance of some two billion miles in 4,320,000,000 years. Since this is a very slow rate of progress even for a very sluggish river, this may be another example of the transformation of time, and possibly of space, which occurs in the higher regions of the universe.

From Dhruvaloka the Ganges reaches the planets of the seven sages, and from there it is carried to the moon “through the spaceways of the demigods” in billions of celestial airplanes. From the moon it falls down (nipatati) to the top of Mount Meru, where it divides into four branches. Finally, one of these branches becomes the Ganges of India (SB 5.17.3-9).
Since the moon is continuously moving in its orbit, it is hard to see how the top of Mount Meru could always be directly underneath it in an ordinary geometric sense. It therefore seems that the descent of the Ganges from the moon to Mount Meru must involve physical principles that are presently unknown. Of course, as we have already pointed out, the final appearance of the Ganges in India also requires such principles, since we certainly do not see its descent from a higher region of the universe.

Thus our conclusion is that if we take the description of the descent of the Ganges seriously, then we must be prepared to view it in the context of principles that go beyond the framework of our familiar physical theories. We suggest that although these principles are not explicitly explained in the Bhāgavatam and other Vedic texts in Western terms, they are nonetheless employed in these works in a consistent way. One example of this is Śrīla Prabhupāda’s statement in Light of the Bhāgavata that “one has to cross Mānasa Lake and then Sumeru Mountain, and only then can one trace out the orbit of the moon” (LB, p. 48). This statement is consistent with one idea that emerges from the story of the Ganges: In some higher dimensional sense, the route from the earth to the moon passes through the region of Mount Meru in Jambūdvīpa.

In SB 5.23.5 the celestial Ganges is identified with the Milky Way, and in SB 2.2.24 it is said that the Milky Way is a pathway that mystics follow through the heavens on their way to Satyaloka. It is interesting to note that similar ideas have traditionally been held in cultures around the world. Thus, both the Polynesians and various American Indian tribes maintained that the Milky Way is a pathway to heaven followed by the souls of the departed, and they also held that those souls who were not perfectly pure would eventually have to return to the earth (HM, p. 243).

The ancient Egyptians apparently regarded the Nile as an earthly continuation of the Milky Way (HM, p. 260), an idea they may have imported from an original homeland in India. (Śrīla Prabhupāda indicates in SB 2.7.22p that according to the Mahābhārata, the kings of ancient Egypt were driven there from India by Paraśurāma.)
The Chinese also had the idea that the Milky Way is a celestial river that descends to the earth. Their account is as follows: “The celestial river divides into two branches near the North Pole and goes from there to the South Pole. One of its arms passes by the lunar mansion Nan-teou (lambda Sagittarii), and the other by the lunar mansion Toung-tsing (Gemini). The river is the celestial water, flowing across the heavens and falling under the earth” (HM, p. 260).