English Literature – Articles ☆ Wandering the Thirty-One Worlds ☆ Shri Jagat Singh Bisht ☆

Yes, thirty-one! A rather crowded universe, isn’t it?

Now, I’ve never been to the upper heavens or the lower hells (that I recall, at least). But I’m quite delighted to be here—right in the Human World, comfortably placed at number five from the bottom. Not very glamorous, I know. But make no mistake, this is the sweet spot of the cosmos.

Down below us are some truly unfortunate neighbourhoods—the four states of woe—populated by suffering beings: hell-dwellers, hungry ghosts, jealous titans, and the animal realm. Above us lie the pleasure gardens of six sensuous heavens, overflowing with divine delights and carefree abandon.

Sounds tempting? Perhaps. But here’s the paradox of cosmic real estate: suffering makes you strive, and too much pleasure makes you… well, lazy. And striving, in the spiritual sense, is the only way out of this grand, glittering trap called samsāra—the endless merry-go-round of birth, death, and rebirth.

We humans, blessed with just enough pain to awaken us, and just enough joy to keep us from despairing, occupy a rare and precious junction. It’s the Goldilocks zone of the Buddhist cosmos—not too miserable, not too blissful—just right for the uphill climb to liberation.

Above us stretch the heavens of form and formlessness—realms of sublime meditative absorption, breathtaking in their refinement. But alas, they too are temporary. No matter how high you rise in samsāra, gravity pulls you back. The only true escape? Nibbāna—the supramundane, the unconditioned, the other shore. A place that is not a place, a silence beyond sound, a peace beyond understanding.

I sometimes catch myself fantasising—not about retirement in Goa or a cottage in the Himalayas—but about travelling across these thirty-one abodes. No visa required. No rocket ships. Just meditative calm and inner stillness. For in meditation, I find that the borders between realms begin to blur. I can wander, wonder, soar or sink—all within this tender, mysterious human form.

It is said that all these worlds are in eternal flux—rising, collapsing, reforming like soap bubbles on the sea of time. But right now, this bubble of human life is floating, and I’m marvelling at its shimmer.

Some seek heaven, some fear hell, but I, dear reader, am deeply content here and now, sipping the subtle tea of mindfulness, dreaming big, breathing gently—and whispering to myself with a smile,

“How utterly wondrous is this human birth!”