The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (68 page)

a is the support of life. Pr
a is like the
logos
in the W., since it not only supports life, but is the creator of sound (
v
c
, see e.g.
Jaimin
ya Upani
ad Br
hma
a
8. 2. 6), and becomes equated with Brahman as creator. Thus the life-principle in humans (and other manifestations) is eventually believed to be not other than the undying Brahman—so that
tman is Brahman. Rebirth carries the soul through many appearances, so that rebirth has become an evil to be brought to an end. The many hells belong firmly within the process of rebirth, not to any eternal destiny—an understanding which is true of Eastern religions in general.
For Jains, the afterlife is mapped onto a cosmography in which the Middle World includes the part inhabited by humans. Below are a series of hells of increasing unpleasantness; above are a series of heavens of increasing brightness, including the abode of the gods. But those heavens are not the desirable state: this is the Isatpragbhara, the slightly curved (shaped somewhat like curved space in a parabola), where the
j
vas
which have ceased to be encumbered by bodies abide.
Buddhists pressed further in resisting the Hindu move toward an eternal
tman. While there is continuity of consequence through sams
ra, there is no eternal and undying subject of this process (
an
tman
). The process may move through heavens and hells, but these are no ‘abiding city’. The afterlife may involve being reborn as an animal or attaining the condition of
arhat
: between the two, many
Therav
din