Upper Graiveyaka

Graiveyaka means neck, and these nine abodes sit at the throat of the cosmic figure. They are grouped in three triads of three; this is the upper one.

Hierarchy stops here. There is no Indra, no rank, no council and no retinue. Every god in the Graiveyaka is called ahamindra, I-am-Indra, because each is sovereign and none serves another.

Desire stops too. Where the kalpa gods still take satisfaction through body, touch, sight, sound or thought, these have none of it. The whole scheme of pravīcāra ends below them.

A soul can reach the Graiveyaka on the strength of severe austerity alone, without right belief. This is one of the tradition's sharpest points: extreme discipline can carry a soul incapable of liberation almost to the roof of the universe, and it still gets no further.