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Ten crore-crore palyopama

Sāgaropama

सागरोपम

The ocean-comparison. Ten crore-crore palyopama, and the working unit of the whole cosmos.

Ten koṭākoṭi, which is ten times a crore of crores, or 10¹⁵ Palyopama. If the palyopama is a pit, the sāgaropama is an ocean, and the naming is deliberate.

Almost every large figure in this atlas is in these units. The gods of Saudharma live two sāgaropama and those of Sarvārthasiddhi thirty-three; the beings of the seventh hell also thirty-three. A spoke of the wheel of time runs to crore-crore sāgaropama.

Because the palyopama is itself uncountable, so is this. Multiplying an uncountable quantity by 10¹⁵ does not make it countable; it just places it further out. Every one of those lifespans is a real, finite, bounded span that no arithmetic will ever reach.

10⁻¹² y10⁻⁹ y10⁻⁶ y10⁻³ y10⁰ yĀvalikā≈ 1 / 5,800 secondKṣullaka bhava≈ 1 / 23 second · the shortest life there isPrāṇa · one breath≈ 0.76 second · 3,773 per muhūrtaStoka7 breaths · ≈ 5.3 secondsLava7 stoka · ≈ 37 secondsMuhūrta77 lava · 48 minutesAhorātra · a day30 muhūrtaMāsa · a month2 pakṣa · 30 daysVarṣa · a year12 monthsSamayaindivisible · no number can be put to it17 lives in one breath.The shortest life a being can hold is 256 āvalikā,about a twenty-third of a second.a human life≈ 80 yearsall recorded history≈ 5,000 yearsthe age of the universe≈ 1.38 × 10¹⁰ yearsPūrvāṅga · 84,00,000 yearsPūrva≈ 5,000 × the age of the universe7.056 × 10¹³ yTruṭita4.98 × 10²⁷ yAḍaḍa3.51 × 10⁴¹ yAvava2.48 × 10⁵⁵ yHūhūka1.75 × 10⁶⁹ yUtpala1.23 × 10⁸³ yPadma8.71 × 10⁹⁶ yNalina6.14 × 10¹¹⁰ yArthanipūra4.34 × 10¹²⁴ yAyuta3.06 × 10¹³⁸ yNayuta2.16 × 10¹⁵² yPrayuta1.52 × 10¹⁶⁶ yCūlikā1.08 × 10¹⁸⁰ yŚīrṣaprahelikāa number of 194 digits · counting stops here7.58 × 10¹⁹³ yPudgala parāvartainfinite wheels of timeSāgaropama10 crore-crore palyopamaPalyopamaa pit of hair, emptiedpast counting — measured by analogybelow a year · fixed, countable stepsa year and above · every step × 84,00,000→ time is measured only in the human world→ is time a substance? the traditions differ
The units of time — Sāgaropama highlighted

Measurements and counts

Size10 koṭākoṭi palyopama
In figures10¹⁵ palyopama
Name meansocean-comparison
Lowest heaven2 sāgaropama
Highest heaven33 sāgaropama
Deepest hell33 sāgaropama
One half-cycle10 koṭākoṭi sāgaropama

Connected

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समयं गोयम! मा पमायए

Do not be heedless, Gautama, for even a single samaya.

Uttarādhyayana Sūtra 10