Candraloka
Candraloka · candra-loka, “the world of the Moon”
Candraloka, the world of the Moon, is in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa the loka at the end of the Pitṛyāna, the path of the fathers. The householder who worships the devas and the pitṛs with yajñas for the sake of their fruit reaches it after death, drinks amṛta there, and when his puṇya is spent is born again on the earth. Kapila teaches this to his mother Devahūti, and Nārada describes the stages of the path to Yudhishṭhira. The Ṛbhus, devatās who appear at Daksha‘s yajña, had won Candraloka by tapas.
The householder’s path
Bhagavān Śrī Kapila tells his mother of the course of a man who stays at home, keeps the dharmas of the gṛhastha-āśrama and enjoys artha and kāma, their fruit, and then performs those same dharmas again. Deluded by desires and turned away from the bhāgavata-dharma, he worships with faith the devatās and the pitṛ-devatās by yajñas. Their pūjā is his very vrata, and his mind is full of faith in them. After death he reaches Candraloka, drinks amṛta there, and when his puṇya is exhausted he is born again in Bhūloka.
Those lokas that householders earn do not last: at the end of the kalpa, when Śrī Hari lies down on the bed of Śesha, they are destroyed. Kapila sets beside them the other path. Those who want no fruit from their dharmas, free of “I” and “mine”, with a pure antaḥkaraṇa, reach the all-pervading Śrī Hari by the path of the sun.
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 32
The Pitṛyāna
Nārada tells Yudhishṭhira that the person devoted to pravṛtti, the way of works, on dying takes a subtle form made from the offerings he made in Vedic rites, and goes by the Pitṛyāna to Candraloka. The stages he reaches one by one on this path are the smoke of the homa, the night, the dark fortnight, and Candraloka, each with the devatā presiding over it.
When his puṇya is exhausted, that divine body of the jīva wanes fully, as the moon wanes at amāvāsyā. The jīva, in subtle form, comes down with the rain into plants, stays in the grain, becomes a man’s food and his seed, and through a woman is born again in this world. The Vaidika purified by the saṃskāras from garbhādhāna to the last rite follows these paths.
The sādhaka devoted to nivṛtti goes the other way, by the Devayāna: through Agni, Sūrya, the day, the evening, the bright fortnight, the full moon and the uttarāyaṇa to the Hiraṇyagarbha loka, and from there, knowing the pure ātmā as his own svarūpa, he gains moksha and is not born again. “The discerning one who, with the śāstra as his eye, knows these Pitṛyāna and Devayāna paths, which the Veda certainly teaches, is not deluded even while living in the body.”
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 7, Chapter 15
The Ṛbhus
When Satī gave up her body at Daksha‘s yajña and Rudra‘s followers took up weapons against Daksha, Bhṛgu Maharshi, the adhvaryu, offered a homa into the dakshiṇāgni with a Yajurveda mantra that destroys those who spoil a yajña. At once devatās famed as the Ṛbhus appeared. These devatās had formerly performed tapas and obtained Candraloka and a share of the soma in yajñas. Shining with brahmavarcas, they took burning sticks as weapons and drove Rudra’s followers off in every direction.
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 4
Sources
- Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 32; Skandha 4, Chapter 4; Skandha 7, Chapter 15