Janaloka
Janaloka · jana-loka, “the world of the people”
Janaloka is one of the upper lokas (worlds), named in the Vāmana Purāṇa after Bhuvarloka, Svarloka and Maharloka and before Tapoloka. Bhagavān Vāmana tells Bharadvāja Maharshi that in Janaloka he dwells in the form of Kapila-deva. When Bhagavān Vishṇu took his cosmic form at the yajña of Bali, the first half of his second step covered Janaloka together with Svarga, Maharloka and Tapoloka.
Bhagavān Vishṇu as Kapila-deva in Janaloka
After his upanayana, Bhagavān Vāmana told Bharadvāja Maharshi that he would go to Kurukshetra, where Bali was performing the aśvamedha yajña by the power of the tejas-aṃśas, the portions of Vāmana’s own splendour. Bharadvāja asked where these portions abide, and Vāmana named the places of his forms (vibhūti-sthānas) on earth, in the lower worlds, in the upper lokas and in the seven dvīpas.
Of the upper lokas he said: in Bhuvarloka, “I am Garuḍa“; in Svarloka, “I am Vishṇu, the imperishable”; in Maharloka, “I am Agastya“; in Janaloka, “I am Kapila-deva”; in Tapoloka he abides in forms joined with all speech and truth; and in the seventh loka he is established in the form of Brahmā.
All these places, Bhagavān Vāmana said, are eternal, ancient and holy. They give dharma, they are full of tejas, they destroy pāpa, and they are always to be praised. Devas, humans and sādhyas who practise darśana (seeing), sparśana (touching), kīrtana (praising) and smaraṇa (remembering) of the devatās in these places attain all four purushārthas: dharma, artha, kāma and moksha. “This is certain.”
Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 62–63
The second step of Bhagavān Vāmana
At Bali‘s yajñaśālā, as soon as the water of the gift fell on his hand, Bhagavān Vāmana took a many-formed form made of the whole world, to occupy the three worlds. With one step he occupied the whole earth, full of moving and unmoving beings. With the first half of his second step he covered Svarga, Maharloka, Janaloka and Tapoloka; with the remaining half, Vairāja; and with the remaining middle part, the sky. Filling the endless space between, he broke the shell of the brahmāṇḍa and stretched his foot into the world of thick darkness beyond, and stood there as the Virāṭ Purusha.
Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 65
Sources
- Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 62–63, 65