Heaven
Heaven, the
Heavens or Seven Heavens, is a common religious, cosmological or transcendent place from which heavenly beings originate, are enthroned or inhabit. It is commonly believed that heavenly beings can descend to earth or incarnate and that earthly beings can ascend to Heaven in the afterlife or, in exceptional cases, enter Heaven alive. Heaven is often described as a "higher place", the holiest place, a Paradise, in contrast to Hell or the Underworld or the "low places", and universally or conditionally accessible by earthly beings according to various standards of divinity, goodness, piety, faith, or other virtues or right beliefs or simply the Will of God. Some believe in the possibility of a Heaven on Earth in a World to Come. Another belief is in an Axis mundi or World tree which connects the heavens, the world, and the underworld. In Indian religions, Heaven is considered as
Svarga loka, and soul is again subjected to rebirth in different living forms according to its
karma. This cycle can be broken after a soul achieves
Moksha or
Nirvana.