The Bhagavatī Sūtra unfolds a vision of the cosmos as an ordered, beginningless realm called loka, finite in extent yet eternal in duration, and shaped like a standing human figure. This universe is articulated into three great vertical regions: the upper world (ūrdhva-loka), the middle world (madhya-loka), and the lower world (adho-loka). In the upper world dwell various classes of celestial beings, and at its utmost summit lies the Siddha-śilā, the fixed realm of liberated souls who exist in motionless, omniscient bliss. The middle world, the only region where spiritual practice leading to liberation is possible, contains Jambūdvīpa at its center, surrounded by concentric continents and oceans with Mount Meru as the axial mountain. The lower world consists of tiered hells, where beings experience intense suffering in accordance with their karmic bondage. Beyond this structured universe stretches aloka, infinite space devoid of embodied beings and karmic interaction, underscoring the finite yet self-contained nature of the cosmic field of bondage and liberation.

Within this spatial architecture, the text presents an intricate doctrine of beings (jīvas) and their conditions of existence. Souls are countless and eternal, classified into heavenly beings, humans, animals and plants, and hell-beings, each inhabiting realms appropriate to their karmic state. Detailed hierarchies of lifespans, capacities, and conditions of birth are linked to specific regions of the cosmos, so that geography and spiritual status mirror one another. Liberation is possible only for those beings endowed with the highest sensory and rational capacities, and the Bhagavatī Sūtra repeatedly ties ethical conduct to one’s cosmological position. The six fundamental substances (dravya)—soul, matter, motion, rest, space, and time—are presented as the ontological framework that sustains this ordered universe, with no need for a creator deity. In this way, cosmology and metaphysics are woven together into a single vision of an eternally functioning moral universe.

Time, no less than space, is portrayed as cyclical and beginningless, moving through vast ascending (utsarpiṇī) and descending (avasarpiṇī) phases. Each of these great cycles is subdivided into six eras (ārās), during which the physical, moral, and spiritual capacities of beings wax and wane. The present is situated within a declining phase, marked by diminishing spiritual potential, yet still allowing for the arising of Tīrthaṅkaras and the pursuit of liberation. Karma operates as the invisible law that binds these patterns together: actions lead to the influx, bondage, and eventual fruition of karmic matter, determining birth among gods, humans, animals, or hell-beings. The path to mokṣa is thus framed cosmologically: as karmas are exhausted through right faith, right knowledge, and right conduct, the soul rises beyond the middle and upper worlds to the Siddha-śilā, never to return. In this encyclopedic vision, the structure of the universe, the flow of time, and the destiny of the soul are inseparable aspects of a single, rigorously ordered spiritual reality.