One who is promoted to the higher planetary systems enjoys a longer duration of life and better facilities for sense enjoyment, yet one is not allowed to stay there forever.
(Bhagavad-Gita------9:21------purport).

The universe is divided into fourteen planetary systems. Seven planetary systems, called Bhūr, Bhuvar, Svar, Mahar, Janas, Tapas and Satya, are upward planetary systems, one above the other. There are also seven planetary systems downward, known as Atala, Vitala, Sutala, Talātala, Mahātala, Rasātala and Pātāla, gradually, one below the other. In this verse, the description begins from the bottom because it is in the line of devotion that the Lord's bodily description should begin from His feet. Śukadeva Gosvāmī is a recognized devotee of the Lord, and he is exactly correct in the description.
(Srimad Bhagavatam------2:1:26------purport).

There are fourteen spheres of planetary systems within this universe. The lower systems are called Bhūrloka, the middle systems are called Bhuvarloka, and thehigher planetary systems, up to Brahmaloka, the highest planetary system of the universe, are called Svarloka.
(Srimad Bhagavatam------2:5:38------purport).

In the upper planetary system the duration of one complete day and night is equal to one complete year of this earth. This is accepted even by the modern scientist and attested by the astronauts. Similarly, in the region of still higher planetary systems the duration of day and night is still greater than in the heavenly planets.
(Srimad Bhagavatam------2:10:46------purport).

On every planet, even in the higher planetary systems, including the moon and the sun, as well as on this earth, the same principles of animal life exist.
(Srimad Bhagavatam------3:17:1------purport).

There are many places on the surface of this earth which are also known in the higher planetary systems; we have places on this planet like Vṛndāvana, Dvārakā and Mathurā, but they are also eternally situated in Kṛṣṇaloka.
(Srimad Bhagavatam------3:21:25------purport).

It is stated in Bhagavad-gītā that one may elevate himself to the higher planetary systems, even up to Brahmaloka, by dint of pious activities, but when the effects of such pious activities are finished, one again comes back to this earth to begin a new life of activities. Thus even though one is promoted to the higher planetary system for enjoyment and a long duration of life, still that is not a permanent settlement.
(Srimad Bhagavatam------3:25:38------purport).

We can see that those who are situated in the mode of goodness live longer than those who are situated in the tamo-guṇa or rajo-guṇa. In other words, if one is elevated to the mode of goodness, he is elevated to a higher planetary system, where the duration of life is very great.
(Srimad Bhagavatam------4:11:16------purport).

No one can surpass the higher planets in a material body, but when one gets a spiritual body he can travel not only to the higher planetary system of this material world, but even to the still higher planetary system known as Vaikuṇṭhaloka.
(Srimad Bhagavatam------4:12:34------purport).

Due to the quality of our actions, we come to the association of the modes of material nature, and by superior arrangement we are given a chance to enjoy the fruitive results of such activities in different types of bodies. In this way, having lost sight of their destinations in life, all living entities are wandering in different species throughout the universe, sometimes getting birth in a lower species and sometimes existence in higher planetary systems; thus we are all wandering since time immemorial.
(Srimad Bhagavatam------4:21:51------purport).

Even though we elevate ourselves to the highest planetary system by the scientific advancement of knowledge or by the religious principles of life—great sacrifices and fruitive activities—at the time of dissolution these higher planetary systems and life on them will be destroyed. In this verse the words īśa-vidhvaṁsitāśiṣām indicate that all such blessings will be destroyed by the supreme controller. We will not be protected. Our bodies, either in this planet or in another planet, will be destroyed, and again we will have to remain for millions of years in an unconscious state within the body of Mahā-Viṣṇu. And again, when the creation is manifested, we have to take birth in different species of life and begin our activities. Therefore we should not be satisfied simply by a promotion to the higher planetary systems. We should try to get out of the material cosmic manifestation, go to the spiritual world and take shelter of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
(Srimad Bhagavatam------4:22:36------purport).

Therefore, one may promote himself to the higher planetary systems, which are the residence of the demigods, one can promote himself to Pitṛloka, one can remain on earth, or one can also go back home, back to Godhead. This is further confirmed elsewhere in the Bhagavad-gītā (4.9): tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti so ’rjuna. After giving up the body, one who knows Kṛṣṇa in truth does not come back again to this world to accept a material body, but he goes back home, back to Godhead. This knowledge is in the śāstras, and people should be given the opportunity to understand it. Even if one is not able to go back to Godhead in one life, the Vedic civilization at least gives one the opportunity to be promoted to the higher planetary systems, where the demigods live, and not glide down again to animal life.
(Sri Caitanya Caritamrta------1:9:43------purport).

One may aspire to elevate himself to a heavenly planet within the material world, such as the moon, the sun or Venus, but if one is spiritually advanced in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he does not wish to remain within the material universe, even in a higher planetary system. Rather, he prefers to penetrate the covering of the universe and attain the spiritual world. He can then be situated in one of the Vaikuṇṭha planets there. However, the devotees under the guidance of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu aspire to reach the topmost spiritual planet, known as Goloka Vṛndāvana, the residence of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa and His eternal associates.
(Sri Caitanya Caritamrta------2:6:230------purport).

Any living entity who forgets his eternal relationship with Kṛṣṇa is under the sway of the material condition. Bereft of the Lord's transcendental loving service, he is subjected to the reactions of fruitive activity. When he is elevated to the higher planetary systems due to worldly pious activities, he considers himself well situated, but when he is subjected to punishment, he thinks himself improperly situated. Thus material nature awards and punishes the living entity. When the living entity is materially opulent, material nature is rewarding him. When he is materially embarrassed, material nature is punishing him.
(Sri Caitanya Caritamrta------2:20:118------purport).

The ever-liberated person who works on Kṛṣṇa's behalf enjoys Lord Kṛṣṇa's company through his engagement. The ever-conditioned soul, provoked by lusty desires to enjoy the material world, is forced to transmigrate from one body to another. Sometimes he is elevated to higher planetary systems, and sometimes he is degraded to hellish planets and subjected to the tribulations of the external energy.
(Sri Caitanya Caritamrta------2:22:14-15------purport).

Due to the gross and subtle bodies, he is subjected to the threefold miseries (ādhyātmika, ādhibhautika and ādhidaivika), miseries arising from the body and mind, other living entities and natural disturbances caused by demigods from higher planetary systems. The conditioned soul subjected to the threefold material miseries is ceaselessly kicked by māyā, and this is his disease. If by chance he meets a saintly person who works on Kṛṣṇa's behalf to deliver conditioned souls, and if he agrees to abide by his order, he can gradually approach the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa.
(Sri Caitanya Caritamrta------2:22:14-15------purport).

One who has attained the ultimate summit of yoga practice can live in the body as long as he likes or, as long as he is not completely perfect, leave the body to go anywhere within or outside the universe. Some yogīs leave their bodies to go to the higher planetary systems and enjoy the material facilities therein. However, intelligent yogīs do not wish to waste their time within this material world at all; they do not care for the material facilities in higher planetary systems, but are interested in going directly to the spiritual sky, back home, back to Godhead.
From the description in this verse, it appears that Mahārāja Pṛthu had no desire to promote himself to the higher planetary systems. He wanted to return home immediately, back to Godhead. Although Mahārāja Pṛthu stopped all practice of mystic yoga after realizing Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he took advantage of his previous practice and immediately placed himself on the brahma-bhūta platform in order to accelerate his return to Godhead.
(Srimad Bhagavatam------4:23:14------purport).

Both Pṛthu Mahārāja's airplane and the airplane carrying Queen Arci were passing out of the vision of the ladies of the higher planetary systems. These ladies were simply astonished to see how Pṛthu Mahārāja and his wife achieved such an exalted position. Although they were the wives of the denizens of the higher planetary system and Pṛthu Mahārāja was an inhabitant of an inferior planetary system (the earth), the King, along with his wife, passed beyond the realms of the demigods and went upward to Vaikuṇṭhaloka. The word ūrdhvam ("upward") is significant here, for the ladies speaking were from the higher planetary systems, which include the moon, sun and Venus, up to Brahmaloka, or the highest planet.
(Srimad Bhagavatam------4:23:26------purport).

The ladies in the higher planetary systems were capable of seeing both downward and upward. When they looked down they could see that the body of Pṛthu Mahārāja was being burned and that his wife, Arci, was entering into the fire, and when they looked upward they could see how they were being carried in two airplanes to the Vaikuṇṭhalokas. All of this is possible simply by durvibhāvyena karmaṇā, inconceivable activity.
(Srimad Bhagavatam------4:23:26------purport).

If it is possible to fall down from the brahmajyoti, which is beyond the higher planetary systems in this material world, then what can be said of the ordinary yogīs and karmīs who can only be elevated to the higher material planets? Thus the wives of the denizens of the higher planetary systems did not very much appreciate the results of karma, jñāna and yoga.
(Srimad Bhagavatam------4:23:27------purport).

The purpose of Vedic study is to transcend the activities of the three modes of material nature. Of course in the material world the mode of goodness is accepted as the best, and one can be promoted to the higher planetary systems by being on the sattva-guṇa platform. However, that is not perfection. One must come to the conclusion that even the sattva-guṇa platform is also not good. One may dream that he has become a king with a good family, wife and children, but immediately at the end of that dream he comes to the conclusion that it is false. Similarly, all kinds of material happiness are undesirable for a person who wants spiritual salvation. If a person does not come to the conclusion that he has nothing to do with any kind of material happiness, he cannot come to the platform of understanding the Absolute Truth, or tattva jñāna.
(Srimad Bhagavatam------5:11:3------purport).

The material household is actually a hole of fruitive activity. To earn a livelihood one engages in different industries and trades, and sometimes one performs great sacrifices to go to higher planetary systems. Apart from this, at least everyone is engaged in earning a livelihood in some profession or occupation. In these dealings, one has to meet many undesirable people, and their behavior is compared to the biting of mosquitoes. This creates very undesirable conditions. Even in the midst of these disturbances, one imagines that he is going to construct a grand house and live there permanently, although he knows that he cannot. Gold is compared to a quickly fleeting fiend, which appears like a meteor in the sky. It displays itself for a moment and is then gone. Generally karmīs are attracted to gold or money, but these are compared herein to ghosts and witches.
(Srimad Bhagavatam------5:13:3------purport).

A conditioned soul thinks that he is working stealthily and that no one can see his sinful activities, but we can understand from the śāstras that there are many witnesses, including the sun, fire, sky, air, moon, demigods, evening, day, night, directions, water, land and the Supersoul Himself, who sits with the individual soul within his heart. Where is the dearth of witnesses? The witnesses and the Supreme Lord both exist, and therefore so many living entities are elevated to higher planetary systems or degraded to lower planetary systems, including the hellish planets. There are no discrepancies, for everything is arranged perfectly by the management of the Supreme God (svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca).
(Srimad Bhagavatam------6:1:42------purport).

The demigods are devotees of Lord Viṣṇu (viṣṇu-bhaktaḥ smṛto daiva), whereas the demons (āsuras tad-viparyayaḥ) are always against the viṣṇu-bhaktas, or Vaiṣṇavas. To oppose the Vaiṣṇavas, the demons become devotees of Lord Śiva, Lord Brahmā, Kālī, Durgā, and so on. In the days of yore, many long years ago, there was animosity between the devas and the asuras, and the same spirit still continues, for the devotees of Lord Śiva and Goddess Durgā are always envious of Vaiṣṇavas, who are devotees of Lord Viṣṇu. This strain between the devotees of Lord Śiva and Lord Viṣṇu has always existed. In the higher planetary systems, fights between the demons and the demigods continue for a long, long time.
(Srimad Bhagavatam------6:7:39------purport).

In the Brahmā Purāṇa it is said, "The transcendental significance of Puruṣottama-kṣetra, which is the eighty-square-mile field of Lord Jagannātha, cannot be properly described. Even the demigods from higher planetary systems see the inhabitants of this Jagannātha Purī as having exactly the same bodily features possessed by one in Vaikuṇṭha. That is, the demigods see the inhabitants of Jagannātha Purī as being four-handed."
(Nectar of Devotion).

In the Varāha Purāṇa there is a statement praising the seeing of the Deity of Śrī Kṛṣṇa in the temple. A devotee says there, "My dear Vasundharā, any person who goes to Vṛndāvana and sees the Deity of Govindadeva is free from the courthouse of Yamarāja and is allowed to enter into the highest planetary system, in which reside the demigods." This means that even an ordinary person who goes to Vṛndāvana out of inquisitiveness and by chance sees the temple, especially that of Govindadeva, even if he is not elevated to the spiritual kingdom, is still assured promotion to the higher planetary systems. This means that simply by visiting the Deity of Govinda in Vṛndāvana one becomes highly elevated in pious life.
(Nectar of Devotion).

As far as fruitive activities are concerned, they are mainly based on the platform of sense gratification. Therefore an advanced Kṛṣṇa conscious person does not take to them. The result of fruitive activities can elevate one to the higher planetary system, but as it is said in the Bhagavad-gītā, foolish persons, after exhausting the results of their pious activities in the heavenly kingdom, come back again to this lower planetary system and then again try to go to the higher planetary system. Their only profit is to take the trouble of going and coming back, just as at present many material scientists are spoiling their time by trying to go to the moon planet and again coming back.
(Krsna Book).

Those who are engaged in fruitive activities are described by the Vedas personified as andha-paramparā, or blind followers of the Vedic ritualistic ceremonies. Although such ceremonies are certainly mentioned in the Vedas, they are not meant for the intelligent class of men. Men who are too much attached to material enjoyment are captivated by the prospect of being elevated to the higher planetary system, and so they take to such ritualistic activities. But persons who are intelligent, who have taken shelter of a bona fide spiritual master to see things as they are, do not take to fruitive activities but engage themselves in the transcendental loving service of the Lord.
(Krsna Book).