Distinction between Bhava vs Jati

[Adutiya]

Venerable Sujato defines bhava here:

What is Bhava (becoming)?

The basic meaning of bhava is “existence” or “life”. “Becoming” is an incorrect translation, as bhava is a countable noun, eg. a stream-enterer “does not take an eighth existence”, i.e. they are only reborn seven times at most. In its straightforward usage, bhava means “existence” or “life” in the sense of “in my past life I was Cleopatra”. But it has a more philosophical sense: we exist now, and will continue to exist in the future. So there is a continuity of “existence” which manifests as p…

Dhammanando covers jati here:

On destiny and birth (Jati and Gati)

One’s jāti is one’s going to (or arising in) a new place after death. One’s gati is the place to which one goes. Jātis are twofold: superior (ukkaṭṭha) and inferior (hīna). Gatis are also twofold: good places (sugati) and bad places (duggati). Birth in a sugati is an ukkaṭṭhā jāti. Birth in a duggati is a hīnā jāti. When the gatis are listed as fivefold, the first two are sugatis: the world of gods (devaloka) and the world of humans (manussaloka). The next three are duggatis: the domain o…