20100326 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 5.16.5-8

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ
 paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande
 paramānanda-mādhavam
śrī caitanya īśvaram

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 5.16.5

yo vāyaṁ dvīpaḥ kuvalaya-kamala-kośābhyantara-kośo niyuta-yojana-viśālaḥ samavartulo yathā puṣkara-patram.

yaḥ—which; vā—either; ayam—this; dvīpaḥ—island; kuvalaya—the Bhūloka; kamala-kośa—of the whorl of a lotus flower; abhyantara—inner; kośaḥ—whorl; niyuta-yojana-viśālaḥ—one million yojanas (eight million miles) wide; samavartulaḥ—equally round, or having a length and breadth of the same measurement; yathā—like; puṣkara-patram—a lotus leaf.

TRANSLATION

The planetary system known as Bhū-maṇḍala resembles a lotus flower, and its seven islands resemble the whorl of that flower. The length and breadth of the island known as Jambūdvīpa, which is situated in the middle of the whorl, are one million yojanas [eight million miles]. Jambūdvīpa is round like the leaf of a lotus flower.

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 5.16.6

yasmin nava varṣāṇi nava-yojana-sahasrāyāmāny aṣṭabhir maryādā-giribhiḥ suvibhaktāni bhavanti.

yasmin—in that Jambūdvīpa; nava—nine; varṣāṇi—divisions of land; nava-yojana-sahasra—72,000 miles in length; āyāmāni—measuring; aṣṭabhiḥ—by eight; maryādā—indicating the boundaries; giribhiḥ—by mountains; suvibhaktāni—nicely divided from one another; bhavanti—are.

TRANSLATION

In Jambūdvīpa there are nine divisions of land, each with a length of 9,000 yojanas [72,000 miles]. There are eight mountains that mark the boundaries of these divisions and separate them nicely.

PURPORT

There is a very small purport where Srila Prabhupada comments.

Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura gives the following quotation from the Vāyu Purāṇa, wherein the locations of the various mountains, beginning with the Himalayas, are described.

dhanurvat saṁsthite jñeye dve varṣe dakṣiṇottare; dīrghāṇi tatra catvāri caturasram ilāvṛtam iti dakṣiṇottare bhāratottara-kuru-varṣe catvāri kiṁpuruṣa-harivarṣa-ramyaka-hiraṇmayāni varṣāṇi nīla-niṣadhayos tiraścinībhūya samudra-praviṣṭayoḥ saṁlagnatvam aṅgīkṛtya bhadrāśva-ketumālayor api dhanur-ākṛtitvam; atas tayor dairghyata eva madhye saṅkucitatvena nava-sahasrāyāmatvam; ilāvṛtasya tu meroḥ sakāśāt catur-dikṣu nava-sahasrāyama-tvaṁ saṁbhavet vastutas tv ilāvṛta-bhadrāśva-ketumālānāṁ catus-triṁśat-sahasrāyāmatvaṁ jñeyam.

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 5.16.7

eṣāṁ madhye ilāvṛtaṁ nāmābhyantara-varṣaṁ yasya nābhyām avasthitaḥ sarvataḥ sauvarṇaḥ kula-giri-rājo merur dvīpāyāma-samunnāhaḥ karṇikā-bhūtaḥ kuvalaya-kamalasya mūrdhani dvā-triṁśat sahasra-yojana-vitato mūle ṣoḍaśa-sahasraṁ tāvat āntar-bhūmyāṁ praviṣṭaḥ.

eṣām—all these divisions of Jambūdvīpa; madhye—among; ilāvṛtam nāma—named Ilāvṛta-varṣa; abhyantara-varṣam—the inner division; yasya—of which; nābhyām—in the navel; avasthitaḥ—situated; sarvataḥ—entirely; sauvarṇaḥ—made of gold; kula-giri-rājaḥ—the most famous among famous mountains; meruḥ—Mount Meru; dvīpa-āyāma-samunnāhaḥ—whose height is the same measurement as the width of Jambūdvīpa; karṇikā-bhūtaḥ—existing as the pericarp; kuvalaya—of this planetary system; kamalasya—like a lotus flower; mūrdhani—on the top; dvā-triṁśat—thirty-two; sahasra—thousand; yojana—yojanas (eight miles each); vitataḥ—expanded; mūle—at the base; ṣoḍaśa-sahasram—sixteen thousand yojanas; tāvat—so much; āntaḥ-bhūmyām—within the earth; praviṣṭaḥ—entered.

TRANSLATION

Amidst these divisions, or varṣas, is the varṣa named Ilāvṛta, which is situated in the middle of the whorl of the lotus. Within Ilāvṛta-varṣa is Sumeru Mountain, which is made of gold. Sumeru Mountain is like the pericarp of the lotuslike Bhū-maṇḍala planetary system. The mountain's height is the same as the width of Jambūdvīpa—or, in other words, 100,000 yojanas [800,000 miles]. Of that, 16,000 yojanas [128,000 miles] are within the earth, and therefore the mountain's height above the earth is 84,000 yojanas [672,000 miles]. The mountain's width is 32,000 yojanas [256,000 miles] at its summit and 16,000 yojanas at its base.

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 5.16.8

uttarottareṇelāvṛtaṁ nīlaḥ śvetaḥ śṛṅgavān iti trayo ramyaka-hiraṇmaya-kurūṇāṁ varṣāṇāṁ maryādā-girayaḥ prāg-āyatā ubhayataḥ kṣārodāvadhayo dvi-sahasra-pṛthava ekaikaśaḥ pūrvasmāt pūrvasmād uttara uttaro daśāṁśādhikāṁśena dairghya eva hrasanti.

uttara-uttareṇa ilāvṛtam—further and further north of Ilāvṛta-varṣa; nīlaḥ—Nīla; śvetaḥ—Śveta; śṛṅgavān—Śṛṅgavān; iti—thus; trayaḥ—three mountains; ramyaka—Ramyaka; hiraṇmaya—Hiraṇmaya; kurūṇām—of the Kuru division; varṣāṇām—of the varṣas; maryādā-girayaḥ—the mountains marking the borders; prāk-āyatāḥ—extended on the eastern side; ubhayataḥ—to the east and the west; kṣāroda—the ocean of salt water; avadhayaḥ—extending to; dvi-sahasra-pṛthavaḥ—which are two thousand yojanas wide; eka-ekaśaḥ—one after another; pūrvasmāt—than the former; pūrvasmāt—than the former; uttaraḥ—further north; uttaraḥ—further north; daśa-aṁśa-adhika-aṁśena—by one tenth of the former; dairghyaḥ—in length; eva—indeed; hrasanti—become shorter.

TRANSLATION

Just north of Ilāvṛta-varṣa—and going further northward, one after another—are three mountains named Nīla, Śveta and Śṛṅgavān. These mark the borders of the three varṣas named Ramyaka, Hiraṇmaya and Kuru and separate them from one another. The width of these mountains is 2,000 yojanas [16,000 miles]. Lengthwise, they extend east and west to the beaches of the ocean of salt water. Going from south to north, the length of each mountain is one tenth shorter than that of the previous mountain, but the height of them all is the same.

PURPORT

In this regard, Madhvācārya quotes the following verses from the Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa:

yathā bhāgavate tūktaṁ
bhauvanaṁ kośa-lakṣaṇam
tasyāvirodhato yojyam
anya-granthāntare sthitam

maṇḍode puraṇaṁ caiva
vyatyāsaṁ kṣīra-sāgare
rāhu-soma-ravīṇāṁ ca
maṇḍalād dvi-guṇoktitām

vinaiva sarvam unneyaṁ

yojanābhedato 'tra tu

It appears from these verses that aside from the sun and moon, there is an invisible planet called Rāhu. The movements of Rāhu cause both solar and lunar eclipses. We suggest that the modern expeditions attempting to reach the moon are mistakenly going to Rāhu.

Guru Maharaja:

Hari Om Tatsat.

So, this is a very technical verse of the Bhagavatam where it is describing the universe. Every purana has a different section, and one of the sections is the description of the universe.

Srila Prabhupada wanted some of his disciples to decipher the sutras, and to give a commentary based on the modern scientific observations. So, this is also a part of the Temple of Vedic planetarium.

So, I didn’t analyze all the different study… I know Danavira Maharaja, he did a study, I didn’t analyze that. I was… saw the books while he was living. He told me that his observations, if he swallow this so called islands, the… and you understood that the somehow all the planets are approaching more or less on the same line, some like the atom where they … they appear in the sixty degree, they all go in the same line, and that distance between each ring or each average orbit is within half of a cent of the modern scientific explanation, considering that Sukhadeva Goswami just telling you know approximately… measurements. He said, it is quite scientifically acceptable. So, we have within half of percent range. So, he was convinced that this was a very scientific explanation of the universe, of the solar system. In any case, this is not easy topic, and a number of people have been researching and trying to equate it with the modern scientist observations. Some doubts were raised by Srila Prabhupada. At that time he would freely ask us, what if they really went to the moon or not. And like he didn’t want us to blindly accept anything that was said in the newspapers, because we don’t know for sure whether they joined the troop.

It is quite interesting that recently the previous president, Mr. Bush, he said, “In ten years we will go back to the moon.” So, if you already went one time, why do you need to take ten years to go back again? It is kind of a mystery. And some people say that there was a whole conspiracy done between Russia and America… that they went to the moon. Because no one else could figure out at that time they went or didn’t go. So, I remember in 1968, 69, we saw one newspaper in … it was in French language, in Montreal, and they showed how the astronomers are swating something. So, they blew up the photographs and showed there was a fly there. Now how could a fly be in the moon? So, they are saying that it was a shot taken in some desert in Arizona or somewhere.

In any case, we don’t know for sure, we just hear, like now they told us that Saddam Hussain had dangerous weapons of destruction which will all end the Unites States. So, they had no choice but to attack. Later they never found the weapons, and then they came. So, you don’t know really what you… what is the truth.

So, Bhaktisiddhantha Saraswati Thakura, I don’t know why told the story here. He said how ten people’s conspiracy turned Bhagavan into a ghost. Das chakre bhagavan bhut. Did you hear that? Did I tell you?

So, there was one … there was a king, Narasimha Maharaja, and he had a friend who was a brahmana. His name was Bhagavan Pandita. So, this Bhagavan Pandita, he would tell the king always the truth, watch out for this, watch out for that. He was a real friend of the King. So, one day the ministers said, “Call a secret meeting.” and the minister said, “…20.30… on the king, we can’t steal all the money. So, let’s get rid of this guy.” So, they told all the guards, don’t let Bhagavan Pandita in. And then they had a decision. They would tell the king, “Bhagavan Pandita was dead.” So, Bhagavan came to the door as usual, but the guards said, “No, you can’t come in.” “why not.” “We don’t know, but we have order.”

“I am the friend of the king.”

No, sorry can’t enter.

So, he went through all the doors, he was kept out every door.

So, the king said, Where is my friend Bhagavan Pandita?

O he had sudden heart failure and he died.

But he was healthy. He was…

Oh you know how these things are, sometimes some attack happens. So, he called his doctor, “I want you to find out what is the situation of the Bhagavan Pandita. Is he dead or did he die?

So, the ministers called the physician over, “if you tell the king he is dead, we will give you five thousand gold coins, if you tell him he is alive, we will kill you. You take your choice.” So, he decided, “ok, I will take the 5000 gold coins.” So, he came back to the king and said, “oh yea, a sudden, sudden, sudden death…”

“So, his widow some money.”

Like that, so Bhagavan Pandita was not allowed to enter and the ministers were enjoying like anything, robbing the king, robbing the kingdom. And so… but of course Bhagavan Pandita knew, once a… one day in a year the king would go out and see the citizens. So, he tried to… but the ministers were aware that he would try to see the king. So, they kept him away. They kept the guards to keep him away.

Then he climbed up on a tree, and he said, “Maharaja, Maharaja, it is your friend Bhagavan Pandita here, I am alive.” And the king looked,. “There is bhagavan….

The ministers were very fast taking him, and said, “Maharaja, let’s go the other way, it is the ghost of Bhagavan Pandit.”

“Oh, the ghost, oh yea.”

So, like this the conspiracy of ten turned Bhagavan to a ghost. Das chakre bhagavan bhuta. So, like that the moral of the story is, if all the newspare, if the government wants to tell some true… false through the news papers, and all newspapers tell us one thing, we tend to believe it. They can turn bhagavan to ghost, they can turn a trip to somewhere out of space to the moon, we don’t know. So, sometimes Prabhupada would say, “Look at the moon. How brilliant the light is, and they show some dark rock. Ah such a dark rock is reflecting so much.” Like that the case he will break up… but that tells us … he said, “How did he go?” He gave us to think, whether they went or not. At the same time, he wanted to use the fifth canto for … this was … Bhagavatam was giving a reliable description of observable reality. So, if the scientists can accept, “ok, that the Bhagavatam descriptions of the observable reality are true, then maybe that will be easier to accept, that which they cannot observe.

So, this was one of Prabhupada’s tactics or strategies to reach the mass of people, to reach the scientists.

It mentions about the mount Meru. The mount Meru at some time, there is a history that the devas were hiding in the cave in Mount Meru. At that time the Shankachura, he was looking for him, because he had some special boon that he could defeat devas. So, he wanted to fight them, but they didn’t … defeated by them. So, they hid in a cave. So, then he decided, I can go to the Satya Loka, and I would kill, I would destroy the personified Vedas. In this way I will devas powerless, the angels are powerless without the Vedas. So, I will destroy the Vedas… when he reached Satya Loka, the Vedas had got information that he was coming to destroy them. So, they ran, pursued them. He chased them. So, like this they entered into the water, and he had entered after them looking at them.

Now he didn’t know that they had dissolved themselves. Instead he thought, “these are hiding in some valley.” So, the ocean has got mountains and valleys, and all kinds of nook and corners. There is also much of the area covered by water. Covered … dry. So, the devas knew that he was long time looking for the Vedas, he don’t find them. So, they took a chance, they went over by the side of the ksirodaksyayi, the milk ocean. And they wanted to pray to Lord Vsnu, but they thought that now he is sleeping. So, he abruptly disturbed him. He may not be happy. So, let’s wake him chanting his holy name. So, he began to chant.

Hare Krsna Hare Krsna

Krsna Krsna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama

Rama Rama Hare Hare Hare … [repeated by devotees]

So, Lord Vsnu, he was so pleased that the devas were all chanting and dancing Hare Krsna, that he said, this day, on this tithi, on this masha, this month, this day, anyone who chants my holy names, anyone who does some bhakti yoga, they will get hundred times the benefit. So, that tithi was Ekadashi, which today is Ekadashi, and the month was Damodara, Kartikaya.

So, in the Kartikaya month you offer lamps and do some special things, and today on Ekadashi, this is known also as Harivasara, the day of Hari. So, that came from this pastime. So, somehow there it was mentioned, today is Ekadashi. So, I am remembering.

I came here, I was thinking I wanted to share some pastimes. I was asked by Srila Prabhupada to come to Canada, to Los Angeles. At that time, it was 1970. I think you have this temple in 1970. At that time also we would make our report to the small deities, they would come up. I think… I wish I have a memory of them coming… between this building and the next building. And we would… they would push us forward, and one by one we had to stand in front of the deity, and they got report.

So, this was unforgettable experience to actually have to go in front of the deity and make a report. So, you say what you did in the previous week to the deity, what you are going to do the next week. So, like this, that was a regular thing. I don’t know if there is anymore, but that was a regular thing we had, at least from 19, and then I went upstairs to see Prabhupada, and at first he said, “I want to send you to India, I want you to join Achyutananda Das Brahmachari. But I am waiting for him to get his own place.” So, and then he… I couldn’t understand… see, at that time, Devananda Dasa was his secretary, and he said, I think your godbrother are envious. I thought, how can my godbrothers… after they are godbrothers, how could he possibly be envious?

But he said, Prabhupada said, “Anyway, whatever is between me and my godbrothers is our thing, you have nothing to come and involved. So, I thought, “Oh! I don’t know about anything that was going on. Of course no comment. They are guru… they have some special …33.13… with our spiritual master. They were all …(inaudible) you can say that. But anyway, like that I was meeting Prabhupada in his room. And then he told me to go to Chicago and help Bhagavan Das to open the Chicago temple, and he would call me when I was …33.35… to go to India. So, I went to old town, and to Chicago. On the way we had a car accident. Normal things. And they got the call from Garga Muni. He said, Prabhupada wants you in India. Ok… and….you raise that, you are back to Canada, you got friends, you raise the money,

Jai Garga Muni ki…

So, I found there, I didn’t have much money. So, I have to cheat this airlines. I... from Hamilton to London, and then to Luxemburg to Bombay by Brothers airlines. It was a …34.35… aircraft, it was … three brothers, Yusuf Ali and Mohammad… his brother used a propeller plane from the second world war, they forgot to put any aircrusher in it. But that was the… it stopped from Luxemburg to Rome, Rome to Cairo, Cairo to Karachi, Karachi to Aiden, and then to Bombay. So, … I think that one of the three brothers was the stewardess, the steward… he had a beard. It was a hundred and forty dollars, cheap. But it was a … never again.

So, anyway, I spend a little time with Prabhupada in Los Angeles, and he went for morning walk. One day, don’t know how the church was on the backyard. And … said stop… He said, one day our temple will be like that. Our temples…that there will be many people living around, and a few people living in the temple. But on Sundays and holidays more people will come.

Now the minister of congregation development, our co-minister. But at that time I don’t know why Prabhupada taught me that there will be so many people in our congregation in the future. But the fw people relatively speaking living in the temple. So, like that we had some association here with Srila Prabhupada. I didn’t visit many temples in U.S.A, but San Francisco I joined, then I went to New York, and Montreal three temples in Iskcon. I visited all the temples. Now I cannot visit all the temples. Even when most of the time I travel, it is very difficult to visit all the five hundred temples, in Mongolia and Papo new gini, there are so many temples. So, it is hard to visit all the temples, what to speak of the underground temples in countries like … shouldn’t mention.

One thing is, we saw one of the B.B.T trustees gave a book to show the… new books the B.B.T had published to Prabhupada, and Prabhupada looked at the books and he started to cry. He said, “O, how pleased my Gurudeva would be to see these books in this new languages.”

So, here also New Dwaraka is the seat of the… Subhash Prabhu is also the B.B.T truste, also he is doing such a service. And I can tell you, I personally saw Prabhupada was so pleased with B.B.T, he is so pleased that they published new books. And since he has also the English language, this is a very important place. Of course, English language, most of the books are already translated, but they keep managing to come up with the new books. So, all the different languages… this was very pleasing to Srila Prabhupada. Prabhupada taught us that he wanted to please the previous Acharyas. That was the secret of success for spiritual life. So, today the disciples are observing the Vyasa Puja. That also, all the worship has really been for Prabhupada and previous Acharyas. We will pass it up to them. Because by that mercy if anyone has benefited through me, it is only by that mercy.

And we take this opportunity to request Prabhupada and the … Presdient, and the previous Acharyas. That way we should accept any worship that is offered to me as a representative.

I am told that in New Orleans and other places in North America, South America and different places of the world, there is live broadcast, in the L.A live, or JPS … so, I will give…it mentions… my desire is simply that… Prabhupada said, the way you can show how much you love me is how well you cooperate. To cooperate with the local authorities and to cooperate with the G.B.C, to cooperate with each other, with all your cousin brothers and sisters, brothers and sisters. In this way, try to show Prabhupada how much you love him, because by Prabhupada’s mercy we have all got Krsna consciousness. Without his mercy, you know… like he had faced a lot of obstacles. I heard from Brahmananda Das and others how in 1967 he suffered a stroke. And he was paralyzed from the neck down, and still his head was working. So, he was speaking to him non-stop about Krsna. By Krsna’s mercy, by 1968 he was normal already.

Now I have a first-hand experience. I know that, to some small percent, what a stroke it is like. It is very difficult. And I wasn’t paralyzed, I had just called Parasys, which means weak but not paralyzed. So, Prabhupada, he had so many difficulties, that we know like crossing the ocean and that. We may not be aware of, like the stroke and other things.

Just to give us Krsna consciousness… we should all be very much grateful to Srila Prabhupada, and we should stay united. Prabhupada wanted that we should all be in Iskcon. We should be… whatever it is, there is the British saying. I don’t know the exact wordings but something like whatever you are, your country… like that. So, wherever ISKCON is, like one time someone may say, well, if you see other preachers from others parts to Vrndavana, they speak very flowery language, very nice…