Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 5.23.1
↗Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
My note
Source: vedabase.io
P - Planetary Systems (20-26) Sukadeva Goswami offered further details of the universe – the seven oceans and seven islands they surround, Lord Brahma’s lotus flower, the sun’s movements, the planetary orbits, the Sisumara planetary systems and Lord Anantadeva. He concluded by giving a vivid description of the hellish planets which facilitate a variety of torturous experiences to reengineer the consciousness of the wayward souls.
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P - Planetary Systems (20-26) Sukadeva Goswami offered further details of the universe – the seven oceans and seven islands they surround, Lord Brahma’s lotus flower, the sun’s movements, the planetary orbits, the Sisumara planetary systems and Lord Anantadeva. He concluded by giving a vivid description of the hellish planets which facilitate a variety of torturous experiences to reengineer the consciousness of the wayward souls.
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P - Planetary Systems (20-26) Hellish Planets Chapter 26 To rectify the sinful mentality of deviant living entities, Krishna subjects them to punishment and suffering in one of the twenty-eight hellish planets situated below Patala. For every destructive activity, there is a particular reaction that one is subjected to. While the graphic descriptions may seem harsh, such experiences are sometimes required to jolt a change in consciousness. On the other hand, those who adhere to religious life are elevated to higher planetary systems where the demigods reside. In due course, once their pious credits have been exhausted, they return to this earthly realm. Sukadeva Goswami finally described the Universal Form of the Lord and glorified the Lord’s activities.
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P - Planetary Systems (20-26) Lord Anantadeva Chapter 25 Lord Ananta, whose body is completely spiritual, resides at the root of the planet Patala. He remains in the core of Lord Siva’s heart, helping him to destroy the universes as required. He is the original deity of material consciousness, and because He attracts all living entities, He is also known as Sankarsana. The entire material world rests upon His hoods. Because Lord Sankarsana is an expansion of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, many devotees offer Him prayers, and in the planetary system of Patala, all the suras , asuras , Gandharvas, Vidyadharas and learned sages offer Him their respectful obeisances.
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P - Planetary Systems (20-26) Movements of the Sun Chapter 21 The sun is not stationary, but rather rotates on the sun-god’s chariot which is drawn by seven horses. Its movements determine the duration of night and day. When moving northwards above the equator, the sun moves slowly during the day and quickly at night, thus creating a longer daytime and shorter nighttime. The opposite is true when the sun travels south of the equator. 60,000 sages, the Valikhilyas, worship the sun-god with beautiful prayers.
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P - Planetary Systems (20-26) Orbits of the Planets and Sisumara Chapter 22, 23 The various configurations of the moon and other planets have positive and negative influences on living beings. This is what we commonly call the ‘influence of the stars.’ The sun rotates through the time circle of the zodiac, represented by twelve astrological signs, and assumes different names according to the sign it is in. Dhruvaloka, awarded to the exalted Dhruva Maharaja, continues to exist even when the universe is partially destroyed. It is recognised as the polestar and Lord Vishnu’s abode within this universe. Situated above the seven stars, it acts as a central pivot around which all the planetary systems revolve, impelled by eternal time. In Dhruvaloka are the planets of Agni, Indra, Prajapati, Kasyapa and Dharma, all of whom are very respectful to the great devotee Dhruva. Those who worship the Universal Form of the Lord ( virat-purusa ) conceive of this entire rotating system of planets as a dolphin-like animal known as sisumara . To concentrate their minds, yogis worship the Sisumara planetary system, which is technically known as the kundalini-cakra .
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P - Planetary Systems (20-26) Six Islands Chapter 20 Having described Jambudvipa, Sukadeva Goswami next described the other six islands that make up Bhu-mandala. The first five of these islands have seven varsas , while the final island (Puskaradvipa) has two varsas . Jambudvipa, described previously, has nine varsas . The original rulers of these dvipas were the sons of Priyavrata, and the islands were named after them. At the periphery of Bhu-mandala are the famous Lokaloka mountain ranges. Sukadeva Goswami thus described the entire structure of Bhu-Mandala.
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P - Planetary Systems (20-26) Subterranean Heavens Chapter 24 Rahu, which is situated below the sun and moon, often conceals them and causes total or partial eclipses to occur. Below Rahu are the planets of the Siddhas, Charanas and Vidyadharas, and below these are planets such as Yaksaloka and Raksaloka. Below these planets is the earth, and below the earth are the lower planetary systems - Atala, Vitala, Sutala, Talatala, Mahatala, Rasatala and Patala. These are known as bila-svarga , or subterranean heavens (there are also earthly heavens, bhauma-svarga , and celestial heavens, divya-svarga ). Demons and Raksasas live in these lower planetary systems with their associates, always engaged in sense gratification and oblivious to the suffering awaiting them in their future births.
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P - Planetary Systems (20-26) Universal Map “One should understand the nature of karma, vikarma and akarma , and one must act accordingly. This is the law of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The conditioned souls, who have come to this material world for sense gratification, are allowed to enjoy their senses under certain regulative principles. If they violate these regulations, they are judged and punished by Yamaraja. He brings them to the hellish planets and properly chastises them to bring them back to Krishna consciousness. By the influence of maya , however, the conditioned souls remain infatuated with the mode of ignorance. Thus, in spite of repeated punishment by Yamaraja, they do not come to their senses, but continue to live within the material condition, committing sinful activities again and again.” (SB 5.26.6) Many people wonder whether heaven and hell are mythological concepts fabricated by religious storytellers. Fear and reward, after all, are powerful tools to coax people into a certain way of living. Such ideas, for example, may encourage people to lead moral lives in the hope of attaining heaven after death. Interestingly, however, we can perceive heaven and hell even on this planet we live in. In front of our eyes, we see that such disparity indeed exists - from abject poverty to extreme luxury. Why shouldn’t a similar disparity exist within the universe? Srimad-Bhagavatam is aimed at ushering us into the spiritual world which is beautifully described in Canto Ten. To attain that supreme destination, we must know the nature and mechanics of the world we are currently residing in. The material world consists of upper, middle and lower sections, totalling fourteen levels of planetary systems with different standards of life and durations of existence. Yoga systems elevate one up the material universes, and ultimately beyond, while neglect of such spiritual guidance will cause the living entity to degrade to lower statuses of life. Srila Prabhupada compared the material world to a prison where the criminals occupy various grades of cells. Depending on the severity of the crime, the criminal is put into a certain cell – the most unpleasant cells are reserved for the harshest crimes. Similarly, this universe acts like a prisonhouse where the rebellious souls are sent for consciousness purification. Depending on our past activities, we are put into a certain living condition where we enjoy or suffer the results of our acts. For extremely pious acts, we are sent to heaven to enjoy godly delights. For sinful acts, we glide into hellish situations to painful rectification.
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P - Planetary Systems (20-26) Universal Map Higher Planets The happiness and pleasures experienced by the denizens of heaven are immensely superior to those found on earth. The chief of the administrative demigods, Indra, is the king of heaven. Indraloka, the planet where Indra resides, has gardens where one can associate with beautiful, angelic personalities and enjoy a profuse supply of soma-rasa , a celestial intoxicant. There are magnificent palaces, beautiful landscapes and endless gardens with aromatic flowers. In contrast to the heavenly planets, the sense enjoyment on earth is insignificant and is experienced on an extremely gross level. The term deathless, amara , is often used to describe the residents of the heavenly planets because their span of life is inconceivably long. Although they live for millions of years by our calculation, none within the material worlds can live there eternally.
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P - Planetary Systems (20-26) Universal Map Lower Planets (Hells) Beneath the planet Patalaloka, and slightly above the water of the Garbhodaka Ocean, are the Narakalokas, or the hellish planetary systems. The 28 planets offer different degrees of suffering for those who must endure life there. Here on earth we can see many hellish circumstances of suffering for people, but nothing like what is experienced on these planets. They are said to be a place of rectification for those who commit the most abominable actions while living as humans on the earthly plane. Although life here seems like it goes on for an eternity, in actuality the duration of one’s ‘karmic sentence’ here may be only seconds or moments.
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P - Planetary Systems (20-26) Universal Map Lower Planets (Subterranean Heavens) Below the earth are seven other systems called Atala, Vitala, Sutala, Talatala, Mahatala, Rasatala, and Patala. These lower planets are populated by persons of great power and opulence, yet of demoniac consciousness. They have reached here through austerity aimed at material enjoyment without spiritual development. The residents enjoy a standard of material comfort more opulent than even the higher planets due to their desires for high standards of sensual enjoyment, wealth and influence. The residents are known as Daityas, Danavas and Nagas and are all engaged in illusory material enjoyment with no thought of spiritual liberation. Since time is not divided into days and nights due to no sunshine reaching these planets, they have no fear produced by time. Only at the time of dissolution does anxiety and fear consume them.
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P - Planetary Systems (20-26) Universal Map Middle Planets Within the earthly sphere there is a combination of the happiness found in the heavens and the suffering of hell. As mentioned previously, birth in the earthly realm is considered most conducive for this reason – neither is there excessive happiness which may cause one to become complacent and comfortable, nor is there extreme suffering that can overshadow any deeper searching. Bhu- mandala is shaped like a lotus flower and the seven planetary systems are in the whorl of the lotus. As the sunshine reaches earth from 93,000,000 miles, this is the radius of the plane of Bhu-mandala. “The residents of both heaven and hell desire human birth on the earth planet because human life facilitates the achievement of transcendental knowledge and love of Godhead, whereas neither heavenly nor hellish bodies efficiently provide such opportunities.” (SB 11.20.12)
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— S.B. Keshava Swami, Book Bhagavata
Source: vedabase.io
It is distinctly stated herein that all the luminaries, the planets and stars, revolve by the influence of the supreme time factor. The time factor is another feature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Everyone is under the influence of the time factor, but the Supreme Personality of Godhead is so kind and loves His devotee Mahārāja Dhruva so much that He has placed all the luminaries under the control of Dhruva’s planet and has arranged for the time factor to work under him or with his cooperation. Everything is actually done according to the will and direction of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but to make His devotee Dhruva the most important individual within the universe, the Lord has placed the activities of the time factor under his control.
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According to the description of this verse, the hundreds and thousands of stars and the great planets such as the sun, the moon, Venus, Mercury, Mars and Jupiter are not clustered together because of the law of gravity or any similar idea of the modern scientists. These planets and stars are all servants of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Govinda or Kṛṣṇa, and according to His order they sit in their chariots and travel in their respective orbits. The orbits in which they move are compared to machines given by material nature to the operating deities of the stars and planets, who carry out the orders of the Supreme Personality of Godhead by revolving around Dhruvaloka, which is occupied by the great devotee Mahārāja Dhruva. This is confirmed in the Brahma-saṁhitā (5.52) as follows:
yac-cakṣur eṣa savitā sakala-grahāṇāṁ rājā samasta-sura-mūrtir aśeṣa-tejāḥ yasyājṣayā bhramati sambhṛta-kāla-cakro govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi
“I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, under whose control even the sun, which is considered to be the eye of the Lord, rotates within the fixed orbit of eternal time. The sun is the king of all planetary systems and has unlimited potency in heat and light.” This verse from Brahma-saṁhitā confirms that even the largest and most powerful planet, the sun, rotates within a fixed orbit, or kāla-cakra, in obedience to the order of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This has nothing to do with gravity or any other imaginary laws created by the material scientists.
Material scientists want to avoid the ruling government of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and therefore they imagine different conditions under which they suppose the planets move. The only condition, however, is the order of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. All the various predominating deities of the planets are persons, and the Supreme Personality of Godhead is also a person. The Supreme Personality orders the subordinate persons, the demigods of various names, to carry out His supreme will. This fact is also confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (9.10) , wherein Kṛṣṇa says:
mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram hetunānena kaunteya jagad viparivartate
“This material nature is working under My direction, O son of Kuntī, and it is producing all moving and unmoving beings. By its rule this manifestation is created and annihilated again and again.”
The orbits of the planets resemble the bodies in which all living entities are seated because they are both machines controlled by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As Kṛṣṇa says in Bhagavad-gītā (18.61) :
īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe ’rjuna tiṣṭhati bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni yantrārūḍhāni māyayā
“The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone’s heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy.” The machine given by material nature — whether the machine of the body or the machine of the orbit, or kāla-cakra — works according to the orders given by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Supreme Personality of Godhead and material nature work together to maintain this great universe, and not only this universe but also the millions of other universes beyond this one.
The question of how the planets and stars are floating is also answered in this verse. It is not because of the laws of gravity. Rather, the planets and stars are enabled to float by manipulations of the air. It is due to such manipulations that big, heavy clouds float and big eagles fly in the sky. Modern airplanes like the 747 jet aircraft work in a similar way: by controlling the air, they float high in the sky, resisting the tendency to fall to earth. Such adjustments of the air are all made possible by the cooperation of the principles of puruṣa (male) and prakṛti (female). By the cooperation of material nature, which is considered to be prakṛti, and the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is considered the puruṣa, all the affairs of the universe are going on nicely in their proper order. Prakṛti, material nature, is also described in the Brahma-saṁhitā (5.44) as follows:
sṛṣṭi-sthiti-pralaya-sādhana-śaktir ekā chāyeva yasya bhuvanāni bibharti durgā icchānurūpam api yasya ca ceṣṭate sā govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi
“The external potency, māyā, who is of the nature of the shadow of the cit [spiritual] potency, is worshiped by all people as Durgā, the creating, preserving and destroying agency of this mundane world. I adore the primeval Lord Govinda, in accordance with whose will Durgā conducts herself.” Material nature, the external energy of the Supreme Lord, is also known as Durgā, or the female energy that protects the great fort of this universe. The word Durgā also means fort. This universe is just like a great fort in which all the conditioned souls are kept, and they cannot leave it unless they are liberated by the mercy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Lord Himself declares in Bhagavad-gītā (4.9) :
janma karma ca me divyam evaṁ yo vetti tattvataḥ tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti so ’rjuna
“One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities does not, upon leaving the body, take his birth again in this material world, but attains My eternal abode, O Arjuna.” Thus simply by Kṛṣṇa consciousness, by the mercy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one can be liberated, or, in other words, one can be released from the great fort of this universe and go outside it to the spiritual world.
It is also significant that the predominating deities of even the greatest planets have been offered their exalted posts because of the very valuable pious activities they performed in previous births. This is indicated herein by the words karma-nirmita-gatayaḥ. For example, as we have previously discussed, the moon is called jīva, which means that he is a living entity like us, but because of his pious activities he has been appointed to his post as the moon-god. Similarly, all the demigods are living entities who have been appointed to their various posts as the masters of the moon, the earth, Venus and so on because of their great service and pious acts. Only the predominating deity of the sun, Sūrya Nārāyaṇa, is an incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Mahārāja Dhruva, the predominating deity of Dhruvaloka, is also a living entity. Thus there are two kinds of entities — the supreme entity, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and the ordinary living entity, the jīva ( nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām ( Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13)). All the demigods are engaged in the service of the Lord, and only by such an arrangement are the affairs of the universe going on.
Regarding the great eagles mentioned in this verse, it is understood that there are eagles so big that they can prey on big elephants. They fly so high that they can travel from one planet to another. They start flying in one planet and land in another, and while in flight they lay eggs that hatch into other birds while falling through the air. In Sanskrit such eagles are called śyena. Under the present circumstances, of course, we cannot see such huge birds, but at least we know of eagles that can capture monkeys and then throw them down to kill and eat them. Similarly, it is understood that there are gigantic birds that can carry off elephants, kill them and eat them.
The two examples of the eagle and the cloud are sufficient to prove that flying and floating can be made possible through adjustments of the air. The planets, in a similar way, are floating because material nature adjusts the air according to the orders of the Supreme Lord. It could be said that these adjustments constitute the law of gravity, but in any case, one must accept that these laws are made by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The so-called scientists have no control over them. The scientists can falsely, improperly declare that there is no God, but this is not a fact.
Source: vedabase.io
Transcendentalists such as yogīs whose minds cannot accommodate the form of the Lord prefer to visualize something very great, such as the virāṭ-puruṣa. Therefore some yogīs contemplate this imaginary śiśumāra to be swimming in the sky the way a dolphin swims in water. They meditate upon it as the virāṭ-rūpa, the gigantic form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Source: vedabase.io
Source: vedabase.io
Source: vedabase.io
Source: vedabase.io
Source: vedabase.io
Summarizing the entire description of the planetary systems of the universe, Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura says that one who is able to meditate upon this arrangement as the virāṭ-rūpa, or viśva-rūpa, the external body of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and worship Him three times a day by meditation will always be free from all sinful reactions. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura estimates that Dhruvaloka, the polestar, is 3,800,000 yojanas above the sun. Above Dhruvaloka by 10,000,000 yojanas is Maharloka, above Maharloka by 20,000,000 yojanas is Janaloka, above Janaloka by 80,000,000 yojanas is Tapoloka, and above Tapoloka by 120,000,000 yojanas is Satyaloka. Thus the distance from the sun to Satyaloka is 233,800,000 yojanas, or 1,870,400,000 miles. The Vaikuṇṭha planets begin 26,200,000 yojanas (209,600,000 miles) above Satyaloka. Thus the Viṣṇu Purāṇa describes that the covering of the universe is 260,000,000 yojanas (2,080,000,000 miles) away from the sun. The distance from the sun to the earth is 100,000 yojanas, and below the earth by 70,000 yojanas are the seven lower planetary systems called Atala, Vitala, Sutala, Talātala, Mahātala, Rasātala and Pātāla. Below these lower planets by 30,000 yojanas, Śeṣa Nāga is lying on the Garbhodaka Ocean. That ocean is 249,800,000 yojanas deep. Thus the total diameter of the universe is approximately 500,000,000 yojanas, or 4,000,000,000 miles.
Thus end the Bhaktivedanta purports to the Fifth Canto, Twenty-third Chapter, of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, entitled “The Śiśumāra Planetary Systems.”
Source: vedabase.io