Planets as Globes in Space

In the pastime of Lord Varāha’s lifting the earth from the ocean, the earth is frequently depicted by artists as our familiar earth globe. However, the Sanskrit verses of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam describing this pastime do not use any words denoting a sphere when referring to the earth, and the Viṣṇu Purāṇa indicates that Lord Varāha lifted Bhū-maṇḍala as a whole. The relevant passage states that after lifting the earth from the waters, Lord Varāha divided it into seven great continents, as it was before, thus indicating that the earth that was lifted included the seven dvīpas of Bhū-maṇḍala (VP, p. 65). The Vaiṣṇava commentator Vaṁśīdhara, in his commentary on SB 5.20.38, also points out that the earth lifted by Lord Varāha is Bhū-maṇḍala (see Appendix 1).

In the Fifth Canto the earth is directly described as the vast disc of Bhū-maṇḍala. The word bhū-golam, or “earth-globe,” generally refers to the sphere of the universe, and the Bhāgavatam seems to make no direct reference to the earth as a small globe. However, the astronomical siddhāntas do explicitly describe the earth as a small globe, and the following verse in the Fifth Canto can be interpreted as referring to the earth as a sphere:
People living in countries at points diametrically opposite to where the sun is first seen rising will see the sun setting, and if a straight line were drawn from a point where the sun is at midday, the people in countries at the opposite end of the line would be experiencing midnight. Similarly, if people residing where the sun is setting were to go to countries diametrically opposite, they would not see the sun in the same condition [SB 5.21.8-9].

We have argued that the earth was understood to be a sphere in Vedic times, and that it was also understood to be part of Bhū-maṇḍala. It is therefore natural to ask whether or not the other parts of Bhū-maṇḍala also correspond to spheres in some sense. In fact, Śrīla Prabhupāda frequently refers to the idea of planets as globes floating in space. Since this point is quite important, we shall quote a number of his statements at length:

(1) “The earth floats in space among many millions of other planets, all of them bearing huge mountains and oceans. It floats because Kṛṣṇa enters into it, as stated in Bhagavad-gītā (gām āviśya), just as He enters the atom” (TQK, p. 122).

(2) “Seated on His chariot with Arjuna, Kṛṣṇa began to proceed north, crossing over many planetary systems. These are described in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam as Saptadvīpa. Dvīpa means ‘island.’ These planets are sometimes described in the Vedic literature as dvīpas. The planet on which we are living is called Jambūdvīpa. Outer space is taken as a great ocean of air, and within that great ocean of air there are many islands, which are the different planets. In each and every planet there are oceans also. In some of the planets the oceans are of salt water, and in some of them there are oceans of milk. In others there are oceans of liquor, and in others there are oceans of ghee or oil” (KB, pp. 855-56). Similar remarks are made in KB p. 12.

(3) “The planets are called dvīpas. Outer space is like an ocean of air. Just as there are islands in the watery ocean, these planets in the ocean of space are called dvīpas, or islands in outer space” (CC ML 20.218p). This purport begins with a quotation of the Sanskrit verses from Siddhānta-śiromaṇi describing the seven dvīpas of Bhū-maṇḍala, and thus Śrīla Prabhupāda clearly does not limit the dvīpas to the Southern Hemisphere.

(4) “Sometimes the planets in outer space are called islands. We have experience of various types of islands in the ocean, and similarly the various planets, divided into fourteen lokas, are islands in the ocean of space. As Priyavrata drove his chariot behind the sun, he created seven different types of oceans and planetary systems, which altogether are known as Bhū-maṇḍala, or Bhūloka” (SB 5.1.31p).

(5) “According to Vedic understanding, the entire universe is regarded as an ocean of space. In that ocean there are innumerable planets, and each planet is called a dvīpa, or island” (SB 8.19.19p).

(6) “Only under certain conditions do the planets float as weightless balls in the air, and as soon as these conditions are disturbed, the planets may fall down into the Garbhodaka Ocean, which covers half the universe. The other half is the spherical dome within which the innumerable planetary systems exist. The floating of the planets in the weightless air is due to the inner constitution of the globes” (SB 2.7.1p).

(7) In SB 2.7.13p, 1.3.41p, and 3.15.2p it is indicated that the universe contains millions of planets, and that many are not visible to the naked eye.

In these passages Śrīla Prabhupāda refers to the seven dvīpas of Bhū-maṇḍala as a planetary system consisting of many globes floating in space. He compares outer space to an ocean of air and interprets the word dvīpa to mean an island hovering in that airy ocean. Since the Bhāgavatam does not specifically refer to the dvīpas as separated globes, this naturally gives rise to the question, Is the Bhāgavatam giving a metaphorical description of the universe, and if so, then how far can we go in giving indirect interpretations to its statements? We note that passage (4) refers to a verse in which it is said that Mahārāja Priyavrata created the seven dvīpas and oceans of Bhū-maṇḍala with the rims of his chariot wheels. We can easily see how a very large chariot could produce circular ruts that would become oceans and islands, but it is not so easy to see how it could produce systems of spherical planets.

In answer to the above question, we suggest that the statements of the Bhāgavatam can sometimes be given indirect interpretations, but this should be done very carefully in accordance with the overall meaning of the text and the tradition of paramparā. According to the Vedic literature, the universe is very difficult to understand, and a complete element-by-element description in the modern Western style is not possible. Any description can depict only a limited aspect of the total reality, and to do this the description must make use of familiar concepts and images. Thus to some extent any description of the universe must be indirect and metaphorical.

Whenever we read a statement and arrive at some understanding of it, we are necessarily interpreting it in the context of many underlying assumptions, some of which we may hold unconsciously. Thus, as we have already pointed out, a literal reading of a text is also an interpretation, and it may be an incorrect one. What then is the right way to understand a text? We suggest that this can be properly done only if one makes a sincere effort to enter into the spirit of the text as a whole and tries to realize the meaning intended by its author. Since the author is invariably writing in the context of some tradition, this also means immersing oneself in that tradition in an effort to assimilate its world view.

Thus far we have been presenting a picture of Vedic cosmology based on the observation that the Vedic literature is using familiar three-dimensional imagery to describe an inherently non-three-dimensional material and spiritual reality. According to this interpretation, the simple image of the disc of Bhū-maṇḍala has been used to describe a higher-dimensional situation in which the earth can be seen in a variety of ways at different levels of sensory perception. The simple image of travel in outer space has likewise been used to describe modes of yogic travel that defy understanding in three-dimensional terms.

If we proceed with this interpretation of the Vedic world view, then one way to understand the idea of the dvīpas as islands in space is as follows: As the earth, which is part of Bhū-maṇḍala, appears to be a small globe to our ordinary senses, so various parts of Bhū-maṇḍala (and other regions of the universe) may also be experienced as globes floating in space by beings with certain levels of sensory development. On the basis of logic alone, we would offer this idea only as a tentative conjecture. However, since Śrīla Prabhupāda is writing in accordance with the paramparā tradition, we suggest that this idea of Bhū-maṇḍala as a system of floating planetary globes must be in accord with the Vedic literature as a whole. It simply represents the appearance of Bhū-maṇḍala at one sensory level.