DE LAS MEDIDAS DE SEGURIDAD

Thus far we have discussed the plane of Bhü-maëòala, and we have largely confined our attention to the two-dimensional region of space that this plane defines. In addition to this plane, which we can think of as horizontal, Vedic cosmology also has a vertical dimension. We naturally tend to define the direction “up” as meaning “away from the earth’s center,” and when we speak of the

distance of an object from the earth, we mean its distance from this center. In Vedic cosmology, however, “up” means “toward celestial north, in a direction perpendicular to the plane of Bhü-maëòala,” and “down” means the opposite direction. The distance of an object from the earth in Vedic cosmology is the length of a perpendicular line from the object to this plane. As we shall see, this concept of distance is important for our understanding of the relative distances of the sun and the moon in Vedic cosmology.

4.A. The Terminology of Three and Fourteen Worlds

Along this vertical direction, the universe is divided into three and also fourteen subdivisions. The three subdivisions are called the three worlds: lower, middle, and upper. These worlds are often referred to by the names Bhüù, Bhuvaù, and Svaù, as well as the names Pätäla, Martya, and Svarga (SB 3.11.28p). However, these two sets of names are not synonymous. Svaù and Svarga both denote the realm of the demigods, which lies above Bhü-maëòala. Bhüù or Bhürloka refers to the earthly planetary system, including Bhü-maëòala and this earth (SB 4.20.35p), and Bhuvaù or Bhuvarloka refers to a planetary system lying between Bhüù and Svar (SB 2.5.40p). Apparently, human beings live in both the Bhüù and Bhuvaù systems (SB 1.9.45p).

Going from lowest to highest, the fourteen subdivisions are Pätäla, Rasätala, Mahätala, Talätala, Sutala, Vitala, Atala, Bhürloka, Bhuvarloka, Svargaloka,

Maharloka, Janaloka, Tapoloka, and Satyaloka. The word Pätäla is sometimes used to refer collectively to the seven lower planetary systems from Pätäla up to Atala. These are all described as discs lying below Bhü-maëòala and parallel to it. The words Martya and Martyaloka also designate the Bhürloka system and refer to the fact that this system is a place of suffering and death. The six planetary systems from Bhuvarloka to Satyaloka are known as the higher planets. Çréla Prabhupäda also uses the terminology “upward” planetary systems for Bhürloka through Satyaloka, and “downward” planetary systems for Atala through Pätäla (SB 2.1.26p).

We have already noted that the three worlds—Pätäla, Martya, and Svarga—are also sometimes known as three kinds of Svargas, or heavenly regions (SB 5.17.11p). These three Svargas are explicitly defined as follows in the Çré Båhad-

bhägavatämåtam of Çréla Sanätana Gosvämé: “(1) Vila-svarga: Atal, Bital, Sutal, Talätal, Mahätal, Rasätal, and Pätal.… (2) Bhauma-svarga: Jambu, Plaksha,

Shalmali, Kusha, Crouncha, Shaka, and Puskara.… (3) Divya-svarga: the world of the devatäs” (BB, p. 107). Here the three subdivisions Bila-svarga, Bhauma-svarga, and Divya-svarga correspond exactly to Pätälaloka, Martyaloka, and Svargaloka.

4.B. The Seven Planets

There are seven traditional planets in the sky that are readily visible to human beings. These are the sun, the moon, Venus, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Of these, Çréla Prabhupäda has specifically said that the moon belongs to

Svargaloka, or “the third status of the upper planetary system,” and the same is presumably true of the others (SB 2.5.40p). The moon and the sun are given a distinctive position among the planets of Svargaloka in SB 3.11.29–30, where it is said that after the three worlds are annihilated at the end of Brahmä’s day, the sun and moon continue to exist. Çréla Prabhupäda has pointed out that although the different planetary systems are described as lying in successive layers, like phonograph records in a stack, actually the planets of different types are mixed together:

Regarding your question of the planetary systems, the planets are arranged in each universe in layers like the petals of a lotus. But in each layer there is mixed both heavenly, hellish, and middle planets. On the outside layer there are these three kinds of planets, on the middle layer there are the three kinds of planets, and on the innermost layer there are found these three kinds of planets. Above these layers, in the center, is the Brahmaloka, where Lord Brahmä, the creator, is residing. So the earth planet and the moon planet are both in the same layer, but the earth is a middle planet and the moon is a heavenly planet” [letter to Rüpänuga däsa, December 20, 1968].

This letter indicates that the moon is a heavenly planet, but suggests that it can occupy the same level in the vertical direction as the earth.

In the Bhägavatam there are many stories that take place in Svargaloka, but these are rarely (if ever) set specifically on one of the seven planets. However, these planets played an important role in Vedic society because their visible motions were understood to be indicators of the course of events on the earth, both on the level of individuals and on the level of society as a whole. This, of course, is the subject matter of astrology, and we have already pointed out (in Chapter 1) that since astrology was regarded as very important in Vedic society, astronomy, and specifically the study of the motions of the seven planets, was also regarded as very important.

Although the Bhägavatam gives a fairly detailed account of the movements of the sun, it gives only a relatively brief description of the movements of the other planets. The only information given about the positions of the planets is a list of their heights above Bhü-maëòala. Their horizontal positions over the plane of Bhü- maëòala are not mentioned. This list is given in Table 8.

The two most striking features of this list of planetary distances are (1) that the moon is listed as being higher than the sun, and (2) that the distances for the planets other than the moon are all much smaller than the values given to them by modern astronomers (see Table 1). To many people, this would seem to indicate that the Bhägavatam is giving an extremely unrealistic account of the positions of the planets. However, this is not necessarily so.

The key point to consider here is that these distances are all heights of the planets above the plane of Bhü-maëòala. They are not distances along the line of sight from the earth to the planets. Let us therefore suppose that the distances of the planets from this earth along the plane of Bhü-maëòala might be much larger than the figures in Table 8.

TABLE 8

The Heights of the Planets Above Bhü-maëòala Planet Height above

Bhü-maëòala Sun 800,000 Moon 1,600,000 Venus 4,800,000 Mercury 6,400,000 Mars 8,000,000 Jupiter 9,600,000 Saturn 11,200,000

These figures, which are based on 8 miles per yojana, were obtained by using the planet-to-planet intervals from SB 5.22, plus the earth-to-sun distance given in SB 5.23.9p. The planetary heights listed in the verse translations in Chapter 22 are 800,000 miles higher than the figures in this table.

This is true in the case of the sun, since the distance from Jambüdvépa to Mount Mänasottara is about 126,000,000 miles, using 8 miles per yojana. Using our smaller figure from Sürya-siddhänta of 5 miles per yojana, this distance comes to 78,750,000 miles. Thus the modern figure of 93,000,000 miles for the distance from the earth globe to the sun is bracketed by the Bhägavatam figures obtained using our two standard values for the length of a yojana.

If the planets do lie at great distances from us along the plane of Bhü-maëòala, then from our point of view the planets must always lie very close to the great circle on the celestial sphere corresponding to this plane. (We argued this for the sun in Section 3.d.) Now, is it true that the planets all tend to lie very close to some particular celestial great circle? The answer is yes. The orbits of all of the planets are observed to lie very close to the great circle, called the ecliptic, which is the geocentric orbit of the sun.

TABLE 9

The Maximum distances the Planets Move from the Plane of the Ecliptic Planet Orbital Orbital Maximum distance Radius Inclination from the Ecliptic

Sun 1.00 AU 0.000 0. Moon 238,000 miles 5.150 21,364. Venus .72 AU 3.400 3,971,000. Mercury .39 AU 7.167 4,525,000. Mars 1.52 AU 1.850 4,564,000. Jupiter 5.20 AU 1.317 11,115,000. Saturn 9.55 AU 2.480 38,431,000.

Here modern Western data (EA) is used to compute the maximum distance in miles that each planet travels form the plane of the ecliptic in the course of its orbit. This is the average radius of the orbit times the sine of the inclination of the orbit to the ecliptic. Geocentric orbits were used for the sun and moon, and heliocentric orbits were used for the other planets. (1 AU = 93,000,000 miles.) In Table 9 there is a list of the maximum distances of the planets from the ecliptic, according to modern astronomical data. These distances agree only roughly with the heights in Table 8, but they give the same order for the relative distance of the planets, and some are of the same order of magnitude. (According to modern astronomy, Mercury should lie between Venus and Mars in this table because of the large inclination of its heliocentric orbit.)

One possible interpretation of Tables 8 and 9 is as follows: In accordance with the first hypothesis discussed in Section 3.d, the projection of the plane of Bhü-

maëòala on the celestial sphere is the ecliptic. The Bhägavatam is giving a

qualitative description of how far the planets move from the ecliptic in the course of their orbits. In this description, the moon is higher than the sun because the sun always remains on the ecliptic whereas the moon moves away from it. Likewise, Venus is higher than the moon because it moves still further from the ecliptic. One drawback of this interpretation is that the planets do not stay on one side of the ecliptic. In the course of their orbits they move equal distances on either side, following characteristic looping paths. This may seem to be in strong disagreement with the statements of the Bhägavatam, which simply specify fixed heights for the planets. However, we have seen that Çréla Prabhupäda has spoken of the disc of Bhü-maëòala as a system of globes floating in space, and we have also argued that this earth is a globe and was regarded as such in Vedic times. Furthermore, Çréla Prabhupäda has said that planets belonging to different layers in the vertical direction can mix together in one layer. This may also seem contrary to the Bhägavatam.

We propose that such apparent contradictions can be reconciled by the idea that the Bhägavatam is using simple, three-dimensional imagery to describe a higher- dimensional situation that is directly experienced and understood by demigods, åñis, and great yogés. In this case, we suggest that the image of perpendicular height above a plane provides a simple way to describe how the demigods view the actual, higher-dimensional situation: The height of a planet is an important higher-

dimensional feature of that planet; this feature is reflected in the planet’s visible motions away from the plane of the ecliptic and is described in simple terms in the Fifth Canto as height above the plane of Bhü-maëòala.

TABLE 10