Moat

Expressions researched:
"moat" |"moats"

Srimad-Bhagavatam

SB Canto 5

As Sumeru Mountain is surrounded by Jambūdvīpa, Jambūdvīpa is also surrounded by an ocean of salt water. The breadth of Jambūdvīpa is 100,000 yojanas (800,000 miles), and the breadth of the saltwater ocean is the same. As a moat around a fort is sometimes surrounded by gardenlike forest, the saltwater ocean surrounding Jambūdvīpa is itself surrounded by Plakṣadvīpa. The breadth of Plakṣadvīpa is twice that of the saltwater ocean—in other words 200,000 yojanas (1,600,000 miles). On Plakṣadvīpa there is a tree shining like gold and as tall as the jambū tree on Jambūdvīpa. At its root is a fire with seven flames. It is because this tree is a plakṣa tree that the island is called Plakṣadvīpa. Plakṣadvīpa was governed by Idhmajihva, one of the sons of Mahārāja Priyavrata. He endowed the seven islands with the names of his seven sons, divided the islands among the sons, and then retired from active life to engage in the devotional service of the Lord.

SB 5.26.22, Translation:

A person who is born into a responsible family—such as a kṣatriya, a member of royalty or a government servant—but who neglects to execute his prescribed duties according to religious principles, and who thus becomes degraded, falls down at the time of death into the river of hell known as Vaitaraṇī. This river, which is a moat surrounding hell, is full of ferocious aquatic animals. When a sinful man is thrown into the River Vaitaraṇī, the aquatic animals there immediately begin to eat him, but because of his extremely sinful life, he does not leave his body. He constantly remembers his sinful activities and suffers terribly in that river, which is full of stool, urine, pus, blood, hair, nails, bones, marrow, flesh and fat.

SB Cantos 10.14 to 12 (Translations Only)

SB 10.41.20-23, Translation:

The Lord saw Mathurā, with its tall gates and household entrances made of crystal, its immense archways and main doors of gold, its granaries and other storehouses of copper and brass, and its impregnable moats. Beautifying the city were pleasant gardens and parks. The main intersections were fashioned of gold, and there were mansions with private pleasure gardens, along with guildhalls and many other buildings. Mathurā resounded with the calls of peacocks and pet turtledoves, who sat in the small openings of the lattice windows and on the gem-studded floors, and also on the columned balconies and on the ornate rafters in front of the houses. These balconies and rafters were adorned with vaidūrya stones, diamonds, crystal quartz, sapphires, coral, pearls and emeralds. All the royal avenues and commercial streets were sprinkled with water, as were the side roads and courtyards, and flower garlands, newly grown sprouts, parched grains and rice had been scattered about everywhere. Gracing the houses' doorways were elaborately decorated pots filled with water, which were bedecked with mango leaves, smeared with yogurt and sandalwood paste, and encircled by flower petals and ribbons. Near the pots were flags, rows of lamps, bunches of flowers and the trunks of banana and betel-nut trees.

SB 10.52.13, Translation:

Unseen by Their opponent or his followers, O King, those two most exalted Yadus returned to Their city of Dvārakā, which had the ocean as a protective moat.

SB 10.59.6, Translation:

The five-headed demon Mura, who slept at the bottom of the city's moat, awoke and rose up out of the water when he heard the vibration of Lord Kṛṣṇa's Pāñcajanya conchshell, a sound as terrifying as the thunder at the end of the cosmic age.

Conversations and Morning Walks

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- October 12, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: My idea is it is a land where we shall dig another pond. No building.

Jayapatākā: Build another pond.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Jayapatākā: The pukura. That land, at least at the front... The land at the whole length is very long and wide.

Prabhupāda: Long and wide.

Jayapatākā: And it would be a very... It's not so big to be a pukura. The whole width of the land, I think, is about sixty feet wide.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It sounds like Prabhupāda wants a moat.

Bhavānanda: We could make a moat, a water barrier, so no one... (laughs) They couldn't attack from the back of the building.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Is that your idea, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: You dig the earth and make it a lake like.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Right along the building?

Prabhupāda: No. Throw the earth this side and that side. Automatically it will be like a small canal.