Yojanas (Lectures and Conversations)

Expressions researched:
"Yojana" |"Yojanas"

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 1.15.49 -- Los Angeles, December 26, 1973:

Pradyumna: Translation: "Vidura, while on pilgrimage, left his body at Prabhāsa. Because he was absorbed in thought of Lord Kṛṣṇa, he was received by the denizens of Pitṛloka, where he returned to his original post." (SB 1.15.49)

Prabhupāda: This Vidura was Yamarāja. So he was cursed by one muni to go down and take birth in śūdra family. Yamarāja was very exalted post, but still... Yamarāja means the superintendent of death. There is Pitṛloka, Yamaloka, different planets. And where each planet is situated, how many miles, yojana... The Sanskrit is called yojana. Yojana means eight miles. So how many yojana is one planet situated from another planet, that is all described in the Bhāgavata, Fifth Canto.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 21.1-10 -- New York, January 3, 1967:

So some estimate? The Lord says,

śata, sahasra, ayuta, lakṣa, koṭī-yojana

eka eka vaikuṇṭhera vistāra varṇana

There is no question of voidness or impersonalist. He says that all those Vaikuṇṭha planets are so big that some of them, hundreds, some, millions and millions of miles, I mean to say, area. What is called? Round. Eka vaikuṇṭhera vistāra varṇana. Vistāra means very much expanded.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- May 12, 1975, Perth:

Paramahaṁsa: Is their calculation for the distance of the sun wrong also?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Paramahaṁsa: 93,000,000? It says in the Bhāgavatam exactly what the distance?

Prabhupāda: The whole universe, diameter, is pañcaśat-koṭi-yojana. One yojana equal to eight miles, and one koti is ten miles, er, ten million. So pañcaśata, fifty into 10,000,000 into eight.

Paramahaṁsa: Yeah. So it's fifty crores yojana. Fifty crores yojanas?

Prabhupāda: Yes, fifty crore yojanas, pañcaśat. So one yojana equal to eight miles, one crore equal to ten million.

Paramahaṁsa: That's eighty million.

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Paramahaṁsa: Eighty million times fifty.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- May 12, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: No. There are many other planets down. Seven planetary system.

Paramahaṁsa: The higher planetary systems are closest to the sun? And then...

Prabhupāda: No, sun is the middle. This is circumference. Sun is the middle. And the whole diameter is fifty lakhs and... What is...? And moon is above, 200,000 yojanas above the sun.

Paramahaṁsa: Ah. 200,000 yojanas. That means 1,600,000 miles above the sun.

Prabhupāda: Above the sun. How they'll go? (laughter) They are going to the wrong..., bluffing only. I am repeatedly saying, they have never gone, simply bluff. How it is that they brought some dust? So brilliant, it is blazing, full. There is fire blazing. (walking:)

Paramahaṁsa: They say that they measured the moon and that it's very small compared to the earth, very tiny.

Prabhupāda: All wrong.

Morning Walk -- May 19, 1975, Melbourne:

Amogha: Rāhu. Seems like all the planets, they have that space interval of sixteen hundred thousand miles. Most of the sun...

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.

Amogha: ...and then the moon and Venus. That two hundred thousand yojanas.

Prabhupāda: When the Rāhu happens to be between the two planets, sun and moon, there is eclipse.

Amogha: When the orbits intercross.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Amogha: Ketu is below Rāhu?

Prabhupāda: Ketu is not mentioned there.

Morning Walk -- July 11, 1975, Chicago:

Prabhupāda: Diameter is four billion miles, universe.

Tripurāri: One universe.

Prabhupāda: One universe. This is the smallest. Four-headed Brahma. (break) ...all universes taken together, that is one-fourth energy. And three-fourth energy is spiritual world. Ekāṁśena sthito jagat (BG 10.42), one part. (break) ...asat koṭi-yojana, one yojana equal to eight mile. And one koti means ten million. So fifty into eight, two hundred, into..., ten into ten million..., it comes. I have calculated four billion. How many millions make a billion?

Harikeśa: A thousand. (break)

Prabhupāda: Sun is situated in the middle from this circumference, two billion up and down. And the moon is situated above the sun, 1,600,000 miles. How they can go to the moon?

Devotee: They think the moon is closer than the sun.

Prabhupāda: They may think, but we are thinking in this way. Who is right?

Devotee: We are right, the Vedas.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) ...thinking is right because they could not go to the moon. They say they went, but actually they could not. Now they are disappointed. (break)

Morning Walk -- October 9, 1975, Durban:

Prabhupāda: Yes, certainly. Sun is in the center of the universe, and other planets there are above the sun and lower the sun. Sun is in the middle of the universe.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: So then the moon...

Prabhupāda: Everything is there. The whole, what is called, radius, no, diameter, from one point to another of the universe is given there. Pañcāśat-koṭi-yojana. Pañcāśat means fifty, and koṭi means ten million. So fifty into ten million. Huh? 500,000,000. Pañcāśat-koṭi. And eight.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Four billion.

Prabhupāda: Four billion miles, the area, this way and that way. So if the distance is so vast then one planet situated some millions of miles away, it is not extraordinary. The whole area is four billion.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes. But it appears at least for... It appears that the moon is so close.

Prabhupāda: "It appears"—that is another thing. As soon as you say "appears," that means you have no knowledge.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Just see. Hele dāntavān keuṭe.(?) A man was trying to capture snake. So there are snakes, hele. There are many snakes; they have no poison, especially the water snake, the hele. So hele dāntavān keuṭe.(?) Keuṭe means cobra. So one cannot catch up the poisonless snake, and he is attempting to capture cobra. They could not go to the moon planet, which is only 1,600,000 miles above the sun, and they are going to Venus, which is far, far away, still. How many miles the Venus is situated? They have committed some mistake.

Harikeśa: Yes. Well, they say here it's 600,000 yojanas, which makes 48,000,000 miles. No, 480,000,000 miles above the sun.

Prabhupāda: If they cannot reach sun... They are trying to go above the sun. (Someone enters) Bosen. Jaya. (Bengali) (break) It is giving quotation from Vedas. How to act on Vedic principle, that is called smṛti. Sometimes the original law is explained by one lawyer in detail. So that detailed explanation is like smṛti, and the original law is śruti. In that we have to bathe. Smṛti means which is explaining śruti to understand easily.

Morning Walk -- May 25, 1976, Honolulu:

Hari-śauri: Oh?

Prabhupāda: Four billion is the..., what is called?

Devotee: Diameter of the universe.

Prabhupāda: Diameter of the universe. Sun is almost in the middle.

Hari-śauri: So what is that distance that is given in the Bhāgavatam, then? It says 100,000 yojanas.

Prabhupāda: I don't think that is.... Moon that is far away from the sun, 1,600,000. (indistinct) fire in the sea, varuṇāgni. (indistinct) You know there is sometimes fire in the sea?

Devotee: In what way? Volcano? Like that?

Prabhupāda: Volcano eruption. Is there any technical term? Varuṇāgni. (aside:) Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Hari-śauri: You mean like when there's an eruption from below? Say when an island's formed, or...

Prabhupāda: It is called varuṇāgni, fire in the water.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- June 18, 1977, Vrndavana:

Yaśodānandana: This is the Jambūdvīpa planetary system. The complete is the Bhū-maṇḍala. This is Jambūdvīpa. This is the salt ocean, and these various oceans here, they correspond to the oceans which are described in the Bhāgavatam in that Chapter Five, Sixteenth Chapter, second verse. "Because of these seven oceans, Bhū-maṇḍala is divided into seven islands." Then, in the third verse, it describes that this universe is the universal form of the Lord. The fourth verse describes... Śukadeva Gosvāmī says he will explain the Bhūrloka. In the fifth verse he starts to be more precise about the Bhū-maṇḍala planetary system. It says, "It resembles a lotus flower." It has the shape of a lotus flower. "And the seven islands of Jambūdvīpa resemble the whorl of that flower." Then "The length and breadth of that island known as Jambūdvīpa..."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This we did.

Yaśodānandana: This one. "...which is situated in middle..." This Jambūdvīpa corresponds to this one here in this big map. "The length and breadth of this is 100,000 yojanas." That means from its north to the south and from the west to the east it's 800,000 miles, according to this fifth verse.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So our map here, Śrīla Prabhupāda, one centimeter equals 2,000 yojanas. So this is fifty centimeters, so it equals 100,000 yojanas. It also... For anyone who is counting, four of these boxes equal one centimeter. So simply by counting this, one can understand how many yojanas each thing... This is exactly to scale. It's done very precisely to scale.

Yaśodānandana: And it describes, "In Jambūdvīpa there are nine divisions of land, each with a length of 9,000 yojanas, 72,000 miles: Bhārata-varṣa, Kimpuruṣa-varṣa, Hari-varṣa, Bhadra-varṣa, Ilāvṛta-varṣa, Ketumāla-varṣa, Ramyaka-varṣa, Hiraṇmaya-varṣa, and Kuru-varṣa. There are eight mountains that mark the boundaries of these divisions and separate them nicely. Starting with the Himalayas"—that's the first mountain—"Hemakūṭa Parvata"—second mountain—"Niṣadha Parvata"—third mountain—it goes... This... "Gandhamādana Parvata, which is the east side of Sumeru, and then Mālyavān Mountain on the west side..."

Bhakti-prema(?): Nīla mountain, north; Śveta mountain, next; and Śṛṅgavān Mountain, north.

Yaśodānandana: Maybe you can explain that Sanskrit purport also?

Bhakti-prema: (Sanskrit) It is bow-shaped. Bhārata-varṣa is bow-shaped, and this Bhadra-varṣa is again bow-shaped, Kuru-varṣa, again bow-shaped, and this Ketumāla-varṣa, again... So they were shaped. (Sanskrit) That means thirty-four yojanas...

Prabhupāda: Thousand yojanas.

Bhakti-prema: ...square. Thirty-four thousand yojanas in..., in this. This is Kimpuruṣa-varṣa. That is between Himalaya and Hemakūṭa mountain. And again Hari-varṣa is between Hemakūṭa Mountain and Niṣadha Mountain. And this Ramyaka...

Prabhupāda: Where is geographical description of this?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They don't even know they exist.

Prabhupāda: Little description of the Himalayas.

Room Conversation -- June 18, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Feet.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Yaśodānandana: Feet.

Prabhupāda: It is feet only.

Yaśodānandana: That is only three and a half yojanas, and we say it is 80,000 miles high.

Prabhupāda: Read something.

Bhakti-prema: And they can travel only 800 miles high, the birds in the sky, but according to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, after 800 miles there is air to breath for a human being. But there is air for ghost and piśāca and other different species. But if we move... There are Siddhas and Cāraṇas. They are also living there. And above that, there is Rahu planet. That means 80,000 miles high.

Prabhupāda: That means Rahu planet we have connection.

Room Conversation -- June 18, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That means Rahu planet we have connection.

Bhakti-prema: Yes. Rahu. And above that Rahu there is sun planet, and Sumeru mountain has connection with that because it is hurling again...

Yaśodānandana: It says right here.

Prabhupāda: Do it nicely.

Yaśodānandana: It is mentioned that this Sumeru Parvata, the mountain's height is the same as the width of Jambūdvīpa. So this mountain comes up to here, the same distance as this, 100,000 yojanas. So it's perfectly... This is the same length on this side and also like this. It's made like a big, a big cone on top. It describes, "Of that mountain, Sumeru Parvata, 16,000 yojanas, or 128,000 miles, are within, under." So Sumeru is like this, and it also goes under the Jambūdvīpa planetary system. And therefore the mountain's head above the earth, above here, there is 84,000 yojanas, 672,000 miles above the level. And the mountain's width, the mountain on top, is considered to be 32,000 yojanas, or 256,000 miles. And in the bottom it's 16,000 yojanas. Scientists cannot conceive of this. Their estimation of a mountain is that it must be bigger in the bottom and end up smaller at the top, but Mount Meru is twice as big in the top than it is in the bottom. They cannot understand. Next verse, it describes the different divisions. "Just north of Ilāvṛta-varṣa and going further northward, one after another, are three mountains, namely Nīla Mountain, Śveta Mountain, and Śṛṅgavān Mountain. These mark the borders of the three varṣas, namely Ramyaka, Hiraṇmaya, and Kuru, and separate them from one another. The width of these mountains is..."

Prabhupāda: And it was not possible for me to digest. (laughs) Somebody else helped me to... I am a layman. I do not know.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: How did you write it?

Prabhupāda: That somebody, Kṛṣṇa, helped me. That He manufactured.

Yaśodānandana: And these mountains, they extend to the beaches. "It is considered, according to the Bhāga..."

Prabhupāda: When I was writing, I was praying Kṛṣṇa that "I do not actually accommodate all this knowledge. Please help me." Yes. That's all right.

Room Conversation -- June 18, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes, they are demigod.

Bhakti-prema: No, they are not demigod.

Prabhupāda: No, they are not demigod.

Yaśodānandana: Then it prescribes in verse number nine that "South of Ilāvṛta-varṣa and extending from east to west are the great, three great mountains named Niṣadha Parvata, Hemakūṭa Parvata and Himalaya. Each of them is 10,000 yojanas high, 80,000 miles high." That means... The scientists have understood that the Himalayas are three and a half miles high, but we say... How much the Himalayas? Twenty-eight... Five and a half miles high. We say it's 80,000 miles high. The Bhāgavatam says.

Prabhupāda: They could not measure the whole thing. That is not possible.

Yaśodānandana: Then it describes here that "On the west and east of Ilāvṛta-varṣa are two great mountains named Mālyavān and Gandhamādana respectively. These two mountains, which are 2,000 yojanas, 16,000 miles..." (break) "...in the north and Niṣadha mountain in the south. They indicate the borders of Ilāvṛta-varṣa and also the varṣas named as Ketumāla-varṣa and Bhadrāśva-varṣa." Then it gets into more details regarding Mount Meru. "Text number eleven. On the four sides of the great mountain known as Sumeru are four mountains," these Mandara Parvata. This is the mountain.

Prabhupāda: So how you'll show actually?

Bhakti-prema: This is according to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

Prabhupāda: No, that's all right. Now, that doll, that you have to make.

Showing of Planetary Sketches -- June 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bhakti-Prema: The same with this Meru Mountain, it spreads...

Prabhupāda: They cannot explain what is that. But I have seen it. Where it has gone, nobody knows. Just see. Down, hundred miles, and up... You cannot see more than hundred... But it appears like the instruction.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This is Jambūdvīpa, part of Jambūdvīpa. That is Ilāvṛta-varṣa in the square. We have... These mountains are each two thousand yojanas high.

Bhakti-Prema: After Mandara Meru, Mandara, that Mandara Mountains... And here he began to meditate. He meditated for six thousand years on this Mandara Mountain here. Then Pārvatī came, and she... Then next... These two mountains are like (describes sketch of planetary system, very difficult to hear) And here is the beautiful Indu stream(?). And it's heart is... Eight hundred miles.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Where is it?

Bhakti-Prema: On the Mandara Mountain. There are four different streams. This is Ilāvṛta-varṣa.

Yaśodānandana: This area?

Bhakti-Prema: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Śivaloka? Śivaloka?

Showing of Planetary Sketches -- June 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: I have seen. They can go little higher than that earth. That's all. They cannot go even that peak. As soon as they go, finished.

Bhakti-Prema: This is more than six lakhs' miles from the earth, the height of Mount Meru.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The airplane goes about eight miles. Five thousand feet equals one mile. And they go forty thousand. So how much is forty thousand? Eight miles.

Devotee (1): Forty thousand feet divided by five means approximately eight miles.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Airplane goes eight miles high, and this Meru Mandapa(?) is 800,000 total, a hundred thousand yojanas, one lakh of yojanas. So this is very high, nearly 600,000 miles high. An airplane only goes five miles.

Devotee (1): Eight miles.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They have no idea about distances.

Bhakti-Prema: If we rise above, man, six thousand miles, then we will arrive at sun planet.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bhu-mandala Diagram Discussion -- July 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Yaśodā-nandana: The directions are north, east and south and west. In the middle here, right in the middle, there is Mount Meru, which is very, very small. The scale, it comes to be one centimeter... What is this measurement estimate?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: One twentieth of a centimeter.

Yaśodā-nandana: One twentieth of a centimeter is calculated 100,000 yojanas. One lakh of yojanas is one twentieth of a centimeter.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, that one twentieth of a centimeter... One centimeter is about just the tip of the finger, so one twentieth of this is 100,000 yojanas. Actually you cannot even see Mount Meru on this picture. It is so small that we could not even draw it. It's just a pinpoint.

Yaśodā-nandana: Mount Meru is in the middle, and then, surrounding Mount Meru, is the whole Jambūdvīpa. Jambūdvīpa is 100,000 yojanas or (sic) 800 miles in length and width. These are the maps we have shown you already previously. And surrounding Jambūdvīpa in the salt ocean, this very little circle... The south ocean is the same width as Jambūdvīpa, or 100,000 yojanas. That is 800,000 miles. And it is all around Jambūdvīpa. Here it is. Maybe you can see. Then there is the south part of the ocean. You can see here?

Bhakti-prema: No, Plakṣadvīpa is the orange dot.

Yaśodā-nandana: Then surrounding Jambūdvīpa then there is Plakṣadvīpa, the next dvīpa, which is... Around the salt ocean there is Plakṣadvīpa. That is the planet beside(?) of the river we call ocean. That is 200,000 yojanas, or 1,600,000 miles. That is right in the middle.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Actually you can hardly see it there. It's very small.

Yaśodā-nandana: Then, surrounding Plakṣadvīpa is another ocean, the sugarcane ocean. That sugarcane ocean is the same length as Plakṣadvīpa, or 200,000 yojanas, or 1,600,000 miles. And one each one of these dvīpas...

Prabhupāda: So in each ocean there are islands?

Bhu-mandala Diagram Discussion -- July 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Yaśodā-nandana: The little red circle is the Surā-sāgara. Then the little green here is the Kuśadvīpa. One particular feature of this land is that there's very..., kuśa grass, which is very, very cooling. It is all over the island. And then there is the ghee ocean which is surrounding Kuśadvīpa. That is the dark green.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Dark green.

Yaśodā-nandana: No, the ghee ocean is the yellow color. The ghee ocean is surrounding the Kuśadvīpa. In fact, again surrounding the ghee ocean is Krauñcadvīpa, but Krauñcadvīpa is 1,600,000 yojanas in width. That means 12,800,000 miles. It is getting bigger, twice as big, as we go further. And after Krauñcadvīpa, surrounding Krauñcadvīpa is the milk ocean, and this milk ocean is surrounding the whole Krauñcadvīpa. And then again there is mention that the Śvetadvīpa Ocean, the Śvetadvīpa where Lord Viṣṇu... Lord Viṣṇu resides there in white island. This Your Divine Grace has described in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta.

Bhakti-prema: Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu resides there.

Yaśodā-nandana: Yes, kṣīra. Kṣīra means milk. Śākadvīpa is surrounding the milk ocean.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What color is it?

Yaśodā-nandana: Śākadvīpa, it is green, this green here. It is pale green. And Śākadvīpa is surrounded by yogurt ocean, dahi, dahi ocean. This is the white here. This yogurt ocean is 3,200,000 yojanas, or 25,600,000 miles of width. Then, surrounding this yogurt ocean is Puṣkaradvīpa. This is the reddish brown here. Puṣkaradvīpa is 6,400,000 yojanas in width, or 51,200,000 miles. And here, in the middle of Puṣkaradvīpa, all around is the Mānasottara range of mountains, which is situated in the middle and which has a width of 10,000 yojanas. Now, from the middle of Mount Meru until Puṣkaradvīpa it is calculated to be 15,750,000 yojanas.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We calculated all these...

Yaśodā-nandana: This was all calculated according to the Bhāgavatam. And then, on the four corners, on top of this Mānasottara range of mountains, the loka-pālas, Maheśvara, Brahmā, Kuvera, they are residing in these four corners, guarding the directions of the universe. And...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Now wait a moment. What goes there? The most important thing is that on top of that Mānasottara range...

Yaśodā-nandana: On top of the Mānasottara range... If this map could be placed on the ground and Mount Meru would be like this and all the oceans go around, the sun, which is again 16,000 yojanas above Mount Meru, goes all around Mount Mānasottara. It comes in this way every day.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So where does it go now? Where does the sun go?

Yaśodā-nandana: The sun would go like this, all around. It would be above. It's constantly moving round the top, circumambulating the Mount Meru and going just above the Mānasottara range of mountains. This little brown line, gray line, within the circle is the Mānasottara range of mountains. And surrounding this Puṣkaradvīpa there is sweet water ocean throughout the whole... There's sweetwater ocean. It's 6,400,000 yojanas, or 51,200,000 miles. And past the sweet water ocean there is Kāñcana-bhūmi, or a golden land, where everything... This is a land that's described to be just like mirror, where no living being can be because as soon as something is dropped there, it disappears. That is a very peculiar feature of this land. This land, this golden land, is 15,750,000 yojanas. That means that this land here... The width of this land is the same as between Mānasottara Mountain and the middle of Mount Meru. It is very scientific like this. And past this golden land...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We used a calculator to calculate all this.

Bhu-mandala Diagram Discussion -- July 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Karach.(?)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah. And only in the very center are the inhabited lands of Bhū-maṇḍala.

Prabhupāda: The sun is above them?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Not above Lokāloka. Inside, within.

Yaśodā-nandana: If this would be on the floor, that means Mount Meru would be 84,000 yojanas. Then, above Mount Meru, 16,000 yojanas above, is the sun. But then, so that the rays of the would not penetrate in that land all around, this great mountain, Lokāloka, extends all the way up to Svarga. So it is like a big, big cup, in which the middle of the cup, or the bottom, there is all of these planets, all of this Bhū-maṇḍala. And past this Lokāloka range of mountains is this Aloka-varṣa, which is described that there is no living being which can go to there. The only occasion where anyone went through there is when Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna went to see the Mahā-Viṣṇu in the spiritual sky. So Kṛṣṇa with His cakra penetrated through all of these regions, and then He went through all of the coverings of the universe who were there. That was the only occasion where anyone went to this land. So this is a general picture of Bhū-maṇḍala.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: To scale.

Prabhupāda: Then the sun... Above the sun there is moon.

Yaśodā-nandana: Yes, and above the sun there is the moon.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That we have to...

Yaśodā-nandana: That is our next project.

Bhakti-prema: (indistinct)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So far, we have stayed in the Bhū-maṇḍala. We've now just picked the cover of Bhū-maṇḍala. We were thinking to do one more. We can do it later on, one more drawing to give it more detail, because the centers Meru and Jambūdvīpa and salt ocean are so small on this map you cannot even see it. So we want to...

Prabhupāda: Hm, in detail.

Bhu-mandala Diagram Discussion -- July 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We want to blow up one area like they do on some maps. They show one city bigger than other places 'cause it's important. And after that, our next business is to now go upwards. Now we've gone outward this way. Now we have to show the sun, the moon, the sapta-ṛṣi, everything like that. That'll be very nice doing, how the sun is...

Yaśodā-nandana: Another unique feature of this map is that... Bhakti-prema Mahārāja found about... There is one space which is mentioned by Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura in his commentary. The complete diameter from west to east and north to south, it is calculated to be 500,000,000 yojanas. In order to be able to adjust that, we needed 250,000,000 on each side.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That means 4,000,000,000 miles.

Prabhupāda: That I have given there.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Yaśodā-nandana: Yes, that was mentioned. His Divine Grace has mentioned it. So the total distance of all the seas was coming to about 496. So we understood from the commentary of Viśvanātha Cakravartī that there is a little space, vacant space. Between this vacant land there is a little guarded space, between this Aloka-varṣa and the covering of the universe, which is 1,700,000 yojanas on each side of the universe. And Viśvanātha Cakravartī explains that the reason for this is that under all the planetary systems there is the eight elements, which are sustaining all the Bhū-maṇḍalas and all the lower planetary systems. And if this is touching the side of the universe, then these elements would have nothing to do. There would be no function for them. Therefore, that is one reason... And another reason he was giving is that when Varāha-avatāra lifted the earth, if the Bhū-maṇḍala is touching the side of the universe, then there's no place to lift it. Therefore, by his calculation... You have given then a very long purport with devotional senses(?). According to Jyotir Veda, like this, it was mentioned that there is little space between the outward part of the universe and Aloka-varṣa. That is the space, so that Varāha could lift up the earth from the Garbhodaka Ocean. (Prabhupāda chuckles)

Bhu-mandala Diagram Discussion -- July 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Twenty-four lakhs miles, the scientists say?

Bhakti-prema: No.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What do the scientists say? How...?

Prabhupāda: Two lakhs.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Two lakhs miles, 250,000 miles. So that means about, in yojanas, very little, about 25-, 30,000 yojanas.

Yaśodā-nandana: They say the sun is 93,000,000 away.

Bhakti-prema: I think the difference of the (indistinct).

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They have froglike brains.

Prabhupāda: That, the microscope... What is called? Telescope.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This is the book of the rascal scientists. They describe the solar system according to their nonsense. The solar system... Gives all the calculations. They calculated how much it weighs on each planet. (laughs) They haven't even been there. They say that each planet has moons. Says here... This is how scientific they are. "Pluto was discovered only in 1930, and as yet, little is known about this remote planet. Pluto is much smaller than Neptune and has a diameter probably about..."

Prabhupāda: "Probably."

Bhu-mandala Diagram Discussion -- July 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Bhakti-prema: And bring this from there and there, there are nine islands. From each, divided one between (indistinct). They say that it's 8,000 miles. (indistinct)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And how high is the Himalayan Mountains?

Bhakti-prema: Eighty thousand miles.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Ten thousand yojanas, 80,000 miles. Here it says that "The highest mountain is Mount Everest, 29,000 feet." Not very high. That's about six miles. And we are saying 80,000 miles. So we want to know where is that. How high is Govardhana supposed to be?

Bhakti-prema: Govardhana (indistinct). Govardhana mountain is sinking.

Prabhupāda: Sinking.