Jagad-anda-koti means

Expressions researched:
"Jagad-anda-koti means"

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi means millions of universes. Koṭiṣv vasudhādi vibhūti-bhinnam. And each universe is full of millions and millions of planets.

Lecture on SB 1.2.6 -- Hyderabad, November 26, 1972:

This is the beginning of spiritual knowledge. One must understand that the soul is encaged within this body and mind. So if you try to become, by bodily comforts or mental satisfaction, it will never be possible. Happiness will never be possible. Therefore Bhāgavata says, yayātmā suprasīdati. Ātma means soul. Suprasīdati. Prasīdati means becomes happy. And su means very, very much happy. How? Sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhokṣaje (SB 1.2.6). Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the mature instruction of Vyāsadeva on Vedic wisdom. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Migama-kalpa-taror galitaṁ phalaṁ idam. Nigama means Vedas. It is like kalpa-taru, desire tree. Whichever thing you desire you can get from Vedic knowledge. Nigama-kalpa-taru. Kalpa-taru means desire tree. We have got experience of this tree-mango tree, orange tree, or so many trees. So you can get a particular type of fruit from a particular type of tree. But in the spiritual world all the trees are desire trees. Whatever you want you can get. If you want mango from orange tree, then you'll get. We get this information from Vedas. Cintāmaṇi-prakara-sadmasu kalpa-vṛkṣa-lakṣāvṛteṣu (Bs. 5.29). Kalpa-vṛkṣa means the desire tree. Not only one, two, lakṣāvṛteṣu, there are thousands and thousands of desire trees. That is the spiritual world. We have no information of the material world even. We are trying to go to the moon planet, we have not full information. And the moon planet is one of the nearest planets. But there are innumerable, millions and millions of planets within one universe. And there are millions and millions of universes. We get this information from Vedic literature. Yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi (Bs. 5.40). Jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi means millions of universes. Koṭiṣv vasudhādi vibhūti-bhinnam. And each universe is full of millions and millions of planets. And each planet is of different type, different climate, different living entities. These are the information. You cannot expect the same planet or same atmosphere everywhere. Just like even on this planet. I am coming from Europe, America, the climate is different. India's climate is different. Even on this planet. So each and every planet they of different nature. And all the living entities are there. In the Bhagavad-gītā we get information, sarva-ga. Sthāṇur acalo 'yam, sarva-ga. It is not fact that only on this planet there are living entities, and other planets there are no living entities. No, that is not a fact. Anyway, here the proposal is how to achieve perfect happiness of ātma. Ātma, I have already explained, ātma means the body, ātma means the mind, and ātma means the soul. So unless you get happiness of the soul, simply trying to get happiness of the body and the mind, you'll never get happiness. That is the information in this verse. Sa vai puṁsām paro dharmo (SB 1.2.6). Dharma means religion, English translation. But according to the Vedic understanding dharma means the characteristic. Everything has got a characteristic. In the chemical laboratory when something is tested the characteristic is tested. "This is this chemical, it has got so many characteristics." So our characteristic, we living entities, we have got our characteristic. What is that characteristic, general characteristics? In this meeting we may be sitting, so many people, one may be Hindu, one may be... Because I am talking of Hindu, Muslim, Christian. Here the word is used, dharma. Sa vai puṁsām paro dharmo (SB 1.2.6). So dharma, we generally understand that I am Hindu, I am Muslim, I am Christian, I am Arya-samaji, I am this, I am that. That is generally taken as dharma. But according to Vedic principle dharma means characteristic. Just like chili—to become hot—the characteristic of chili. We test in the market when we go to purchase chili, we test how strong it is hot. If it is not very strong in its hottiness, then we reject. "No, no, it is not good chili." Chili must be very hot. That is characteristic, that is dharma. Sugar must be very sweet. That is characteristic, that is dharma. Sa vai puṁsām paro dharmo (SB 1.2.6). So at the present moment, being entrapped by the material nature, we have accepted different types of dharmas. That is artificial. That is artificial. "I am Hindu," "I am Muslim," "I am Christian," "I am Buddhist," "I am this," "I am that." These are all in relationship with this body. Accidentally if I am born in a Hindu family, or Muslim family, or Christian family, I identify myself, "I am Hindu," "I am Muslim," "I am Christian." But real identification is, as I have already explained to you, ahaṁ brahmāsmi, I am Brahman. I am the spirit soul. So when you come to that platform of spiritual understanding then our characteristic should be manifested. What is that? That is explained here, sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhokṣaje (SB 1.2.6). Bhakti—to become devotee of the Supreme Lord. That is our real characteristic. To become devotee is already manifest. I am devotee to my country, I am devotee to my society, I am devotee to my family, I am devotee to my husband, to my wife, to my children. So devotion is already there. But that is not paro dharmo. When we become devotee of the Supreme Lord, that is our real characteristic. Devotion is already there, service is already there. Nobody can say that, "I do not serve anyone." No, that is not possible. You must serve. Because that is your characteristic, that is your dharma. Everyone is serving. If a person has nobody to serve, he keeps a cat, he keeps a dog and serves him. So to give service, to love somebody else, that is my real characteristic. But I am missing the point. I am loving cats and dogs and so many things, but I am missing to love God. That is the missing point. Love is there, object of love is there, but it is misplaced. Therefore, we are not getting happiness. When it will be properly placed, love and the object of love, then we'll be happy. This is explanation of this verse. Sa vai puṁsām paro dharmo (SB 1.2.6). Para. Para means superior. And apara means inferior. There are two kinds of nature—para and apara. That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā.