Salmalidvipa

Expressions researched:
"Salmali" |"Salmalidvipa"

SB Canto 5

SB 5.1.32, Translation and Purport:

The names of the islands are Jambū, Plakṣa, Śālmali, Kuśa, Krauñca, Śāka and Puṣkara. Each island is twice as large as the one preceding it, and each is surrounded by a liquid substance, beyond which is the next island.

The ocean in each planetary system has a different type of liquid. How they are situated is explained in the next verse.

SB 5.20 Summary:

In this chapter there is a description of various islands, beginning with Plakṣadvīpa, and the oceans that surround them. There is also a description of the location and dimensions of the mountain known as Lokāloka. The island of Plakṣadvīpa, which is twice as broad as Jambūdvīpa, is surrounded by an ocean of salt water. The master of this island is Idhmajihva, one of the sons of Mahārāja Priyavrata. The island is divided into seven regions, each with a mountain and a large river.

The second island is called Sālmalīdvīpa. It is surrounded by an ocean of liquor and is 3,200,000 miles wide, twice as wide as Plakṣadvīpa. The master of this island is Yajñabāhu, one of the sons of Mahārāja Priyavrata. Like Plakṣadvīpa, this island is also divided into seven regions, each with a mountain and a very large river. The inhabitants of this island worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead in the form of Candrātmā.

The third island, which is surrounded by an ocean of clarified butter and is also divided into seven regions, is called Kuśadvīpa. Its master is Hiraṇyaretā, another son of Mahārāja Priyavrata, and its inhabitants worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead in the form of Agni, the fire-god. The width of this island is 6,400,000 miles, or, in other words, twice the width of Sālmalīdvīpa.

SB 5.20.7, Translation:

Plakṣadvīpa is surrounded by an ocean of sugarcane juice, equal in breadth to the island itself. Similarly, there is then another island—Sālmalīdvīpa—twice as broad as Plakṣadvīpa (400,000 yojanas, or 3,200,000 miles) and surrounded by an equally broad body of water called Surāsāgara, the ocean that tastes like liquor.

SB 5.20.8, Translation:

On Sālmalīdvīpa there is a śālmalī tree, from which the island takes its name. That tree is as broad and tall as the plakṣa tree—in other words 100 yojanas (800 miles) broad and 1,100 yojanas (8,800 miles) tall. Learned scholars say that this gigantic tree is the residence of Garuḍa, the king of all birds and carrier of Lord Viṣṇu. In that tree, Garuḍa offers Lord Viṣṇu his Vedic prayers.

SB 5.20.9, Translation:

The son of Mahārāja Priyavrata named Yajñabāhu, the master of Sālmalīdvīpa, divided the island into seven tracts of land, which he gave to his seven sons. The names of those divisions, which correspond to the names of the sons, are Surocana, Saumanasya, Ramaṇaka, Deva-varṣa, Pāribhadra, Āpyāyana and Avijñāta.

SB 5.20.12, Translation:

(The inhabitants of Śālmalīdvīpa worship the demigod of the moon in the following words.) By his own rays, the moon-god has divided the month into two fortnights, known as śukla and kṛṣṇa, for the distribution of food grains to the pitās and the demigods. The demigod of the moon is he who divides time, and he is the king of all the residents of the universe. We therefore pray that he may remain our king and guide, and we offer him our respectful obeisances.

SB 5.20.13, Translation and Purport:

Outside the ocean of liquor is another island, known as Kuśadvīpa, which is 800,000 yojanas (6,400,000 miles) wide, twice as wide as the ocean of liquor. As Śālmalīdvīpa is surrounded by a liquor ocean, Kuśadvīpa is surrounded by an ocean of liquid ghee as broad as the island itself. On Kuśadvīpa there are clumps of kuśa grass, from which the island takes its name. This kuśa grass, which was created by the demigods by the will of the Supreme Lord, appears like a second form of fire, but with very mild and pleasing flames. Its young shoots illuminate all directions.

From the descriptions in this verse, we can make an educated guess about the nature of the flames on the moon. Like the sun, the moon must also be full of flames because without flames there cannot be illumination. The flames on the moon, however, unlike those on the sun, must be mild and pleasing. This is our conviction. The modern theory that the moon is full of dust is not accepted in the verses of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. In regard to this verse, Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura says, suśaṣpāṇi sukomala-śikhās teṣāṁ rociṣā: the kuśa grass illuminates all directions, but its flames are very mild and pleasing. This gives some idea of the flames existing on the moon.

CC Madhya-lila

CC Madhya 20.218, Translation and Purport:

“Within the universe the Lord is situated in different spiritual manifestations. These are situated on seven islands in nine sections. Thus Their pastimes are going on.

The seven islands are mentioned in the Siddhānta-śiromaṇi:

bhūmer ardhaṁ kṣāra-sindhor udak-sthaṁ

jambu-dvīpaṁ prāhur ācārya-varyāḥ

ardhe ’nyasmin dvīpa-ṣaṭkasya yāmye

kṣāra-kṣīrādy-ambudhīnāṁ niveśaḥ

śākaṁ tataḥ śālmalam atra kauśaṁ

krauñcaṁ ca gomedaka-puṣkare ca

dvayor dvayor antaram ekam ekaṁ

samudrayor dvīpam udāharanti

The seven islands (dvīpas) are known as (1) Jambu, (2) Śāka, (3) Śālmalī, (4) Kuśa, (5) Krauñca, (6) Gomeda, or Plakṣa, and (7) Puṣkara. 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. There are nine khaṇḍas, known as (1) Bhārata, (2) Kinnara, (3) Hari, (4) Kuru, (5) Hiraṇmaya, (6) Ramyaka, (7) Ilāvṛta, (8) Bhadrāśva and (9) Ketumāla. These are different parts of Jambudvīpa. A valley between two mountains is called a khaṇḍa or varṣa.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Prabhupāda: No, no, but the son is the king, but he is ruling over the ocean?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, he is ruling over the dvīpa.

Bhakti-prema: Yes, he rotated around the mountain area. Seven times he went. And then to (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: Now, oceans, but there is no inhabitant.

Bhakti-prema: No.

Prabhupāda: Simply ocean.

Bhakti-prema: There are no dvīpas, no islands. Islands are surrounded by oceans rather than(?) oceans are surrounded by islands.

Prabhupāda: So what is his kingdom?

Bhakti-prema: An island... Islands are so big, very big.

Prabhupāda: Where is the island?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There.

Yaśodā-nandana: The islands are surrounding the oceans. It goes in a circle. There's a whole ocean surrounding one island. And each island is divided by seven mountains and seven rivers, and the main sons of Mahārāja Priyavrata, they also have sons, and each one of those seven divisions are being ruled by the seven grandsons of Mahārāja Priyavrata too.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In other words, Śrīla Prabhupāda, Priyavrata had seven children on seven islands, and each one of them had seven children. So each son of Priyavrata divided his island in seven parts, and it was given to one of the grandsons of Priyavrata. We could not show that because it's so small. This is drawn exactly to scale. In order to include all of the Bhū-maṇḍala we had to make everything up very small because, as you'll see, most of Bhū-maṇḍala is made of Loka-varṣa and Lokāloka mountain. Everything else is very small compared to those two.

Yaśodā-nandana: Surrounding the sugarcane ocean, there is Śālmalidvīpa, where again there are seven divisions of land, seven rivers...

Prabhupāda: So island and surrounded by ocean, like that.

Bhakti-prema: Yes.

Yaśodā-nandana: Śālmalidvīpa is this purple here. Still, it is very difficult to see. And surrounding Śālmalidvīpa is an ocean of liquor, Surā-sāgara. There's an ocean of liquor. There is Kuśadvīpa.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Which one is that?

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.

Yaśodā-nandana: Past this golden land, until here, is the Lokāloka Mountain, which is the border between this Aloka-varṣa, or the uninhabited land, and the inhabited place. This Aloka-varṣa is constituted by a protective mountain that stops the rays of the sun to go beyond this portion. And it goes very, very high, it is described. It goes higher than Dhruvaloka. So the whole planetary system of Bhū-maṇḍala is like a big lotus flower with very high, high petals. It is very wonderful.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Which is that Lokāloka?

Yaśodā-nandana: This is the Lokāloka mountain.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Just see how much it is, Śrīla Prabhupāda. It's like the whole Bhū-maṇḍala is protected by a huge mountain.

Prabhupāda: Karach.(?)

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

Prabhupāda: The sun is above them?