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Sripad Mahaprabhu das's avatar

Hare Krishna, also in your previous article entitled The annual orbit of the sun, it is mentioned that sun is situated in antariksh which is above earthly plane. Then in that case it doesn't make sense that sun is on the equator of bhu mandala.

Caitanya Chandra Dasa's avatar

The universe extends for 500,000,000 yojanas vertically. The sun is about 10,000,000 yojanas from Earth horizontally, and just about 100,000 vertically, this is a very small elevation. Practically speaking, the sun is situated at the equator of Bhu-mandala.

This small elevation appears to result in the same phenomenon that is described in modern cosmology as the Earth being tilted.

Sripad Mahaprabhu das's avatar

Hare Krishna prabhuji, is there any reference for bhu mandala to be planetary system and not sold islands. The idea sounds good and also helps to understand northern and southern movement of sun. But a reference would be appreciated. Thanks

Caitanya Chandra Dasa's avatar

Hare Krsna! There is no direct reference of practically anything in the sastras. We can see that some people can't even find conclusive evidence that Kṛṣṇa is God. Practically everything has to be understood by context and from the conclusions given by self-realized souls, as well as inference and other indirect tools. In this case, that's the conclusion Prabhupada came to after carefully studying the text.

Sripad Mahaprabhu das's avatar

Then how can we understand that Pruthu Maharaj made these oceanns by the wheel of his chariot. That piece of information makes us feel that bhu mandala is not a planetary system but a flat disc

Caitanya Chandra Dasa's avatar

I was not there to see the exact process, but we can see that the modern theory was that the solar system was initially a cloud of gas and small solid grains that gradually grouped through gravity. According to Prabhupada's interpretation, Bhu-mandala is formed by many planets, so it could have been formed by the chariot playing a similar role. The description of the islands is thus an analogy to illustrate the point of many planets floating in space in delimited orbits.

Its also interesting to observe that Priyavrata rode the chariot in the same time frame it is believed he solar system was formed in modern cosmology.