Gati, Kāy, Tatva, Ātmā, Danḋak, Dravya were enjoying a break between their classes at the campus coffee house.
“After the last session on the structure of lok, I am still wondering where are we in it”, triggered Ātmā.
“In madhya lok. Where else?”, replied Gati.
Ya ya that was clear. But where in madhya lok? You remember, even the madhya lok is 1 rajju wide, right?
“What a unit? Innumerous yojan. Did you guys check the video? I had never thought, if anything like that would exist: finite but inexpressible”, added Dravya.
Most of them nodded yes.
“Yes yes, I think inummerous was curious enough, for us to watch it”, supported Tatva.
“Did you go through the reference book as well?”, further asked Dravya.
“You mean ‘Enigma of the Universe‘, right?. I have just started reading it”, answered Kāy.
“I had done some selected multiple book readings in search of where in madhya lok are we”, said Danḋak.
“Hey, then why don’t you share that with us?”, requested Ātmā.
Not yet completely understood.
That’s fine. You share what you have read and let’s discuss and see if we can find more insights. Otherwise, anyways we’ll go to the professor and ask him.
“That sound’s great”, came a chorus.
“The madhya lok consists of inummerous islands and oceans, alternately”, started Danḋak.
“Again innumerous?”, expressed a bothered Dravya.
Yes. Reference to innumerous would be coming back so much in understanding the world we live in, that guys who have not seen the suggested video, must watch it and convince yourself about such thing called innumerous.
And does alternately mean that islands & oceans alternate?
Yes. The centre most island is jambū-dwīp, 1 lakh (i.e. 100 thousand) yojan wide.
“yojan is same 4000 miles, right?”, confirmed Tatva.
Yes. Around it is the ocean lavaṅ-samudra, 2 lakh yojan wide. Then comes another island dhātki-khand, 4 lakh yojan wide around the lavaṅ-samudra. Then, again an ocean kalodadhi-samudra, 8 lakh yojan wide around the dhātki-khand …
“Yes, yes. We understand and such thing continues for innumerous islands and oceans”, interrupted Gati.
Yes. But, I’d mention just one last more.
“What’s so special about it?”, again interrupted Gati.
Let me speak. Around the kalodadhi-samudra is the island puṡkar-dwīp, 16 lakh yojan wide. Now, out of all innumerous islands & oceans in madhya lok, humans exist only in this set of ḋhāī-dwīp, meaning two and a half islands, making these special.
But what is this two and a half, they are three islands, right?
Yes, but only half of the third is inhabited by humans.
“What about the remaining half, or for that matter all other islands? Does no life exist there?”, quizzed Ātmā.
No, no. Only humans don’t exist there. Tiriyanch would be there. And as per the various width just mentioned, ḋhāī-dwīp spans across 1 (jambū-dwīp) + 2 * 2 (lavaṅ-samudra) + 2 * 4 (dhātki-khand) + 2 * 8 (kalodadhi-samudra) + 1/2 * 2 * 16 (half puṡkar-dwīp) = 45 lakh yojan.
Based on the dimensions, these islands seem to be not our usual islands, but some other big universal piece.
Yes, for me too. And so even the reference to ocean seems to be something other than the usual earthly oceans. Need to research more details on that. And, it could possibly mean that there is extraterrestrial life.
“And we may possibly be able to interact with them”, said excited Tatva.
May be. But not immediate, as the distances are huge compared to our reachability today.
“At least, do we know, which of the three islands are we inside?”, continued Ātmā.
Yes, we are inside jambū-dwīp. Not only that, there is further detailing of where we are. Each island consists of two types of regions: karma-bhūmi and akarma-bhūmi. First one where people earn their living, and second one where living needs are satisfied directly by nature, especially kalp-vrikṡ.
“Wow! What a relaxed life would be there in the akarma-bhūmi?”, expressed Dravya.
“What relaxed? It would be so boring – nothing to do”, interrupted Gati.
“Actually, the humans there are yougalik, who live in quite a blissful life, in pairs, without much of needs – hence the question itself of earning, boring etc doesn’t arise”, continued Danḋak.
“Yeah, you seem to have figured out a lot”, praised Ātmā.
No yaar. Just what I have read and understood. In fact, in our region also, we had such a situation in the past. But in our region, the situation keeps changing – in akarma-bhūmi it doesn’t.
Meaning we are in one of the karma-bhūmi.
Yes. There are three types of karma-bhūmi: bharat, airāvat, mahāvideh; and six types of akarma-bhūmi: devkuru, uttarkuru, harivarṡ, ramyakvarṡ, hemvat, hairaṅyavat. We are in bharat karma-bhūmi of jambū-dwīp.
You mean other islands have also similar regions.
Yes. Both dhātki-khand and half of puṡkar-dwīp has two of each of the above nine types of regions, thus making total of 9 + 18 + 18 = 45 regions in the ḋhāī-dwīp. Also, there is a mention of 56 more regions above lavaṅ-samudra (called antar-dwīp) for yougalik, thus making a total of all human residing regions as 45 + 56 = 101.
“Are the other regions, at least within jambū-dwīp, reachable by us?”, asked Tatva.
No. I guess not, because as per the dimensions, they also seem to be extraterrestrial.
“Then, seems like reaching out to the extraterrestrials within jambū-dwīp, might be the first step”, commented Tatva.
“Just a curious question, as the situation keeps changing in our region, could we get the blissful situation again?”, asked Dravya.
Yes, but I think the timeline for that to happen is huge – in inummerous units again.
“Hey guys! Let’s go, it’s time for the next class”, interrupted Gati.