Canto 3: The Status Quo | Chapter 5: Vidura's Talks with Maitreya |
Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 3.5.8
yais tattva-bhedair adhiloka-nātho
lokān alokān saha lokapālān
acīkḷpad yatra hi sarva-sattva-
nikāya-bhedo 'dhikṛtaḥ pratītaḥ
SYNONYMS
yaiḥ — by whom; tattva — truth; bhedaiḥ — by differentiation; adhiloka-nāthaḥ — the King of the kings; lokān — planets; alokān — planets of the lower region; saha — along with; loka-pālān — respective kings; acīkḷpat — planned; yatra — wherein; hi — certainly; sarva — all; sattva — existence; nikāya — living entities; bhedaḥ — difference; adhikṛtaḥ — occupied; pratītaḥ — it so appears.
TRANSLATION
The Supreme King of all kings has created different planets and places of habitation where living entities are situated in terms of the modes of nature and work, and He has created their different kings and rulers.
PURPORT
Lord Kṛṣṇa is the chief King of all kings, and He has created different planets for all kinds of living entities. Even on this planet there are different places for inhabitation by different types of men. There are places like deserts, ice lands, and valleys in mountainous countries, and in each of them there are different kinds of men born of different modes of nature according to their past deeds. There are people in the Arabian deserts and in the valleys of the Himalayan Mountains, and the inhabitants of these two places differ from one another, just as the inhabitants of the ice lands also differ from them. Similarly, there are also different planets. The planets below the earth down to the Pātāla planet are full of various kinds of living beings; no planet is vacant, as wrongly imagined by the modern so-called scientist. In Bhagavad-gītā we find it said by the Lord that the living entities are sarva-gata, or present in every sphere of life. So there is no doubt that on other planets there are also inhabitants like us, sometimes with greater intelligence and greater opulence. The living conditions for those of greater intelligence are more luxurious than on this earth. There are also planets where no sunlight reaches, and there are living entities who must live there due to their past deeds. All such plans for living conditions are made by the Supreme Lord, and Vidura requested Maitreya to describe this for the sake of further enlightenment.
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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness