Paradise

Created by Jijith Nadumuri at 24 Jul 2011 15:36 and updated at 24 Jul 2011 15:36

VISHNU PURANA NOUN

vp.2.2

and Kailasa extend, east and west, eighty Yojanas in breadth, from sea to sea. Nishadha and Pariyatra are the limitative mountains on the west, stretching, like those on the east, between the Nila and Nishadha ranges: and the mountains Trisringa and Jarudhi are the northern limits of Meru, extending, east and west, between the two seas 14. Thus I have repeated to you the mountains described by great sages as the boundary mountains, situated in pairs, on each of the four sides of Meru. Those also, which have been mentioned as the filament mountains (or spurs), sitanta and the rest, are exceedingly delightful. The vallies embosomed amongst them are the favourite resorts of the Siddhas and Charanas: and there are situated upon them agreeable forests, and pleasant cities, embellished with the palaces of Vishnu, Lakshmi, Agni, Surya, and other deities, and peopled by celestial spirits; whilst the Yakshas, Rakshasas, Daityas, and Danavas pursue their pastimes in the vales. These, in short, are the regions of Paradise, or Swarga, the seats of the righteous, and where the wicked do not arrive even after a hundred births.

vp.2.3

In the Bharata varsha it is that the succession of four Yugas, or ages, the Krita, the Treta, the Dwapara, and Kali, takes place; that pious ascetics engage in rigorous penance; that devout men offer sacrifices; and that gifts are distributed; all for the sake of another world. In Jambu dwipa, Vishnu, consisting of sacrifice, is worshipped, as the male of sacrificial rites, with sacrificial ceremonies: he is adored under other forms elsewhere. Bharata is therefore the best of the divisions of Jambu dwipa, because it is the land of works: the others are places of enjoyment alone. It is only after many thousand births, and the aggregation of much merit, that living beings are sometimes born in Bharata as men. The gods themselves exclaim, "Happy are those who are born, even from the condition of gods, as men in Bharata varsha, as that is the way to the pleasures of Paradise, or the greater blessing of final liberation. Happy are they who, consigning all the unheeded rewards of their acts to the supreme and eternal Vishnu, obtain existence in that land of works, as their path to him. We know not, when the acts that have obtained us heaven shall have been fully recompensed 7, where we shall renew corporeal confinement; but we know that those men are fortunate who are born with perfect faculties 8 in Bharata varsha."

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