जम्बूद्वीपस्य च राजन्नुपद्वीपानष्टौ हैक उपदिशन्ति सगरात्मजैर
श्वान्वेषण इमां महीं परितो निखनद्भिरुपकल्पितान् ॥२९॥ तद्यथा स्वर्णप्रस्थ
श्चन्द्रशुक्ल आवर्तनो रमणको मन्दरहरिणः पाञ्चजन्यः सिंहलो लङ्केति ॥३०॥
Å›rÄ«-Å›uka uvÄca
jambÅ«dvÄ«pasya ca rÄjann upadvÄ«pÄn aá¹£á¹au haika upadiÅ›anti sagarÄtmajair aÅ›vÄnveá¹£aṇa imÄá¹ mahÄ«á¹ parito nikhanadbhir upakalpitÄn; tad yathÄ svarṇaprasthaÅ› candraÅ›ukla Ävartano ramaṇako mandarahariṇaḥ pÄñcajanyaḥ siá¹halo laá¹…keti
Å›rÄ«-Å›ukaḥ uvÄca - ÅšrÄ« Åšukadeva GosvÄmÄ« continued to speak; jambÅ«dvÄ«pasya - of the island known as JambÅ«dvÄ«pa; ca - also; rÄjan - O King; upadvÄ«pÄn aá¹£á¹au - eight subordinate islands; ha - certainly; eke - some; upadiÅ›anti - learned scholars describe; sagara-Ätma-jaiḥ - by the sons of MahÄrÄja Sagara; aÅ›va-anveá¹£aṇe - while trying to find their lost horse; imÄm - this; mahÄ«m - tract of land; paritaḥ - all around; nikhanadbhiḥ - digging; upakalpitÄn - created; tat - that; yathÄ - as follows; svarṇa-prasthaḥ - Svarṇaprastha; candra-Å›uklaḥ - CandraÅ›ukla; Ävartanaḥ - Ä€vartana; ramaṇakaḥ - Ramaṇaka; mandara-hariṇaḥ - Mandara-hariṇa; pÄñcajanyaḥ - PÄñcajanya; siá¹halaḥ - Siá¹hala; laá¹…kÄ - Laá¹…kÄ; iti - thus.
ÅšrÄ« Åšukadeva GosvÄmÄ« said: My dear King, in the opinion of some learned scholars, eight smaller islands surround JambÅ«dvÄ«pa. When the sons of MahÄrÄja Sagara were searching all over the world for their lost horse, they dug up the earth, and in this way eight adjoining islands came into existence. The names of these islands are Svarṇaprastha, CandraÅ›ukla, Ä€vartana, Ramaṇaka, Mandara-hariṇa, PÄñcajanya, Siá¹hala and Laá¹…kÄ.
In the KÅ«rma PurÄṇa there is this statement about the desires of the demigods:
anadhikÄriṇo devÄḥ
svarga-sthÄ bhÄratodbhavam
vÄñchanty Ätma-vimoká¹£Ärtha-
mudrekÄrthe ’dhikÄriṇaḥ
Although the demigods are situated in exalted positions in the heavenly planets, they nevertheless desire to descend to the land of BhÄrata-vará¹£a on the planet earth. This indicates that even the demigods are unfit to reside in BhÄrata-vará¹£a. Therefore if persons already born in BhÄrata-vará¹£a live like cats and dogs, not taking full advantage of their birth in this land, they are certainly unfortunate.
