Text 26] The Lord in the Heart 103

yamanam—burning into ashes; sah—he; niriksya—be seeing this; visvam—
the universe ;niryati—goes out; siddhesvara-yusta-dhisnyam—airplanes used
by the great purified souls; yat—the place; vai—wherein; parardhyam—
15,480,000,000,000 solar years; tat—that; u—the exalted; pdramesthyam
—Satyaloka, where Brahmi resides.

TRANSLATION

At the time of final devastation of the complete universe [the end of
the duration of the life of Brahma], a flame of fire emanates from the
mouth of Ananta [from the bottom]. He sees all the planets of the
universe burning into ashes, and thus he leaves for the Satyaloka by air-

planes used by the great purified souls. The duration of life in Satyaloka
is calculated to 15,400,000,000,000 years.

PURPORT

It is indicated herein that the residents of Maharloka, where the purified
living entities or demigods possess a duration of life that is calculated to
be 4,300,000,000 solar years, have airships by which they reach the
Satyaloka, the topmost planet of the universe. In other words, the Srimad-
Bhagavatam gives us many clues about other planets far, far away from us
which modern planes and spacecraft cannot reach, even by imaginary
speeds. The statements of Srimad-Bhagavatam are accepted by great
acaryas like Sridhara Svami, Ramanujacarya, Vallabhacarya, etc. Lord
Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu specifically accepts Srimad-Bhdgavatam as the
spotless Vedic authority, and as such no sane man can ignore the state-
ments of Srimad-Bhaégavatam when it is spoken by the self-realized soul
Srila Sukadeva Gosvami, who follows the footsteps of his great father Srila
Vyasadeva, the compiler of all Vedic literatures. In the creation of the
Lord there are many wonderful things which we can see with our own eyes
every day and night, but we are unable to reach them equipped by modern
materialistic science. We should not, therefore, depend on the fragmentary
authority of materialistic science for knowing things beyond the range of
scientific purview. For a common man, both modern science and Vedic
wisdom are simply to be accepted only because none of the statements,
either of modern science or of Vedic literature, can be verified by him. The
alternative for a common man is to believe either of them or both of them.
The Vedic way of understanding is, however, more authentic because it
