308 Srimad-Bhagavatam [Canto 5, Ch. 20

Surrounding these planetary systems are the eight directions, namely
east. west, north, south, northeast, southeast, northwest and southwest.
Lokaloka Mountain has been established as the outer boundary of all the
lokas to distribute the rays of the sun and other luminaries equally
throughout the universe.

This vivid description of how the rays of the sun are distributed
throughout the different planetary systems of the universe is very scien-
tific. Sukadeva Gosvami described these universal affairs to Maharaja
Pariksit as he had heard about them from his predecessor. He explained
these facts five thousand years ago, but the knowledge existed long, long
before because Sukadeva Gosvami received it through disciplic succes-
sion. Because this knowledge is accepted through the disciplic succession,
it is perfect. The history of modern scientific knowledge, on the contrary,
does not go back more than a few hundred years. Therefore, even if
modern scientists do not accept the other factual presentations of
Srimad-Bhagavatam, how can they deny the perfect astronomical
calculations that existed long before they could imagine such things?
There is so much information to gather from Srimad-Bhagavatam.
Modern scientists, however, have no information of other planetary
systems and, indeed, are hardly conversant with the planet on which we
are now living.

TEXT 38

Taree Aaaqueentaltrafera: aff: a
SF TATA MTA GTATTISA SUBSTAN

etaval loka-vinydso mana-laksana-samsthabhir vicintitah kavibhih sa
tu pancdsat-koti-ganitasya bhi-golasya turiya-bhago ’yam
lokdlokdacalah.

etavan—this much; loka-vinydsah—the placing of the different
planets; mdéna—with measurements; laksana—symptoms;
samsthabhih—as well as with their different situations; vicintitah—es-
tablished by scientific calculations; kavibhih—by learned scholars;
sah—that; tu—but; paricdsat-koti—500.000,000 yojanas; ganitasya—
which is measured at; bhi-golasya—of the planetary system known as
