The Śiśumāra Planetary Systems

Established by the supreme will of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the polestar, which is the plane of Maharaja Dhruva, constantly shines as the central pivot for all the stars and planes. The unsleeping, invisible, most powerful time factor causes these luminaries to revolve around the polestar without cessation.

When bulls are yoked together and tied to a central post to thresh rice, they tread around that pivot without deviating from their proper positions—one bull being closest to the post, another in the middle, and a third on the outside. Similarly, all the planes and all the hundreds and thousands of stars revolve around the polestar, the planet of Maharaja Dhruva, in their respective orbits, some higher and some lower. Fastened by the Supreme Personality of Godhead to the machine of material nature according to the results of their fruitive acts, they are driven around the polestar by the wind and will continue to be so until the end of creation. These planes float in the air within the vast sky, just as clouds with hundreds of tons of water float in the air or as the great syena eagles, due to the results of past activities, fly high in the sky and have no chance of falling to the ground.

This great machine, consisting of the stars and planes, resembles the form of a sisumara (dolphin) in the water. It is sometimes considered an incarnation of Krsna, Vasudeva. Great yogis meditate upon Vasudeva in this form because it is actually visible.

This form of the sisumara has its head downward and its body coiled. On the end of its tail is the plane of Dhruva, on the body of its tail are the planes of the demigods Prajapati, Agni, Indra and Dharma, and at the base of its tail are the planets of the demigods Dhata and Vidhata. Where the hips might be on the sisumara are the seven saintly sages like Vasistha and Angira. The coiled body of the Sisumara-cakra turns toward its right side, on which the fourteen constellations from Abhijit to Punarvasu are located. On its left side are the fourteen stars from Pusya to Uttarasadha. Thus its body is balanced because its sides are occupied by an equal number of stars. On the back of the sisumara is the group of stars known as Ajavithi, and on its abdomen is the Ganges that flows in the sky (the Milky Way).

On the right and left sides of where the loins might be on the Sisumara-cakra are the stars named Punarvasu and Pusya. Ardra and Aslesa are on its right and left feet, Abhijit and Uttarasadha are on its right and left nostrils, Sravana and Purvasadha are at its right and left eyes, and Dhanistha and Mula are on its right and left ears. The eight stars from Magha to Anuradha, which mark the southern course, are on the ribs of the left of its body, and the eight stars from Mrgasirsa to Purvabhadra, which mark the northern course, are on the ribs on the right side. Satabhisa and Jyestha are on the right and left shoulders.

On the upper chin of the sisumara is Agasti; on its lower chin, Yamaraja; on its mouth, Mars; on its genitals, Saturn; on the back of its neck, Jupiter; on its chest, the sun; and within the core of its heart, Narayana. Within its mind is the moon; on its navel, Venus; and on its breasts, the Asvini-kumaras. Within its life air, which is known as pranapana, is Mercury, on its neck is Rahu, all over its body are comets, and in its pores are the numerous stars.

My dear King, the body of the sisumara, as thus described, should be considered the external form of Lord Visnu, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

The body of the Supreme Lord, Visnu, which forms the Sisumara-cakra, is the resting place of all the demigods and all the stars and planes. One who chants this mantra to worship that Supreme Person three times a day—morning, noon and evening—will surely be freed from all sinful reactions. If one simply offers his obeisances to this form or remembers this form three times a day, all his recent sinful activities will be destroyed.