Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 185

A PROCESS OF MEDITATION
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which that deity slew the giant Hirannyaksha. After
having thoroughly realized the idea that this Avatara is
the most celebrated of all in the Kali-yuga, he worships
the pig god.
He reminds himself that
4. He must think of Manu.
there are fourteen Manus, of which the names are Svaro-
chisha, Tamasa, Svayambhuva, Raivata, &c. &c, and that
they reign over the fourteen worlds during the hundred
As Vaivaswata
gods' years that Brahma's life will last.
Manu is now in power in the Kali-yuga, in which the
Hindus are living at this present time, he offers him worship.
He must recollect
5. He must think of the Kali-yuga.
that we are at present in the early part of this yuga.
This is the con-
6. He must think of Jambu-Dwipa.
He pictures it to him-
tinent in which India is situated.
self as surrounded by a sea of salt water, having in the centre
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a mountain of gold sixteen thousand yojanas high, called
which
the gods
summits
of
Mahameru, on the thousand
have fixed their abode. He must remember that at the
foot of this mountain on the east side grows the Jambu-
vruksha, a tree which is a thousand yojanas high and as
many in circumference that the juice of the fruits of this
tree, which fall of their own accord when ripe, forms a
large river which flows towards the west, where it mingles
that the water of this
its waters with those of the sea
river possesses the power of converting everything it
touches into gold, for which reason it has been called the
Bangaru-nadi or Golden River. The Brahmin must not
omit to think of this sacred tree, nor yet of the continent
;
;
Jambu-Dwipa, where it is situated.
He must think of the great king Bharata, who at
one time governed Jambu-Dwipa and whose reign forms
one of the Hindu eras.
8. He must think of the side of the Mahameru which
of
7.
is to say, of the west side of this sacred
he lives to the west of it, of the east, if he
faces him, that
mountain,
if
lives to the east of
it,
&c.
The ordinary yojana is about nine miles, but the sacred yojana
which is here mentioned, is very much longer. Dubois.
Yojana literally means the distance driven at a yoking or stretch
equal to four krodas, or about nine English miles. Ed.
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