SACRED ISLES IN THE WEST. 123 



%ovn again in hdia, in any of the four tribes, hidia'is called Punya- 

 hhumi, or the land ©f righteousness; not because it prevails there, but be- 

 cause it may be obtained there. It is called also the land of the law, or 

 precepts to be followed, in order to obtain either eternal bliss, or heaven. 

 The other countries are called Bhoga-bhumi or land of enjoyment, be- 

 cause people from Lidia go there to enjoy the due reward of their merir 

 torious lives. Of course they are incapable either of merits Or demerits, 

 in these countries or dwipas, ^hich. are six in number, and are called 

 (S't«^^r^^-6/i^w/, or heavenly earth, or land. The inhabitants of the^ B^hite 

 Island, immediately after death, go back to hidia, from which they 

 came, there to be born again in a station suitable to their merits. Those, 

 who inhabit the intermediate dwipasydo not always, fall back immediately 

 to India; but, according to circumstances, are either advanced to another 

 dwipa,o{ a superior rank, or lowered into an inferior one, before they 

 transmigrate Ipack to India, In ^Sweta-dwipa and other islands, it is de- 

 clared that thera is no law, and the inhabitants thereof are not capable 

 either of merits or demerits* When Nahusha, or Noah, wanted In- 

 dra'ni, or the wife of Indra, to favour his passion for her, she pleaded 

 her duty as an insurmountable barrier: he answered, " well, let us go 

 " out of Jambu, into the other dwfpas, the land of enjoyment, and dal« 

 " liance." This is nearly the do61:rine of the Jewish church : for the 

 Jezvs were born under the law, and their country was really pimya-' 

 hhumi:. the gentiles were born without the law, and of course, says the 

 apostle, they perish without the law, 



SwERGA, in SaJiscrity signifies a terrestrial paradise ; and there are 

 many : one on the summit of Me'ju or Olympus, where reside the superior 

 forms of the deity: the others are in tlie dzvipas. Swerga tlicn answers 



