Text 63
udyānāni ca ramyāṇi
vicitrair amara-drumaiḥ
kūjat-vihaṅga-mithunair
gāyan-matta-madhuvrataiḥ
udyānāni — gardens; ca — also; ramyāṇi — very beautiful; vicitraiḥ — various; amara-drumaiḥ — with trees brought from the heavenly planets; kūjat — singing; vihaṅga — of birds; mithunaiḥ — with pairs; gāyat — humming; matta — mad; madhu-vrataiḥ — with bumblebees.
The King’s residence was surrounded by gardens wherein there were varieties of trees brought from the heavenly planets. In those trees there were pairs of sweetly singing birds and almost-mad bumblebees, which made a very relishable buzzing sound.
In this verse the word amara-drumaiḥ, “with trees brought from the heavenly planets,” is very significant. The heavenly planets are known as Amaraloka, the planets where death is very much delayed, because the people there live for ten thousand years according to the calculations of the demigods, in which our six months are equal to one day. The demigods live in the heavenly planets for months, years and ten-thousands of years according to demigod time, and then again, after the results of their pious activities are exhausted, they fall down to this earth. These are the statements that can be collected from Vedic literature. As the people there live for ten thousand years, so also do the trees. Of course, here on this earth there are many trees which live for ten thousand years, so what to speak of the trees on the heavenly planets? They must live for more than many ten-thousands of years, and sometimes, as practiced even now, some valuable trees are taken from one place to another.
It is elsewhere stated that when Lord Kṛṣṇa went to the heavenly planets with His wife Satyabhāmā He took a pārijāta flower tree from heaven and brought it to the earth. There was a fight between Kṛṣṇa and the demigods due to the pārijāta tree’s being taken from heaven to this planet. The pārijāta was planted in the palace of Lord Kṛṣṇa which was occupied by Queen Satyabhāmā. The flower and fruit trees in the heavenly planets are superior, for they are very pleasant and tasteful, and it appears that in the palace of Mahārāja Uttānapāda there were many varieties of such trees.