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GLIMPSES ALONG LIFE'S JOURNEY
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where men have to work for their livelihood are termed karna bhumis (lands of action). Only those who have performed highly meritorious deeds are born in bhogabhumis. The true bhogabhumis are, no doubt, heavens alone, where the conditions of life are the most pleasant, and which yield the utmost of satisfaction to the senses. The bhogabhumis come after the heavens, and are far superior to our earth, in respect of the pleasures that the people enjoy there.
The birth of the bhogabhumija is in the manner of the flesh in so far as a conception does take place there. It, however, differs from the ordinary manner of being born for humanity in so far as the full development of adolescence is attained only within a period of forty-nine days from the day of birth. But the parents are never destined to have the pleasure of beholding the faces of their progeny. They die the same instant that the children are born, the mother dying of a sneeze, and the father, of a yawn. The bhogabhumijas are born twins-a male and a female together. When they grow up they become husband and wife. They do not have to waste any part of their life in sleep; they do not perspire; and excrements are not formed in their bodies. Their eyes are always kept open, and they take -food after three days. The quantity taken is never
