Inquiries Into the Absolute: Digest 151, Moon Landing

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Digest 151, January 10th, 2006. Answers by His Holiness Romapada Swami Maharaja

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Moon Landing

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Q: When we look at the sky at night do we see the moon or some other planet

like Rahu? I have a lot of trouble explaining and understanding the whole lunar

controversy. I am willing to accept that the lunar mission landed elsewhere

other than the moon. I just feel like a stubborn idiot when trying to defend

Srila Prabhupada's comments on the matter by using the theory that the whole

landing was filmed in some fake stage. The hard bit is to accept that the lunar

mission traveled towards the moon that we see in the night sky, but didn’t get

there.

 

Answer: Srila Prabhupada, based on his firm conviction in the Vedic truth,

challenged the lunar-mission on two accounts: (1) it is not possible to reach

the heavenly moon by mechanical means; (2) the moon is not a barren desert

devoid of life.

 

According to Vedic evidence, the moon is counted among the heavenly planets and

is inhabited by heavenly denizens who live for 10,000 years and is presided by

the Deity Candra; only those with much pious credits can enter the moon, and

that only after attaining a suitable body fit to live there. Even if humans

made the effort for mechanical travel towards the moon, we are dependent on the

authority of Candra to actually reach there. Therefore, Srila Prabhupada was

convinced that man could not have landed on the moon.

 

One explanation offered by Prabhupada was perhaps they were deluded and

diverted by higher authorities to the invisible planet Rahu (incidentally, Rahu

is connected to the ascending node of the moon, astronomically.) He also

offered other possible explanations, including one that the whole thing might

have been faked (which, by the way, is a prominent proposal by several modern

writers).

 

In any case, the basic principle that Prabhupada wanted us to understand is the

unreliability of empirical methods which are always open to question. At

present, we do not have sufficient empiric facts to prove either way, while

based on Vedic assertions, to the contrary, he urged us to think and question

rather than blindly accept the claim of man landing on the moon and finding it

lifeless.

 

One of the scientist-disciples of Prabhupada, Sadaputa dasa, who has done much

work in laying the scientific framework for understanding the cosmological

materials from Bhagavatam, explores this subject from a higher-dimensional

perspective: A higher dimensional realm may have a 3-dimensional location, just

as a three-dimensional object has its location in two-dimensional space. For

example, if one needs to reach a certain office in Manhattan, one could move

up, down and across the grid of streets and arrive at the right address, and

yet may not be able to perceive the office one is looking for; to reach the

actual destination, they may have to further move 50 stories in the vertical

dimension, and a being whose sense-perception is restricted to two-dimensions

only cannot access this region. (Cf. Vedic Cosmography and Astronomy by

Sadaputa Dasa, Ch 3) This is a crude example but by way of drawing a parallel,

even supposing that astronauts might have reached the phenomenal moon –- which

the event itself is not

beyond question -- even so, they still could not have made the

higher-dimensional travel necessary to perceive the moon's heavenly inhabitants

and surroundings. Being restricted in the gross realm, they would have had to

return with the impressions of a lifeless planet.

 

For those who are scientifically trained and keen on such details, there are

works as mentioned above that analyze this subject with technical rigor. For

our purposes or in preliminary discussions with others, however, it would

suffice to stick to the basic principle of establishing faith in Vedic

authority, which is our goal, rather than get into involved technical debates.

 

Important Related Digests:

Mars and Moon Missions: Digest 151

http://iskcondc.org/cgi-bin/renderphilo.pl?digestname=digest149

About Sun and Stars: Digest 150

http://iskcondc.org/cgi-bin/renderphilo.pl?digestname=digest150

 

 

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Responses to Some Frequently Asked Questions (Karma, free-will, demigods, Lord

Siva, why are we here, how to control the mind, Deity worship, marriage, Jesus

Christ, spiritual and material relationships and morality of Lord Krsna's

conjugal pastimes, spiritual master, spirit soul/jiva/living entity):

http://www.iskcondc.org/cgi-bin/renderphilo.pl?digestname=digest999_faq

 

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