the moon thing and a question

[Guest guest]

>Forgive me for interjecting, but is this the right way to talk about

>such things? Branding other people's notions sheer foolishness, and

>talking about slamming them?

 

Dear Rama Kesava prabhu,

 

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

 

Thank you for your reply and corrections, Rama Kesava prabhu. I should have

enclosed "sheer foolishness" in quotation marks to make it sound the way it

was really intended to. Sorry for making it so ambiguous.

 

In other words, I completely agree with you that we can and should always

use much milder and polite terms than the above in our verbal and written

debates, and that will not necessarily compromise the strength of our

arguments. Rather, when coupled with what Lord Krsna calls "van-mayam tapa"

in BG 17.15, arguments gain much more authority and penetration. And keep

opponents friends, too.

 

As for Srila PRabhupada's views on moon landing, Sadaputa prabhu gave a

thorough analysis of them in his Vedic Cosmography and Astronomy (quoted

below). There he showed that Srila Prabhupada did give the issue different

interpretations at different times - which in no way should undermine our

implicit faith in him as a perfect acarya.

 

>Please forgive me any offences I have caused, but I've been wanting to

>say this.

 

Please forgive me for mine.

 

Begging to remain,

 

your servant,

Madana-mohana das

 

* * *

 

6.c.1. The Moon Flight

 

®r…la Prabhup€da has often said that the astronauts have never actually

visited the moon. Since this is a very controversial topic, we will discuss

his various statements on this issue at some length. As we will see, these

statements mainly fall into two categories. These are (1) that the demigods

will not allow human beings to enter higher planets because human beings are

not qualified to do so, and (2) that the astronauts have not experienced the

celestial opulences actually existing on the moon, and therefore they could

not have gone there.

 

In SB 1.5.18p ®r…la Prabhup€da states, "Some are trying to reach the moon or

other planets by some mechanical arrangement.... But it is not to happen. By

the law of the Supreme, different places are meant for different grades of

living beings according to the work they have performed." He has said that

the moon, Venus, and the sun are inaccessible to the "inexperienced

scientists" because they are higher planets that can be attained only by

works done in the mode of goodness (SB 2.8.14p). He has described the

attempt of the scientists of this earth to reach the moon as being as

demonic as the attack of R€hu (SB 5.24.3p), and has said that such travel

will be barred by Indra, who has a standard policy of preventing unqualified

people from reaching the heavenly planets (SB 8.11.5p). Thus the immigration

policy of the demigods is one important reason ®r…la Prabhup€da gives for

why the astronauts could not have gone to the moon.

 

®r…la Prabhup€da frequently uses the fact that the astronauts did not

experience the celestial conditions on the moon as evidence that they did

not go there. Thus he points out that the astronauts did not meet anyone on

the moon, "what to speak of meeting the moon's predominating deity" (SB

4.22.54p). In SB 6.4.6p and 8.5.34p he comments that since the moon-god is

the presiding deity of vegetation, there must be vegetation on the moon, and

yet the scientists say that it is a barren desert. In SB 2.3.11p, 8.2.14p,

and 8.22.32p, he cites the scientists' lack of knowledge of the variety of

life on other planets as evidence that the moon trip failed. And in SB

10.3.27p he argues that those who reach the moon attain a life of 10,000

years, and thus the astronauts could not have gone.

 

®r…la Prabhup€da makes several statements suggesting that higher-dimensional

travel is needed to reach the moon. Thus in SB 1.9.45p he r efers to the

futility of trying to use mechanical spacecraft, and says that finer methods

are needed. In SB 3.32.3p he points out that "it is not possible to reach

the moon by any material vehicle like a sputnik," even though it hardly

seems impossible to hurl a gross material object over a few thousand miles

of space, or even several million. Finally, he indicates that to reach the

orbit of the moon, it is first necessary to cross the M€nasa Lake and Sumeru

Mountain (LB, p. 48). As we have already pointed out, no ordinary trajectory

to the moon will pass by these particular landmarks.

 

We therefore suggest that when ®r…la Prabhup€da says that the astronauts did

not go to the moon, he is referring to higher-dimensional travel to the

celestial realm of the moon. From the Vedic point of view it is natural to

interpret "travel to the moon" as travel in this sense. After all, if the

moon is actually a celestial planet, then a journey to a place full of

nothing but dust and rocks certainly couldn't count as a trip to the moon.

In an interview with a reporter in 1968 ®r…la Prabhup€da stressed that the

human body is not suited to live in the atmosphere of the moon. When asked

whether spacesuits could make up for this deficiency, he said that if we

could use scientific methods to change the nature of our bodies, then we

might be able to visit the moon. But he regarded this possibility as very

remote, and said that the spacesuits would not be sufficient.

 

When the reporter asked whether the inhabitants of the moon would be visible

or invisible, ®r…la Prabhup€da said that they would be "almost invisible,"

with subtle material bodies (CN, p. 179). This implies that the world of the

demigods, including their dwellings, food, conveyances, and so on, would

also be invisible to us. By definition, such a world is higher-dimensional:

it is invisible to us but not to the beings living in it. To enter into it,

we would indeed require more than a spacesuit: we would also need an

"invisible" bodily form that could interact with the world of the lunar

demigods.

 

This leaves open the question of whether or not the astronauts traveled in

three-dimensional space to the moon that we directly perceive in the sky. We

have pointed out that a higher-dimensional location can have a

three-dimensional projection, just as a three-dimensional office address in

New York City (given by avenue, street, and floor) has a two-dimensional

projection (namely avenue and street). Thus the astronauts may have gone to

the three-dimensional location of the moon without making the

higher-dimensional journey needed to actually reach the kingdom of Candra.

This would be comparable to visiting Vnd€vana on the earth without being

able to perceive the spiritual world that is actually there.

 

This is a definite possibility, although we do not know for certain whether

it is true. A second possibility is that the astronauts may have been

deluded by the demigods at some stage of their journey and may never have

reached the gross moon planet. Thus, ®r…la Prabhup€da has suggested that the

astronauts may have been diverted to the planet R€hu (SB 4.29.69p). A third

possibility, of course, is that the true story of the moon trip has been

obscured by manmade illusions. ®r…la Prabhup€da has expressed doubt as to

the honesty of the moon explorers, both in the Bh€gavatam 5.17.4p and in

private conversations.

 

 

 

 

Your servant,

Madana-mohana das