Starman Posted January 7, 2004 Report Share Posted January 7, 2004 Hare Krishna, Recently, I came across a website talking about Krishna Consciousness, Shrila Prabhupada and the Vedas, in this article they were talking about how we never landed on the moon and how it was all lie. In the article in cited that it was impossible for us to land on the moon because of the fact that in the Vedas it states that the moon is actually further away than the sun by a million miles or so, and how it would be impossible to travel that far and back again in the 7(?) days or so it took for the supposed moon landing. My question is this: Do devotees of the Krishna Consciousness movement agree with this view that the moon is farther from us than the sun? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theist Posted January 7, 2004 Report Share Posted January 7, 2004 Starman, this controversy has been around along time. There are materialist groups who also say it was faked for varying reasons. For me I don't really care. I view the moon as a prop,like the sun and mars. They have a fixed amount of time to remain in their positions and then they will fall. If we stick to eternal concerns our faith will become well grounded and will surely grow. Here is Prabhupada's letter answering another devotees concern on this topic and also the Hitler question which for some reason some people think important. --------------------------- My Dear Krsnadasa, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated October 30, 1972, and I have noted the contents. It appears that you are again constantly disturbed by the same nonsense doubts. These things are not very important, we may not waste our time with these insignificant questions. If we are seeking to find out some fault, maya will give us all facility to find any small thing and make it very big, that is maya. But such questions as yours: why there is so-called discrepancy between the views of Bhagavat and modern scientists regarding the moon and other planets, and whether Hitler is good or bad man, these are most insignificant matters, and for anyone who is sincerely convinced that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, for him these questions do not arise. Our information comes from Vedas, and if we believe Krishna, that vedaham samatitani vartamanani carjuna bhavisyani ca bhutani mam tu veda na kascana [bg. 7.26] that He knows everything, and ``vedais ca sarvair aham eva vedyo vedanta-krd veda-vid eva caham,'' that Krishna is non-different from Vedas, then these questions do not arise. But because you have asked me, I am your spiritual master, I must try to answer to your satisfaction. Yes, sometimes in Vedas such things like the asura's decapitated head chasing after Candraloka, sometimes it is explained allegorically. Just like now we are explaining in 4th Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam the story of King Puranjana. Just like the living entity is living within this body, and the body is described there as city with nine gates, the intelligence as the Queen. So there are sometimes allegorical explanations. So there are many things which do not corroborate with the so-called modern science, because they are explained in that way. But where is the guarantee that modern science is also correct? So we are concerned with Krishna Consciousness, and even though there is some difference of opinion between modern science and allegorical explanation in the Bhagavat, we have to take the essence of Srimad-Bhagavatam and utilize it for our higher benefit, without bothering about the correctness of the modern science or the allegorical explanation sometimes made in Srimad-Bhagavatam. But this is a fact that in each and every planet there is a predominant deity, as we have got experience in this planet there is a president, so it is not wonderful when the predominating deity fights with another predominating deity of another planet. The modern science takes everything as dead stone. We take it for granted that everything is being manipulated by a person in each and every affair of the cosmology. The modern scientists however could not make any progress in the understanding of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, therefore we do not accept modern science as very perfect. We take Krishna's version: gam avisya ca bhutani dharayamy aham ojasa pusnami causadhih sarvah somo bhutvah rasatmakah (BG, 15.13) ``I become the moon,'' and ``yac chandramasi yac cagnau,'' (ibid, 12) ``I am the splendor of the moon,'' and ``jyotisam api taj jyotis,'' (BG, 13.18) ``I am the source of light in all luminous objects,'' so no one is able to give us the correct information than Krishna, that you should know. Regarding Hitler, so Hitler may be good man or bad man, so what does he help to our Krishna Consciousness movement? But it is a fact that much propaganda was made against him, that much I know, and the Britishers are first-class propagandists. And I have heard that his officers did everything without informing him, just like in our ISKCON there are so many false things: ``Prabhupada said this, Prabhupada said that.'' But we have nothing to do with Hitler in our Krishna Consciousness. Do not be deviated by such ideas ``Jnanam jneyam jnana-gamyam,'' (ibid), Krishna is knowledge, He is the object of knowledge, He is the goal of knowledge, and you mam evam asammudho janati purusottamam sa sarva-vid bhajati mam (BG, XV, 19) ``Whoever knows Me as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, without doubting, is to be understood as the knower of everything, and he engages himself therefore in devotional service''--this is the understanding of advanced devotee, so my best advice to you is to agree to come to this understanding. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gHari Posted January 7, 2004 Report Share Posted January 7, 2004 Starman, The following linked article which is part of a series describing the "moon-thing" tells how the Bhagavatam explanations should be understood. Most of the page was derived from the writings of a senior Prabhupada devotee who is also a respected scientist. http://geocities.com/caitanyamahaprabhu/moonthing7.htm <center><img src=http://canoeparts.ca/KINGDOM/Moonthing.jpg></center>Radman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kulapavana Posted January 7, 2004 Report Share Posted January 7, 2004 see the thread on Mars landing on World Review forum here for some additional comments. basically some devotees dont understand these issues and make statements which don't really present the Vedic version. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starman Posted January 10, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2004 Hare Krishna, Thanks for the responses, I'm still trying to understand further. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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