A Universe of Controversy

SLOKA OF THE DAY:

Bhagavad Gita As It Is -
Chapter 8 Text 25
dhumo ratris tatha krsnah
san-masa daksinayanam
tatra candramasam jyotir
yogi prapya nivartate

dhumah--smoke; ratrih--night; tatha--also; krsnah--the fortnight of the dark moon; sat-masah--the six months; daksina-ayanam--when the sun passes on the southern side; tatra--there; candramasam--the moon planet; jyotih--the light; yogi--the mystic; prapya--achieving; nivartate--comes back.

TRANSLATION

The mystic who passes away from this world during the smoke, the night, the fortnight of the waning moon, or the six months when the sun passes to the south reaches the moon planet but again comes back.

PURPORT

In the Third Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam Kapila Muni mentions that those who are expert in fruitive activities and sacrificial methods on earth attain to the moon at death. These elevated souls live on the moon for about 10,000 years (by demigod calculations) and enjoy life by drinking soma-rasa. They eventually return to earth. This means that on the moon there are higher classes of living beings, though they may not be perceived by the gross senses.


JOURNAL:

This morning I listened to a lecture on this sloka by H.H.Devamrita Swami and he brought up the "moon controversy".

There is a famous interview that Srila Prabhupada did with the L.A.Times back on December 26, 1968, where he states that we would not be allowed to land on the moon in the same way that America does not let just anybody land on its shores. When asked about the possibility of a moon landing he brushes off the question by stating; "From the book (Srimad Bhagavatam), nobody can do that. That is impossible". He stuns the interviewer with these answers.

There is also a story of Srila Prabhupada watching the moon landing on TV with a few of the devotees. As soon as it was over he supposedly said that the TV was an idiot box and it had just made idiots of them. His personal secretary couldn't handle his spiritual master denying what they had seen and left shortly thereafter.

Where do I weigh in on this controversy? To answer that I have to give you some of my background.

Being born when I was (1959) I grew up loving the idea of space. It was the new frontier! My best friend and I watched the moon landing together. We were both in forth grade and, together, had a huge collection of "Major Matt Mason" action figures. We watched "Star Trek" and "2001 a Space Odyssey" and "Planet of the Apes" and believed that all our possible futures were possible.

When I first read the fifth canto of Srimad Bhagavatam I didn't know of this controversy. I read it the same way I read the Old Testament, with a grain of sacred salt. It didn't bother me that the text described the universe as centered around the earth. It didn't bother me that stars were described as reflecting light instead of producing light. This was Krishna's universe and I believed in alternate realities.

So, if the worst one can say is that, as Krishna's representative, Srila Prabhupada upheld the Vedic reality as opposed to the one most of us live in I say, "Get over it!" I was attracted to this faith because it was an alternate to how I had been living. You might say it was just the reality I was looking for.

Does this mean I don't believe man landed on the moon? No it does not. Like I said, I have no problem with more than one reality overlapping another. Is this not what happens when we do our japa?

("Narada in Space" by Jadurani dasi)