Seeing the vast canopy of stars that ornament the night sky, one naturally wonders about the creation and their place in it. While theories on the topics abound, those who follow Vedic teachings turn to these teachings for clues, and indeed find no shortage of explanations there. The Fifth Canto of the Srimad-Bhagavatam, the ripened fruit of all Vedic literature, for one example, devotes eleven chapters to the structure and inhabitants of the universe.
The challenge is that the Bhagavatam’s elaborate and detailed descriptions of the structure of the universe do not always tally with what we can observe, and thus the word “virodha,” meaning “contradictions” or “differences” in this book’s subtitle. The book’s stated purpose is to reconcile (“parihara”) the astronomy we can observe with the scriptural descriptions of the cosmos that are found in the Puranas.
This is not a small undertaking both in terms of the dichotomy between what’s observable and what we’re told, as well as in terms of the importance of this reconciliation. Devotees do not reject any portion of the Vedas on account of their mind-boggling statements. His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the founder of the Hare Krishna movement and translator of the Srimad-Bhagavatam, writes, “Our experimental knowledge can neither verify nor disprove the statements of Srimad-Bhagavatam. We should simply hear these statements from the authorities. If we can appreciate the extensive energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, that will benefit us” (SB 5.16.10 purport).
Read more: https://iskconnews.org/book-review-vedic-cosmography-in-a-modern-context-virodha-parihara-revisited/
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