Remembering Srila Prabhupada - Answering questions - Blog - ISKCON Desire Tree

Answering questions

Prabhupada answered one letter today, from Madhava prabhu, one of our scientists who is living at the Boston temple. Madhava said that in trying to work out the details for the construction of the Vedic Planetarium, they had run into many difficulties. He wondered if there were other books they could read that give more details on the universe than the Bhagavatam. He had a number of technical questions, and pointed out that the Fifth Canto descriptions seem to be at wide variance with modern astronomical observances. He asked if Bharata-varsa referred to just India or the whole earth. "According to the calculations this section of Jambudvipa measures 72,000 miles, which is much too long for India. It is three times larger than the earth is round! Also, in text 5.17.11 it mentions that the other eight varsas are meant for highly elevated pious persons, so they cannot be the other continents of America, Europe etc. They are all filled with demons. How can we understand that other tract of land on the other side of the Himalayans (Kimpurusa) to be Russia?"

He included a diagram he had drawn which, if it was a correct interpretation of the Bhagavatam, seemed to indicate that the earth was flat.

"I do not accept anything the scientists say and fully accept the Bhagavatam's statements as true, but I do not know how to explain the differences between the modern view and the Bhagavatam. If the specific errors in the modern view could be pointed out that would be very convincing for the karmis. Is there something wrong with the modern conceptions of space and time that creates such great discrepancies with the Bhagavatam's view?

"I am simply a blind man who cannot see unless you instruct me. I do not even know if it is all right to ask you so many technical questions. Please tell me if this is proper or not. I have no other shelter but your lotus feet in the whole universe."

Madhava added that he, Svarupa Damodara and Sadaputa prabhus were working to complete the book Origins of Life and Matter as well as their journal. Work on the planetarium would not commence until these are finished.

Srila Prabhupada replied, affirming the statements of the Bhagavatam, but he didn't comment on the technical queries that Madhava had listed. "Regarding details of the universe, be satisfied by reading only Bhagavatam. What is the use of reading other books -- you are not going there. Some portion of the earth is flat. When you stand in any place you see flat, so for us to some extent it appears flat, but it is round.

"Simply keep faith that whatever we describe, that is a fact. After all, we are an insignificant creature in the universe, so whether you take the modern scientists or Sukadeva Goswami, it is inconceivable. It is best to keep faith in Sukadeva Goswami, because actually our only business is to go back to home, back to Godhead. So whether Sukadeva Goswami or the modern scientists are right or wrong, it is nothing interesting to us. We want to go back to home, back to Godhead -- yanti mad-yajino'pi mam. Bharata-varsa in 5th Canto refers to the whole earth."

- From "A Transcendental Diary Vol 4" by HG Hari Sauri Prabhu

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