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Q: How are we to make sense of the enormous mountains described in the Fifth Canto? Some of them, including the Himalayas, are said to be 80,000 miles high.

A: One might well doubt that even a scientifically uneducated person in ancient India would have thought that the Himalaya Mountains of our ordinary experience are 80,000 miles high. After all, such persons traditionally made pilgrimages to Badarikäçrama on foot. We suggest that the cosmic mountains of the Fifth Canto are higher-dimensional; they are real, but to see them it is necessary to develop the sensory powers of the demigods and great yogés. This is the traditional understanding, although words such as "higher-dimensional" are not used, and descriptions are made in a matter-of-fact way from the viewpoint of demigods and other great personalities (such as the Päëòavas).

Çréla Prabhupäda has said that modern scientists are "hardly conversant with the planet on which we are now living" (SB 5.20.37p). If our ordinary three-dimensional continuum is the total reality, then this statement would seem to be wrong. In Section 3.b.4, however, we give Vedic evidence showing that this three-dimensional world links up with higher-dimensional realms.

Q: If the Garbhodaka Ocean fills half the universe, where is it, and why don't we see it?

A: The Garbhodaka Ocean is beneath Bhü-maëòala. Thus its location corresponds to the region of the celestial sphere south of the great circle marked by Bhü-maëòala. We have argued that this should be either the southern celestial hemisphere or the region to the south of the ecliptic (see Section 3.d). The Garbhodaka Ocean is also higher-dimensional.

Q: Isn't it true that there are fewer stars in the southern celestial hemisphere than in the northern celestial hemisphere? Isn't this because we are looking down on Bhü-maëòala from the earth?

A: A study of standard star charts shows that the number of stars visible in the southern celestial hemisphere is essentially the same as the number visible in the northern celestial hemisphere. (See Figures 11 and 12.)

Q: What was Çréla Prabhupäda's position on the moon flight? There seems to be some ambiguity in his statements about this topic.

A: Çréla Prabhupäda offered a number of tentative explanations as to what might have actually transpired on the moon flight, but his main point was that the astronauts could not have visited Candraloka, since they did not reach the civilization of the demigods that exists there. To put the matter in another way, if the moon is really nothing more than a lifeless desert, as scientists maintain, then the Vedic literatures describing Candraloka must be wrong. This topic is discussed in Section 6.c.1.

Q: What about the argument that the moon flights were faked by the U.S. government? A case for this is made in the book, We Never Went to the Moon, by Bill Kaysing.

A: Although this book makes some interesting points, its arguments are basically speculative and circumstantial. One of Kaysing's main arguments is that Thomas Baron, a North American Aviation employee who wrote a report critical of the Apollo program, was murdered by government agents. Kaysing maintains that this was done as part of a government cover-up of the moon hoax. Unfortunately, if this is true, then it would be very dangerous to possess solid evidence proving such a cover-up. Another point made by Kaysing is that according to official reports, six Apollo flights to the moon were nearly flawless in execution. In contrast, the history of space flight before and after the Apollo program is filled with stories of failures and mechanical breakdowns. Kaysing argues that this is statistically unlikely, and cites this as evidence that the Apollo flights were faked. This argument is interesting, but certainly not conclusive.

Q: What is the justification for bringing in works of Indian mathematical astronomy, such as the Sürya-siddhänta and Siddhänta-çiromaëi?

A: Çréla Prabhupäda follows Çréla Bhaktisiddhänta Sarasvaté by citing these works, which are called jyotiña çästra. He does so because Çréla Bhaktisiddhänta Sarasvaté cited these works in his writings. Çréla Bhaktisiddhänta gives direct quotations and says nothing indicating that the works are wrong in any way. Also, the jyotiña çästras are cited by other Vaiñëava commentators on the Bhägavatam. See Chapter 1.

Q: Çréla Prabhupäda refers to the earth as a globe, and Çréla Bhaktisiddhänta Sarasvaté Öhäkura made references to Sürya-siddhänta and other jyotiña çästras that describe the earth as a globe. But wasn't this an innovation introduced by Çréla Bhaktisiddhänta in response to modern astronomy?

A: This is not an innovation introduced by Çréla Bhaktisiddhänta. Earlier commentators on the Çrémad-Bhägavatam make reference to the jyotiña çästras, including the Sürya-siddhänta. One example is Vaàçédhara, who was living in A.D. 1642, before the time that Western science made a large impact on India (see Appendix 1).