The sun is our primary source of energy, uses fusion reactions, which are ordinarily understood to be very difficult to control. is it reasonable to assume that the sun remains in equilibrium without engineering and control?
One morning recently, when I went out for a walk, it was chilly. The sun was just out in his golden splendour, the sky was clear, but there was frost on the new spring grass, and the air was a crisp 3 degrees Celsius, about 38 Fahrenheit. As I returned, the frost looked like dew, and it was a tad bit warmer. Later in the day, it is forecast to be a relatively warm (for Toronto) sixteen degrees Celsius, or 61 Fahrenheit.
The sun did not overheat the atmosphere, a little extra spurt of energy and all that grass can easily go up in flames, and a pleasant morning walk can turn into an infernal blaze of a jaunt!
The sun, our sun, looks like a small disc, but is really massive, much much bigger than our earth.
The sun sustains life on our planet. Without the sun no life can exist on our planet. Most energy on our planet comes from the sun, directly and indirectly.
The heat of the sun, the scientists say, is a result of a massive fusion reaction.
Fusion is when one atom fuses, or joins into another, like for example two hydrogen atoms fuse together to become one atom of helium. Wikipedia says that the sun fuses 620 million metric tons of hydrogen and makes 616 million metric tons of helium each second. And in the process, the sun releases a certain gigantic amount of energy all around it. The earth gets a tiny fraction of that energy as heat, light, and so on.
If the rate of fusion increased, we would be burned to a crisp from the heat. If the rate of fusion decreased, we would go into a wintery spiral, freezing all of us to death very quickly.
But clearly, the sun does not get hotter or warmer than it is. There is strict regulation. In fact, even though scientists know how to fuse hydrogen into helium, they have not been able to do it in a controlled fashion yet. In other words, every attempt so far results in what is called a hydrogen bomb, a massive destructive explosion.
Some companies are trying to perfect controlled fusion and they may very well be able to do this one day. Some say it will solve the energy woes of the world even, but all attempts at fusion are tightly engineered, there is a tremendous amount of complex machinery being used to try and successfully control nuclear fusion reactions.
There are scientists, engineers, operators, and mathematicians, and many more very highly educated souls at work in trying to perfect fusion. There are billions of dollars of venture capital investments too.
Is it then reasonable to expect the the sun remains at a precise temperature without anyone looking after it? Does it make sense to understand that this large power source is without some sort of controller?
The Vedic texts tell us that the sun has a chief engineer. His name is Vivaswan. He has a whole team of scientists and technicians assisting him.
Well of course, there is another modern misconception that goes like “well the sun is so hot there is no chance of life on the sun”. Is that a reasonable assumption? I cannot live under water, I cannot live in the sky, I cannot live inside the mud or deep inside the earth. Doesn’t mean there aren’t bodies suitable for those environments.
Similarly, if an environment is made up of fire, then there are bodies made of fire, just like within the depths of the ocean, there are watery bodies.
The Universal Cosmic arrangement is carefully designed, the planets don’t stay in orbit by accident as much as an airplane remains on its flight path or satellite remains in its orbit by accident. Financial markets don’t remain accidentally in equilibrium without astute traders and managers carefully controlling them. There are all sorts of small and big controllers keeping track of all this. This is true within man-made systems, though we often lose control of systems we created. The Universal arrangement is no accident too.
There is a higher power, and a Supreme Controller of all controllers…
A person in full consciousness of Me, knowing Me to be the ultimate beneficiary of all sacrifices and austerities, the Supreme Lord of all planets and demigods, and the benefactor and well-wisher of all living entities, attains peace from the pangs of material miseries.
How is it that the statements of the Vedic Scriptures in the matter of dimensions of the sun, moon, and the distances between them don’t match with the modern scientific theories?
Partha Das, 28 October 2019
Hare Krsna, Dandavats,
Could you throw some light on the shloka from the 5th canto of Bhagavatam 5.25.2.
The sun globe, which is a source of heat, extends for 10,000 yojanas [80,000 miles]. The moon extends for 20,000 yojanas [160,000 miles], and Rāhu extends for 30,000 yojanas [240,000 miles].
Thanks
Partha Das
Subodh, 29 October 2019
Cosmic and materials knowledge can only affirmed the belief of Krishna’s expansion but can’t get rid of from birth and death cycles, without yug mantras given by mahaprabhu, hence chant hare krishna simply be happy,
Subodh
Partha Das, 29 October 2019
Very true Prabhuji. But a foundation made of solid knowledge will make us very good devotees of the Lord
Here, Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī is talking about the sizes of Sun, Moon, and Rahu. Before this verse, he talked about the distance of Rahu from the Sun.
To adherents of modern science, it may all sound very confusing, or even laughable. However, it should be noted that the Jyotisha Shastras deal with planetary orbits and sizes, and they have been predicting eclipses, seasons etc. very well [1]. Modern measurements on size of the planets and distances (including Sun and moon!) match well with the data given in Surya Siddhanta [2]. Bhagavatam’s picture of the universe may seem to contradict Jyotisha Shastras at some points; however, a detailed study would reveal that everything is in order. And Srila Prabhupada wanted his PhDs to go through these details and construct a model of the universe presented in Bhagavatam and display it in Mayapur [3].
All gratitude to all the group members for participating in this worldwide group…
Srimad Bhagavatam is Amala Purana, the spotless Purana, is the literary incarnation of Krishna Himself. Everything mentioned in the Srimad Bhagavatam is the Supreme Absolute Truth, even if we may struggle to understand how. Verses and purports that I read in the Bhagavatam say ten years ago sometimes make sense to me now, after all the additional context, or in a class, or somehow by Guru’s and Krishna’s mercy.
Śukadeva Gosvāmī continued: This great universe, situated on one of Lord Anantadeva’s thousands of hoods, appears just like a white mustard seed. It is infinitesimal compared to the hood of Lord Ananta.
The sun globe, which is a source of heat, extends for 10,000 yojanas [80,000 miles]. The moon extends for 20,000 yojanas [160,000 miles], and Rāhu extends for 30,000 yojanas [240,000 miles].
your Servant
Partha Das
Mahabhagavat Das SDA, 12 November 2019
Dear Sriman Partha,
Hare Krishna!
Yes, as I stated before, the Srimad Bhagavatam is spotless, faultless. Everything mentioned in the Bhagavatam is the Supreme Absolute Truth. We may not be able to understand it, just as sometimes ordinary people cannot understand the words of a great genius…That being known, what exactly is your question?
Sincerely,
Mahabhagavat Das
Partha Das, 12 November 2019
Hare Krsna,
My question is that the shloka is not clear wrt what we learned in school about the sizes of these planets and the distance between them.
Dandavats
Partha Das
Mahabhagavat Das SDA, 13 November 2019
Dear Sriman Partha,
Hare Krishna!
Yes, there are 2 ways of receiving knowledge – one is called the “arohapanthi” or the “ascending process”. The other is called “avarohapanthi” or “descending process”. The material scientists follow the ascending process (base one fact upon another that is proven), we follow the descending process. Our process is that there is the Creator and we get all our information from Him. In theory, both processes should reach the same conclusions, but in the ascending process, there are a lot of pitfalls, mistakes, etc., and the ascending process cannot discover information that is spiritual in nature.
It is important not to position the scripture and material science as competitors… Chaitanya Charan Prabhu makes that clear that both deal with different subject matters and have totally different perspectives, and he goes on to show how both are correct.
Here is an example from Chaitanya Charan Prabhu… if you mix charcoal powder with white chalk powder, you get a grey substance. Everyone can see that it is a grey substance. But when you look at the powder under the microscope there is no grey substance to be found, it is either white particles or black particles, no grey. The person looking with the naked eye says grey, the person with the microscope says black and white, and both argue – but both are right. He has numerous examples where the scripture and material science say different things but both are correct…
There is also a BBT book called “The Scientific Basis of Krishna Consciousness” by Bhakti Swarup Damodar Maharaja who was also a scientist before he took Sannyas and even after that he founded the Bhaktivedanta Institute. That book is a must-read for anyone who is interested in these sorts of subjects.
The structure of the Universe is vast, but still material, and yes, the ascending process could possibly discover the entire material truth, but it may take a long time, if at all.
Our mundane material textbooks are presently based on a big fat lie – that this Universe came from nothing. The Big Bang theory is just a theory with no conclusive evidence to support it, it is a fairy tale. Something cannot come from nothing, not even one little electron, or one nanometer of space can be created from nothing. So, the fact that we learned that in our textbooks means that the knowledge we studied there is imperfect.
When I was in school and university, I saw that with Maths and Physics, one little mistake in a proof or derivation can lead us to the wrong conclusion… in those cases, my mistakes were caught by my more expert classmates, seniors, or teachers. But in the realm of theoretical physics, as the field gets more and more specialized and sub-specialized, the reviewer pool gets very very small, to the extent that on a certain topic maybe 3 people in the world understand enough to be able to review the papers. Then, what those three people do is, collude and write papers that they each other review and approve – thus getting tenures and grants from various agencies. No one else can possibly know that they are making a mistake – the fields are too arcane. This was revealed to Srila Gurudeva when he was spreading Krishna consciousness in a small University town in America by a Post-doc researcher who was coming to the temple. I have also met many researchers who said the same thing… basically it is a closed club where nepotism and corruption exists. Sometimes the researcher does research and publishes it knowing it to be wrong, and then the following year, they just publish another paper saying they were wrong.
Our mundane material textbooks are consequently revised many times… this is true of medical texts, and many other fields of material knowledge.
But the Vedic scriptures are coming from Krishna, perfect, constant, not revised, no additions or subtractions, no errata, no addenda.
With regard to astronomy and so on, one of the disciples of Srila Prabhupada, Sadaputa Dasa (Richard Thompson) (who passed away recently) has written many books that help to understand the Vedic astronomy better. And also, the Temple of the Vedic Planetariaum being built in Mayapur will help with that. Also, books and writings by Drutakarma Prabhu (Michael Cremo) are helpful.
For example, Sadaputa Prabhu said that the “islands of earth” mentioned in the Bhagavatam are different planet in the earthly system of planets… and that the “flatness of the earth” describes “planetary rings”… To be honest the writings are so intricate that I didn’t invest my time and effort into understanding them.
Until then, we say what we need to say to pass exams, get jobs, etc., and it is also possible we don’t fully understand how the Bhagavatam could be correct. But, after reflecting on all these types of questions which I also had many of, I can decide how important this is to our spiritual progress to know the distance of the sun and moon etc.
Does this help?
Sincerely,
Mahabhagavat Das
Sundar Gopal Das, 13 November 2019
Dear Bhakta Partha,
In addition to the wonderful reflection by HG Mahabhagavat Prabhuji, you can hear the answer from HG Chaitanya Charan Prabhuji by clicking the following link:
Yes Prabhuji. I guess Krsna will keep on revealing more things to us, as we progress in Krsna consciousness.
Thanks
Partha Das
Jayakrishna, 25 November 2019
Hare Krishna!
I think The following conversation is really addressing this question
“Dr. Singh. Because the scientists haven’t detected any water on the surface of the moon, they’ve concluded that no life could survive there.
Śrīla Prabhupāda. They haven’t seen the whole surface of the moon. Suppose someone were to come here from another planet, drop into the Arabian Desert and then return home. Could he come to a complete conclusion about the nature of the whole earth? His knowledge would not be complete”
(The First Morning Walk: April 18, 1973)
It is only recently the science proved the presence of water in moon surface!!
With humble obeisances,
Jayakrishna Ramanuja dasa
Partha Das, 26 November 2019
Yes. It seems scientists keep changing their statements too often. Difficult to believe their theories like big bang , Darwin theory etc.
Partha Das
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The great saint Ramanuja once gave his disciples a mango each and ordered them to eat hidden from view… one disciple couldn’t find a place to hide! What about you? Do you think you can hide?
I heard this from my Gurumata, Srimati Vishnupriya Devi Dasi, one of my primary instructing spiritual masters.
Once upon a time, the great saint Ramanuja, who appeared on this planet more than 1000 years ago, called his disciples and gave them each a mango. He instructed them to eat the mango in a secluded place without being seen by anyone, and report back.
The disciples scrambled, some went to caves, some to forests, some locked themselves into a dark room, yet others hid behind buildings and trees. Some went under a blanket.
One of the disciples though, returned to his spiritual master and apologetically offered that he could find no place where he could be unseen.
Ramanuja heartily congratulated this disciple and was very pleased with him.
Indeed, for every single one of our thoughts, words, and deeds, there are witnesses.
Everywhere we go, we are witnessed by the light of the sun or the moon, the light of the stars, the earth, air, space, and other material elements. These material elements are merely manifestations of the controlling deities.
You may find that hard to accept, but just think about this – do you have a cellphone? Wherever you go, the cellphone network “sees” you, tracks you. If you ever connect to any network, anything you do on that network is seen by all the providers of that network, and if they wish to, they can easily reconstruct all your actions online. Every. Single. Action. Every. Single. Byte. It is all recorded in gigantic datacenters the size of mega cities, in servers and disks with blinking lights, whirring fans, and efficient cooling systems. You are not unseen.
What to speak of man-made networks, there is the Original Network of this Material Nature, with all the material elements, the various gross and subtle manifestations and so on… do you think that the Creator and operators of this network cannot see your actions?
Very specifically, the agents of the personality in charge of death and the ultimate taxes, Yamaraja, such as Chitragupta, are tapped into this network and are recording all our actions. Not one single action goes unrecorded.
मुक्तलिङ्गं सदाभासमसति प्रतिपद्यते । सतो बन्धुमसच्चक्षु: सर्वानुस्यूतमद्वयम् ॥ ११ ॥
mukta-liṅgaṁ sad-ābhāsam asati pratipadyate sato bandhum asac-cakṣuḥ sarvānusyūtam advayam
A liberated soul realizes the Absolute Personality of Godhead, who is transcendental and who is manifest as a reflection even in the false ego. He is the support of the material cause and He enters into everything. He is absolute, one without a second, and He is the eyes of the illusory energy.
Even if we were to be able to escape the material elements somehow, we cannot escape the Super Soul, the Paramatma, who is expanded within our hearts and travels with ourselves, us, the spirit soul, Atma. The very same Paramatma is expanded inside every atom and within the space between atoms.
eko ‘py asau racayituṁ jagad-aṇḍa-koṭiṁ yac-chaktir asti jagad-aṇḍa-cayā yad-antaḥ aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-cayāntara-stham- govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi
He is an undifferentiated entity as there is no distinction between potency and the possessor thereof. In His work of creation of millions of worlds, His potency remains inseparable. All the universes exist in Him and He is present in His fullness in every one of the atoms that are scattered throughout the universe, at one and the same time. Such is the primeval Lord whom I adore.
Do you want to see God? Who doesn’t! Do you know you already have? But you want to see Him up close and personal? Read on!
If there’s a God, I want to see Him.
George Harrison
It is a common refrain, everyone wants to see God.
One famous Indian monk went around asking many priests, monks, saints, etc., and his question was “Can you show me God?”. And the story goes that none could, except the person who then became his spiritual preceptor.
When that story got popularized, especially in India, and those connected with India in some way, people would ask any person of faith “Can you show me God?”, and then smirk as the poor soul stumbled for an answer.
Reporter 6: So, Your Divine Grace, have you realized God?
Srila Prabhupada: What do you think? What is your opinion?
Reporter 6: I can’t say.
Srila Prabhupada: Then if I say “Yes,”, what will you understand? If you are not yourself expert, then even if I say “Yes; I am God realized,” how will you take it as truth? If you do not know what God realization is. then how can you ask this question, and how will you be satisfied with the answer?
Reporter 6: Well. what is God realization?
Srila Prabhupada: First make sure you understand this idea.
Now, for instance, if one medical man asks another man, “Are you a medical man’.” and the other man says “Yes,” then the first man will understand by their exchange of technical terms whether the second man is truly a medical man. But unless one is himself a medical man, what is the use of asking another man, “Are you really a medical man?”
So for you it is useless to ask about my having realized God, unless you are prepared to accept my answer. Are you?
Reporter 6: Yes.
Srila Prabhupada: Then it is all right. I am God realized. I am seeing God at every moment.
O son of Kuntī, I am the taste of water, the light of the sun and the moon, the syllable oṁ in the Vedic mantras; I am the sound in ether and ability in man.
Have you tasted water? Have you seen the light of the sun and the moon? Have you heard the syllable “Om”? Have you ever heard any sound? Have you seen anyone with any ability?
If you answered yes to any of the above questions, then you have seen God. Of course, you may not realize that, but you have.
Now, you may say, “Hey Das, you say God is a Person“, so where is that God as a Person?
Ah, now, here comes the crux – what is your qualification to see God?
If you want to meet some famous actor personally, then she should want to meet you. If you want to meet a big businessman, he should want to meet you. If you want to meet a politician, the politician should want to see you. Is this not true?
Doesn’t matter if someone is a lawyer, teacher, scientist, doctor, whatever – you need to be qualified to see them!
The greater the personality, the more qualified someone needs to be!
I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, who is Śyāmasundara, Kṛṣṇa Himself with inconceivable innumerable attributes, whom the pure devotees see in their heart of hearts with the eye of devotion tinged with the salve of love.
“eyes tinged with the salve of love”, in other words, you love God purely, that is your qualification. And love means you love God without expecting anything in return. And there’s infinite variety in how you can love God!
Krishna, Govinda, Shyamasundara, Lotus Eyed, Effulgent, Love of Love, Lord of Lords, God of All!
So, would you like to see God? Face-to-face? In person? What are you prepared to do to qualify yourself? I’d love to serve you on your way! Please comment, or contact me!
Are you a follower of Allah? Are you a follower of Krishna? Are you a follower of Rama? Are you a follower of Jehovah? Did you answer no to any of these questions but yes to at least one of these questions? Then read on!
In the world today, there is great strife between the followers of different spiritual and religious traditions about the name of God. In fact, some are so frustrated by this bickering that they take to atheism because at least the atheists agree that there is no God whatsoever.
Some say Allah is the Only God and there is none other. They say that Allah has 99 names and any other name does not refer to Allah.
Yet others say that Lord Rama or Lord Krishna is the True God.
Yet others say that Yahweh, not Krishna or Rama is THE name of God.
There is all this terrible discussion about “false gods”, and how the follower of this or that tradition is surely going to hell!
But you know, when a follower of Rama disparages Allah, they are disparaging their own beloved Rama?
When a follower of Jehovah disparages Krishna, do you know they are actually blaspheming Jehovah Himself?
Do you know that a person who commits sacrilege against the names Rama and Krishna are actually blaspheming Allah Himself?
Blasphemy of Any name of God is a blasphemy of All names of God. Be careful!
In time, learned philosophers or scientists might be able to count all the atoms of the earth, the particles of snow, or perhaps even the shining molecules radiating from the sun, the stars and other luminaries. But among these learned men, who could possibly count the unlimited transcendental qualities possessed by You, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who have descended onto the surface of the earth for the benefit of all living entities?
No one tradition knows everything possible about God, because God is infinite! We all stand to gain from sharing the unlimited glories of God with each other.
This is called Sankirtan, or “samyak kirtan”, “complete glorification of God”.
Any name of God from a bona fide historical scripture that refers to the Supreme Absolute Truth refers to the exact SAME person!
Don’t believe me?
American English: sun Arabic: شَمْس Brazilian Portuguese: sol Chinese: 太阳 Croatian: sunce Czech: slunce Danish: sol Dutch: zon European Spanish: sol Finnish: aurinko French: soleil German: Sonne Greek: ήλιος Italian: sole Japanese: 太陽 Korean: 태양 Norwegian: sol Polish: słońce European Portuguese: sol Romanian: soare Russian: солнце Latin American Spanish: sol Swedish: sol Thai: พระอาทิตย์ Turkish: güneş Ukrainian: сонце Vietnamese: mặt trời
Would it make sense for the Vietnamese person to say that mặt trời does not mean the same as the Ukranian word сонце or the Japanese word 太陽?
There is only ONE source to the Universe.
All of us from different spiritual traditions are but emanations of that ONE personality.
Krishna, for example means, “The All-Attractive One”. Is Allah not All-Attractive? So is Allah not Krishna? Is Jehovah not All-Attractive? So then, is Jehovah not Krishna?
The word Rama means “The source of All Pleasure”… Are Allah or Jehovah not the source of all pleasure? So are Allah and Jehovah not Rama?
Why fight over differences in language? Let’s learn each others’ languages! Use the comments section… What is the name of God in your language? And what does this name mean?
Das on the Street 