Over and over again I see statements pop up from devotees who apparently need to pacify their own insecurities by hammering down those who accept that the moon landings were real with "authoritative" quotes from Bhaktivedanta Swami, or by creating the impression that those who do so are offenders, fallen, etc. -- really a covered form of character assassination. I dare to say that most likely these devotees have neither studied the moon landings, nor everything that Bhaktivedanta Swami said about space travel.
Interview with LA Times Reporter About Moon Trip, Los Angeles, 12/26/1968
Reporter: If the space program, either the Russian or the American program, which have plans to try to land on the moon and return safely, if this is successful, do you think this accomplishment would hurt the Krishna movement in the United States? It would contradict Vedic...
Prabhupada: Why? First thing
is even they are successful, according to our principle, it is simply waste of time. Because we are not concerned even with the moon planet. We are trying to go to the planet of Krishna from where nobody returns back to this wretched condition of life. So the wretched condition of life is as good in moon planet as it is in this earth planet. And do you know what is the wretched condition of life? Yes. The birth, death, old age and disease. This is the wretched condition of life. So you cannot avoid this wretched condition of life in the moon planet also. There is birth, death, old age and disease. But where we are trying to go by Krishna consciousness, there is no birth, death, old age and disease. So even there are, people are successful to go to the moon planet, what connection we have got there? We are not at all concerned with any planet where there is birth, death and old age and disease. Even in the highest planet of this universe.
Reporter: Well, what I'm getting at is that if for instance you say that first this conviction that they would not be able to land, and secondly that whatever earth people would go there would be opposed and would not be able to safely return, if you say this, based on Vedic literature, and other members of the Krishna movement heard this, and then if the feat were accomplished, would this not seem a contradiction or something that had been said would be the case and then the opposite was proved true? Would this...
Prabhupada: What is that contradiction? There is nothing contradiction. We say that if you get a suitable body you can enter there. So if by your scientific process you can equip yourself with suitable body you can enter there. Where is the contradiction?
Reporter: Well, you said that spacesuit was not a suitable...
Prabhupada: That is a fact. That is a fact. That is not suitable.
Reporter: That's the way they intend to go.
Prabhupada: That is, that is not, that we can safely say that with this suit you cannot go there. You have to make a different suit. Perhaps you do not know that.
Reporter: Okay, then let's say that if with that suit they do go there and do return, would that be a contradiction?
Prabhupada: Why contradiction? We say that if you get a suitable suit you can go there. Where is the contradiction?
Reporter: Well I thought you said the spacesuit was not suitable.
Prabhupada: Yes. Spacesuit is not suitable. But if you can go with the spacesuit that may be contradiction, but that I am certain you cannot go.
Reporter: I'm confused.
Prabhupada: I say... Just try to understand me, that if you can prepare a suitable body, you can go there. But this spacesuit is not the suitable body. Is that all right?
Now if you actually go there by this spacesuit, that will be contradiction to my statement, but I am certain you cannot do that.
Reporter: I see.
Prabhupada: Yes. So there will be no contradiction. Just clearly try to understand.
Reporter: Okay. Then I'll try to repeat what you said and see if I am correct.
Prabhupada: I'll repeat. I'll repeat. First thing is that to enter into the moon planet you have to prepare yourself for a different body. If that body, you think that it is already made by the spacesuit, spacesuit is that different body, then it will be contradiction to my statement. But I say that with the spacesuit that you have manufactured, that is not fit to enter there. Now it is clear? The spacesuit is not fit for entering there. Is that clear?
Reporter: Yes.
Prabhupada: Now if by chance with this spacesuit you enter there, that will be contradiction, that nobody can enter. But I say you can enter there with a suitable body. If you think that the spacesuit is that suitable body then you can enter there. But I think this spacesuit is not that suitable body.
Reporter: If I think the spacesuit is suitable...
Prabhupada: For entering that moon planet... That is your statement, but I say that spacesuit is not suitable for entering into the...
Reporter: If I think the spacesuit is suitable and, say, if I am an astronaut and I land there, I can land there?
Prabhupada: If it is suitable. First thing that if it is suitable you can land. But to my opinion it is not suitable. Therefore you cannot land.
Reporter: Well... So then you are not saying then that it would be impossible for...
Prabhupada: That I never say. I say in the beginning that in order to enter moon planet you have to get a suitable type of body. That suitable type of body is not that spacesuit. Therefore the conclusion is that you cannot enter with this spacesuit. Is it clear?
Reporter: That part is clear, but not if other questions are asked.
[The logic is a bit hard to follow, but to sum it up:
- A: If you get a suitable body you can go to the Moon.
- B: If science can equip you with suitable body you can go to the Moon.
- C: A space suit is not a suitable body; ergo, you cannot go to the Moon.
Almost 7 months later, on July 20th of 1969 Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon.]
Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.1.6, Bombay, 11/06/1970
"Just like modern scientists, they are finding difference between this planet and the moon planet. They say that there is no living entity. That is not fact. They...
Even though they have reached the moon planet, it is not a fact that there is no living entity. Accepting they reached the moon planet, they might have gone to the part where it is desert or barren land, because in each and every planet there is such possibility. In our, this planet also, when I was passing through the Suez Canal, it is horrible desert. So if somebody drops in that Arabian desert and concludes that there is no living entity in this planet, it is simply foolish.
Similarly, these people are going, maybe going... First of all, I don't believe they have gone, frankly speaking. Even they have gone, they are landing in some part of the moon planet where there is no inhabitation."
[In November of 1969 Apollo 12 landed on the Moon. In April of 1970 Apollo 13 was aborted due to an accident.]
Room Conversation, Sydney, 04/01/1972
Prabhupada: At once. Yes. The newspaper said that "Mr. such and such went to moon planet." Oh, immediately believe. See? A newspaper, ten cent worth newspaper. And in the
Bhagavad-gita Krishna says,
yanti deva vrata devan: [Bg. 9.25] "One who can... One can go to the demigods planets by worshiping them. You can go,
yanti deva vrata devan, as others. Similarly, one can come to Me by worshiping Me."
Mad yajino 'pi yanti mam. So they never worshiped Chandra, and how they can go to the Chandra planet, or moon planet? Then Krishna is false. Krishna is imperfect. They become perfect. They are defying Krishna's instruction. They have gone to moon planet. Then our whole propaganda, Krishna consciousness, becomes bogus. Therefore I always protest.
Sudama: They have not gone.
Prabhupada: They have not gone. We have got our tests. I am speaking from the very beginning, "They have not gone." And practically you see, even if you have gone, what utility you have made? They are simply planning, again planning. "We shall get petrol from there. We shall have defense from there."
Simply bluffing, simply bluffing. The Americans will go to the moon planet to defend his country from the Russians. Just see. And we have to believe all these nonsense proposals. What defense they will do from there? Is it not the proposal? Yes.
[In February of 1971 Apollo 14 landed on the Moon, followed in July by Apollo 15. Three weeks after this conversation Apollo 16 landed on the Moon, followed in December by the last mission of Apollo 17.]
Morning Walk, Cheviot Hills Golf Course, Los Angeles, 05/17/1973
Svarupa Damodara: That is why they were very careful. When the astronauts from the moon, when they come back on the surface of the planet, they thought there might be some germs which they do not know yet. So they put it in quarantine for several days, to make sure that they are...
Prabhupada: First of all make sure whether he had gone there, and then talk of all these things. (laughing) I am not sure they are going there.
Krsna-kanti: You know they made another blunder.
Prabhupada: That's all right. What is that?
Krsna-kanti: They made a spaceship that they wanted to orbit around the earth so that they could send men and ship an outpost.
Karandhara: A house, station.
Krsna-kanti: So they sent it up and it failed. It cost two billion dollars or something, squandered.
Prabhupada: Just see why they are wasting time in that way? Money.
Krsna-kanti: They were criticized in the paper.
Prabhupada: Fool. Simply childish.
Balaka. What are they gaining? For the last, how many years they are trying? For going to the moon planet?
Svarupa Damodara: Russia started in 1957. First sputnik where Gagarin was there...
Prabhupada: Twenty-five years. So they could not get anything, not a single farthing even. Still, they are doing. Just see, obstinacy.
Punah punas carvita. This is called chewing the chewed.
Punah punas carvita-carvananam [SB 7.5.30]. They will never be successful. So I am a layman. When I wrote that Easy Journey? In 1950, 67. How many years?
Karandhara: Six years.
Prabhupada: No, no. Not 67, 57. Sixteen years before. They are all childish. I am a layman.
It will never be successful. It is already written there in my
Easy Journey to Other Planets. Here also, that, some press reporter asked me in San Francisco, when I landed, "What is your position about this moon planet?" "It is simply a waste of time and energy. That's all.
You cannot go there."
[The blunder referred to is the launch of the first American space station, Skylab, on May 14, 1973, which was flawed. It was, however, by no means an unsuccessful mission. Skylab was repaired and remained fully operational from May 25, 1973 until February 8, 1974. It re-entered the Earth's atmosphere in 1979.]
Bhagavad-Gita 4.12, Vrindavan, 08/04/1974
"I say therefore, these Americans, that 'You are born of this rich nation. That is also a result of pious activities.' Because
janma... Janmaisvarya-sruta-sri. And wealth also. The Americans have got immense wealth. That is also a result of pious activities. And
janmaisvarya-sruta, education. They have got the highest education.
Now they are going, trying to go to the moon planet. Or they have gone. That is education, scientific education. And
sri, they're beautiful also. All Americans... We have seen so many boys and girls here. They're beautiful also. This is not ordinary thing. This is due to pious activities.
Janmaisvarya-sruta-sri."
Morning Walk, Perth, 05/18/1975
Prabhupada: By argument, by teaching. [break] Just see how nice flower is coming from the sand. And they say there is no vegetation. What is the difference between this sand and that sand? Sand is sand. Huh? How they are coming? Wherefrom they are getting nourishment? If there no possibility of living being, who is coming to water it? Nobody is coming. In this place, flower, it is a good as the flower growing on the land. But they are growing in the sand, you see. You see actually in the sand things are coming out, and one rascal will say, "No, there is no life." We have to believe it? Even it is full of sand and dust. Here we see dust and sand produce life, so why shall I believe these rascals about sand? What is the difference between that sand and this sand?
Amogha: Some scientists admit there is life there, there may be life...
Prabhupada: No, no, these scientists are all rascals; first of all take it, don't believe it. "Some scientists say"; then who is real scientist? This scientist says there is no life, another scientist says there may be, then who is right, hm?
Amogha: They have to go and see. (laughs) But they don't see any signs of civilization or buildings, so they say it may be plant life, but they don't see anything...
Prabhupada: First of all whether you have gone there.
That is our charge, "You have not gone there."
Amogha: That's what we are trying to do. In a few years we will find out.
[Besides the fact that plants usually do not grow at all in pure sand, the "sand" on the Moon is obviously different from sand here on Earth. The properties of Moon dust, or regolith, is further explained in the other material on this site. Not to mention the temperature extremes and lack of atmosphere. Meanwhile, over 30 years have past and no irrefutable evidence whatsoever has been presented that the moonlandings were faked, at least not by Amogha and the "we" he is referring to. ISKCON has thus far never ventured to make an official, GBC-concerted position statement on the Moon landings.]
Prabhupada: Yes.
They might have gone to some hellish planet, where there is only sand, only, and very hot, and the culprit is pushed through that deserted place to the Yamaraja. And before going to Yamaraja he has to suffer so much. There are places, copperlike, you see. (aside:) Hare Krishna. So hot, and the criminal has to go on that copper land. There are mentioned for many millions of miles simply copper, and one has to pass through that to Yamaraja.
So, they might have gone to some such place, not to the moon planet, who is the source of vegetation even throughout the whole universeùand in his own planet there is no vegetation.
Now I am sure they have not gone to moon planet. How they will go? It is beyond the sun. I was protesting that they have not gone; now I am convinced that they have not gone. The Russian scientists and the American scientists joined on the platform, "Don't expose me, I don't expose you." (laughter) (Bengali) "You have to do your business and same I have to do my business. Let us support one another." In all other case, they are inimical, and the scientific field they are friends. That means that if a scientist, another scientist, opposes me, then my attempt will be futile, so let us don't do it.
Srutakirti: You don't expose me, and I won't expose you.
Prabhupada: Because we are doing business, we are getting money from these rascal government, so if you expose me, then I will not get money, and if I expose you, you will not get money. Let us remain together and let them remain fools. That's all. This is it. If a common man like me can understand the whole policy, how the scientist will not understand? But they have made a compromise that "Don't expose me, I'll not expose you, and let us take money from the government." This is going on.
[For some unexplained reason humans apparently are qualified to make rockets and space suits and enter into the lower realms that are normally restricted to the dead and the demigod Yamaraja, or "some such place". It is also unclear what prompts Srila Prabhupada to come up with a joint USA - USSR conspiracy theory. Perhaps from disciples who dabbled in such theories? Bill Kaising had published his book We Never Went To The Moon in 1974 and was one of the first to cook up this idea.]
Morning Walk, Melbourne, 05/21/1975
Devotee: The first moon landing was 1961.
[Actually, the first Moon landing was Apollo 11 on July 20, 1969.]
Prabhupada: That is beginning. First of all they sent dog. (laughter)
Madhudvisa: Space dog. Space mouse.
Prabhupada: Huh? Space mouse.
Devotee: Space monkey also.
Prabhupada: So since 1955 even. So twenty years, what they have done?
Devotee: Spent billions of dollars.
Prabhupada: Yes, simply they have brought little dust, that's all.
Madhudvisa: Now they have found that that same dust is here on the earth.
[As explained in depth in the rest of this material, the dust is not like anything found here on Earth. This is an unfounded argument by Moon-hoax advocate Bill Kaysing that he has never been able to back-up.]
Prabhupada: Yes. Simply propaganda. They are not going. Now the Russian scientist and American scientist are combined. Because both of them thieves, so one thief is asking, "Don't expose me. I will not expose you, so that our business will go on." This is the way. "Let us combine together and cheat these rascals, and otherwise, if you expose me, then I will expose you. Then our business will stop."
[This is the second time Srila Prabhupada asserts his idea of a conspiracy between the US and the former Sovjet Union. He offers no details or tangible proof, however.]
Morning Walk, Honolulu, 06/02/1975
This is likely one of the most revealing discussions about the moon landing issue between ACBS and some of his senior disciples so far. Keep in mind that the last Apollo flight took place in December of 1972. This is two and a half years later and after the publication of Bill Kaising's book in 1974, which devotees eagerly accepted. By now, it is becoming a bit disconcerting to see ACBS' ongoing methodology of making psuedo-absolute statements that are really nothing more than assumptions. How could his disciples not believe he was omnicient, when he makes such flippant judgements -- almost as if he was privy to secret, insider knowledge? Especially when followed by his favorite authoritative assertions of "This is going on," "That's all," and "That is a fact." On the other hand one can clearly see the stubborn unwillingness to rise above naivité.
Prabhupada: You see? They want to draw some salary, big salaries, by bluffing the government and the public. This is their business. They are failing. They have finished their business on this planet; now they are going another planet. These are nonsense. [break] They know that "We... So as far as possible, we have bluffed. Now our business in this planet is finished. So let us go to another planet." This is going on.
Paramahamsa: Even if they wanted to stop this space project, they couldn't stop because they've already spent billions of dollars for making equipment and rocket ships and launching pads and rocket bases and so many employees. If they stop, then so much would be wasted, so many people would be unemployed. So they have to continue even if they know that it's a bluff.
Prabhupada: That is the way of falsehood. If once you speak something false, then to protect that falsehood you have to take to so many other falsehoods. This is the way of falsehood.
Paramahamsa: One lie leads to another.
Prabhupada: [break] ...are going to Venus, Americans and Russians combined together?
Ambarisa: This summer.
Prabhupada: Oh, in the summer. Venus is very cold? Why they have selected summer season? (laughter) [break] ...could not go to the moon, and Venus is far above moon. How they will go?
Bali-mardana: They're not going to Venus, are they?
Paramahamsa: Are they going to Mars?
Bali-mardana: No, they're just going around the earth, right?
Ambarisa: Yeah, they're linking up in space.
Devotee (3): Prabhupada, when they said they went to the moon and they showed films of them landing and walking on the moon, was this all a bluff?
Prabhupada: Yes, here they...
All laboratory work, that's all.
Devotee (3): They all made it up?
Prabhupada: Yes.
Bali-mardana: Prabhupada, they are not going to go to Venus. The American and Russian, they are just going to meet outside the earth. They are not going to any planet.
Prabhupada: Oh, that is finished.
Bali-mardana: It is too difficult.
Ambarisa: They're going to meet in space and float around in space.
Prabhupada: That is birds are doing also. What is the credit?
Paramahamsa: They are thinking that "What is the use of going to any other planet, because there is no life on the other planets."
[It never fails to amaze me how some of ACBS' disciples are also practically omnicient, particularly Paramahamsa, as becomes clear throughout the conversation.]
Prabhupada: Why no life?
Paramahamsa: Well, they have photographs and things.
Prabhupada: Photograph, what is this nonsense photograph? How long it can go up?
Ambarisa: They're taken from hundreds of miles up in space, and then they say there is no life.
Prabhupada: What is hundreds of miles? It is, er, forty billion, what is that?
Paramahamsa: Four billion.
Prabhupada: Four billion. So how they can calculate?
Paramahamsa: If they took a photograph of the earth planet from up in space, they would probably also say there is no life.
Prabhupada: Yes.
Devotee (3): They say because the atmosphere is not like this planet, others cannot live there.
Prabhupada: Why not atmosphere? The moon planet, there is a planet. There is space. There is surface. There is dust. So why not atmosphere the same? It is made of the same ingredients, earth, water, fire. Why do you say that is not same atmosphere?
Devotee (3): They are saying that it's too cold or too hot.
Prabhupada: That's all right. That is here also. There are many cold places. Do they think that in the cold places there is no life? All nonsense. And only nonsense will believe them. I never believed it. Why? Here we see under this sand there is life. The crabs, what is called? They live within, so many hundreds of thousands. We have seen on the sand.
Indian man: And the polar bears for cold season for living in mounds of snows and all.
Prabhupada: There are birds, some birds.
Paramahamsa: Penguins.
Prabhupada: Yes. Penguins birds. There is life.
Bali-mardana: Seals, whales, polar bears...
Prabhupada: There is life everywhere.
Bhagavad-gita says,
sarva-gah. The life is there everywhere. And moon planet, according to our Vedic literature, that is one of the demigods' place. People live there
daiva age, ten thousand years.
Devotee (3): They will not believe in the demigods...
Prabhupada: So I will not believe them. That's all, finished. (laughter)
Devotee (3): They cannot see them.
Prabhupada: What can you see, teeny eyes? What can you see? Can you see what is there on the other side of the sea? Then does it mean there is nothing? Your nonsense seeing. Why you are believing of seeing? Your seeing power is very, very limited. Why do you believe in seeing? That is childish, "I cannot see." What you can see? First of all, let us consider this point. You cannot see anything.
Paramahamsa: Srila Prabhupada, people will be very surprised to find out that the moon is farther away from us than the sun when they read your..., when they read
Fifth Canto.
Prabhupada: But at least, they could not go there. Otherwise, why they are giving up this job? They could not go there. That's a fact. Their plan was to... They were selling land even on the moon planet.
Ambarisa: Selling land on the moon?
Prabhupada: Yes. (laughter)
Srutakirti: They were selling airline tickets also.
Prabhupada: Ah, yes. (laughter) Just see, route. Pan American, yes. They sold so many tickets. Such fools there are.
Bali-mardana: In New York sometimes people sell new immigrants the Brooklyn Bridge.
Prabhupada: And Moscow Sea. They pitched one flag in the moon planet and named Moscow Sea. Yes.
[Huh? Someone pitched a flag on the Moon?]
Indian man: Just like you said that this moon and other planets are also made of these five elements -- earth, water, fire, ether -- they brought a rock from there. So they are accepting that the moon is made of those elements also. But they are not accepting that life is there.
Prabhupada: No, they'll not accept. Therefore... therefore fools. Why? The circumstance is the same. Why there should be no life? That is foolishness. We have got experience. As soon as there is water, there is life. As soon as there is land, there is life. As soon as there is air, there is life. So where is life? No life.
Devotee (3): They may agree in undeveloped species, but as far as higher forms of life, they will not agree, such as humans or demigods.
Prabhupada: No, that also we cannot agree. If there are lower species, there must be higher species. As we see here is dog also, man also, higher species, lower species, why not there? They can talk all nonsense, but a nonsense will believe. No sane man will believe. [break] ...going to meet in the space?
Ambarisa: Yes.
Prabhupada: What is the idea?
Ambarisa: It's a diplomatic move. They feel it will make friendly relationships between the two countries.
Indian man: They cannot meet on the earth and they are going to meet on the... (laughter) [break]
Prabhupada: So I am the only man in the world challenging that "You have not gone to the moon planet." Eh?
Harikesa: Is it possible there's some difference as to the definition of what the moon planet is? They will say that the moon planet is that planet out there. Do we agree? At night?
Prabhupada: What is your definition? First of all let me hear.
Harikesa: I'm still wondering myself.
Prabhupada: We have got our definition.
Harikesa: What do we call those planets that rotate around Jupiter and Saturn and... They will say those are also moons.
Prabhupada: Yes. Different planets, different position. Just like this sun planet is fiery. There is fire. Similarly, in moon planet there is fire, but it is surrounded by cold atmosphere. Therefore it is cooling.
Harikesa: So that's the specific characteristic of this moon?
Prabhupada: Which moon? Yes, this is...
Harikesa: Our moon.
Prabhupada: Yes.
Harikesa: So the other moons that rotate around Saturn and Jupiter...
Prabhupada: Other moon? There is no other moon.
Harikesa: So they're just planets?
Prabhupada: Yes.
Paramahamsa: The moon is not rotating around the earth. The moon is further away than the sun.
Harikesa: The moon is further away than the sun. Wow! (laughs)
Prabhupada: Yes.
Harikesa: Why does it seem like the moon is...
Prabhupada: Seen? Who has seen it? First of all let me..., who has seen it? (Devotees are laughing)
Harikesa: There's nothing you can say.
Ambarisa: Prabhupada, you said the other day that pretty soon all these lies will be exposed.
Prabhupada: They are already exposed because they have left that expedition. That means they are hopeless. That is exposed. But foolish people will not ask them that "Why you have stopped this expedition?" They will again go on bluffing, and they will accept. That is the position. Now people should ask them, "Why you have stopped moon expedition and Venus expedition? You proposed you were going there, making arrangement. Why you have stopped?" It is failure.
Harikesa: They might argue...
Prabhupada: What is the argument? You have stopped. That is your failure, that's all. You can argue to the laymen, foolish men, but we will say you have stopped; therefore it is failure. All bogus propaganda is now stopped.
Devotee (3): They are saying the moon isn't worth develop...
Prabhupada: Now they cannot say anything because they are failure. Anything they say, that is all foolishness. They cannot say anything. Once you are failure, you have no value, anything you say.
Harikesa: I've heard the argument that when they are going to the moon, they are always in contact, bouncing off these sonar waves and radar waves off the moon's surface, and when they are coming near, they can even see from their little portholes the moon's surface, the same moon that they see on the earth.
Prabhupada: They say all nonsense. That's all. (chuckles) Why the earth is not brilliant at night like the moon?
Bali-mardana: It depends on where you are. It depends on where you are looking from.
Prabhupada: "Where you are" means?
Harikesa: They have pictures from the moon taken of the earth.
Prabhupada: Pictures? First of all you see. Then take picture. You cannot see.
Harikesa: They use all these things to argue that they actually did go to the moon.
Prabhupada: What is the meaning of argument if they have stopped? That is failure. Don't talk nonsense anymore.
Phalena pariciyate. By the result we have to understand. Your result is you are failure. Then what is the use of talking nonsense? Stop this nonsense.
Ambarisa: It's like five years ago they declared a war on cancer, and they spent billions and billions of dollars on it, and just the other day they now said that it was a complete failure, that the disease has just kept on growing and growing.
Prabhupada: Yes. You cannot stop even cancer disease and you are controlling nature. Just see their (?) false, puffed up. They cannot control one disease, and they are going to control nature. We have to believe that.
Harikesa: He just told me I was spaced out because I wasn't punching this in, but I'm still astounded by the fact that the moon is further away than the sun. When the devotees hear this tape, they're not going to believe it.
Prabhupada: Therefore they could not go. I... First of all I said that they might have gone to the Rahu planet.
[So, although it is not possible according to ACBS for people to go to the Moon, it may be possibile to go to Rahu? This issue comes up again in other conversations.]
Harikesa: Yes, the Fourth Canto.
Prabhupada: Yes.
First of all my conviction: they have gone nowhere. They have simply stayed in their laboratory, that's all.
Indian man: Anyone can do that, bring some pictures and bring a rock.
Paramahamsa: Srila Prabhupada, I think somebody might have told you before, but there was a big scandal right after the moon shot when they said they went to the moon and..., that it was all staged in the desert of Arizona, that they...
Prabhupada: Yes, that is the fact.
Bali-mardana: When Purusottama heard that, he blooped. (Devotees continue laughing.)
Prabhupada: Yes. In 1968 I was questioned by the reporters, "What is your opinion about this moon?It is simply a waste of time and energy, that's all. It is all false propaganda." I told to the reporter.
Harikesa: Actually, these scientists and philosophers, they become very famous and popular by coming up with some brand new theories. So why don't we widely publicize our theories?
Devotee (3): [break] ...real information about the moon from the Bhagavatam?
Prabhupada: Veda. Veda means knowledge. What is this? Some animal?
Paramahamsa: Fish. It has those horns, spines, so that no one can bother it. Protection.
Paramahamsa: It's a porcupine fish.
Bali-mardana: Blowfish.
Srutakirti: They blow up like a ball. When someone comes to them, they expand very large.
Paramahamsa: And their spines stick out straight. It's very dangerous.
Bali-mardana: Poisonous. [break]
Srutakirti: It's twenty-five before seven.
Harikesa: Srila Prabhupada, do we say that they've gone to Rahu simply to placate them?
Prabhupada: No, accidentally they went to Rahu. Maybe. That is also not...
Indian man: [break]...gone at all outside this atmosphere of earth.
Prabhupada: Yes. [break]
...haven't gone to moon planet, that is my... [break] ...why they will give it up? That is the proof. America was found by Columbus. So many people came from Europe and utilized it. So if they would have gone to moon planet, they would have utilized it. But they have not gone. That is the fact.
Paramahamsa: That was their original proposal, that they can utilize it, make colonies there.
Prabhupada: Yes, yes. Yes.
Devotee (3): The moon exploration, because they thought that we cannot use the moon like Columbus, they used America.
Prabhupada: That is your excuse.
Paramahamsa: They say it's too much like the desert.
Harikesa: That's cause they were in the desert. (laughs)
Prabhupada: [break] ...grow so many nice dates, you know that? You cannot say in the desert there
is no...
Paramahamsa: Oh, yes. Arabia they grow.
Prabhupada: Yes, yes. [break] ...desert nice watermelon will grow. Yes. Nice dates. So people go there, take the dates and take the watermelon. Krishna has provided food even there. [break]
Harikesa: Would one see gross form on a subtle planet?
Prabhupada: Hmm?
Harikesa: Like the moon planet is heavenly planet. They're supposed to have subtle bodies there. So would there be any gross forms?
Prabhupada: Why subtle body? That is material body.
Harikesa: So we would not be able to see any traces of a civilization?
Prabhupada: There is civilization. You have not gone there, rascal. You are simply imagining. (Devotees laugh) There is civilization. First thing is, you rascal, you did not go. You are talking only nonsense. That's it.
[But what about the answer to this valid question?]
Paramahamsa: [break] ...Rahu planet, that's a hellish planet?
Prabhupada: Yes. They might have gone to that hellish planet. That's all.
Bali-mardana: No wonder they left.
Paramahamsa: That seems more befitting them.
Prabhupada: Yes. Yes!
Bali-mardana: They were not qualified to go to the moon, so Krishna sent them there.
Prabhupada: Yes, they are not qualified. Even in this planet, unless one is bona fide, he is not allowed to enter America. How you can go to the moon planet? That is demigods' planet.
Harikesa: Some of the astronauts became very religious after they supposedly went.
Prabhupada: Yes, they are intelligent, that "This is all nonsense. Real thing is God." That is... They come to their senses. They are intelligent. [break] (In car:) ...real business is to enhance your Krishna consciousness. These people, they are wasting time simply to know something else. There is no limit. Klisyanti ye kevala-bodha-labdhaye. What is moon planet? What business you have got to know the...? Whatever is stated in the sastra, accept it, that's all. What is the use of experiment and going there and then again say, "Oh, it is all failure." Simply waste of time. The arrangement is there by God. That's all. Spending so much money, hard-earned money, unnecessarily and then say, "Oh, it is failure."
Paramahamsa: If they were a little bit intelligent and had some knowledge of the Vedas, they would learn that they could go there...
Prabhupada: The knowledge is already there. Just like I am speaking. I am not a scientist. On the knowledge of Vedas, that's all.
Paramahamsa: Yes. Just like you have said in the
Easy Journey to Other Planets, you can go there by the mystic yoga process. You don't have to make some space machine.
Prabhupada: Yes.
Ambarisa: The scientists want to go there without performing any kind of austerities.
Prabhupada: But there is austerities.
Paramahamsa: Yeah, actually they end up performing greater austerity.
Prabhupada: You have to earn money with so much labor and spend it for nothing.
Paramahamsa: Billions of dollars. Some of them are working like madmen.
Prabhupada: Yes.
Paramahamsa: They work all day and most of the night. [break]
Prabhupada: ...expedition is exposition of the scientists: useless. But these materialistic persons will be cheated again and again.
Punah punar carvita-carvananam [SB 7.5.30]. The scientists will propose something else and they will accept. They will never say that "You are failure in your moon expedition. Why you are proposing again something nonsense?" They will never ask. They will pay me, "Yes."
Ambarisa: The government doesn't want the people in general to know that the scientists are failures because they feel that the people will be put into a lot of anxiety because of this. So they...
Prabhupada: No, they are already in anxiety. This material world means anxiety. So many problems there are.
Sada samudvigna-dhiyam asad-grahat. Because they accepted this material world as all in all,
samudvigna, they are full of anxiety. Just like if you are on a boat and if you know that after some hours the boat will be drowned, then can you remain without anxiety?
Paramahamsa: They have some relief, though, because they think that the scientists will be able to protect them.
Prabhupada: This is their position. This is their position. Just like we are in this car, but we know it, that any moment there can be accident. So how we can be without anxiety? In the material world, on account of this material condition, we are not going to stay here. There must be anxiety. But if we close our eyes, that is different thing. Otherwise it is full of anxiety. [break] "... be free from anxiety, then surrender to Me. What I say, do it." That he will not do. They will manufacture their own way of life. They must be in anxiety. They will never hear what Krishna says. And our propaganda is that "Just you become Krishna conscious, and you will be happy." This is our... That they will not do.
Ambarisa: ...'60, 1960. When did they start to go to the moon?
Prabhupada: Yes.
Ambarisa: I think President Kennedy started the program in 1960.
Prabhupada: Sending dog first of all?
Ambarisa: Yeah, mice and then monkeys and...
Prabhupada: [break] ...desert. But here we find, within the desert, petrol. Why not get petrol there and solve your power problem. Can I not raise this question?
Ambarisa: How would they get it back from the moon?
Prabhupada: There will be petrol. You take it.
Ambarisa: How would they get it back here?
Prabhupada: As they are coming. They are going and coming. So let them go, and if the surface is desert, then find out oil within.
Paramahamsa: But their answer would be: "Well, even if we found oil, it would be impossible to bring it to the earth."
Indian man: They can make up tanks.
Prabhupada: No, you can make devices, fill it up, and throw it. (laughter) [break] ...mad, you should give them mad suggestion. (laughter) (end)
Morning Walk, Los Angeles, 07/24/1975
Prabhupada: No, no, in the sand. You'll find so many lives, many millions. How there is life in the water? There is life in the water, there is life on the land, there is life in the air, so where is there no life? How you can say there is no life? That is foolishness. And they say that the dust brought from the moon planet is the same. It can be found here. So why there should not be life?
Paramahamsa: If there is life on other planets then they assume it's in a plant form or very, very low, like plants, bushes at the most.
Prabhupada: That is their opinion.
Tamala Krishna: Srila Prabhupada? If these scientists, they landed on the Rahu planet, that means that...
Prabhupada: That could be, but some... Just like somebody was saying that there are many planets unknown. They might have gone to some... Just like there are many parts of the world you have never seen. Even on this planet, you cannot say that you have seen all the parts of the world. That is not possible. [break]
[Again, for some unexplained reason humans apparently are qualified to go to Rahu and other planets. Just not the Moon...]
Room Conversation with Reporter, Los Angeles, 06/04/1976
Reporter: When I interviewed you perhaps five or six years ago, it was before there were reports of the astronauts landing on the moon, and I asked you at that time if you thought, what you thought about it, and you said that, as I recall, that they would not be able to land or explore, because spirits or creatures that lived on the moon would not allow it. The reports of course said that indeed people did land and explore and return safely. I understand you have further thoughts about that (laughter) and you've even written a lot about it. I wonder if you could tell me, not at great length perhaps, but what your belief about those events is.
Prabhupada: Yes. From the.... That question I was discussing the other day. In the common sense, gross sense, that all over the world, they accept Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, in this way Saturday last. So why these arrangement? Sunday first and Monday second, and nobody could reply it. But as a layman I can conclude that Sun planet is first and the moon planet is next. So if you cannot go to the sun planet, which is ninety-three million miles away, how you can go to the moon planet within four days? Nobody could answer me. Can you answer?
[Besides the fact that for some reason Srila Prabhupada is not using his usual arguments about space suits etc., I never understood this reasoning. In most European countries the week starts on Monday, not Sunday. There is no world wide conclusion as to how exactly the names of weekdays have come about or where a week starts. Ancient Celtic and Germanic cultures linked their weekdays to names of gods. There are theories that indicate that the weekdays are named in relation to the brightness of the planets as visible from the Earth with naked eyes and clear night skies, rather than their distance from the Earth. This, however, is not supported by facts. The days of the week go like Sun-Moon-Mars-Mercury-Jupiter-Venus-Saturn (if we take the American system, starting with Sunday). As far as brightness is concerned, the Sun (-26.8) and Moon (-12.7) are followed not by Mars (-2.8), but by Venus (-4.7) and Jupiter (-2.9), in this order. So you'd end up with a week like Sunday-Monday-Friday-Thursday-Tuesday-Wednesday-Saturday... Other theories link the appearance of planets to hours of the day and extrapolate the sequence of weekdays from the planet that occupies the first hour of the day. Again, there is no conclusive correlation between the order of weekday names and the distance of the planets from the Earth.]
Reporter: Well, I don't think it's worth the answer now, but I'm wondering what your response is.
Prabhupada: But this is the arrangement all over the world. Sunday first, Monday second, then Tuesday. So Sun, Moon, Mars, Jupiter, in this way. Last Saturn. This is the arrangement of the planets. So if this is the arrangement of the planets, moonday next to..., moon next to sun, and if you cannot go to the sun, how can you go to the moon?
Reporter: Do you, in other words, do you believe that astronauts landed somewhere?
Prabhupada: That is next question. First of all, whether you actually went to the moon, that is the first question. You have to conclude that you did not, because the sun planet is first, the moon planet is second. You cannot go to the sun planet, ninety-three millions of miles, how can you go to the moon planet?
Reporter: Well, except that...
Prabhupada: According to our
sastra, the moon planet is above the sun planet, and the distance is 1,600,000 miles. So accepting that the sun is 93,000,000 miles away, then you add another 1,600,000, almost 2,000,000, it becomes 15,000,000 miles away. So if you go at the speed of 18,000 miles per hour, it takes more than 6 months. So how you go there in 4 days? And you advertise in the paper: "Now, they have reached." After 4 days.
Ramesvara: They don't accept that the moon is further away.
Prabhupada: They don't accept, that is another thing, but we have got this information. How we can accept it?
Reporter: I didn't understand that last.
Ramesvara: I said to Prabhupada that the modern man believes that the moon is closer, but Prabhupada said, "But our ancient literatures teach that the moon is further away." So since we have that information, how can we accept the version of the modern scientists?
Reporter: Hm hm.
Ramesvara: We've got...
Prabhupada: Not only that. Why this arrangement that Monday and, Sunday first, Monday second?
Reporter: Well, that doesn't necessarily speak of distance.
Prabhupada: Hm?
Reporter: It doesn't necessarily speak of distance.
Prabhupada: That.... Distance may not be, but you have to accept the sun planet first, moon planet next.
Reporter: Er...
Prabhupada: Distance is not the question. [???]
Reporter: OK.
Prabhupada: Why this arrangement: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday? There is some system. The system is, just like first, second, third, fourth. So it is naturally concluded the moon planet is next to the sun planet.
Reporter: Do you feel -- maybe you answered this, but I didn't understand the answer -- do you feel that astronauts did land somewhere, but it was some other planet?
Prabhupada: That may be. Or it may not be also.
Tamala Krishna: What about that sometimes people ask us what about the pictures of man on the moon?
Ramesvara: They show man in a spacesuit walking on some other planet.
Prabhupada: That is also, what is called, argumentative.
Somebody says it is arbitrary arrangement.
Reporter: Hm. Laboratory.
Prabhupada: Of course, we do not go into the details of this. My question is that why Sunday first and Monday second? Nobody can apli..., replies.
Morning Walk, San Francisco 07/21/1975
Paramahamsa: In Stockholm, Prabhupada, in the museum, they have a whole room, and in the room there is all these... There's American flag and Swedish flag, and there's a whole exhibit with one teeny little rock about as big as my finger nail that the Americans gave the Swedes. It's supposed to be a rock from the moon. And they said in it that it's exactly as any kind of rock that you'll find on earth. (laughter)
Prabhupada: They say? It is simply cheating. They found this in Arizona, somebody... (laughter) And laboratory work.
[Of course, "they said" is not clarified, nor where in Arizona the rocks came from, or even where this information came from (other than the mention of an ambiguous "somebody"). Between 1969 and 1972 Apollo missions brought back 842 pounds of lunar rocks, core samples, pebbles, sand and dust from the lunar surface. The six space flights returned 2,196 individual specimens from six sites on the Moon. These specimens have been processed into more than 97,000 individually cataloged samples. The lunar sample laboratory at Johnson Space Center is the chief repository for the Apollo samples where pristine lunar samples are prepared for shipment to scientists and educators. More than 60 laboratories worldwide actively pursue sample studies; some 1,100 samples are sent out to researchers annually. Over the last 30 years thousands of geologists from all over the world have analyzed these samples and found that they are like nothing else on Earth. There has never been presented any proof of any rocks from Arizona being identical to any of the specimens of Moon rocks. It has been suggested that researchers could not tell the difference between fake and authentic rocks since no one had ever examined a Moon rock before. This claim is utter nonsense. In addition to the rocks returned by Apollo, there are samples of lunar rocks that have fallen to Earth as meteorites (which are very rare, with only about 30 known samples). Tests have shown the Apollo Moon rocks and the meteorites are of identical origin; however, the Apollo samples lack other features that would distinguish them as meteorites, such as scorching and oxidation. Also, the Moon rocks have characteristics that are not found in terrestrial or artificial rocks, such as evidence of meteoroid bombardment and exposure to cosmic rays. Likewise, terrestrial rocks have unique characteristics not found in the Moon rocks, such as weathering and exposure to water. Finally, the Moon rocks returned by Apollo have been determined to be between 3.1 and 4.4 billion years old.]
Bahulasva: I have been trying to arrange a meeting between Your Divine Grace and that astronaut. He was going to come to Rathayatra, but he had to go to Florida for some space project.
Prabhupada: What does he say, astronaut?
Bahulasva: He says that... His name is Edgar Mitchell, and he was one of the men who went to the moon. But we talked, and he said... He thinks he has gone to the moon. But he said that when he was there, he had a religious experience, and he felt that there was a God. When he went to the moon, he had this experience. So when he came back, he was telling all his scientist friends what his experience was. So they became very afraid, and they kicked him out of the space project. They thought he had become a fanatic, religious sentimentalist, so they kicked him out. So now he has opened up an institute for noetic sciences or... It is some Greek word. It means like spiritual sciences. He wants to prove to the scientific world that there is God.
[Navy Captain Dr. Edgar Mitchell was never kicked out of any program. He partook in the Apollo 14 mission from January 31st until February 9th, 1971, and was the 6th man to walk on the Moon. He retired honorably from the Navy in 1972 and founded the Institute for Neotic Sciences. They make it emphatically clear that they are "not a spiritual association, political-action group, or a single-cause institute." He never spoke of God during his experience in outer space, but rather of "a sense of universal connectedness" and that the cosmos itself was somehow conscious.]
Prabhupada: That's nice. He is good.
Bahulasva: So we gave him a copy of
Easy Journey to Other Planets and
Srimad-Bhagavatam, and he's been reading that. He is friends with that other scientist, Wernher Von Braun, who gave that speech also saying that he feels that there is definitely God by his scientific studies. We also wrote him a letter, but we haven't gotten any response. Svarupa Damodara prabhu wrote him also.
[In September of 1975, Wernher von Braun was already 62 years old and in bad health. He died June 15th, 1977.]
Morning Walk, Bombay, 11/03/1975
Dr. Patel: I have heard that the man could have first landed on moon and then...
Prabhupada: Nobody landed. This is all bogus.
Morning Walk, Bombay, 11/13/1975
"[break]...strength of
sastra we are challenging that
'You have never gone to the moon planet.' Who can do so? The whole world is accepting they have gone to moon planet, and we are challenging,
'You have never gone to moon.' Hare Krishna. Thank you very much."
Morning Walk, Los Angeles, 06/04/1976
Tamala Krishna: But what about the people, like the men on the ship who say they have jumped on the moon? Are they lying and being paid off, or are they just.... What, I mean what is the actual position? Some men are getting on a television saying, "We landed there, it was like this, it was like that."
Prabhupada: No, I saw that television, at that time, the whole thing broke wrong. There was a press representative. He protested. I was protesting from the beginning, but they could not show how they jumped, at the last. Going, going, going, but at the time of jumping, melancholy. Ceylon jumping melancholy.
Tamala Krishna: But I mean they do, these men who are space travelers, they say "We did land on the moon." Now are they lying?
Prabhupada: No, they, but the television was showing. They could not show this.
Tamala Krishna: Jumping on the moon?
Prabhupada: That was not shown.
Candanacarya: They may be hypnotized also.
Hrdayananda: Prabhupada said they'd gone to Rahu.
Ramesvara: They have got that dust. They say they got that from another planet.
Prabhupada: Dust you can take it from here, from this beach.
Ramesvara: So then they're lying.
Prabhupada: Yes.
Room Conversation, New Vrindaban, 07/02/1976
Pusta Krishna: Their theory is that there's a dark side of the moon that we've never seen.
Prabhupada: Huh?
Pusta Krishna: Their theory is that there's a dark..., that actually the moon is reflecting the sun's light. So there's a dark side of the moon.
[This shows how badly informed some devotees were who dabbled in this topic. First of all, "dark side" is really a misnomer. More about that later. Second, already in 1959, Russia's spacecraft Luna 3 returned the first picture of the far side. Then in 1968, astronauts Borman, Lovell, and Anders saw the far side of the moon with their own eyes as their Apollo 8 spacecraft circumnavigated the Moon.]
Prabhupada: So far the world is, where is the dark side and the bright side? If you compare like that, then so far this globe is concerned, which one is dark side, which one is bright side?
Hari-sauri: No, they say the earth is spinning on its own axis, so all parts of the earth at one time or another receive sunlight.
Prabhupada: The moon does not do that?
Hari-sauri: The moon does not revolve on its own axis.
Prabhupada: Another foolishness.
Pusta Krishna: Just to fit their speculation.
[The real foolishness is the statement that the Moon does not revolve around its axis. It does, but the rotation of the Moon around its axis is synchronized with its orbital period. Thus it always shows the same face to the Earth. As it rotates, all of its sides receive light of the sun, hence there is no "dark" side. What we call the far side is illuminated by the sun during the new Moon phase.]
Prabhupada: Just see. Simply speculation and misleading people.
Hari-sauri: There's no basis for it, there's no truth to it at all. (laughs)
Prabhupada: And you people believed that? I'm surprised. (laughter) You are also fools and rascals.
Hari-sauri: This is what they teach in all the schools.
Pusta Krishna: They have little models, Srila Prabhupada, made out of plastic.
Prabhupada: Ah, they are... Let them, we take them as rascals, that's all. Mudha.
Hari-sauri: That other argument that you use about how the moon rays give life to the vegetables... So how is it that there's no life on the moon? If the rays from the moon give life, then how is it there's no life where the rays come from?
Prabhupada: They have never gone to moon. (laughs) All bogus. And this Mars expedition will be a failure. Let them spend millions of dollars. I told about moon planet ten years ago. It is childish, simply a waste of money and energy.
I told this. Now it has proved.
[What Mars expedition is being referred to here, or whether they constitute a waste of money and energy, is besides the point; what needs to be observed is that over the last couple of decades there have been several very successful unmanned Mars expeditions -- notably the Mars Pathfinder Project and the recent Twin Mars Rovers.]
Hari-sauri: There's no more interest in the moon at all.
Prabhupada: No? Kirtanananda said "It is inhabitable." Ten years ago I said there's no use going there. It is childish, waste of money. But who hears about us? We know moon planet is inhabited by high-class living entities. (laughs) (sarcastically:) And they will allow these rascals to go by their machine.
Hari-sauri: When they originally started sending sputniks to the moon, they couldn't even land them properly. They would crash, they said that they were crash-landing spaceships into the moon's surface.
Prabhupada: Crashed?
Hari-sauri: Crash-landing. The spaceship was supposed to just smash into the surface of the moon, like that.
Prabhupada: They have never gone. Simply propaganda. Even they have gone, what is the result? Simply with big report that it is inhabitable.
Evening Conversation, Tehran, 08/08/1976
"Just like this moon excursion. Ten years ago in one small book,
Easy Journey to Other Planets, we predicted that this moon-going attempt is childish and waste of time. We are not expert scientist, but from the
sastra we can understand. Now such a brilliant planet, pleasing, and they have discovered there rocks and sand. Just see their intelligence. Do you think rocks and sand are so brilliant? What do you think?"
[One of the most obvious characteristics of lunar soil, or regolith, is that it is extremely reflective. It consists mostly of fine dust particles and tiny glass spheres that tend to reflect light straight back to its source. Combined with the fact that there is no atmosphere to scatter light, the surface of the Moon acts as a very effective reflector of light.]
"This bluff is going on. People are feeling under the moonshine is so pleasing, and it is full of rocks and sand. We have to accept that. Rocks and sand, throughout the whole day by scorching heat, they also become heated. So at night it is suffering. So if it is rocks and sand, so whole day it was heated by the sunshine, how it is pleasing?"
Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.5.10-13, Vrindavana, 11/01/1976
"Of course, these rascals, they are finding only stones and rocks in other planets. They have got everything only in this planet. And you have to believe them.
Wherever they are going, in the moon planet or in the Mars planet, what do they see? Simply rocks and sands. But that is not the fact. Each and every planet is full of living entities, janata(?)."
Bhagavad-Gita 16.8, Hyderabad, 12/16/1976
"Big, big asuras like Ravana, he also wanted to be happy himself and others by material adjustment. He proposed that 'There is no need of acting piously to go to the heavenly planet. I shall construct a staircase so anyone can go.' Ravanera svargesvari. So that was failure. Just like we are now trying, the modern scientists.
We are trying to go to the moon planet. It is failure. They will never be able to go there. I have discussed this point. We are conditioned. We cannot live one place to another without being proficient or without being eligible. Just like even in this planet you cannot go to the other country. Suppose from India if we want to go to America, it requires arrangement, not that all of a sudden you can go to America or the Americans come here. There is international arrangement, visa, passport, immigration, so many things.
So many obstacles are there even in this planet, and what to speak of going to other planet. It is not possible. You must be efficient; then you can go."
Bhu-mandala Diagram Discussion, Vrindavana, 07/02/1977
Tamala Krishna: It says here, "There is thick dust covering and no evidence to suggest that the moon has ever supported life." In that newspaper article the man who is exposing them saidùbecause they say it is covered by dust -- "How is it that no dust is shown on the astronauts' suits when they walked around?" He says, "If there's such a thick dust, then, when the rocket landed, it would have made a pocket within that dust." He says, "But there's no crater around the rocket. Then how it is possible that these things are like that?" 'Cause actually they forgot. When they were making the stage setting in Arizona, they forgot these things.
[This refers to Bill Kaysing's Moon-hoax arguments, which are apparently readily accepted without further scrutiny as if Kaysing is some kind of guru with better credentials and qualifications than NASA and other world scientists.]
Yasoda-nandana: One argument Your Divine Grace gave in 1971 was that if they went to the moon and they found it was rock, how do they explain the moon is so shiny and gives such a cooling effect? They cannot explain that.
[There are very detailed expanations of why the Moon is shiny. As to the cooling effect, the Moon is mostly visible at night, when temperatures are already dropping naturally. Incidentally, the coolest nights are new Moon nights (when the Moon is not visible) and cloudless nights.]
Tamala Krishna: Look at the earth. Now, this is a real question that we still have to answer. They picture the earth round, and we say, no. Bhu-mandala is like a lotus, like this, and the earth is only one part of one island in Bhu-mandala, and it's not, you know, it's not round(?). It doesn't look like that. And all the pictures they take of the earth when they go up in their satellites show round. And we're going to tell them that it's not. This is a very tricky question. In other words, if this is the picture of the world, like this, and we say that... If we take an airplane from here, from Los Angeles. Now, supposing we go to India, which is here. So there's two ways to go. One way, you can go like this, and the other way, you can go like that.
But if the earth is not a round globe, then how is it sometimes people go from Los Angeles via Hawaii to Japan and then India? So we can't figure this out. We have experience, those of us who have flown, that actually the plane went from Los Angeles to Hawaii to Tokyo to Hong Kong and then to India. So it doesn't work out in our maps so far, right? We can't figure it out. This thing has to be very complete in its answers. Otherwise everyone will laugh at us. We can't leave any loopholes.
Letter to Tirthanga dasa, 09/??/1977
If you believe whatever the material so-called scientists are saying, that is your business,
but I do not believe any of their so-called observations in outer space by the blunt material senses can be true without any doubt... They have spent simply millions of dollars to make a show of their so-called learning and the resul is a handful of dust, that's all...
Even it is true that they have landed on the moon, so what is their accomplishment? If I come to Earth planet and land in the Sahara desert, then I say, "Oh, this planet is a barren desert, no one lives here?" The moon may be like that or like this, so what does that help to our Krsna consciousness movement. We have nothing to do with moon planet or this planet and that planet in Krsna consciousness. We simply want to serve to Krsna, that's all.
