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Meru (Lecture, Conversations & Letters)

Lectures

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 1.16.12 -- Los Angeles, January 9, 1974:

This island might have changed, the name. Because there are so many islands. Just like the Java(?) island and Laksadvipa island, very small islands. Similarly, this Meru is also another island. Not only these small island, but according to Vedic culture, each planet is called island. Each planet. Just like this planet, earthly planet, is called Jambūdvīpa. Why it is called dvīpa? Dvīpa means island. Because actually it is island of the air. Just like there are so many islands in the sea, similarly, this vast air, outer space, and all these planets, are floating like island. Therefore they are called island, dvīpa, Jambūdvīpa. Here in this earthly planet, long, long ago, it is said in the Vedic literatures, sapta-dvīpa. Sapta means seven. So this earthly planet is of seven dvīpa, seven islands. These two Americas, north and south, they are islands. Africa, one island. And combined Asia and Europe, another island. The two poles, two islands.

Lecture on SB 6.1.33 -- San Francisco, July 18, 1975:

The yogis can go, but they are born yogis. One planet... This is described in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. We have seen in this Second Canto. There is Siddhaloka. So many planets are there, so many opulences are there, that it cannot be compared. And there is description. So one planet to another, or one planet to the Sumeru hills, there is long, millions of miles, made of gold. They are gold. Similarly copper. Similarly, there are different oceans. Now, we may not believe, but there is no question of believing. You cannot say, "There is no such thing." But we can say because we get the information from the śāstra. You have no evidence, so you cannot say "No." You can say "Maybe," but we don't say "Maybe." There is because we get the information from the śāstra.

Initiation Lectures

Gurudasa Sannyasa Initiation -- San Francisco, July 21, 1975:

Ramyaka dāsa. Ramyaka means very beautiful. That is Kṛṣṇa. Nobody is more beautiful than Kṛṣṇa. Asitāmbuda-sundarāṅgam. Although He is blackish, but nobody is more beautiful than Kṛṣṇa. You are all white. (laughter) Hare Kṛṣṇa.

(next devotee approaches) Alambana dāsa. Alambana means reference to the context. Just like there was a great devotee of Lord Caitanya, Murāri Gupta. He was a physician of the Nawab. So he was going on the back of the elephant with the Nawab, and he saw one peacock. So as soon as saw the feather of peacock, immediately he fell down. How? Because the peacock feather is on the head of Kṛṣṇa, he immediately remembered Kṛṣṇa. This is called alambana, "with reference to the context."

(next devotee approaches) Meru-devī, yes. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Conversations and Morning Walks

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- February 21, 1975, Caracas:

Prabhupāda: Why they talk of Eastern, Western?" Eastern sun, Western sun." Sun is always Eastern, never Western. How one can say, "Western sun?" (break) Just see. It is in the water, but the water is not over it. If the water increases, it also increases. See? There is no water on the leaf. Here you see. The water must be always down. (break) ...falling from the top of the Sumeru Hill, a big tree, and the juice, after falling down, turns into a river of mango juice. And the blackberries, they are just like the body of elephant and small seed. They also turn into river, Jambu-nada. And the both sides of the river, being moistened by the juice and dried by air and interacted by the sunshine, it becomes gold. And that gold is used for the denizens of heaven for their ornaments, helmets, bracelet, belt. Where is gold here? Paper. They cannot make even gold coins. They are reducing into poverty. In our childhood we have seen gold coin currency, silver coin. And now there is no such thing. Plastic. Paper and plastic. This is their advancement. Yes, it is a nice garden.

Morning Walk -- June 10, 1975, Honolulu:

Siddha-svarūpa: What it is is that we're automatically taking as authoritative what the scientists say, but we don't think is authoritative what Śrīla Prabhupāda and the Bhāgavata is saying.

Harikeśa: Well, the difficulty I was having about this mountain, this Meru. It sounds... It's very difficult to explain that to someone.

Prabhupāda: No, no, that is difficult, but everything is difficult for you. Because you want to see. You have not seen their arrangement; neither you have seen our arrangement. So but your proposition is you don't believe what you don't see. You have not seen neither of them, so you have to remain silent.

Harikeśa: So the best position is just remain silent until realization comes?

Prabhupāda: No. You should... Śukadeva Gosvāmī says. You have to believe that. It is an idea. If you believe or not believe, it doesn't matter. But you can get an idea about the planetary situation. That's all. Neither you can go there; neither you can see it. An idea is given, that is all. But there is no argument.

Morning Walk -- November 20, 1975, Bombay:

Yaśomatīnandana: Sumeru is made of gold, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Yaśomatīnandana: Where is that located? (laughter)

Dr. Patel: In your mind.

Prabhupāda: No. Where is the sun located now?

Yaśomatīnandana: 93,000,000...

Prabhupāda: No, no. Sun. Sun. Where is located now?

Yaśomatīnandana: Oh, it's out of my sight.

Prabhupāda: You cannot see it.

Morning Walk -- November 20, 1975, Bombay:

Yaśomatīnandana: Sumeru we cannot see. It's not on the earth?

Prabhupāda: You can, but you have no eyes.

Dr. Patel: (Hindi) I call him also mahārāja. He's a brāhmaṇa.

Yaśomatīnandana: Brahma-bandhu.

Dr. Patel: I don't know whether you are a bandhu or yourself. Well, I call you what I...

Nanda-kumāra: In South America one man went up the Amazon River and he found a place where he could pick gold nuggets up out of the water.

Dr. Patel: Gold nuggets are there in the rivers, so many, in Africa.

Prabhupāda: Gold?

Dr. Patel: Gold nuggets. Because gold never get, I mean, oxidized. It is always in (unclear). So nuggets, they are available in big rivers even in Africa. Because when they come through the mountain, you know.

Prabhupāda: There is one river in India also, Suvarna-rekha, between Orissa and Bengal.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- March 18, 1976, Mayapura:

Gurudāsa: What's the answer, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: So you answer. He has understood.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: According to Bhāgavatam, the moon is not going around the earth. It is revolving around Mount Sumeru. Isn't it?

Prabhupāda: Yes. According Bhāgavata, that is a different thing. But this...

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: But why the moon should simply follow that same pattern...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: ...going east to west, east to west? Why not...?

Bhavānanda: Random.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: At random. Sometimes rising from the south.

Room Conversation With Scientists -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. So actually the Vedas must have known these techniques, because otherwise they cannot get this gold so easily.

Prabhupāda: No, there are gold mountains also.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Mount Sumeru?

Prabhupāda: There are gold mountains, silver mountains, iron mountains, copper road, everything is there. What is that?

Devotee (1): This is a new picture of Mars, just came in the Washington Post today. Here is what the scientists say the mountains are on Mars. Big crater they are talking about. This is a recent photo.

Prabhupāda: So? What do they say?

Morning Walk -- July 18, 1976, New York:

Rāmeśvara: (break) ...were just amazed at the dancing of Lord Caitanya. How Lord Jagannātha would stop His car just to see. It says that Lord Jagannātha is maintaining the whole universe, so who can carry Him? Only by His sweet will for His own pastimes can He be moved. And the cart that moves Him is as tall as Mount Sumeru.

Prabhupāda: Potamkin..., and what was that in Washington, Potomyer?

Devotees: Potomac.

Rāmeśvara: And you wrote that just like the cart of Jagannātha is compared to Mount Sumeru, similarly, in London they were comparing it to that statue of Lord Nelson.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Lord Nelson's column.

Rāmeśvara: Lord Nelson's column.

Prabhupāda: Rival to Nelson. They published, Guardian.

Evening Darsana -- August 12, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Harikeśa: "I am the Self, O Guḍākeśa, seated in the hearts of all creatures. I am the beginning, the middle and the end of all beings. Of the Ādityas I am Viṣṇu, of lights I am the radiant sun, I am Marīci of the Maruts, and among the stars I am the moon. Of the Vedas I am the Sāma-veda; of the demigods I am Indra; of the senses I am the mind; and in living beings I am the living force, knowledge. Of all the Rudras I am Lord Śiva; of the Yakṣas and Rākṣasas I am the lord of wealth (Kuvera); of the Vasus I am fire (Agni); and of the mountains I am Meru. Of priests, O Arjuna, know Me to be the chief, Bṛhaspati, the lord of devotion. Of generals I am Skanda, the lord of war; and of bodies of water I am the ocean. Of the great sages I am Bhṛgu; of vibrations I am the transcendental om. Of sacrifices I am the chanting of the holy names (japa), and of immovable things I am the Himalayas. Of all trees I am the holy fig tree, and amongst sages and demigods I am Nārada.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- June 18, 1977, Vrndavana:

Yaśodānandana: And it describes, "In Jambūdvīpa there are nine divisions of land, each with a length of 9,000 yojanas, 72,000 miles: Bhārata-varṣa, Kimpuruṣa-varṣa, Hari-varṣa, Bhadra-varṣa, Ilāvṛta-varṣa, Ketumāla-varṣa, Ramyaka-varṣa, Hiraṇmaya-varṣa, and Kuru-varṣa. There are eight mountains that mark the boundaries of these divisions and separate them nicely. Starting with the Himalayas"—that's the first mountain—"Hemakūṭa Parvata"—second mountain—"Niṣadha Parvata"—third mountain—it goes... This... "Gandhamādana Parvata, which is the east side of Sumeru, and then Mālyavān Mountain on the west side..."

Bhakti-prema(?): Nīla mountain, north; Śveta mountain, next; and Śṛṅgavān Mountain, north.

Yaśodānandana: Maybe you can explain that Sanskrit purport also?

Bhakti-prema: (Sanskrit) It is bow-shaped. Bhārata-varṣa is bow-shaped, and this Bhadra-varṣa is again bow-shaped, Kuru-varṣa, again bow-shaped, and this Ketumāla-varṣa, again... So they were shaped. (Sanskrit) That means thirty-four yojanas...

Prabhupāda: Thousand yojanas.

Room Conversation -- June 18, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That means Rahu planet we have connection.

Bhakti-prema: Yes. Rahu. And above that Rahu there is sun planet, and Sumeru mountain has connection with that because it is hurling again...

Yaśodānandana: It says right here.

Prabhupāda: Do it nicely.

Yaśodānandana: It is mentioned that this Sumeru Parvata, the mountain's height is the same as the width of Jambūdvīpa. So this mountain comes up to here, the same distance as this, 100,000 yojanas. So it's perfectly... This is the same length on this side and also like this. It's made like a big, a big cone on top. It describes, "Of that mountain, Sumeru Parvata, 16,000 yojanas, or 128,000 miles, are within, under." So Sumeru is like this, and it also goes under the Jambūdvīpa planetary system. And therefore the mountain's head above the earth, above here, there is 84,000 yojanas, 672,000 miles above the level. And the mountain's width, the mountain on top, is considered to be 32,000 yojanas, or 256,000 miles. And in the bottom it's 16,000 yojanas. Scientists cannot conceive of this. Their estimation of a mountain is that it must be bigger in the bottom and end up smaller at the top, but Mount Meru is twice as big in the top than it is in the bottom.

Room Conversation -- June 18, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: They could not measure the whole thing. That is not possible.

Yaśodānandana: Then it describes here that "On the west and east of Ilāvṛta-varṣa are two great mountains named Mālyavān and Gandhamādana respectively. These two mountains, which are 2,000 yojanas, 16,000 miles..." (break) "...in the north and Niṣadha mountain in the south. They indicate the borders of Ilāvṛta-varṣa and also the varṣas named as Ketumāla-varṣa and Bhadrāśva-varṣa." Then it gets into more details regarding Mount Meru. "Text number eleven. On the four sides of the great mountain known as Sumeru are four mountains," these Mandara Parvata. This is the mountain.

Prabhupāda: So how you'll show actually?

Bhakti-prema: This is according to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

Prabhupāda: No, that's all right. Now, that doll, that you have to make.

Showing of Planetary Sketches -- June 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bhakti-Prema: And he took (indistinct) in other planets?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bhakti-Prema: The same with this Meru Mountain, it spreads...

Prabhupāda: They cannot explain what is that. But I have seen it. Where it has gone, nobody knows. Just see. Down, hundred miles, and up... You cannot see more than hundred... But it appears like the instruction.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This is Jambūdvīpa, part of Jambūdvīpa. That is Ilāvṛta-varṣa in the square. We have... These mountains are each two thousand yojanas high.

Showing of Planetary Sketches -- June 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Bhakti-Prema: After Mandara Meru, Mandara, that Mandara Mountains... And here he began to meditate. He meditated for six thousand years on this Mandara Mountain here. Then Pārvatī came, and she... Then next... These two mountains are like (describes sketch of planetary system, very difficult to hear) And here is the beautiful Indu stream(?). And it's heart is... Eight hundred miles.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Where is it?

Bhakti-Prema: On the Mandara Mountain. There are four different streams. This is Ilāvṛta-varṣa.

Yaśodānandana: This area?

Bhakti-Prema: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Śivaloka? Śivaloka?

Bhakti-Prema: Yes, it is not actually Śivaloka, but residence of Lord Śiva.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: One of his... He described it that like during the summertime you go to a hill station. Each demigod has their place where they also go.

Bhakti-Prema: Śivaloka is different, but Lord Śiva is...

Showing of Planetary Sketches -- June 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So Brahmaloka is in Jambūdvīpa?

Bhakti-Prema: No, no, no. Brahmaloka is in Satyaloka.

Prabhupāda: Oh, then what is this?

Bhakti-Prema: This is Mount Meru.

Prabhupāda: But you said Brahmaloka.

Bhakti-Prema: Brahmapurī.

Prabhupāda: Brahmapurī, that.

Bhakti-Prema: Summer residence.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The middle part.

Showing of Planetary Sketches -- June 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Bhakti-Prema: And then there are eight different residences of different loka-pālas, Indra, Agni, Varuṇa...

Prabhupāda: Summer residence.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, on top of Meru, like a hill station. (laughter)

Bhakti-Prema: You won't find many even like a (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: And they simply find rocks and sand. How nonsense...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Because that's all there is in Arizona.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) That is... Do it nicely, carefully.

Bhakti-Prema: So scientists cannot try to realize the height of this mountain...

Prabhupāda: Not advised.

Showing of Planetary Sketches -- June 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Bhakti-Prema: They come just here.

Prabhupāda: I have seen. They can go little higher than that earth. That's all. They cannot go even that peak. As soon as they go, finished.

Bhakti-Prema: This is more than six lakhs' miles from the earth, the height of Mount Meru.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The airplane goes about eight miles. Five thousand feet equals one mile. And they go forty thousand. So how much is forty thousand? Eight miles.

Devotee (1): Forty thousand feet divided by five means approximately eight miles.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Airplane goes eight miles high, and this Meru Mandapa(?) is 800,000 total, a hundred thousand yojanas, one lakh of yojanas. So this is very high, nearly 600,000 miles high. An airplane only goes five miles.

Showing of Planetary Sketches -- June 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Vedic planetarium.

Bhakti-Prema: Next step will be planetary system.

Prabhupāda: All right.

Bhakti-Prema: The third planetary system, above Mount Meru.

Prabhupāda: Jaya. You have taken lunch?

Upendra: Yes, Prabhupāda. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...there is sun, and above that, there is moon. And they are going to moon. They are going nowhere, simply taking laboratory photo, studio photo, and cheating. Why this cheating can go on? You do not know. That's all. Who is insisting that "We must know"? (end)

Bhu-mandala Diagram Discussion -- July 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They have to stand up on the chairs because it's so big. Big project. This is only one drawing. Imagine the planetarium. (break)

Yaśodā-nandana: The directions are north, east and south and west. In the middle here, right in the middle, there is Mount Meru, which is very, very small. The scale, it comes to be one centimeter... What is this measurement estimate?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: One twentieth of a centimeter.

Yaśodā-nandana: One twentieth of a centimeter is calculated 100,000 yojanas. One lakh of yojanas is one twentieth of a centimeter.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, that one twentieth of a centimeter... One centimeter is about just the tip of the finger, so one twentieth of this is 100,000 yojanas. Actually you cannot even see Mount Meru on this picture. It is so small that we could not even draw it. It's just a pinpoint.

Yaśodā-nandana: Mount Meru is in the middle, and then, surrounding Mount Meru, is the whole Jambūdvīpa. Jambūdvīpa is 100,000 yojanas or (sic) 800 miles in length and width. These are the maps we have shown you already previously. And surrounding Jambūdvīpa in the salt ocean, this very little circle... The south ocean is the same width as Jambūdvīpa, or 100,000 yojanas. That is 800,000 miles. And it is all around Jambūdvīpa. Here it is. Maybe you can see. Then there is the south part of the ocean. You can see here?

Bhakti-prema: No, Plakṣadvīpa is the orange dot.

Yaśodā-nandana: Then surrounding Jambūdvīpa then there is Plakṣadvīpa, the next dvīpa, which is... Around the salt ocean there is Plakṣadvīpa. That is the planet beside(?) of the river we call ocean. That is 200,000 yojanas, or 1,600,000 miles. That is right in the middle.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Actually you can hardly see it there. It's very small.

Yaśodā-nandana: Then, surrounding Plakṣadvīpa is another ocean, the sugarcane ocean. That sugarcane ocean is the same length as Plakṣadvīpa, or 200,000 yojanas, or 1,600,000 miles. And one each one of these dvīpas...

Prabhupāda: So in each ocean there are islands?

Bhu-mandala Diagram Discussion -- July 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Yaśodā-nandana: Śākadvīpa, it is green, this green here. It is pale green. And Śākadvīpa is surrounded by yogurt ocean, dahi, dahi ocean. This is the white here. This yogurt ocean is 3,200,000 yojanas, or 25,600,000 miles of width. Then, surrounding this yogurt ocean is Puṣkaradvīpa. This is the reddish brown here. Puṣkaradvīpa is 6,400,000 yojanas in width, or 51,200,000 miles. And here, in the middle of Puṣkaradvīpa, all around is the Mānasottara range of mountains, which is situated in the middle and which has a width of 10,000 yojanas. Now, from the middle of Mount Meru until Puṣkaradvīpa it is calculated to be 15,750,000 yojanas.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We calculated all these...

Yaśodā-nandana: This was all calculated according to the Bhāgavatam. And then, on the four corners, on top of this Mānasottara range of mountains, the loka-pālas, Maheśvara, Brahmā, Kuvera, they are residing in these four corners, guarding the directions of the universe. And...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Now wait a moment. What goes there? The most important thing is that on top of that Mānasottara range...

Yaśodā-nandana: On top of the Mānasottara range... If this map could be placed on the ground and Mount Meru would be like this and all the oceans go around, the sun, which is again 16,000 yojanas above Mount Meru, goes all around Mount Mānasottara. It comes in this way every day.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So where does it go now? Where does the sun go?

Yaśodā-nandana: The sun would go like this, all around. It would be above. It's constantly moving round the top, circumambulating the Mount Meru and going just above the Mānasottara range of mountains. This little brown line, gray line, within the circle is the Mānasottara range of mountains. And surrounding this Puṣkaradvīpa there is sweet water ocean throughout the whole... There's sweetwater ocean. It's 6,400,000 yojanas, or 51,200,000 miles. And past the sweet water ocean there is Kāñcana-bhūmi, or a golden land, where everything... This is a land that's described to be just like mirror, where no living being can be because as soon as something is dropped there, it disappears. That is a very peculiar feature of this land. This land, this golden land, is 15,750,000 yojanas. That means that this land here... The width of this land is the same as between Mānasottara Mountain and the middle of Mount Meru. It is very scientific like this. And past this golden land...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We used a calculator to calculate all this.

Yaśodā-nandana: Past this golden land, until here, is the Lokāloka Mountain, which is the border between this Aloka-varṣa, or the uninhabited land, and the inhabited place. This Aloka-varṣa is constituted by a protective mountain that stops the rays of the sun to go beyond this portion. And it goes very, very high, it is described. It goes higher than Dhruvaloka. So the whole planetary system of Bhū-maṇḍala is like a big lotus flower with very high, high petals. It is very wonderful.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Which is that Lokāloka?

Yaśodā-nandana: This is the Lokāloka mountain.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Just see how much it is, Śrīla Prabhupāda. It's like the whole Bhū-maṇḍala is protected by a huge mountain.

Prabhupāda: Karach.(?)

Bhu-mandala Diagram Discussion -- July 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: The sun is above them?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Not above Lokāloka. Inside, within.

Yaśodā-nandana: If this would be on the floor, that means Mount Meru would be 84,000 yojanas. Then, above Mount Meru, 16,000 yojanas above, is the sun. But then, so that the rays of the would not penetrate in that land all around, this great mountain, Lokāloka, extends all the way up to Svarga. So it is like a big, big cup, in which the middle of the cup, or the bottom, there is all of these planets, all of this Bhū-maṇḍala. And past this Lokāloka range of mountains is this Aloka-varṣa, which is described that there is no living being which can go to there. The only occasion where anyone went through there is when Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna went to see the Mahā-Viṣṇu in the spiritual sky.

Bhu-mandala Diagram Discussion -- July 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So far, we have stayed in the Bhū-maṇḍala. We've now just picked the cover of Bhū-maṇḍala. We were thinking to do one more. We can do it later on, one more drawing to give it more detail, because the centers Meru and Jambūdvīpa and salt ocean are so small on this map you cannot even see it. So we want to...

Prabhupāda: Hm, in detail.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We want to blow up one area like they do on some maps. They show one city bigger than other places 'cause it's important. And after that, our next business is to now go upwards. Now we've gone outward this way. Now we have to show the sun, the moon, the sapta-ṛṣi, everything like that. That'll be very nice doing, how the sun is...

Yaśodā-nandana: Another unique feature of this map is that... Bhakti-prema Mahārāja found about... There is one space which is mentioned by Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura in his commentary. The complete diameter from west to east and north to south, it is calculated to be 500,000,000 yojanas. In order to be able to adjust that, we needed 250,000,000 on each side.

Room Conversation With Son (Vrindavan De) -- July 5, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: And what is from Bhāgavata? The sun movement?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's just like there's a couple of things that we want to get very clear. Like it's described that one of the axles...

Prabhupāda: Uttarāyaṇa, dakṣiṇāyana. This Sumeru Mountain... So six months, northern side; six months, southern side.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Some things are quite clear. Then there's a description, though, that there's an axle, it's described, a tie made of wind going from the chariot to Dhruvaloka. So things like that we want to get a..., further information on. Just so that it can be somehow demonstrated. Our... To understand these things for the purpose of making an exhibit requires a very clear picture. So that's the only reason we're looking to other books. But only bona fide books. The ācāryas' commentaries, like that. And then it has to agree with the Bhāgavatam. If in any way there's a discrepancy, we choose the Bhāgavatam as the authority.

Prabhupāda: On the whole, the sun is not fixed up.

Room Conversation With Son (Vrindavan De) -- July 5, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: On the whole, the sun is not fixed up.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, not at all. It's moving. As a matter of fact, it describes sometimes it moves in one way with Meru at its right side, and then sometimes it moves the other way with Meru at its left side.

Prabhupāda: That is dakṣiṇāyana-mārga, dakṣiṇāyanam, uttarāyaṇa.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's very much moving and at very high speed.

Prabhupāda: Yes. I calculated sixteen thousand miles per second, so far I remember.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. I think that's right.

Prabhupāda: And it is Sūryaloka. It has population.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: All of the personalities there have very dazzling bodies.

Prabhupāda: Fiery body.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: With the help of this planetarium, people will actually be able to go to the moon for the first time, at least by their minds. There was such a hoax that I heard they were even selling tickets to go to the moon.

Prabhupāda: Hm. (pause)

Room Conversation about Mayapura Attack Talk with Vrindavan De -- July 8, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Double. Double motion.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. So they say, therefore, when you're on this side and the sun is here, you won't see, but when it turns around, then you'll see the sun. But the Bhāgavatam does not agree with that description. The Bhāgavatam says that you don't see the sun because it's blocked by the Meru. The sun is moving, and Meru is blocking. And they never even heard of Meru. What is their knowledge? Such a big mountain and they don't even know about it. That means they never left the earth's sphere. They never went more than a few hundred miles in the air, Śrīla Prabhupāda. It's all lies.

Prabhupāda: All. That I am speaking from the very beginning. Now it is proved. They are also saying.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, about the moon hoax.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They could not answer this, "Why Sunday first, Monday?"

Correspondence

1976 Correspondence

Letter to Svarupa Damodara -- Auckland 27 April, 1976:

My final decision is that the universe is just like a tree, with root upwards. Just as a tree has branches and leaves so the universe is also composed of planets which are fixed up in the tree like the leaves, flowers, fruits, etc. of the tree. The pivot is the pole star, and the whole tree is rotating on this pivot. Mount Sumeru is the center, trunk, and is like a steep hill, like the alps mountains which also have very high peaks. I have seen in Switzerland one mountain peak which was so high that is penetrated through the clouds. The tree is turning and therefore, all the branches and leaves turn with the tree. The planets have their fixed orbits, but still they are turning with the turning of the great tree. There are pathways leading from one planet to another made of gold, copper, etc., and these are like the branches. Distances are also described in the 5th Canto just how far one planet is from another.

Page Title:Meru (Lecture, Conversations & Letters)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, RupaManjari
Created:27 of Jun, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=3, Con=24, Let=1
No. of Quotes:28