Above the moon by a distance of 200,000 yojanas are some stars, and above these stars is Śukra-graha (Venus), whose influence is always auspicious for the inhabitants of the entire universe. Above Śukra-graha by 200,000 yojanas is Budha-graha (Mercury), whose influence is sometimes auspicious and sometimes inauspicious. Next, above Budha-graha by 200,000 yojanas, is Aṅgāraka (Mars), which almost always has an unfavorable influence. Above Aṅgāraka by another 200,000 yojanas is the planet called Bṛhaspati-graha (Jupiter), which is always very favorable for qualified brāhmaṇas. Above Bṛhaspati-graha is the planet Śanaiścara (Saturn), which is very inauspicious, and above Saturn is a group of seven stars occupied by great saintly persons who are always thinking of the welfare of the entire universe. These seven stars circumambulate Dhruvaloka, which is the residence of Lord Viṣṇu within this universe.
Mars
Srimad-Bhagavatam
SB Canto 3
Ominous planets such as Mars and Saturn shone brighter and surpassed the auspicious ones such as Mercury, Jupiter and Venus as well as a number of lunar mansions. Taking seemingly retrograde courses, the planets came in conflict with one another.
The entire universe is moving under the three modes of material nature. Those living entities who are in goodness are called the pious species—pious lands, pious trees, etc. It is similar with the planets also; many planets are considered pious, and others are considered impious. Saturn and Mars are considered impious. When the pious planets shine very brightly, it is an auspicious sign, but when the inauspicious planets shine very brightly, this is not a very good sign.
SB Canto 5
Situated 1,600,000 miles above Mercury, or 8,800,000 miles above earth, is the planet Mars. If this planet does not travel in a crooked way, it crosses through each sign of the zodiac in three fortnights and in this way travels through all twelve, one after another. It almost always creates unfavorable conditions in respect to rainfall and other influences.
Situated 1,600,000 miles above Mars, or 10,400,000 miles above earth, is the planet Jupiter, which travels through one sign of the zodiac within the period of a Parivatsara. If its movement is not curved, the planet Jupiter is very favorable to the brāhmaṇas of the universe.
According to the description of this verse, the hundreds and thousands of stars and the great planets such as the sun, the moon, Venus, Mercury, Mars and Jupiter are not clustered together because of the law of gravity or any similar idea of the modern scientists. These planets and stars are all servants of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Govinda or Kṛṣṇa, and according to His order they sit in their chariots and travel in their respective orbits. The orbits in which they move are compared to machines given by material nature to the operating deities of the stars and planets, who carry out the orders of the Supreme Personality of Godhead by revolving around Dhruvaloka, which is occupied by the great devotee Mahārāja Dhruva. This is confirmed in the Brahma-saṁhitā (5.52) as follows:
On the upper chin of the śiśumāra is Agasti; on its lower chin, Yamarāja; on its mouth, Mars; on its genitals, Saturn; on the back of its neck, Jupiter; on its chest, the sun; and within the core of its heart, Nārāyaṇa. Within its mind is the moon; on its navel, Venus; and on its breasts, the Aśvinī-kumāras. Within its life air, which is known as prāṇāpāna, is Mercury, on its neck is Rāhu, all over its body are comets, and in its pores are the numerous stars.
SB Canto 8
According to the Vedic description of the planetary system, all the planets move from east to west. The sun, the moon and five other planets, such as Mars and Jupiter, orbit one above another. Vāmanadeva, however, expanding His body and extending His steps, occupied the entire planetary system.
The other three fourths of creation constitute the spiritual world. Among the innumerable planets in only one universe, the so-called scientists cannot understand even the Moon and Mars, but they try to defy the creation of the Supreme Lord and His uncommon energy. Such men have been described as crazy. Nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma (SB 5.5.4). Such crazy men unnecessarily waste time, energy and money in attempting to defy the glorious activities of Urukrama, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta
CC Adi-lila
The explanation of the horoscope given by Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura is that at the time of the birth of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu the planets were situated as follows: Śukra (Venus) was in Meṣa-rāśi (Aries) and the nakṣatra (lunar mansion) of Aśvinī; Ketu (the ninth planet) was in Siṁha-rāśi (Leo) and Uttaraphalgunī; Candra (the moon) was in Pūrvaphalgunī (the eleventh lunar mansion); Śani (Saturn) was in Vṛścika-rāśi (Scorpio) and Jyeṣthā; Bṛhaspati (Jupiter) was in Dhanu-rāśi (Sagittarius) and Pūrvāṣāḍhā; Maṅgala (Mars) was in Makara-rāśi (Capricorn) and Śravaṇā; Ravi (the sun) was in Kumbha-rāśi (Aquarius) and Pūrvabhādrapāda; Rāhu was in Pūrvabhādrapāda; and Budha (Mercury) was in Mīna-rāśi (Pisces) and Uttarabhādrapāda. The lagna was Siṁha.
Other Books by Srila Prabhupada
Easy Journey to Other Planets
It could be that life, similar to that on Earth, flourishes on such planets. Doctor of Chemistry Nikolai Zhirov, covering the problem of atmosphere on the planets, pointed out that the organism of a Martian, for instance, could very well adapt itself to normal existence with a low body temperature. He said that he felt that the gaseous composition of the atmosphere of Mars was quite suitable to sustain life of beings which have become adapted to it.
The adaptability of organisms in different varieties of planets is described in the Brahma-saṁhitā as vibhūti-bhinnam, i.e., each and every one of the innumerable planets within the universes is endowed with a particular type of atmosphere, and the living beings there are advanced in science, psychology, etc., according to the superiority or inferiority of the atmosphere. Vibhūti means "specific power," and bhinnam means "variegated."
Vibhūti means "specific power," and bhinnam means "variegated." Scientists who are attempting to explore outer space in an attempt to reach other planets by mechanical means must realize that organisms adapted to the atmosphere of the earth cannot exist in the atmospheres of other planets. As such, man's attempts to reach the moon, the sun, or Mars will be completely futile because of the different atmospheres prevailing on those planets. Individually, however, one can attempt to go to any planet he desires, but this is only possible by psychological changes in the mind. Mind is the nucleus of the material body. The gradual evolutionary progress of the material body depends on psychological changes within the mind. The change of the bodily construction of a worm into that of a butterfly and, in modern medical science, the conversion of a man's body into that of a woman (or vice versa) are more or less dependent on psychological changes.
And in the same way, if one desires to enter into any other planet of the material sky, he can go there just after quitting the present body (i.e., after death). Thus if someone wants to go to the moon, the sun or Mars, he can do so simply by performing acts for that purpose. The Bhagavad-gītā confirms this statement in the following words:
That upon which a person meditates at the time of death, quitting his body absorbed in the thought thereof, that particular thing he attains after death.
Lectures
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
That is their business. Miscreants. Actually, they want money, but to take the money he has to bluff. Without bluffing, how he can take money? Then they will present themselves: "I am great scientist, I am great philosopher, so give me money, millions of dollars. I'll go to the moon planet, I'll go to the Mars," and taking money and wasting. And because we are rascals, we are also: "Oh, they are making so much advancement, yes." Andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānāḥ (SB 7.5.31). We are following blind leaders. Because we are blind, we do not know. This is the position. Andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānāḥ. So we have to open our eyes. How these eyes are opened?
We have given the meaning, jīva-loka means when the ātmā is conditioned. That is called jīva-loka. There is no freedom. Just like there are so many planets. You have got airplane, but because you have got airplane you cannot go there. Conditioned. You cannot go. They're trying, one, two planets, moon planet or Mars planet. No. You cannot go there, what to speak of other planets. If you want to go there then you have to qualify yourself. Not that because you have got a machine, you can go there. No. That is not possible. Therefore conditioned. Conditioned means you have to fulfill the condition. Just like from here if I want to go to America, then I have to fulfill the condition: the visa condition, the passport condition, the health condition, the custom condition—so many conditions.
Not only on this planet, but in other planets also, I mean higher planets, where they live for many millions of years and their standard of happiness... 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, janatā(?). That is the statement in the... Everywhere, every planet, there are different kinds of living entities. Just like we see in this planet also, the Europeans are of different features, the Americans have different features, India different features, Africa different features. So there are varieties of living continent, varieties of living entities, but no planet is vacant. That is not the fact. This is rascaldom. They are declaring the planets are vacant; only their father's property here, that is full of living entities. This is nonsense. This is nonsense.
And the total diameter from one circumference to the other of the universe it is four billions of miles. So the sun is situated at the point of two billions of miles from the circumference of the universe, and above the sun planet, 1,600,000, there is the moon. And above that there is Venus, there is Jupiter, there is Mars—all difference of 1,600,000 of miles. So it is not possible to go to the moon planet. Because first of all the sun is a little... According to the modern scientists calculation it is 93,000,0000. Taking it, accepted as 93,000,000's from this earthly planet, then again add 1,600,000, that means 94,600,000 miles away from the earth there is the moon planet. It is not possible. Therefore they are now silent. They cannot go there; neither ever they went there. This is the conclusion. So that is a controversial point, controversial, but we have to see the result.
This moon planet is also one of the upper planetary system. But you cannot go by sputnik. That is not possible. It is all foolishness. The moon planet is situated above the sun planet. They are not going to the moon planet; therefore they have stopped their propaganda. So above that moon planet, there is Venus, there is Jupiter, there is Mars, and so many others. So in the śāstra it is said, ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthāḥ (BG 14.18). If you act very piously, in the mode of goodness, then you are promoted to the higher planetary system. And if you do not work in the modes of goodness—in the modes of passion—then you remain in this planet and become changed into so many bodies. And if you still work... Jaghanya-guṇa-vṛtti-sthā adho gacchanti tāmasāḥ. If you are so abominable that you do not work as a human being and just like animal, then you go to the hellish condition. This is nature's law.
So Śukadeva Gosvāmī has described all the planetary system, where and how they are situated, how many miles they are different from one another. The calculation of the whole universe is made there. The diameter is described: four billion miles up and down, this way and that. And where is the sun is situated and how far above the sun the moon is situated, how far above the moon the Mars, Jupiter—everything is clearly described. And where the hellish planets are situated, and how in the hellish planets different sinful men are suffering. So Parīkṣit Mahārāja, after hearing... That is Vaiṣṇava. He did not take care of the other things. He immediately took care of the suffering planets, because that is the Vaiṣṇava's nature. Vaiṣṇava has no problem. He is servant of God, representative of God. But he is feeling the sufferings of the humanity. That is Vaiṣṇava. He feels, "Oh, these people are suffering. Let us give some information from the śāstra so that they can be relieved from the suffering condition."
Now, such ten thousands of years you can get your duration of life, and very cold. Therefore you can drink there soma-rasa.
So these are the explanation in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. And it is situated above the sun planet, and above, the distance is also given there: 1,600,000's of miles. And above that, similarly, 1,600,000 miles, there is Mars, there is Jupiter, there is Venus, like that. So universe is not so small that you can ride on your 747 and go. (laughter) It is not so easy. It is not so easy. So therefore, from the circumstances, we can conclude that they could not approach the moon planet. And now they are saying that "It is useless. There is no need of going there. The grapes are sour." (laughter) The jackal jumping, jumping, jumping. When he could not get the grapes, then he is rejecting, "Oh, this is sour.
There is no enviousness. So many... You'll find this description in the Eighth Canto, of Svargaloka. There are... Everything we cannot imagine even. But that is also within this material world. Within this material world. Yānti deva-vratā devān (BG 9.25). We can go there if we want to go. Just like they are trying, the modern so-called scientist, to go to the moon planet, Mars. According to śāstra, these planets are bedecked with such descriptive facilities. They are also within the heavenly planets. But these rascals are going, and they find nobody there, and they take some dust and come back. This is their success. They do not know that they cannot enter even there. They are not meant for ordinary persons. At least those who are sinless, very straightforward, not envious. So anyway, even if we go, ā-brahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ punar āvartino 'rjuna... (BG 8.16). It is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, this is Svargaloka. And above that... Bhūr, bhuvaḥ, svaḥ. You have got the Gāyatrī, oṁ bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ tat savitur vareṇyaṁ bhargo devasya.
So śāstra says that speculative knowledge will not be successful at any time. In the Brahma-saṁhitā it is said that panthās tu koṭi-śata-vatsara-sampragamyo vāyor athāpi manaso muni-puṅgavānām (Bs. 5.34). Manaso, by mental speculation, muni-puṅgavānām, one who speculates, he is called muni. So muni-puṅgava. Puṅgava means the most exalted muni, if he simply speculates about the Absolute Truth, how many years? Panthās tu koṭi-śata-vatsara. Just like people are now going in the outer space to find out some shelter in the moon planet, in the Mars planet, similarly, if you want to find out the Absolute Truth or the abode of the Absolute Truth... The description is there in the śāstra:
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures
"Everything is this body, so let me enjoy bodily comforts, sense enjoyment, as far as possible." Not only in this life, next life... Even if he believes in the next life, but still, he's after these bodily comforts. "I shall be promoted in the higher planetary system. I shall go to moon planet, I shall go to the Mars planet," and so on, so on. These are karmīs' plan. Anything within this material world, that is all asat.
So the karmīs are too much attached with the asad-dharma, total, cent percent. And the jñānīs, they are little intelligent, that... Jñānī means "I have tried so much to be happy with the bodily comforts, but it has not become possible." Then he tries to understand "Whether I am this body or something else?" That is Vedic injunction, ahaṁ brahmāsmi. When he is actually liberated he understands that "I am not this body."
We cannot stay on the impersonal platform. That is not possible. Artificially if we try to stay on the impersonal platform, it will not stay. Then we shall fall down again. Just like this moon excursion or the Mars. They do not get actually shelter there; therefore they fall down again, come here. With some stone and sand, they are satisfied. Because they did not get any shelter, they fall down.
So śāstra therefore forbids or gives warning, āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ patanty adhaḥ (SB 10.2.32). The same example. With great endeavor, with much expenditure you may go eighty thousand miles per hour, but unless you get shelter, you have to again come back to this, either in America or Russia. They tried, but they could not get shelter.
If you simply try to understand Kṛṣṇa, then you'll understand everything very nicely. Just like we sometimes challenge the big, big scientists, philosophers, psychologists, but we are not psychologist or scientist. Ten years before, in my Easy Journey to Other Planet, I have written that "This moon-going attempt is childish and waste of time." And still we are challenging that "Mars-going, so-called, it will also fail." Write it: It will fail. Not that process. So how we are saying? How we are challenging these big, big scientists? Because we know from the Vedic literature that it is not possible to go to the moon planet or Mars in that way. It is not possible. You have to qualify yourself. Just like to come to America one has to qualify himself for the proper visa, passport, and so many other things, bank balance, this, that. How you can go to the other? They are higher planetary system. So this is all childish. But if you want to go at all, then it is possible if you follow the proper process. That is described in the Bhagavad-gītā:
Therefore that illumination is distributed. But the difference is, so far I can remember, that the moon planet fire is surrounded by cool atmosphere. Because the heat is coming through some cool atmosphere, it is at night so pleasing. It is not vacant. There is also living entities. This is one of the heavenly planets. Heavenly planet begins from the sun, then moon, then Mars, Jupiter, like that. We have challenged this, that moon planet is beyond the sun planet. The moon planet is not the first planet. The sun is first, moon is second. So we have to learn from Vedic literature all this information. Many, many millions of years ago this Vedic literature was given to us. So about these planetary systems, everything is there, described. It is not unknown.
Will anyone agree that "Let me remain in the sky as a small particle of the sunshine"? No. You can agree out of some sentiment, but you cannot stay there. That is not possible. Therefore, those who merge into the existence of Brahman, impersonal Brahman, they again fall down. Just like they are going moon excursion, Mars excursion. "Stay there." They cannot stay. Because, actually, whether they are going or not—that's another thing—but there is no staying place. Simply rotating in the sky is not very pleasant thing. We have got experience in the airplane. If we go five or six hours in the planes, we become suffocated. So it is not possible. Therefore those who merge into the Brahman effulgence, they again fall down, because they have no engagement in Kṛṣṇa's business. They never cultivated such knowledge. Āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ patanty adho 'nādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ (SB 10.2.32). Because the Māyāvādīs, they think, "What is this nonsense, serving Kṛṣṇa?
They are doubting also in the Mars planet. But we get information from the śāstra that every planet is full of living entities. Every planet. Janakīrṇa. This very word is said in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, janakīrṇa, and there is vivid description of different planets and different types of oceans, just like milk ocean. We have got here examples, sweet water and salted water. So there is sweet ocean also. That is mentioned in the śāstra. Not that in this planet there is salted ocean and... There are other planets where there is sweet water ocean and milk ocean and liquor ocean and oil ocean, ghee ocean, butter ocean, milk, butter ocean, and so many different types.
So our, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is not blind. Don't think wrongly. We are confident. We sometimes challenge big, big scientists. On what ground? Not whimsically, but on the ground of śāstra. So we may not please everyone, but we cannot go out of this scope. We know that in the moon planet, in the Mars planet and all other planets, Jupiter and others, there are living entities, there is a predominating deity in each and every planet. Just like Kṛṣṇa says, imaṁ vivasvate yogaṁ proktavān aham avyayam (BG 4.1). So if there is no living entity in the sun planet, how there is Vivasvān, the sun-god or the predominating deity in the sun planet? So we cannot believe this version that there is no living entity in the sun, moon, or... There are living entity... Full of, janakīrṇa, this word is used. Congested. Just like here in this planet we are congested: so many living entities, different varieties. Similarly, the same congestion is there in all other planets.
Arrival Addresses and Talks
The other day our Dr. Svarūpa Dāmodara was speaking that whatever scientific improvement or educational improvement they have made, two things are wanting. They do not know what are these different planets in the sky. They do not know. They're simply imagining. They are trying to go to the moon planet, Mars planet. That is also not possible. Even if you go (to) one or two planets, there are millions of planets; what do you know about them? There is no knowledge. And another knowledge: they do not know what is the problems of life. Two things they are lacking. And we are dealing with these two things. The problem of life is that we are bereft, we are away from Kṛṣṇa consciousness; therefore we are suffering. If you take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then the whole problem is solved. And so far planetary system is considered, so Kṛṣṇa is giving you opportunity, wherever you like you can go.
And so far planetary system is considered, so Kṛṣṇa is giving you opportunity, wherever you like you can go. But the intelligent person will select, mad-yājino 'pi yānti mām (BG 9.25). "Those who are Kṛṣṇa conscious, they come to Me." So what is the difference between these two? Even if I go to the moon planet or Mars planet or Brahmaloka, Kṛṣṇa says, ā-brahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ punar āvartino 'rjuna (BG 8.16). You can go to the Brahmaloka, but kṣīṇe puṇye puṇyo martya-lokaṁ viśanti: "You'll have to come back again." And Kṛṣṇa also says, yad gatvā na nivartante tad dhāma paramaṁ mama (BG 15.6). Mad-yājino 'pi yānti mām.
General Lectures
That is our inclination. Just like modern scientists, they're trying to go to other planets but they're conditioned, they cannot go. We can see. There are millions and trillions of planets before us—the sun planet, the moon planet, the Venus, the Mars. Sometimes we wish, "How I could go there." But because I am conditioned, I'm not independent, I cannot go. But originally, because you are spirit soul, originally you were free to move any way. Just like Nārada Muni. Nārada Muni moves everywhere; any planet he likes he can go. Still, there is one planet within this universe which is called Siddhaloka. That Siddhaloka, the inhabitants of Siddhaloka, they can fly from one planet to another without any airplane. Even yogis, yogis, haṭha-yogīs, those who have practiced, they can also go from anywhere to anyplace. The yogis, they sit down in one place and immediately transferred in another place.
They are going back to... (laughter) Therefore this name was given, Back to Godhead. They are trying: "No more we are so foolish. To go forward, material civilization..." And where you'll go? You are packed up within this universal atmosphere. Just like they are running for the moon planet, for the Mars planet. And where the rascals running, they'll come back.
Long, long ago, when Rabindranath Tagore came here, so when he saw that people are running, so he wrote one poetry, "Where these people are running? This country is very small, all around seas, so where they will go, running? They'll fall down." So our running has no meaning. It is dog's running. But people are still busy, trying to go here, there. But we are conditioned souls, baddha-jīva, bound up by the laws of nature. We cannot surpass, but still, we are thinking we are advancing, we are going forward. So we can go forward, up to the limit of this universe, Brahmaloka, but ā-brahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ punar āvartino 'rjuna (BG 8.16)—again you have to come back. You are not free.
"Sir, I am like this." (aside:) Water. "My position is like this. I have got so much bank balance," that is the way. This is the way of understanding. It is called descending process. And there is another process, which is called ascending process. In Sanskrit it is called āroha-panthā, avaroha-panthā. Āroha-panthā... You want to go, to know about the sun planet or any other. Just like they are trying. They are trying to go there, Mars planet, Moon planet, by rising on the sky by their aeroplanes, sputniks. But they have not been able to understand what is the position of these planets. This is called āroha-panthā. But if somebody comes from the planet and explains everything, then you know it very easily. Similarly, God has come to explain Himself. You'll find in the Bhagavad-gītā.
Ye aravindakṣa. Aravindakṣa is Kṛṣṇa. "Persons who are thinking that 'I have become liberated,' vimukta-mānina, they're actually... They're not mukta. Therefore," āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padam, "although they underwent very severe austerities and achieved the position in nirviśeṣa-brahma," āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padam (SB 10.2.32), "but because they could not understand, my Lord, Your lotus feet, they," patanty adho, "they fall down." Just like in the modern age they are going very high by aeroplane or sputnik, but because they do not get a shelter in either the moon planet or Mars planet, they again come down. So simply speculative knowledge, philosophical knowledge, will not give us actual shelter in the nirviśeṣa, nirākāra-brahman. Absolute Truth we can realize in three stages.
Conversations and Morning Walks
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Or they've finished their money. That's all.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: They're trying to...
Brahmānanda: They want to go to another one now.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, to another planet, Mars.
Prabhupāda: It is, it is finished? The moon planet is finished?
Karandhara: For the time being.
Brahmānanda: Yes, their, their travels there are finished.
Prabhupāda: Simply by taking some dust?
Prabhupāda: More dust. Now you have got handful of dust. I'll bring tons of dust. Don't.... And if I... "Oh, yes, now we shall get tons of dust." The rascal does not know, dust is dust, and tons... What is the meaning?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: They believe there may be life in Mars planet. So they are very hopeful...
Prabhupāda: If they believe or not believe, what gain there is? Life is here also. You are fighting. This is your program. Here is life also. Here is human being. So suppose there is life. There is life, undoubtedly. But what he'll gain? What is your gain?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: They have very big plan in the future, going to the surface of the Mars planet.
Prabhupāda: Yes, that is future. That is all your statement, future. With future hope you become a big man. That is their foolishness.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Future, about ten years.
Prabhupāda: Whatever... It may be one year, but we do not accept such proposition. We want to see what you have done now.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: First of all they have to develop the methods how to do it by a small scale...
Prabhupāda: That is another bluff. Now the small plan they could not make successful. Now they are thinking of bigger plan. You see?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: They are planning to go to Mars now.
Prabhupāda: Yes, that is another bluff. Another bluff. The smaller plan, they could not make successful. Now they're attempting bigger plan. Bara bara goragere rasatala, beta gora katha jala.(?) Betagor... There is a story that there was river. You know, horse can swim over. So big, big stalwart horses, they waved, mean, they washed away by the flood. So one lean and thin horse is coming, "Can you tell me how much water is there?" It is like bara bara goragere rasatala, beta gora katha jala. (?) So these rascals could not reach even the moon planet; now they are planning to the Mars planet.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: The seminar was, the title was "The Atmosphere of Mars." The atmosphere in the Mars they are studying now very carefully.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: But they're saying it is carbon dioxide and water.
Prabhupāda: So the same "carbon dioxide" and big, big words, jugglery of words, that's all.
Karandhara: Mars, Jupiter.
Hṛdayānanda: Mars.
Prabhupāda: Mars. You see? But the rascal government does not... You could not become successful about the moon expedition. Why you are asking money again?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: They say they are successful.
Prabhupāda: What is that successful?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Because they have gone to the moon. So that was a direct...
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: The pilots do not like to go?
Nitāi: There's nothing for them to do there.
Satsvarūpa: There's no life there, they want to go where there may be life. Now they know there's no life there; so there's no point in going. There may be life on Mars.
Prabhupāda: Then let them go. They are life. And colonize. Where is life? Which planet, they say, there is life?
Nitāi: Venus and Mars. They suspect life on those planets, especially Mars.
Prabhupāda: So they are going there?
Sudāmā: Yeah, they're making plans to go there.
Prabhupāda: Moon planet?
Nitāi: No, this is the Martian... They call them "the Martian canals." So they think that although the life there may not be like we have here, that there may be some living beings there. They consider... What they consider living being is something that could live on this planet. That's what they consider living. So they think that Mars and Venus, because they're very close to this planet-out of all the planets that they know, those two are the closest—that on those two planets, there may be life like on this planet. (end)
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Devotees: Mars.
Prabhupāda: Mars. This is going on. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). He's not seeking after where is eternal happiness. He's... Temporarily, he's seeking here, there. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate. In this way his life is finished, seeking ānanda, and he gets another body, another term. So his intelligence is not coming to the point that "What is this ānanda? I am eternal. I am seeking eternal ānanda. Why this ānanda? Sometimes this body, sometimes this position, sometimes that position—what is this?" That is intelligence.
Prabhupāda: My point is: if the moon is the first planet nearer, why they did not start Monday? If the sun is after, then Sunday. This is the proof that first sun, then moon, not that first moon and then sun. Hm? That is the description in the Bhāgavatam. One after another, one after another. Sixteen thousand, sixteen hundred thousand miles apart. First of all sun, then moon, then, what is called? Mars. You have seen it.
Amogha: Mars is above the moon?
Śrutakīrti: But the scientists wouldn't even agree that the sun is the first created thing.
Prabhupāda: Who is accepting them as scientists? You can accept them. Why Sunday first? Wherefrom they have gotten?
Guru kṛpā:. Yes.
Prabhupāda: But not moon is nearer; sun is nearer. And above, in the proportion, 1,600,000 miles, above moon there is Mercury, Mars, in this way, Venus. It is not so easy.
Śrutakīrti: The planets are not orbiting the sun.
Prabhupāda: No, no. They have got their different orbits.
Guru kṛpā:. This is real science, to know these facts.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Guru kṛpā: So how can you prove that?
Bali-mardana: They're not going to Venus, are they?
Paramahaṁsa: Are they going to Mars?
Bali-mardana: No, they're just going around the earth, right?
Ambarīṣa: Yeah, they're linking up in space.
Devotee (3): Prabhupāda, 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?
Prabhupāda: Yes, here they... All laboratory work, that's all.
Devotee (3): They all made it up?
Yogi Bhajan: Yeah, that's right. That is between two individuals.
Prabhupāda: Similarly, whenever we come in a big assembly, we respect each one, gentlemen. There is no harm.
Yogi Bhajan: No, no, but people do not understand why we are like this, why they wear like this. They don't get a chance to explain. At Interreligious Council, I am a member. They never knew. They think we are the most weird people from the Mars perhaps. They don't understand a bit. And now our legal services are helping them, and all sorts of things have happened, and they are trying to understand. And when the last president left the office, he said, in his words of departure, he said, "I am only limited by the Christ. I never understood anything else. But I do feel from that limit that God is unlimited and it is in everybody." Asking a fanatic Christian to make that statement to the general assembly, it took us about two years.
Paramahaṁsa: But the scientists are saying, though, that the nearest star to our... You know, they consider the sun a star. And that the nearest star to ours is four light years away. Which means that it's... They do not believe that there's life in this entire solar system, in the planets nearest us, the moon, Venus, Mercury, Mars, Neptune, Jupiter. They assume it's either too cold...
Prabhupāda: No, we say in the sun there is life. Otherwise how Kṛṣṇa says, imaṁ vivasvate yogaṁ proktavān aham avyayam (BG 4.1). "I spoke this Bhagavad-gītā science to the sun-god." So? Sun-god is dead stone, and Kṛṣṇa spoke to him?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Two billion.
Prabhupāda: And above the sun there is moon. Then Mars, then Venus, like that. 1,600,000 miles above, above, above.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So the moon is further away than the sun.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Therefore I say they have never gone to moon. Never gone.
Hṛdayānanda: What is that? Rahu. (break)
Nalinī-kaṇṭha: They say that they can see stars trillions of miles away.
Prabhupāda: There are no other, nearer planets?
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes. There are other planets like Venus and Mars, but they say these planets are much closer than the sun.
Prabhupāda: That means... So why they do not look so bright?
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Their philosophy is that the earth, Venus and Mars, these different planets, they don't give off any light.
Prabhupāda: Then why do they say that all the planets look like moon? They say like that.
Prahupada: So why it is not reflecting to other planets, only to the moon? Why special advantage to the moon? They have no reason. All rascals' philosophy. Why particularly to the moon? Why not others? Simply theories and mental speculation. They have no scientific. And the śāstra definitely gives the distance of the moon from the sun planet-1,600,000 miles. Then similarly (sic:) 1,600 million up, the Mars, then Venus, then..., everything. And moon is specifically mentioned that "It is so brilliant because there is fire, blazing fire. And the blazing fire is so illuminating that even at night it looks white, bright." This is reasonable because... Not that it is being reflected by the sun. The sun can reflect other planets, but it is there, fire. Just like sun there is fire, similarly, moon there is fire. The sun is not covered by cool atmosphere, but the moon is covered by cool atmosphere. Therefore it is pleasing.
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Harikeśa: They've forgotten about it.
Sudāmā: Now they're trying for Mars.
Prabhupāda: Just see. Hele dāntavān keuṭe.(?) A man was trying to capture snake. So there are snakes, hele. There are many snakes; they have no poison, especially the water snake, the hele. So hele dāntavān keuṭe.(?) Keuṭe means cobra. So one cannot catch up the poisonless snake, and he is attempting to capture cobra. They could not go to the moon planet, which is only 1,600,000 miles above the sun, and they are going to Venus, which is far, far away, still. How many miles the Venus is situated? They have committed some mistake.
Reporter: Well, I don't think it's worth the answer now, but I'm wondering what your response is.
Prabhupāda: 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?
Prabhupāda: 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?
Prabhupāda: Ask them. If they say moon planet is first, why not Monday first? Why Sunday first? That's a fact. Sun planet first, then moon, then Mars. Ravi, Soma, Maṅgala, Bhū. That is the calculation.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That means that all the countries are cooperating together to cheat the people, because they're all...
Prabhupāda: No, no. They have taken from the Vedic literature.
Bali-mardana: No, they are right, Sunday, Monday.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Prabhupāda: First of all, answer why Sunday first. Then talk of all nonsense.
Candanācārya: Mars is after the moon?
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Candanācārya: Mars is after the moon?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Candanācārya: Because in French, Tuesday is the word for Mars.
Prabhupāda: And Saturday is last. Saturn is last.
Yadubara: Śrīla Prabhupāda?
Prabhupāda: Yes. There was some suggestion. (Bengali) ...why Sunday first, and Monday second, all over the world?
Satsvarūpa: Sun, moon.
Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) Sun planet, moon planet, Mars, Jupiter, like this, last, Saturn. So if this is systematic, then this calculation also means sun planet first. Why Sunday first?
Hari-śauri: You've defeated everyone, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: Any one of these boys can answer? Why Sunday first? Ambarīṣa Mahārāja?
Ambarīṣa: Why Sunday first? Because the sun is closer to the earth. (laughs)
Devotee (1): All they could get was some dust.
Prabhupāda: That is already known. Further?
Makhanlāl: They want to go to Mars and Saturn now.
Prabhupāda: Why? Moon finished? Simply by taking dust? And still the government is going to pay for Mars and Venus?
Devotee (1): They all do favors for each other. The government contracts big construction companies to build military bases for them. And then in turn they all have engagement, they all feed each other, like that. We met one boy in Houston, his grandfather was a disciple of Bhaktisiddhānta.
Prabhupāda: Svarūpa Dāmodara must be the best candidate. Others, what they'll know about it? All other Ph.D.s, they are simply rubber stamped. Actually they have no knowledge. Svarūpa Dāmodara has solid knowledge. He has learned from us. Therefore he's writing all these books. He has rejected his so-called scientific knowledge. He has completely understood that so-called scientific knowledge is bogus, it has no solid background. Now he's writing books on this. Now this morning, last night also, I got hint from Bhāgavatam, I told you in the morning? The sun planet is first. And nobody can reply this, that "Why Sunday first?" Nobody has replied this point. Sunday, Monday.... First of all Sunday, then Monday. Why not Monday, Sunday? That is according to the planetary arrangement. The Saturn is the last planet. That is admitted in the Bhāgavatam. So sun is first, then moon, then Mars, then Jupiter, like that, last, Saturn. That is everywhere. So why the modern scientists changing it? The Monday first or moon first, sun second. Hmm?
Prabhupāda: No, no, when I come into emotion, I cannot check to speak the truth. But actually it is the fact. I cannot give any credit to these rascals (laughs) who are running at high speed, big, big car.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: What did we read? There was an article about Mars today.
Hari-śauri: Oh. Nonsense.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The scientists, again...
Hari-śauri: They were speculating about.... They sent this spaceship to Mars, and they were speculating that maybe now the so-called smog that covers the surface of the planet, it could be fog. It could be made of ice and water particles. So now they..., so they were speculating like that. And then they said they were going to land the spaceship in a valley at a certain point that is four miles deep and that may..., it may have been filled with water fifty thousand years ago, and it could have fossils in it from the type of life that existed there, if it existed.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Fifty thousand years ago. (laughter)
Prabhupāda: Scientist rascal. How ludicrous. Simply "maybe," "if it was" and "it will be." That's all. Simply "maybe."
Prabhupāda: If there is rock, if there is sand, then why don't you colonise there? What is their answer? If there is same sand, same rock there, then why not... (break) ...some money and can bring some sand and bluff people that you have gone to moon planet. And people are satisfied, they're paying for another excursion to the Mars. This is going on. If you have gone there, there is land. If you fly in the sky and if you get a land then you can stay there. And because you cannot stay there, you come back again. So their... The Māyāvādīs position is there, āruhya kṛcchreṇa param, they merge into the impersonal Brahman but there is no place to stay, they come down again to this material world. You may go many thousands and millions of miles in the sky but you want to stay somewhere. But if you cannot get any place to stay then again you come to this Moscow and New York. So our enquiry is that if you have gone there, then why don't you stay there? What is the answer? Hm? Kīrtanānanda Maharaj?
Prabhupāda: For your direct whims you have to spend so much money? The people are so befooled they do not challenge them. Yes. Everyone knows, suppose one is coming to the western country, Europe and America, we knew it, that it is cold country, we must take proper dress. And we have come and we are staying. So this is knowledge. So if you do not know what is the atmosphere there, what do you spend so much money? And again you are going to the Mars. Are you fixed up what is the position there? Then you'll again bring something, some dust and rock. (laughter) This business will go on at the expense of the... You can do. You have got money. You can do that. But we are Indians, we are coming from poor country. If you spend so much money for nothing, that is very, not very palatable for us.
Prabhupāda: Yes. For nothing. And it is sure certainly you can write down, their Mars going also will be failure. Let it, you take in writing. I may die. I am old man. Take it down. It will be failure. I told ten years before that "It is childish." One press reporter inquired in San Francisco, what is your... "No, this is childish, wasting money." The reporter came to see me in Los Angeles. He remembered that. If you want to spend for nothing like that, you can do that. You have got money.
Rādhāvallabha: Now they are going to Mars.
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Rādhāvallabha: Now they are going to Mars planet. They have two ships heading for Mars, and they want one to land on July 4th.
Prabhupāda: It has already started?
Rādhāvallabha: Yes. Now they have given up on the moon. Now it is Mars.
Prabhupāda: And the fools are paying for that.
Prabhupāda: Just see. One attempt has already failed; again they are making attempt and spending like any...
Rādhāvallabha: Isn't it impossible for them to reach Mars because it is a hellish planet?
Prabhupāda: Who says it is hellish planet?
Rādhāvallabha: In Bhāgavatam. It is described as inauspicious in Third Canto in the story of Varāha.
Prabhupāda: Maybe. So first of all let them go. They cannot go. According to our calculation, Vedic calculation, the moon is above sun planet, and the Mars is above moon planet.
Prabhupāda: No, no. First of all, according to their calculation, 93,000,000's miles... So the moon is above 1,600,000 miles. And again 1,600,000. So another three million miles above the sun, it becomes sixteen million miles. So if they cannot go to the sun planet, how they can go to the Mars? All bogus.
Ṛṣi Kumāra: I saw one scientist on television, and he was saying on Mars there are mountains that are very, very big, much bigger than the mountains on this planet, and there's beautiful landscape, and they want to start a tourist industry, taking people back and forth.
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They want to start a tourist industry on Mars, taking people back and forth.
Prabhupāda: But there is no life.
Hari-śauri: They already sold the tickets to the moon. Now they're going to go on to Mars.
Rādhāvallabha: They say there is less advanced life, like plants.
Prabhupāda: Why not more advanced life?
Prabhupāda: "What is play to you is death to us." And "Never mind. You die. We play." They have already spent so much money, moon exploration. And that has stopped now, no benefit. They brought some sand and some rock, satisfied. Again the same thing with Mars. But we can say from our poor knowledge that as they have failed in the moon planet, they will fail also in the Mars. Take it down. Note now. Do you know this is all bluff?
Rādhāvallabha: In Los Angeles papers they quoted you saying that, that they didn't go to the moon.
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Prabhupāda: Nobody can answer that. The common sense. Can any one of you answer why Sunday first and Monday next? You are one of the scientists. Why don't you say? It is commonsense question, "Why Sunday first and next...?" All over the world. In the human society, everywhere you go, they will say Sunday first, Monday second. In India Ravivāra. Ravi. Ravi means sun. And Somavāra. Somavāra means Monday. The planetary system is so arranged, first of all sun, then moon. Then Mars, then Saturn, Saturday. Saturn is last. Even Svarūpa Dāmodara has not answered.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: He cannot meet the challenge.
Prabhupāda: Whatever it may be, you did not want; you have it—against your will. This is your experience. There is no difference. Either you say material cause or spiritual cause, but you are suffering what you did not want. That is the point. You are suffering. And you did not want it. Yathā duḥkham ayatnataḥ. Nobody wants distress, but it comes. How it comes? Yathā duḥkham ayatnataḥ, Prahlāda Mahārāja... Ayatnataḥ means without any endeavoring. Who is trying that "Let there be fire in my house"? But it takes. Nobody wants that "There may be fire in my house," but there is fire. Therefore you have to arrange for fire brigade. You are expecting always some danger. Therefore you make so many precautions, because you know that although you do not want mishappening, it will come. Nobody endeavors for mishappenings, but you know there is some superior force who'll enforce mishappening. And they are unable to counteract. Just like a scientist knows that he'll die, but he's so expert scientist that he cannot counteract. He knows that he'll die. He's talking all nonsense while living, but he does not make any arrangement that he'll not die. That he is unable. They are making arrangement, going to the Mars planet at the expense of taxpayer, so if we request these rascal scientists that "You discover something so that we will not die. Take any amount of money," will they able?
Prabhupāda: That way they are successful—in getting money.
Hari-śauri: So they have to say it's a success. Just like this Mars thing. If they can land a spaceship that takes a few photographs, supposedly of Mars, then that's considered a success.
Prabhupāda: Photograph you can take anywhere.
Hari-śauri: Yes. Could they actually...? Are they actually sending these spaceships to another planet, or...
Prabhupāda: That they know. According to our calculations, they have not gone. Therefore false propaganda. They cannot go. (end)
Darby: They get big profit, and no one else does.
Prabhupāda: And they are going to the moon planet, Mars planet, and bring some dust.
Darby: They try to keep the people busy by showing them other planets.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Busy means they can show all these bluff busy programs to the rascals, not to the sane man.
Darby: Could you tell us a little about your spiritual master's life? I've never heard anything.
Prabhupāda: This is spiritual master, one who is representative of God. And one who speaks what God has said, then he's spiritual master.
Prabhupāda: This is also inhabitable. Where you are going? Take it in writing.
Hari-śauri: Now they are putting out the same kind of propaganda about Mars that formerly they were putting out about the moon—that there may be life—so that they can use that as an excuse to go. I just read a little bit where they say that due to information sent back by the last spaceship that they sent to Mars, now they think that there's more water vapor in the atmosphere than they at first thought. So that means that there's a good possibility that there may be some bacterial life on Mars. So (laughs) they don't... And then they state that the temperature ranges from-130 to +40 degrees farenheit. So that means that there could be life there in a bacterial form.
Hari-śauri: 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?
Prabhupāda: 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.
Hari-śauri: There's no more interest in the moon at all.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: It's such a bluff.
Hari-śauri: How long does it take them to go to Mars?
Pradyumna: Mars and Venus also, they say.
Hari-śauri: Venus is the other one they concentrate... They think that Venus, there's a good chance there may be some life there.
Pradyumna: Venus is covered by clouds. So no one can see what is there. There's clouds all around the planet. Heavy, what do they call, so that no one can see. So they sent a rocket inside or something to go through the clouds to see what is there. Russians also tried. Fermament. In the Bible, they say that on earth there was also..., above the earth there were all clouds at one time according to the Bible. And then at that time men used to live very, very long, and then the clouds went away at some point. They call it a firmament. So the same thing is on Venus. No one can see what the planet is like, no one has ever known. That is also a heavenly, we say also... That is Śukrācārya's place?
Prabhupāda: Not Śukrācārya's, just Śukra.
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?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Says it's a Grand Canyon. Just like in Arizona there's a canyon called Grand Canyon.
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: The order, Sunday, Monday, whether it has to do anything with the distance.
Prabhupāda: Distance, whatever it may be. But the sun is first, then moon, then Mars, then Jupiter, then like that. One after another. Otherwise, why Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, like that?
Yadubara: That means the distance, then, from the earth?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Yadubara: Sun is first.
Prabhupāda: That is we shall see later on. It is about. The whole diameter is 4 billions. And sun is situated almost in the middle. It is my firm conviction that they did not go to the moon. Neither they'll be able to go to the Mars as they have planned it.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: But their scientists would be mad...
Prabhupāda: They are mad already, they're talking all nonsense. Already they're mad.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: They're studying all the rocks from the moon.
Prabhupāda: Rascals. What they will get? They studied the rock. And they have found one crack in the whole moon planet, and there's no living being?
Prabhupāda: Yes, the (indistinct) is a big affair, the sun is one of the important planets. Not only the sun, moon, Mars, Jupiter, everyone.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Actually as astronomy and (indistinct) are especially astronomy is one of the most unscientific branch of study, knowledge is concerned. It's very, very little known. The way that... The techniques that they use, are very difficult to rely on.
Prabhupāda: So their Astronomical calculation, the sun is fixed up, that is also wrong. The sun is not fixed up.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yeah, Your Divine Grace, you wrote me a letter saying about the universe is just like an inverted tree.
Prabhupāda: This opportunity is there. If you want you can go again to the higher planetary system, live there for so many years, and again when your resultant action of pious activities is finished, you again come and become a grass, and again begin... This is going on. But where is the science to understand how the process is going on? Therefore people are kept in ignorance. They have dismissed the idea, that there is no life after death, that's all. (guest leaving) There is no education. They are kept in ignorance. That is the problem, risky civilization, that people are kept in dark ignorance about the problems of the life. They do not know. They are struggling from the beginning of life, but they do not know what is the problem of life. Neither they have any information what are all these different planets, how they are being used, who are using them. They have no information. They are making a show of going to the moon planet, Mars planet, useless attempt. And presenting some photograph from Arizona. That is going on.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Real knowledge is covered.
Prabhupāda: Just like this planetary system. So many planets are there. They do not know anything. And they are going to the Mars. They are going to the moon. All bluff. Two things unsolved. They do not know what is life and they do not know what are these planetary system. And still, they are speaking on these two subjects as authority. That is bluff.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: So we conclude that without understanding the existence of God, these two problems can never be answered.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Take photographs where?
Hari-śauri: In Arizona. There's an article, and it showed a picture of Mars and it compared, there's supposed to be this canyon four miles deep. So they said it compares to the Grand Canyon in Arizona, like that. So Prabhupāda said that by even mentioning Arizona they've revealed themselves. And he told one story about, there's a man, he heard a noise in his room, and he said, "Ah, who is that?" And immediately the reply came, "Oh, I'm not stealing." So even without asking, they've revealed themselves by saying Arizona, even mentioning Arizona.
Prabhupāda: Why these rascals compare it with Arizona? As if there is no other place in the world. Everything they are doing in Arizona. All photograph in this place. Now they have been caught. I was always protesting, "These rascals have never gone." For the last ten years I've protested. Whenever they asked me, I say straightly, "It is all childish. They have never gone, neither they'll be able to go." That has been proof available. Now they do not talk about it. That is finished, all propaganda, finished. Now they have taken another...
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Mars.
Prabhupāda: ...to keep their service in order. This is going on, all cheating. To keep people in darkness and exploit them. The so-called swamis exploiting, yogis exploiting, politician exploiting, scientists exploiting, philosophers exploiting. What is the position of the world? And this is the opportunity, human life, to know everything, to solve all the problems. They are not given the opportunity, they are kept in darkness. The demons. "There is no God, science is everything, life is produced from chemicals, and there is no living entities on other planets." They are simply show.
Prabhupāda: You have seen this article?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: No.
Prabhupāda: Other news, after Mars? No?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: I haven't seen the newspapers yet. Might have some more, been taking pictures, photographs.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda explained that the picture they took of Mars, they now say that there's..., they pointed out that there's a similar canyon, the Grand Canyon, in Arizona. So they were reporting like this, and Prabhupāda said this is an indication that actually it is a picture of, they have unintentionally they have let out the information that actually the photo is simply a photograph of the Grand Canyon.
Prabhupāda: They have disclosed unintentionally. That is going on. It is beyond their dream to go either to the moon planet or Mars planet. It is not possible. Not nowadays I say—I said it ten years ago.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: We're going to have a difficult time, with the scientists, about the moon.
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: We're going to have a difficult time about this moon and the sun relationship.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Sunday, Monday.
Prabhupāda: Why shall I endeavor for it? So my energies should be utilized only for Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This is civilization. And whole life, day and night, they are trying for material happiness, and that is not happening. The problems are increasing. No intelligence, mūḍha. Mūḍho nābhijānāti mām ebhyaḥ param avyayam. They admit, the scientists, they admit that they are in ignorance. Simply bluff. Again one bluff, that Mars-going expedition. The business is going on in the Arizona, that's all. And after few years they will present some stone, "Now we went to Mars. There is no possibility of living there. Take this stone and sand and be satisfied for your millions of dollars that you have spent..." And they will say "Oh, we have made scientific progress. I have got this stone." Yo ko thako bhayargolihiya us ka tek lilaya(?). There is a song in Bengal that formerly anything European, sāheb, that is good.
Hari-śauri: Prabhupāda's saying gāyatrī.
Prabhupāda: Brought newspaper, and as soon as they say... Who said?
Hari-śauri: That was in Washington. They showed a picture of Mars...
Prabhupāda: Stop, don't read, it is now understood what is.... Mars, it is all in Arizona.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You were very perceptive to find it.
Rāmeśvara: No one is thinking like that. You are the only one who caught that, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: Because I am the only one at the present moment intelligent.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We are still as dull (Prabhupāda laughs) as the karmīs. We would never have thought like that, Prabhupāda, about Arizona.
Prabhupāda: Because I am the only one at the present moment intelligent.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We are still as dull (Prabhupāda laughs) as the karmīs. We would never have thought like that, Prabhupāda, about Arizona.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They mentioned that the pictures of Mars appear just like some of the picture of national parks in Arizona.
Prabhupāda: In other places they could not find, throughout the whole world, Arizona. That means the whole business is going on in Arizona.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They say that if this terrain were on the earth, we would immediately make it a national park, it looks just like one of the national parks.
Prabhupāda: So what happened to their project? Stopped now?
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They're going to do it on Mars instead.
Prabhupāda: Hmm?
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They're going to do it on Mars instead. (break)
Rāmeśvara: ...do it on the moon because they want to have people go there to drill into the surface of the moon to see if there are any valuable minerals or jewels underneath the surface. (pause) (break)
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That is a modern sculpture.
Prabhupāda: Cooking.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: In the park, Śrīla Prabhupāda?
Prabhupāda: At one Dr. Mishra's house. In my apartment there was no kitchen. (break) There was some news. Their machine has gone to Mars planet.
Hari-śauri: Machine is?
Prabhupāda: They sent some machine?
Hari-śauri: To Mars?
Ātreya Ṛṣi: To picture, to take pictures around the Mars, to take pictures, and they have found on Mars signs of life and water. They have taken many close pictures.
Hari-śauri: Of Arizona.
Hari-śauri: Actually when they brought that dust, they said they brought that dust back, they made the point that it's just like the dust here. That's the same things again. You pointed out, "Why they are mentioning Arizona when they're talking about Mars?"
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Hari-śauri: That means they've never been past Arizona.
Prabhupāda: All business is going on in Arizona.
Gurudāsa: You once said there is a gross and subtle part of the moon planet. Is that so? No.
Prabhupāda: No.
Prabhupāda: Planet is full of life. Jana-(indistinct). All kinds of animals are there.
Jagadīśa: Even in the Arizona desert there are different kinds of life.
Prabhupāda: Yes. There must be. (break) ...use of going to the Mars planet. What is their idea?
Ātreya Ṛṣi: They constantly want to discover more and more so that they can claim that they are lords.
Prabhupāda: But what is that discovery?
Rādhāvallabha: Scientific knowledge.
Prabhupāda: You simply go and see? That's all?
Prabhupāda: Why we are put into this position of being controlled? These questions should be raised. That is human life. Otherwise it is animal life. The cats and dogs, they cannot inquire, "Why I am being controlled?" But they agree to be controlled. But human life there is struggle. They are called struggle for existence. They are trying to overcome the control of material nature by so-called scientific method, but that is not the way. You cannot do that. Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14). Just like their so-called scientific way. They are trying to go to the moon planet or Mars planet. Why they are trying to go? Because they are controlled. They have got their flying machine. They can to go any planet, but they cannot because they are being controlled. So we should come to our senses that we cannot bring the laws of material nature under our control. We are already under the control of the laws of material nature, and that is our conditional life. Actually, we require freedom from conditional life, but that freedom can be achieved when we surrender to Kṛṣṇa.
Prabhupāda: Everything, whatever he's doing—the so-called nonsense advancement of civilization is defeat, simply defeat. What is your advancement? You are completely under the control of the laws of material nature. What is your progress? So yāvan na jijñāsata ātma-tattvam. Only this hodgepodge. They are wasting so much time going to the Mars, spending so much money. But there is no inquiry, ātma-tattvam: "What I am? What is my goal of life?"
Bhagavān: They are zero.
Prabhupāda: Such zero. Apaśyatām ātma-tattvaṁ gṛheṣu gṛha-medhinām (SB 2.1.2). Ātma-tattva, there is no...
Prabhupāda: Nuts and bolts, tire tube, gas, this, that.... Where is food? (laughter) "So just kill the animals. That's all. You'll get food." And how long you'll go on? The animals will.... And no more animals die? Then what they'll do? Animal, after all, they live on grains and grass, but one set or two set or three set you can kill and eat. The next...? Then you have to eat dry grass. It is a wrong civilization. Duṣkṛtina. There is no water. They are flying to the Mars planet. What is the Mars planet news? Any news?
Jayatīrtha: What is the latest news from the Mars planet, do you know?
Bhagavān: Mars planet. No. They are taking samples of the soil.
Prabhupāda: That's all. Same story.
Bhagavān: Yes, they made an explosion, just to see what would happen.
Prabhupāda: You can drop many bombs in the Sahara desert. Who cares? Who cares for that? (laughter)
Jayatīrtha: Prabhupāda said they were actually in Arizona. This Mars capsule has landed in Arizona.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Why bomb? "Grapes are sour."
Bhagavān: To measure something.
Prabhupāda: Whatever they measure, they are useless. What they'll gain by dropping a bomb?
Prabhupāda: That is the.... The microphone is the same. And the politician can speak all nonsense, and the so-called scientist may speak all nonsense of going to the Mars planet, but we don't talk all nonsense.
Mike Robinson: If we could just put one more tape on it. No, if I can explain to you, the question I am trying to ask, which I'm finding difficulty to explain. Obviously, the members of the movement who are here have made a definite sort of decision that you've decided, they've decided, for instance, to dress differently, and they're dressing now in what would appear to be an Indian style. Is it necessary to do that, or could I carry on being a member of a radio station and still be a member of the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement?
Prabhupāda: That's a fact. If one actually interested in real philosophy, they must come to spiritualism. Ātma-tattvam. That is ātma-tattvam. Parābhavas tāvad abodha-jāto yāvan na jijñāsata ātma-tattvam. So long they do not come to this platform of understanding ātma-tattva, whatever rascal they are doing, simply defeat, that's all. Parābhava. Simply frustration and defeat. This very word, parābhava, means defeat. Parābhavas tāvad abodha-jātaḥ. Why he's defeated? Abodha-jātaḥ. Because by birth he's a rascal. Abodha-jātaḥ. And this will continue yāvan na jijñāsata ātma-tattvam. So long he's not enlightened to inquire about spirit and the science of spirit, he'll remain in that, that, what is called, defeat position or conquered position. So we have to now increase our scope. Everything we have got. And if you don't come to this platform, ātma-tattva, then your all attempt will be defeat. You are already defeated, frustrated, simply struggling, that's all. Either take the capitalist or communist, who has conquered? Everyone is defeated. One party may be proud that "We have been victorious." What victory you have got? What is the victory? Not that the communist countries, they are all happy. This is not the fact. Then where is your victory? Simply beating the drum that they have got victory, victory? "We have gone to moon planet. We have gone to Mars." Cheating innocent public. Is that victory? The girls are working that side?
Prabhupāda: We disregard the statement of Vyāsadeva, and we have to accept the statement of a rascal drunkard. (laughter) We are not so unfortunate. The unfortunate, they can believe that, we cannot believe.
Devotee (1): Now they have published pictures of Mars.
Prabhupāda: Let them do that, befool others. Andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānās (SB 7.5.31). Because others, they are blind, this blind man, whatever he says, they believe. They will say "Perhaps ten millions of years ago there was life, perhaps." These things are going on. But we know every planet is full of living entity. There is regular life and there are streets. The streets are paved with pearls, corals, in Svargaloka. We have got information. And what is their information? Scratching some sand and bring it, that's all. As if sand is not available. But we give information there are planets where the pavements are with pearls. Go and bring some pearls. There is the ocean of milk.
Prabhupāda: Yes. What they understand, all rascals? Wasting time. Going to the moon planet, going to the Mars planet. Why? What you will gain? Still they are going. Simply spending money. In Bengal it is called ostādi. Ostādi, in English? One who places himself as very intelligent leader. What is called in one word?
Bhagavān: Presumptuous?
Prabhupāda: Presumptions?
Bhagavān: Presumes he's something that he's...
Prabhupāda: No, it is a very nice word.
Prabhupāda: So they are going on, pedagogue.
Hari-śauri: And the other one is pedant, pedant. One who overrates booklearning.
Prabhupāda: Pedantry, there is a... Our Harikeśa was speaking that if they do not say there is life in Mars, then their whole propaganda will fail.
Hari-śauri: Yes, I was saying that this morning.
Prabhupāda: This time, if they say that there is no life in the Mars, they'll never get next chance, he said. I think it is meaningful.
Bhagavān: It will substantiate our claim.
Prabhupāda: Ah. In East Germany also, they have placed order. So this is joining. Just like for us, if you bring any other literature, we throw it away immediately. We take it as useless. Actually it is. We have nothing to learn from them, anything. All bogus. Either he's scientist or astronomer, or..., we know they are talking all bogus things. There may be some truth. Even that truth is there when a child speaks, there is some truth. When a child speaks to his parents, there is some truth, otherwise where is the question of talking? So little portion truth is there, everywhere. But when they talk of big, big things—they are going to Mars and scratching sand there—that we don't believe. That we don't believe. When they talk of this tape recorder, some electronic machine, joining together and it is working, that much care you can take.
Prabhupāda: And they will advertise that these descriptions in the śāstras, they are all mythology. Of course, this kind of bluffing cannot go because suppose this Mars expedition becomes a failure, like that, the same... It will be failure. So next time, if they propose, I think people will be hesitant to allow them to. Simply bringing people rocks and sands, without any utility, after spending so much money. How long they can repeat this, "Yes, we went to this planet, rocks. We went to this-rocks." So we see variety. Is the so many luminaries, simply rocks and sands? The moon is full of rocks and it's so illuminating? Whole universe is illuminated so nice, moonshine. So many stars illuminating and they're rocks and sand? We have to believe it?
Jñānagamya: They are saying there is life on Mars. They are seeing microbes, small little living entities, they are detecting these with their machines. So they are seeing, there is some life.
Prabhupāda: Microbes?
Jñānagamya: Microbe, you know, like microscopic...
Prabhupāda: Why they can see only microbes? Not a fully grown up human being.
Jñānagamya: No, they are detecting through gas. They feed the microbes and then microbes give off evacuation...
Prabhupāda: What class chemical? (indistinct)
Jñānagamya: They say the chemicals are giving off gases when they are feeding(?) the earth. They take the ground from Mars.
Prabhupāda: Just see so many bogus words they manufacture to make believe. Because they are scientist, they'll talk all big, big words which we cannot understand. So you cannot argue. (talks gibberish) Like that. By common sense question, that they are simply finding out rocks and sand, and again they are saying somebody has bombed. The first... (coughing) If there is bomb, then there is fight; so if there is fight, there must be human being.
Jñānagamya: Yes, I was working for USIS, U.S. Information Service and I had a commission to paint a large picture of this Mars landing ship, and they had information coming back that they were finding a long blockhouse with a big crater in the center, like a building that had been bombed. Fourteen kilometer crater. They had a picture like that. It appeared to be a building. So they are all cheaters. I used to live in Florida where they send up these, they are all drunkards. They drink alcohol, very unserious.
Prabhupāda: Oh, then they can manufacture. All drunkards, they are in charge of this fighting.
Prabhupāda: That's it. Now unless you enter into the kingdom of God, you'll not feel full satisfaction. Even if you go to the moon planet or Mars planet, there is no question of satisfaction.
Atreya Ṛṣi: So your question is whether one can enter this kingdom of God with this body.
Prabhupāda: No, that is already explained—tyaktvā dehaṁ. Giving up this body, one can enter in the spiritual world. Viśate tad-anantaram—after death. By bhakti, when he's mature and he gives up this body, then he enters into the spiritual world. Tyaktvā deham, giving up this body. You cannot enter, although by devotional service the material activities of the body will stop, but you have to wait for the moment when this material body is no more existing, then with spiritual body you can enter. Tyaktvā deham, mām eti. Viśate tad-anantaram. Tad-anantaram after death. And if you have got little pinch of material attachment, then you'll have to accept another material body. So we have (to) come to the point that no more I want anything material. Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam (CC Madhya 19.170).
Prabhupāda: Liquid means water. So as soon as there is water, there is vegetation. You'll find everywhere. Water dries up, vegetable comes.
Parivrājakācārya: Today they are exploring Mars, and they are saying that they're finding water on Mars.
Prabhupāda: Water's there. Everything must be there. Pañca-bhūta, mahā-bhūta. Ether, then fire, then water, then land. Everything is described in the Bhāgavatam. They cannot speak nonsense. They can speak nonsense through the other literatures, but we cannot speak. Without water, how there is possibility of sand? Sand means it is salt.
Parivrājakācārya: If you go out here, there is big desert.
Prabhupāda: No, Pitṛloka is different. That is downwards.
Hari-śauri: Does that Pitṛ, does that refer to the original progenitors?
Pradyumna: No, forefathers.
Prabhupāda: Latest development they are finding water in Mars?
Parivrājakācārya: It is very difficult for them because they are using their eyes and other instruments. They have found places where there were rivers, and they are finding ice, other things. So, I don't know the latest about it. It is obvious to them there is life, different kinds of life.
Hari-śauri: The way of testing for life...
Prabhupāda: Why you are spoiling your nails? It may come to a boil and then you'll understand. It is very dangerous habit. If there is little (indistinct) then it will become a boil.
Pradyumna: Jñānagamya said that on Mars they found something like a crater with a house. Looked like a... Or a bombed-out thing. This Jñānagamya was working with a, he works with some information service, U.S. Information Service. So he was in charge of designing something here for Fourth of July. Some program. So he got this information from this U.S. Information Service which generally..., sometimes it isn't made public. It's just in their U.S. service. They'd seen some kind of a crater with...
Parivrājakācārya: Roads in it as well.
Prabhupāda: Simply for... But you rascals you cannot understand how they are speaking rascaldom.
Hari-śauri: No, I can see now. I've been with you so long I can understand now.
Parivrājakācārya: They have sent this one ship to Mars at a cost of one billion dollars. They are making these tests.
Hari-śauri: Now there's a second one going around as well. That's Viking 1 that's on there now, and they have another one, Viking 2, that's designed to orbit.
Pradyumna: Vikings were names of pirates. Viking means pirates. Pirate's a thief. Vikings, they used to be thieves. They named their spaceship Viking. (laughs)
Prabhupāda: (break)...the idea going to the other planet? Colonization or what?
Prabhupāda: Just see how bogus.
Pradyumna: That is one thing they say, we must get to the moon first, for security.
Prabhupāda: That is now failure. Now they'll do it from Mars.
Hari-śauri: Not so much from there for security, it's just...
Parivrājakācārya: Their pride, one country, just like children playing, one can say "I can fly higher than you," and so "We can go to the moon before you can." For no reason than just to show they can do it.
Hari-śauri: It's an excuse to spend money. It's for fun.
Prabhupāda: So what is the position then? They are in ignorance, and they are leading the society as scientist, philosopher, politician. That is misleading. They cannot go even freely in the so-called moon planet excursion or Mars. Still, they are declaring independence. What is their independence?
Atreya Ṛṣi: Rascal.
Nandarāṇī: If someone accepts his dependence on God, then what is the second step? In preaching, so someone has accepted, "Yes, we are dependent on God," but actually they have no knowledge who God is.
Prabhupāda: George Henderson. He has no job here. All these theoretical doctors are no longer required by (indistinct).
Devotee (2): I was reading the other day that they are doing some experiments on Mars. They have twenty-two different theories about this one idea. Just this one little idea, twenty-two different theories.
Prabhupāda: Theory means they are not certain.
Devotee (2): The misfortunate thing is that people in general have faith in the scientists.
Prabhupāda: Yes. The whole devotional process is purificatory process. The more he is purified, he becomes high-class devotee. But the process is the path of liberation. Just like mango. The green mango, this green mango will be ripe mango. The same mango. You cannot say that the ripe mango is different from the green mango. It is a process. By the process the same green mango becomes yellow; then it is perfect. (long pause, devotees chant japa in background) What is that point, there are thirty theories or something about this Mars planet?
Devotee: Twenty-two theories.
Prabhupāda: You just told?
Prabhupāda: They are wonderful rascals. Shameless. Wonderful shameless rascals. They say that the moon planet is desert, vacant, no living entities. And we say that it is the planet for the pious men to live there very opulently for ten thousand... Of these two classes of knowledge, which is better? We have got some evidence from the śāstra, but they have no evidence. They are simply speculating. Now this moon..., er, Mars, they'll find the same result. Then how long they will go on like this?
Ātreya Ṛṣi: As long as the society is godless...
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Jñānagamya: They say on Mars there can be life because the conditions are a little bit like earth.
Prabhupāda: Suppose there is life, then what you gain?
Devotee: They say that our knowledge now is not mere theoretical because now we have gone there.
Prabhupāda: But what profit you have gained? You have spent some millions of dollars, that's all.
Devotee: More theories.
Prabhupāda: They cannot make this gas and combine?
Hari-śauri: This is the way they are testing for life on Mars. This is one of the tests.
Prabhupāda: No, why Mars? In their laboratory they can make gas and mix.
Hari-śauri: Well they say that they've made amino acids.
Prabhupāda: They cannot make?
Hari-śauri: They've made that, they say.
Prabhupāda: But they cannot produce life.
Hari-śauri: They haven't succeeded in having it develop any further than that.
Guest: That is true. Whole universe is rasa. Even in Mars they're trying to find humidity. What is humidity, rasa. Everything is moving on the rasa only. We are floating on rasa.
Prabhupāda: Our aim of understanding this Kṛṣṇa consciousness, it is not a sentiment. It is a great science, great science. Otherwise how we are writing so many books? If it was a dry...
Guest: Nothing happens in dryness.
Prabhupāda: Why people are accepting our books? You'll be surprised we are selling book to the extent of six lakhs of rupees per day. Daily. Daily we are selling six lakhs of rupees' worth all over the world. So people think philosophy, religion is dry subject matter. If it was dry subject matter, how they could purchase so many books? It is ānanda-cinmaya-rasa. They are getting for the first time. Here is real ānanda. Therefore they are appreciating.
Maṇihāra: "Hare Kṛṣṇa swamis. Man has unraveled many mysteries in his progress from barbarianism to civilization in his relentless pursuit of knowledge and his bid to add to his storehouse of information about the myriad mysteries of the universe. He has outstepped the boundaries of the earth and turned his attention to outer space, and at present he is trying to determine whether life exists on Mars. But even though he has climbed a long way up the ladder of knowledge, the great mystery of all baffles him still—the mystery of God. Who is God? What is the relationship between man and God? Why should man try to realize God? These are some of the questions which have been engaging the attention of all thinking men from time immemorial. The search for God has been going on down the ages because the Supreme Being is God, and to know Him is to know the truth of all things, in all forms in time as well as in space. The destiny of man is unity with God, for man is essentially inseparable from God. It is this knowledge which helps man to attain the state of eternal satisfaction or mokṣa. But for self-knowledge, mokṣa would be impossible. And self-knowledge would be impossible of attainment but for those divine messengers who throw light on the path of our lives. Whenever true knowledge, spiritual knowledge, begins to vanish from the face of the earth and tends to lapse into oblivion, the divine messengers revive that knowledge and nourish it with the vitality of their own experience. These divine messengers seek to awaken man to the knowledge of his real heritage. One such divine messenger is His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda..."
Prabhupāda: He has made the ground. (laughter)
Prabhupāda: And they continually going on giving information, rocks and sand. Why do you take so much trouble of going to Mars and this? If your go.... It is already concluded that we shall give this because they are already under the impression that all other planets are vacant. The same thing after spending millions of dollars, they're giving the same verdict. So why do this business? Simply cheating. They're cheating their boss that "We are making research." The result of research is the same. They're silent now, this Mars excursion?
Prabhupāda: Hm.
Hari-śauri: "Purport: The cloud of dust covered the entire horizon, but when drops of blood sprayed up as far as the sun, the dust cloud could no longer float in the sky. A point to be observed here is that although the blood is stated to have reached the sun, it is not said to have reached the moon. Apparently, therefore, as stated elsewhere in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the sun, not the moon, is the planet nearest the earth. We have already discussed this point in many places. The sun is first, then the moon, then Mars, Jupiter and so on. The sun is supposed to be 93,000,000 miles above the surface of the earth, and from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam we understand that the moon is 1,600,000 miles above the sun. Therefore the distance between the earth and the moon would be about 95,000,000 miles. So if a space capsule were traveling at the speed of 18,000 miles per hour, how could it reach the moon in four days? At that speed, going to the moon would take at least seven months. That a space capsule on a moon excursion has reached the moon in four days is therefore impossible."
Prabhupāda: (chuckles) So my reason is alright?
Prabhupāda: Modern scientists (Hindi—about challenge)
Guest: (Hindi conversation)
Prabhupāda: Whatever Mars going? Finished.
Hari-śauri: Yes. They don't put anything about it now.
Guest: (Hindi conversation)
Prabhupāda: (Hindi) Grapes are sour. Full of sand. (Hindi conversation) (break)
Prabhupāda: Always. Therefore it is said in the śāstra, āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ patanty adhaḥ anādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ (SB 10.2.32), ye 'nye 'ravindākṣa vimukta-māninaḥ... It is said, "My Lord, the lotus-eyed, vimukta-mānina, if somebody artificially is thinking that he has become liberated or merged into the existence, āruhya kṛcchreṇa, for which he has undergone very severe tapasya," āruhya kṛcchreṇa... Kṛcchreṇa means with great difficulty. Paraṁ padam, brahma-jyotir, patanti adhaḥ, "again he falls down," anādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ... Just like these rascals that are going in the sky to find out a place in the Mars and in the Moon. And why they are coming back? If actually one has gone, then why he's coming back?
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Hari-śauri: They recycled it. After they passed urine, they put it through a machine that was supposed to purify it, and then they could drink it again.
Prabhupāda: And still, they have to go to the Mars. Just see how degraded they have become. By drinking urine, they are going to Mars and bringing report, all false propaganda to keep the prestige of the scientists.
Hari-śauri: Yes. It's just a colossal hoax.
Rāmeśvara: No, they will go on and on with their bluffs. They will try to bluff that they are creating life, just like they've bluffed they've gone to other planets.
Prabhupāda: Everything bluff. I never believed them. I never believed them. In my Easy Journey to..., I have, ten years before, I have already rejected. Simply bluff.
Prabhupāda: Darwin... Grand rascal. All speculation. Transportation I told.
- kabhu svarge uṭhāya kabhu narake ḍubāya
- daṇḍya-jane rājā yena nadīte cubāya
Just try to explain to them. (break) ...interesting. I can give you the ideas. You put in the scientific way. But whatever idea I give, that's a fact. They have stopped making propaganda about going to Mars?
Brahmānanda: Going to Mars? They've stopped propaganda?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yeah, they are a little silent.
Prabhupāda: (chuckles) Hoax. First hoax was little successful. Now they say it will not be very successful.
Prabhupāda: (laughs) When there is argument? Nonsense, how you can argue? And therefore you are rascal. And that is also forbidden. Acintyāḥ khalu ye bhāvā na tāṁs tarkeṇa yojayet: "Things which are beyond your conception, don't foolishly argue, rascal." That will prove your rascaldom. Better accept what the authority says. It is beyond your conception, rascal. Why you are wasting time? That we want to say, that all of them are rascals, and they are simply wasting time by false idea. Cheating. You know, there are companies. They'll... They have got photographic studio. So they adjust their moon hoax. They'll help you. If you have got particular idea... They are going to the moon planet, Mars. Nowhere the rascals go. There is no knowledge. How they can go? Teeny, imperfect. So if we can prove that they have no knowledge of the universe, neither of the position of their...
Prabhupāda: Everyone knows that the first thing scientists did when discovering atomic energy was to manufacture the atom bomb and promptly drop two of them on Japan, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, thus annihilating millions of innocent victims in a flash. It is certainly marvelous. (Prabhupāda and Tamāla chuckling) At the expense of untold billions of dollars and years of research and hard labor, scientists have gone to the moon, snapped a few blurry photos, and brought back a handful of rocks, declared to the world that 'There was nothing there, so now we will try to go to Mars.' What is so marvelous about this? It is completely lunacy, if anything. On our earthly planet, millions of people are without food, shelter, and simple education. Instead of spending billions of dollars to bring rocks from the moon, science would be more credible if they would rather spend the hard-earned taxpayer's money for improving his own lot on earth. Rocks are rocks, whether from the Moon, from Mars or from China.
Correspondence
1975 Correspondence
According to our sastra, sun is first, then moon, then Venus, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, like that. In other words, from Bhagavatam we understand that the moon is 1,600,000 miles above the sun. If that is true, then is it possible to go to the moon planet by persons who can never imagine to go the distance to the sun planet? Under the circumstances, if we say that they have never gone to the moon planet, is it exaggeration? You are a scientist, I hope you will reply these 2 points scientifically. If the moon planet is actually far away from the sun planet, how they can go there and publish in the paper that the moon planet is the nearest planet.
| Page Title: | Mars |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, RupaManjari |
| Created: | 29 of Mar, 2012 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=8, CC=1, OB=3, Lec=22, Con=94, Let=1 |
| No. of Quotes: | 129 |