# MOON-THING

The rest of the Moon-thing series will be background reference quotes from BBTI copyrighted materials (used with permission):

LECTURE Segments

People are searching after God. But actually there is the planet where God lives, KRSNa lives. But you have got your machine, aeroplane, sputnik. You can reach there, but you cannot reach even the highest planet, even on this material planet, material universe. The highest... Everyone sees. We see the stars or planets. Now you have got the machine; you go there. No. You cannot go. You are so limited. Even you cannot go to the moon planet, which is so nearest. You cannot go. But still, we are proud of our these airplanes, sputniks. We are thinking, "Now we have become God." These rascals they do not know what is God. They are all rascals. They have no idea what is God. Therefore they have accepted another rascal as God.

The process is there. You can prepare your next life in this life. Just like they are attempting to go to the moon planet, but the fact is they could not go there. Why they could not go there? The reason is that wherever you go, you must be fit for that place. Even in this planet, suppose somebody goes from one place to another place. He has to make himself fit to go there. He must know what is the temperature there. Accordingly, he'll take his dress. Then he'll have to take permission of the state, visa, passport. So many things you have to arrange. Then you can go, not that all of a sudden anyone can come to your country, Mexico, without arrangement. Similarly, if you want to go to the higher planetary system, then you have tomake your arrangement in this life. You cannot go to the moon planet by force because you have got a tiny airplane. That is not possible. Therefore Bhagavad-gItA says, yAnti deva-vratA devAn. A man can go to the higher planetary system when he is preparing himself to go there. So there are millions and trillions of planets.

Wherever you want, you can go. The descriptions are there in the zAstra. But there is another description, the kingdom of God. That kingdom of God is there beyond this material sky. So we have to take information where that spiritual world is there. You can have it from Vedic literature.

So if you try to go the higher planetary system, you can go. KRSNa says. There is process. Just like for going to the moon planet, one must be very expert in the karma-kANDa, fruitive activities. By karma-kANDa, you get, by the resultant action of your pious activities, you can be promoted to the moon planet. That is mentioned in the SrImad-BhAgavatam. But you cannot enter moon planet by your, this process: "By force we shall go with this aeroplane and jets and sputniks. Oh..." That's not possible. Suppose I got a nice motorcar in America. If I want to enter in another country forcibly, is it possible? No. You must get the passport, visa. You must get sanction from the government. Then you can enter. Not that because you have got a very good car, you'll be allowed. So we cannot by force... This is foolish attempt, childish attempt. They cannot go. Therefore nowadays they stopped. They do not speak. They are realizing their failure.

KRSNa explains how soul is immutable. Another significance is nityaH sarva-gataH. Sarva-gataH means all-pervading, everywhere the soul is there. Even within the stone, even within the sands, there are. So how these people can say there is no existence of living entity in the moon planet? Sarva-gataH. We have seen sometimes that from the stone, I have marked it. There is one juma mastika(?) in Agra. On the top of the stone dome a plant has come out, on the top. Now who has gone to place that seed that a banyan tree, banyan plant has come out and it has cracked the stone? So nobody has gone there, but this means the soul is everywhere. As soon as it gets the opportunity, it accepts a material body immediately. As soon as there is opportunity. That is explained in the Seventh Chapter very nicely.

The rascal scientist says there is no living entity in the moon planet or sun planet. This is rascaldom. There is. Otherwise how KRSNa says sarva-gataH? Any, everywhere there is living entities. This is a false theory.

Yes. Tell them that "You are all rascals." (laughter) "You just come and learn here from us. Then you say what is God. You have no knowledge." Just like somebody says that the sunlight, the dazzling sunlight. Clear sun planet is there. And because they cannot enter even into the moon planet, how they can enter in the sun planet? If they enter sun planet, they will find that there is a person whose bodily effulgence is this sunlight. Similarly the original person, KRSNa, has got His effulgence.

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1976 (????)

They are going to, trying to go to the moon planet but according to our calculation they have never gone to the moon planet. They have never gone because, we find in the zAstras, the moon planet is situated 1,600,000 miles above the sun. And they calculate that 93,000,000's of miles the sun is situated. So 93,000,000 plus another 1,600,000 it becomes 95,000,000 miles. How one can go ninety-five millions of miles in four days? So according to our zAstra, we cannot believe this statement.So apart from this discussion, you can go to the moon planet. That is also one of the heavenly planet. But you have to prepare for that, sir. That is karma-kANDIya. You have to perform such and such yajJas. It is not that by force you can go any other planet. By force you cannot go even any other parts of the world here. If you want to go to America you have to take passport, visa, and so many things. And you'll be allowed to go to the moon planet without any visa or passport? How it is possible? It is common sense. They are so fools that some rascal will take some machine and go there? That is not possible. So we have to prepare.

Just like the people are going in the moon planet, but because they actually do not get any shelter, they are coming back again. So that is the position. Simply by worshiping impersonal Brahman, after severe penance and austerity, you can enter into it, but you cannot remain there because there is no Ananda. It is simply eternity.

I say therefore, these Americans, that "You are born of this rich nation. That is also a result of pious activities." Because janma... Janmaizvarya-zruta-zrI. And wealth also. The Americans have got immense wealth. That is also a result of pious activities. And janmaizvarya-zruta, education. They have got the highest education. Now they are going, trying to go to the moon planet. Or they have gone. That is education, scientific education. And zrI, they're beautiful also. All Americans... We have seen so many boys and girls here. They're beautiful also. This is not ordinary thing. This is due to pious activities. Janmaizvarya-zruta-zrI.

So therefore I request them that "Materially, you have got all benediction. Now utilize this benediction for developing your dormant KRSNa consciousness. Then you are perfect. Then you become perfect." So anywhere where these facilities are there, janmaizvarya-zruta-zrI, instead of going down to hell, let them utilize it for getting the favor of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is perfection. Therefore BhAgavatam says, idaM hi puMsas tapasaH zrutasya vA, sUktasya ca buddhi-dattayoH--charity, intelligence.

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Just like we are trying to go to the moon planet, but we are conditioned; we cannot go. There are so many impediments. This is the nearest planet. Still, because we are conditioned, we cannot go. No free access. Otherwise, a living entity name is sarva-ga. Sarva-ga(taH) sthANur acalo 'yam. Sarva-ga means a living entity can go anywhere. As we see, there are so many planets. Why we cannot go? There are means also. We are flying in the air, but we cannot go. This is called conditioned life.There are so many instances. Just like even on this planet if you want to go to other countries, say, America, you have to fulfill so many conditions. Passport, visa, then P-form and so many other forms. Not easily. This is called conditioned life. We have no freedom to move. And there is another life which is life of freedom. Just like NArada Muni. NArada Muni travels everywhere. He goes in the spiritual world. He comes in the material world. In the material world he can go in any one of the planets. Sometimes by yogic practice we can go also, but not so easily. So there is a life of freedom. That is spiritual life.

1968

We do not know even what is this moon planet. We are trying for so many years, trying to go there in sputnik and... Even one planet. Even we do not know what varieties are there even in this planet. If you go on the sea, if you go on the sky, you are perfectly illusioned. So our knowledge is always imperfect. That we must admit. Foolishly, if we think we have acquired all sorts of knowledge, we have advanced in science, this is another foolishness. It is not possible.

They are claiming they have gone to moon planet, this, that. But according to zAstra, they are all cheaters. All cheaters. They cannot go. It is not so easy thing. Just like to enter your African city, African country, there are so many rules and regulations, immigration. And you want to go to the Candraloka without any restriction. Just see. Candraloka is the planet of the demigods. There the people live for ten thousands of years, they are so advanced. Their comforts are many thousands better than this standard of comfort. And you want to go there without any passport and without any visa. From common sense, can you enter anyone's country simply because you have got aeroplane? But these things are going on.

So KRSNa says, avyakto 'kSara ity uktas tam AhuH paramAM gatim. That nonmanifested... Because in the material eyes, material science... It is not possible to, I mean to say, disclose by material science. What is material science? We cannot go even to this moon planet, what to speak of the spiritual planet. It is not possible. It is not possible. So avyakto 'kSara ity uktas tam AhuH paramAM gatim. That is the... If we want to penetrate the outer space, we should be able to penetrate this outer space or this covering, then enter into that spiritual sky, and there it is called paramAM gatim. That sort of journey is called supreme. Not that you go up 25,000 away from this planet and again come back. This is not very heroism. Oh, you should have to penetrate the whole material space and then penetrate the cover and then reach the real sky. Yes. And that information is here also in the Bhagavad-gItA. ParamAM gatim. That is the superior journey. That you cannot do with your tiny sputniks. It is not possible. That you have to do by KRSNa consciousness. SadA tad-bhAva-bhAvitaH. One who always absorbed in KRSNa consciousness, and if by fortune at the time of death he thinks of KRSNa, he is at once transferred within a second. That is the process.

There are four ways suggested. If you want to go to the higher planetary system, not by force you can go to the moon planet. That is not possible. That is simply childish. You cannot go. You must have to be qualified how to go there. Just like if somebody comes to your country, Australia, he has to take the visa, permit, passport, so many things. Then you allow. So how you can be allowed to enter into the moon planet, which is the residential place of demigods? That is a very controversial point. They say that they have gone to moon planet and there is no life. This is simply nonsense. Every planet is full of living entities. But if they say they could not find any living entities, then it is to be understood they haven't gone to the moon planet. There are many other points also, we do not wish to discuss. But moon planet is the higher planetary system, sun planet is the higher planetary system, and there are many others. If you like to go there, you can go. YAnti deva-vratA devAn. You have to make, prepare yourself for going there. Similarly, there are PitRlokas. You can see so many, many thousands and millions of planets. Every planet is residential quarter. Just like this planet is residential quarter, every planet is resident. Innumerable lives there are according to the position.

Translator: The question is, SrIla PrabhupAda, yesterday you told to that gentleman that the scientists, they thought that they have been on the moon planet, but does that actually mean they went to another planet than the moon planet?

PrabhupAda: They might have gone to hell, I do not know. (laughter) We have no interest in such things. What profit will be there. Who is asking this question?

Hari-zauri: This boy from Africa.

PrabhupAda: So what gain we'll get? You are here in this France and... Don't be, I mean to say, subject to this unnecessary... What is the profit? Be practical man. What is the profit there. Suppose they have gone to hell or moon, but what is the profit? Why don't you study practically? What profit do we get? If after spending millions of dollars, if you have brought some sand, the sand is available so much here. So what is the profit? Just like the moon planet is there in such a vast sky. That is one corner, an insignificant corner it is occupying. So even if you go there, then what about the vast sky? What can you do? So be practical. What is the use of wasting time in that way? But as we say, that you can go to the moon planet. For that you have to prepare in a different way. Not that you get a small tricycle and go to the moon. (laughter) That is foolishness. So in our childhood also we were imagining, "I have got this tricycle, I shall go to Europe, I shall go to the West, or..." It is like that.

Big, big asuras like RAvaNa, he also wanted to be happy himself and others by material adjustment. He proposed that "There is no need of acting piously to go to the heavenly planet. I shall construct a staircase so anyone can go." RAvaNera svargezvari. So that was failure. Just like we are now trying, the modern scientists. We are trying to go to the moon planet. It is failure. They will never be able to go there. I have discussed this point. We are conditioned. We cannot live one place to another without being proficient or without being eligible. Just like even in this planet you cannot go to the other country. Suppose from India if we want to go to America, it requires arrangement, not that all of a sudden you can go to America or the Americans come here. There is international arrangement, visa, passport, immigration, so many things. So many obstacles are there even in this planet, and what to speak of going to other planet. It is not possible. You must be efficient; then you can go.

They are trying to go to the moon planet. I don't think they have been successful. But this is not a very difficult task. But even if you go to the Brahmaloka, where the duration of life is so long and the comforts of life are many, many thousand times what, which we can perceive here, KRSNa says that "Even you go there, then the birth, death, old age and disease is there. You cannot avoid it." Janma-mRtyu-jarA-vyAdhi-duHkha-doSAnudarzanam.

How we can be promoted? KRSNa says, in the Bhagavad-gItA: yAnti deva-vratA devAn. Those who want to go to the planetary system of the demigods... The moon planet is one of them. They can go. You have to prepare yourself in this life. We have discussed all these things in our small booklet, Easy Journey to Other Planets.

There are so many things to be learned. This universe we see just like a ball, and this ball is covered by layers of water, fire, air, earth, like that. Circling. And each layer is ten times bigger than the previous layer. In this way the universe is covered. And beyond that covering, there is another sky. We are prisoned here within this universe. We are thinking that we are very free to move in the sky with, what is called, sputniks. But you cannot go beyond your limitation. That is not possible. They are going to the moon planet, again coming back. You see. That is our conditional life, that you are conditioned, packed up under certain regulations. If you violate, then you are punishable. You cannot violate. You have to remain within the conditions of material nature. DaivI hy eSA guNamayI mama... You cannot violate. If you want to violate the laws of nature, then you will create another difficulty. Another difficulty.

There are many, many other planets where thousand times better standard of life is there. We cannot go. We are so conditioned. Although we are seeing all the planets, the sun planet, moon planet... They are trying to go to the moon planet, but that's a failure. So you cannot go in that way. There is process: yAnti deva-vratA devAn.

Bhagavad-gItA also, KRSNa says that yAnti deva-vratA devAn pitRRn yAnti pitR-vratAH. "If you want to go to the heavenly planets, then you worship such and such demigod. If you want to go to the PitRlokas, then you worship such and such demigod." These are explained there. They are not false. They are facts. If you want... Just like they are going, trying to go to the moon planet. So how to go to the moon planet, that process is described. You can, you can adopt that process and automatically, after your death, you'll be transferred to the moon planet. You don't require this artificial sputnik. No. Neither you can go there by the sputniks. It is not possible. You must be qualified to enter into a particular type of planet. You cannot go by force. I have given this example many times in America, that if somebody wants to come to America, he has to secure the proper passport and visa. Otherwise, the immigration department will not allow him to enter. Similarly, if you want to go to a particular type of planet, higher planetary system, you must have the required passport and visa. Otherwise, how you can enter there?

Just now they are planning that everyone will go to the moon planet without any qualification. That is their plan. It is RAvaNa's plan. RAvaNa said that "Why you are undergoing so much severe austerities to go to heaven? I shall make a staircase, and you go directly, without having performed any austerities." So to go to the moon planet, according to the Vedic description, it requires a qualification. The moon planet, that is one of the heavenly planets, and if anyone can go there, he gets ten thousands of years span of life. And the standard of living is very higher than this planet. These are the description in the Vedic literature. In the Bhagavad-gItA also, it is said, yAnti deva-vratA devAn. If you want to be promoted to a heavenly planets, then you just perform the duties to please the particular demigod, you'll be... So these materialist scientists, they are thinking that they can go anywhere by the force of their so-called scientific advancement. But it has not proved successful till now. But still, they will say, "Yes, in future we shall go." All right, in future. "Trust no future, however pleasant."

1972

PrabhupAda: No, you cannot go and live there.

SudAmA: Right. So perhaps if they are really going there, then if they cannot..., and the living entities are living there as it is stated in the scripture, then perhaps they are doing very much damage or intruding, going against the laws of nature.

PrabhupAda: First of all let us admit that they are going. That is my first objection, whether they are actually going or giving bluff.

Pradyumna: And you suggested before that if on the moon planet there was such intelligent beings, that if someone was aiming to go to the moon, they could just by mystic powers...

PrabhupAda: Yes. Divert them.

Pradyumna: Divert them.

PrabhupAda: To some hellish place. (laughter) Nowadays they are going airplane, sometimes diverted. Yes. So if they are demigods, they have got better brain and... There are so many questionable things, contradictions of the... We cannot take, accept it, that the statement in the Vedic literature, they are not right, but they are right. No, we cannot.

1970

Just like modern scientists, they are finding difference between this planet and the moon planet. They say that there is no living entity. That is not fact. They... Even though they have reached the moon planet, it is not a fact that there is no living entity. Accepting they reached the moon planet, they might have gone to the part where it is desert or barren land, because in each and every planet there is such possibility. In our, this planet also, when I was passing through the Suez Canal, it is horrible desert. So if somebody drops in that Arabian desert and concludes that there is no living entity in this planet, it is simply foolish. Similarly, these people are going, maybe going... First of all, I don't believe they have gone, frankly speaking. Even they have gone, they are landing in some part of the moon planet where there is no inhabitation.

1975

So Sukadeva GosvAmI is speaking SrImad-BhAgavatam, and his disciple, MahArAja ParIkSit, was hearing. So at the end... This is the Sixth Canto. There are twelve Cantos of SrImad-BhAgavatam, and this is Sixth Canto. So at the end of the Fifth Canto the ParIkSit MahArAja was informed about the hellish planets. This universe, there are different types of planets. Yasya prabhA prabhavato jagad-aNDa-koTi. Yasya prabhA prabhavato jagad-aNDa-koTi-koTiSv azeSa-vasudhAdi vibhUti-bhinnam. This universe is one of the universes. There are millions of universes. We do not know. We do not know even one universe. We cannot study even one universe. They are... They were--not are--trying to go to the moon planet, but that has become a failure. From zAstra we understand that the moon planet is situated 1,600,000 miles away from the sun, and the sun is situated in the middle of the universe. 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. According to Vedic culture, one has to judge by the result. Not by if you simply talk nonsense, one has to accept. What is the result? Suppose if one says that "I have done very good business. I have earned so much money I have got in bank balance..." You can say all these thing. But one sees that a prosperous businessman has got a nice house, nice motorcar, his standard of living is very nice. But if he is loitering in the street, has no good dress, and if he advertises himself that "I am a very big businessman. I have got so much money," who will believe him? Similarly, this moon planet expedition is, up to this date, it is a failure. So how can I believe that they have gone there?

1975

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. It is no use." So after jumping so many years and spending so much money, they are now rejecting: "The moon planet is not habitable." But we get there. This is one of the heavenly planets, and it is habitable by the most advanced pious men. So these are the difference. Now it is your business to believe the so-called scientist or the zAstra, as you like. But we cannot believe. Because we are KRSNa conscious, we have to believe what is stated in the zAstra.

1968

MadhudviSa: Recently it said in the newspaper where the scientists were sending a sputnik around the moon. I have read in your Easy Journey to Other Planets that no matter how many endeavors they make, they will never reach these other planets. Is this...?

PrabhupAda: Yes. This is not the process of reaching. This is childish. That also I have made statement, this is childish. You cannot go to the moon planet in that way. It is not possible. They'll simply create story, but they'll never be successful.

1973

PrabhupAda: First of all make sure whether he had gone there, and then talk of all these things. (laughing) I am not sure they are going there.

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PrabhupAda: Fool. Simply childish. BAlaka. What are they gaining? For the last, how many years they are trying? For going to the moon planet?

SvarUpa DAmodara: Russia started in 1957. First sputnik where Gagarin was there...

PrabhupAda: Twenty-five years. So they could not get anything, not a single farthing even. Still, they are doing. Just see, obstinacy. PunaH punaz carvita. This is called chewing the chewed. PunaH punaz carvita-carvaNAnAm. They will never be successful. So I am a layman. When I wrote that Easy Journey? In 1950, 67. How many years?

Karandhara: Six years.

PrabhupAda: No, no. Not 67, 57. Sixteen years before. They are all childish. I am a layman. It will never be successful. It is already written there in my Easy Journey to Other Planets. Here also, that, some press reporter asked me in San Francisco, when I landed, "What is your position about this moon planet?" "It is simply a waste of time and energy. That's all. You cannot go there."

July 1977

They do not know, inquire what is the real thing. Just like twenty years ago I said, "This is all nonsense, moon-going." And now they are coming: "Oh, it is hoax." So that is the difference. Twenty years before and "This is all childish waste of money. This rascal will never be able to go to the moon." And now they are coming. That is the difference. I said from common sense.

NakSatrANAm ahaM zazI. And we read in the BhAgavatam that to go to the moon planet, one has to execute such yajJas, karma-kANDa. We understand from zAstra. And how this rascal with a machine will go there? That is a common sense. But they do not believe in the words of the zAstra. Rascals, they were bluffed and they believe. SAstra-cakSus. Your eyes should be through the zAstra. YaH zAstra-vidhim utsRjya vartate kAma..., na siddhiM sa... We believe in this. Therefore I said twenty years before. That is the difference. We take the words of zAstra, words of KRSNa, ultimate. That's all.

So we have no difficulty. They do not believe in zAstra. They do not believe in KRSNa. So they were bluffed. That is the difference. We have... I started this movement. It is not manufactured by me. Take the words of authorities and spread. There is no adulteration. There is no alteration. That is... MahAjano yena gataH.

> > ## The above article was first published in the mid 1990s in the now defunct soc.religion.vaishnava newsgroup. The following are the Bhaktivedanta sources relating to the moon-thing:

> > > A SYNOPSIS
> > > THESE QUESTIONS DO NOT ARISE
> > > BOOK REFERENCES
> > > LECTURES
> > > SRIMAD BHAGAVATAM
> > > PRESS INTERVIEW
> > > MOON DISTANCE DIFFERENCE
> > > CONCLUSION