ŚB 2.2.26: Planets that are undiscovered by Scientists | Rus-Split | 7.7.92 | Gopal Krishna Goswami

Srimad Bhāgavatam, Chapter 2, Chapter 2, Text 26. Ato anantasya anantasya, anām eṛḥ anām eṛḥ, dandayām ānaṁ, dandayām ānaṁ, tā. Hare Krishna! Hare Rādhā! Hare Kṛṣṇa! Prasad Raḍhā—Hare Kṛṣṇa pradhanta hagna ravi-tā śrī-viśaraka-nitam-cha jai Śrī Kṛṣṇa cēyana brahmānanda-sheva-kara-haśvasin-yor-mātma-rimudra. Hare Kṛṣṇa! Hare Kṛṣṇa! Hare Kṛṣṇa! Hare, hare, hare, Rādhā! Hare, hare, hare, Rādhā! Hare, hare, hare, Rādhā! So when it touched him calmly, dandhyāmānāṁ svabhavikṣita So we see that Śrīkadeva Gosvāmī over here is giving us information about the various planets. And in this verse we see that at the end of the final, the final devastation takes place due to the fire emanating from the Mount of Ananta, everything gets destroyed. The universe gets destroyed due to this fire emanating from the Mount of Ananta. The yogi can see all these planets burning to ashes and he is able to leave for Satya-loka. Prabhupāda has explained in another purport in the same section of Bhāgavatam that Satya-loka is also known as Brahman-loka. And the duration of life over there is 15 trillion and 480,000 billion years. And there in the satya loka, again, one has the opportunity to cultivate the science of devotional service. And if one successfully cultivates the process of devotional service, then he gets promoted further to the spiritual planets which never get devastated. Now, in the purpose of this verse, there's a very important theme this Prabhupāda is dwelling upon. In fact, Prabhupāda's entire purport to this verse is devoted to the single theme. And the theme is that the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam gives us many clues about other planets far, far away from the modern planet and what modern scientists can ever discover. And Prabhupāda goes on to say that the statements of the Bhāgavatam have been accepted by all the great authorities including Ramana Ācārya and Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. And it is unfortunate that the modern-day scientists are not accepting these authentic statements of the Vedas. So as Prabhupada says in the purport, Caitanya Mahāprabhu accepted the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam as a spotless Purāṇa. Caitanya Mahāprabhu accepted this as a spotless Purāṇa because there are certain Purāṇas that deal with goodness, that deal with other aspects, but this Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam deals only with the process of pure devotional service. So our source of authority is the Vedic scriptures, and the information about the other planets, the duration of life on other planets, is to be obtained from the pages of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. For example, in the 5th Canto of the Bhāgavatam, we read about very vivid explanations about the other planets. And, but one point to understand is That all the material planets are temporary. Therefore in the Bhāgavad-gītā Kṛṣṇa says, "Ābrahma-bhūvanā-lokā-bhūpanāra-vetanā rājuna-māmopete duḥ-kāntya-phanaḥ janmānā-vidyate." That even if you are able to transport yourself to the topmost planet, even over there there is birth and death. But only one who returns to My spiritual abode, he can free himself from the miseries of material existence. When the first Russian spacecraft, Sputnik, you know, I think it was called Sputnik. When the first Russian Sputnik was released in the early '50s, I remember I was in school at that time. So right after that was released, Prabhupada wrote a book called Easy Journey to Other Planets. And in that book, Prabhupada discusses that the desire to go to other planets is very natural, but the process to go to the other planets is not a mechanical process but a spiritual process. Anyone qualifies oneself to these spiritual planets, then one can even go to the heavenly planets where the duration of life is a lot, lot longer than it is on this planet. For example, there's a planet called Maharloka where purified souls can enjoy a duration of life of 4,300,000 million years. And the duration of life on these other planets is a lot more than it is on this planet, and the standard of living, the comforts also, a lot more than it is on this planet. So Prabhupāda says that the process has to be a spiritual process, and one has to obtain information about the means of traveling to other planets through the pages of the Vedic literature. In that book, Prabhupāda discusses another point. He says that these days the modern scientists trying to go to other planets, and they're trying to discover about life on other planets, and the, and the devotees of the Lord They are not interested in this type of research of modern science. The modern-day scientists may think that those who are devotees of the Lord are old-fashioned. But Prabhupada says actually they are not old-fashioned. The devotees already know what these scientists are trying to discover. So that's— the devotees are actually ahead of the modern-day scientists because everything that the scientists are discovering has already been discovered by the devotees reading the scriptures. Therefore, as Prabhupada says in this purpose, we don't depend upon the modern-day scientists for information about life on other planets, but we depend upon the Vedic scriptures because the Vedic scriptures are flawless. They do not suffer from the defects that mundane knowledge suffers from. And it is authentic because the Vedic knowledge has been accepted by all the great ācāryas. These great ācāryas have accepted these statements of the Vedas. Hence, we accept the Vedic conclusions also. It is not that the other ācāryas have accepted the Vedic information because they know that this information is emanating from the Supreme Lord. So the Vedic knowledge is authorized, and the foolish materialist keeps on experimenting rather than accepting what is readily available. Athāncir kriṣṇa-nāmadī na bhavet vraḥṇa-vrīḥ ahi se vohmukhiḥ jīvānās paime vasprādya vahā. It is said in the scriptures that to understand the Supreme Lord by one's material senses is impossible. Even if you travel at the speed of the mind, Īśvaparīśād, you will not be able to understand. But one who tastes of the process of favor, he can understand the Supreme Lord. So through the medium of service one understands the science of God. Through the medium of service one understands the Lord. And through the medium of service one can understand and achieve the real goal of life. Devotees recognize the material knowledge is subject to four inherent mistakes. Therefore, everything that we do has to be seen through the eyes of the scriptures. And the devotees are not even interested in being elevated to the Satya Loka, because as we, as we will see in the verse to be discussed tomorrow, in the Satya Loka there is no old age or death, but still the devotees are only interested in just serving the laws. Lord Śiva in the Bhāgavatam has described the mentality of a devotee. Nārāyaṇa-prasādve nāk-paṇḍhitaḥ divyati prārgha-pravarga-nārkeśaḥ api kavyārtha-darśanaḥ. That is, the devotees of the Lord, Lord Śiva tells Parvati, they don't underestimate the devotees of the Lord. The devotees of the Lord, in order to serve the Lord, they are even willing to travel to the hellish planets. So the point is that the devotees are not interested in even going to the heavenly planets because Their only real interest is to serve the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and wherever this service can be executed, they are happy to reside there. In the Bhāgavatam, we read the story of King Caitanya, who had assisted the demigods in their battle with the asuras. And the demigods are very indebted to King Caitanya because he helped, he had offered. And as a result, the demigods offered him any benediction that he may desire. Samaḥāṣcat vangaḥ, say, just calculate and let me know how much more time I have left to live. Told him, just a moment more. So he said, let me descend to this earthly planet so that I can concentrate on the Supreme Personality of Godhead by leaving this body. So on this earthly planet we have the best facility to concentrate on the process of devotional service and thereby achieve the goal of life. Therefore, one should take advantage of the facility and use it to achieve the real goal of life, which is Kṛṣṇa-prema. And this is what the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is preaching. The Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is preaching how one should render pure, unalloyed devotional service to the Lord. Sve punyaṁ para-dhāmanyato bhakti-adhoṣajñay. But at the same time, besides presenting the science of pure devotional service, the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is also very scientific literature. Therefore we find in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Even information about the various planets, the distances among the various planets, and the type of life that exists in the other planet. And also the Bhāgavatam especially says, it also gives us information when the planets get destroyed. So as we distribute the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, as the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, as subsequent volumes of the Bhāgavatam come out in the Russian language, we will be able to convince even the scientific community about the, of this country about the intensity of the information contained in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. So actually there are only 2 minutes left for the deities to open. I just wanted to say, at some points of this verse I want to continue in the discussion tomorrow. Some points of this verse need further discussion. So this, as the devotees are continuing the marathon for selling the tickets, With the puranga bhajana marathon, we don't have too many devotees, too many days left now. So Sri Ram Prabhu is telling me that the books, the ticket sales are day by day, the results are getting better. Of course, our philosophy is there's always room for improvement. We can't become complacent based on the previous day's achievements. So if we continue with the efforts, there's a good chance that by the time the the event takes place, you have sold all the tickets and given everyone an opportunity to come and hear the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. I think this is the first time ever that so many devotees are engaged in selling tickets, but it's very nice because unless all these devotees enthusiastically worked, there was no way we could have sold all the tickets. So please continue with your enthusiastic efforts, and I'm sure Kṛṣṇa will reciprocate and gradually All the tickets will be sold and we probably have a full stadium to hear the holy names of the Lord. That will be a good opportunity for distributing Prabhupāda books on that occasion. Lama Lama Ale Ale.