Yesterday (23 Aug 2023), citizens of India and many space enthusiasts around the world celebrated the success of the lander of the Chandrayaan 3 lunar exploration mission. Most individuals experienced great delight on this new accomplishment of the Indian space agency (ISRO), and some viewed this achievement with scepticism. Of course, with any space exploration event, there are bound to be individuals who raise doubts and questions. The purpose of this article is not to discuss doubts over authenticity of the latest moon landing attempt.
The previous moon landing attempt by India was named Chandrayaan 2. It ended in failure. Moreover, there was also an attempt to orbit the Mars, and this mission was named Mangalyaan. Photos captured from the Mangalyaan can be seen at : https://www.space.com/23203-india-mars-orbiter-mission-photos.html
I got many messages on my phone expressing happiness over the success of Chandrayaan 3. Interestingly, I also got some messages from some devotees, asking me how the scientists could land on the moon when they have statements from their recent ācāryas, stating that it is simply not possible to go to the moon in the current human body. Some are confused as to why the moon missions cannot find any of the details mentioned in the Śrīmad-bhāgavatam and the Purāṇas within the photographs sent back by the moon lander. Some others simply deny all the photos/videos and say that these are all a part of complicated trickery by world governments.
An individual should have the freedom to believe or disbelieve in the concept of planetary exploration. Freedom of thought cannot be taken away. At the same time, disbelievers in space exploration projects should kindly consider the fact that many space exploration missions have genuinely failed. The Russian Luna-25 lander mission failed just two days before Chandrayaan 3 succeeded. So, if it is all just buffoonery and computer graphics, then each and every mission should turn out to be successful on the computer screen. It is extremely difficult to believe that a particular government would want to embarrass their entire nation in front of the world by deliberately saying that their mission has failed.
This does not however mean that all research and evidence given by the scientists and space explorers is real. A few days ago, the Canadian Space Agency published an alleged photo of a 108 million year old moon crater named Tycho, which later turned out to be a photo of a crater in Arizona, USA. ( Link: https://www.indiatvnews.com/news/world/canadian-space-agency-viral-post-arizona-barringer-crater-as-moon-crater-netizens-react-tycho-latest-updates-2023-08-22-888219 )
Although there is no doubt that the worldwide scientific community has many genuine individuals in it, incidents like these show that vipralipsā (cheating tendency) is rampant in many sections of the scientific community. Not everything they say can be taken on face value, and a lot of scientific research has political motivations behind it.
That being said, assuming that the latest moon mission has actually reached the dark side of the moon, it certainly could not find anything that the Śrīmad-bhāgavatam mentions about the moon. What do we do now with the cosmological view of the Śrīmad-bhāgavatam? Are we supposed to discard that view as prehistoric and irrelevant?
— Understanding the Virāṭ Puruṣa —
Before we prematurely discard the Bhāgavatam cosmological worldview, we should know that the Vedas and Purāṇas speak of the universe as the body of the Virāṭ Puruṣa. This body has features similar to the body of a human. Now a question arises — Does the human body have only gross elements visible to the external eye? Or does it also have subtle, invisible elements viz. mind, intelligence, ego, prāṇa, manomaya-kośa, vijñāna-maya-kośa, ānanda-maya-kośa etc.?
If we ask a scientist or an allopath regarding the subtle elements of the body viz. kapha, vāta, pitta, buddhi, ahaṁkāra etc., then most of them will deny the visible existence of these. These do not fit in the worldview of the scientist or the allopath, since their worldview mainly allows only direct perception. However, this does not mean that the subtle elements of the human body do not exist.
Similarly, the body of the Virāt Puruṣa is the brahmāṇda (the universe of Brahmā), and it too has its gross and subtle aspects. The gross aspects are visible to each and everyone through the naked human eye. The subtle aspects of the brahmāṇḍa are neither visible, nor measurable by the human eye. The Śrīmad-bhāgavatam confirms this:
Translation: Learned souls *imagine* all the planetary systems as parts of the body of the Virāṭ Puruṣa. — (Śrīmad-bhāgavatam 2.5.36)
It is clearly specified in this verse that even the learned souls have to imagine (kalpayanti) the planetary systems. It never says that the learned souls can directly see these planetary systems with their naked eyes. Thus, there are many subtle aspects of the body of the Virāṭ Puruṣa that will never be seen with the human eye. Any endeavour to perceive them with the human eye will be useless. We should therefore not expect that most of the cosmological details of the Bhāgavatam will be perceivable by the naked eye perception of the scientists.
Many humans have seen the externally visible aspect of Mount Kailash. Yet nobody has recorded, documented evidence of seeing Bhagavān Śiva or Devī Pārvatī there. Does it mean that Śiva and Pārvatī do not exist at all? Many have seen the externally visible aspect of Mahendra Mountains in the eastern part of India, yet there is no recorded evidence of seeing Bhagavān Paraśurāma staying there. Does it mean that Bhagavān Paraśurāma doesn't exist and the account given in the Bhāgavatam (9.16.26) is incorrect? We cannot simply discard all of this as mere fantasy just because these aspects are not visible to the human eye. Neither can a valid system of religiosity be proven false simply on the basis of materialistic logic and argumentation:
Translation: The constant, unbroken paths of dharma that have been established by the great sages cannot be obstructed simply by giving some widely accepted worldly logic and argument. — (Bhartṛhari's Vākyapadīyam, Brahma-kāṇḍa, 31)
Thus, devout followers of the Bhāgavatam and the Purāṇas should never worry that the cosmological worldview given in their sacred literature will ever be proven false. It can never ever be proven false, simply because it is not a worldview perceivable by the mundane eye of the materialists.
If Mahārāja Parīkṣit wanted to know about the externally visible universe, he could've easily asked expert astronomers of his kingdom viz. Kṛpācārya. The reason why he is asking Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī about the cosmology of the brahmāṇḍa is because the perception of Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī extends beyond mundane human perception. Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī is described as — sarva-bhūta-hṛdayaṁ munim — "The sage who can enter into the hearts of all living entities by his mystic potency" — (Śrīmad-bhāgavatam 1.2.2). Elsewhere, he is described as a — mahā-yogī — (Śrīmad-bhāgavatam 6.4.3). Thus, the universe described in the Bhāgavatam is certainly not being described from a mundane, human point of view. It is being described from a yogi-pratyakṣa (perceivable by a perfected yogi) point of view.
— Separate Literature for Separate Aspects —
In Bhārata-varṣa, there are traditional literature that separately describe the visible aspects as well as the subtle, invisible aspects of the brahmāṇḍa. Literature viz. Sūrya-siddhānta, Āryabhaṭīyam etc. give elaborate calculations for visible aspects of the universe. These literature are a great boon for all followers of Sanātana Dharma, because for thousands of years, these devout followers of dharma have been correctly measuring sunrises, sunsets, moon-rises, eclipses, vrata timings etc. using formulae and methods given in these literature.
At the same time, a deeper, more subtle universe exists. This subtle universe will most likely never be recognised by modern science, exactly as kapha, vāta and pitta will most-likely never be recognised by allopaths. The worldview of most modern scientists is that of philosophical materialism. Those who subscribe to this worldview have no subtle worlds to explore and no inherent personality or purpose driving the universe.
The eastern philosophical systems viz. Sanātana Dharma, Jainism, Buddhism etc. all have almost a similar cosmological view of the universe. They all accept the existence of Mount Meru and the Devatās and many other aspects that are not visible to the human eye. To perceive this universe, one needs to have a special type of accomplishment. This accomplishment is described in the ancient Yoga texts.
— The Qualification Needed to Perceive the Subtle Universe —
The Yoga-sūtras of Patañjali are divided into four parts, known as pādas. In the third pāda, named Vibhūti-pāda, there is a sūtra which says:
bhuvana-jñānaṁ sūrye saṁyamāt
Translation: By practicing saṁyama of sūrya-dvāra (suṣumnā nāḍī), the Yogī obtains knowledge of all aspects of the universe. — (Yoga-sūtra, Vibhūti-pāda, Sūtra 26)
What is saṁyama? The Yoga-sūtra (Vibhūti-pāda, Sūtra 4) says — trayam ekatra saṁyamaḥ — "To attain the three stages of dhāraṇā, dhyāna and samādhi on a single object is known as saṁyama".
In the various commentaries to sūtra 26 mentioned above, all the traditional commentators viz. Śrī Vyāsa, Śrī Bhoja, Śrī Nāgeśa Bhaṭṭa, Śrī Rāmānanda, Śrī Sadāśivendra Sarasvatī etc. have described the same universe that is described in the Bhāgavatam and the other Purāṇas. Many of these commentators describe the fourteen planetary systems, the Meru, the pleasure gardens of svarga, the various oceans filled with various juices etc.
Thus, the cosmology of the Purāṇas is also firmly supported by the Aṣṭāṅga-yoga tradition. The same tradition of Aṣṭāṅga-yoga gives many visible benefits to the body (in the form of yoga-āsana practice) and invisible benefits to the subtle body as well as the soul. However, those who are philosophical materialists accept only the physical aspects of aṣṭāṅga-yoga to receive the external health benefits.
Thus, according to the bona-fide texts of the Aṣṭāṅga-yoga tradition, a yogī who attains saṁyama on sūrya-dvāra (the solar entrance a.k.a. suṣumnā nāḍī) is capable of perceiving all the details of the subtle universe. Such saṁyama cannot be expected from those whose worldview is purely materialistic. Patañjali is a śiṣṭa-ācārya of yoga who has benefited millions of people around the world. His aim in presenting the Yoga-sūtras is not to cheat people. Śrī Vyāsadeva is a śiṣṭa-ācārya of the entirety of Vedic tradition. He too is not here to cheat people. Thus, whatever is described in the Yoga-sūtras is a key to understanding how the universe can be perceived in its entirety.
Those skeptics who do not believe in mystical siddhis of Yoga should have a look at recorded evidence of yoga-siddhis. One example is the following video — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AZU8S9F0yI . During the video, there are various demonstration of siddhis. Individuals who say that all miracles disappeared after the invention of television will be surprised to see these siddhis present amongst practitioners of Eastern disciplines.
I conclude this article with the words of Swami Hariharānanda Araṇya, a lifelong practitioner of the Aṣṭāṅga and Sāṅkhya Yoga systems, and a brilliant commentator on the Yoga-sūtras. He spent his entire life living the tradition and spent the last two decades of his life in complete silence in the state of samādhi. In his commentary to the above-mentioned sūtra, he says:
"Bhū-loka is not this earth but the large ethereal region attached to this earth. Sumeru hill, the residence of the devas is also such a region. It is not visible to the eye... The nether worlds (lower planetary systems) are also located inside Bhū-loka (not inside the visible earth). The Deva-lokas start from the top of bhū-loka. The top of bhū-loka does not mean top of the earth, but it is situated much above the aerial (bhuvar) region of the earth. The state of Kaivalya (liberation) is beyond all the lokas and no one returns from there."
— Article by Hari Pārṣada Dāsa. 24 August 2023.
