Can you give an example of unnecessarily provocative presentation of apara-vidya that we should avoid?
The question is that I said that we shouldn't present the Aparavidya of scripture in a way that may provocate people. So is there an example of what might provocate people? There are many examples. First of all, as I said, Prabhupada himself gave the example of there are some unbelievable seeming figures and facts given in scripture.
So Prabhupada said why are you presenting them from scripture? There are so many other things to present from scripture. So now, for example, if we say that, say, this is actually a real life incident, just quite unfortunate. There was one IIT student who became a devotee and he got a job in ISRO, India Space Research Institute.
And he was guided by some, I won't mention names over here, he was guided by some devotees and they told him that you should go and tell ISRO that all your analogy of cosmology is wrong, that man has not gone to the moon, that all this is just a hoax and modern cosmology is a hoax, Bhagat cosmology is the right thing. Now he became reduced to a laughing stock in his job. Vedic cosmology has to be presented, but it has to be presented properly.
Now I have written an elaborate article with a PowerPoint presentation of what exactly it means when Prabhupada said that man did not go to the moon. Actually Prabhupada never insisted that man did not go to the moon. He basically said that don't get very excited about it.
Prabhupada said three things. Man did not go to the moon, man went out of the earth, but did not go to the moon, went to some other planet or man did not go out of the earth at all, sorry, man went to the moon, but did not access the moon, man went to some other planet or man went, did not go out of the earth at all. But overall Prabhupada did not give much importance to it.
Prabhupada's main point was that don't get excited by this because at that time people were so excited, oh, now science is advancing, we have conquered space, we've gone to the moon. But Prabhupada's point was okay, even if you go to the moon, what are you going to do there? People after going to the moon, if they're conscious, they may go physically up, if their consciousness is not raised, then they will do eating, sleeping, mating, defending on the moon. So the point is that when Prabhupada would confront some of the scientific accomplishments, his focus was on ensuring that people don't get too excited about the whole thing.
And now when Prabhupada was asked about it, Prabhupada said even if they have gone to the moon, so what's so great about it? So the point is that Prabhupada has made a few statements, we don't have to take those statements as the absolute position of the tradition. And certainly, if a devotee is working as a scientist in a space which is organization, and now Chandrayaan and Mangalayan are considered to be not just the accomplishments of the ISRO, but they're considered the prides of India. So for a junior scientist in an institute to call as hoax some of the biggest achievements of that organization, it is at the very least imprudent.
All of us have to choose our battles carefully. So this devotee finally, he was so ridiculed by his colleagues and unfortunately he got a misdirected idea of what he should be doing and he still kept trying to speak the same thing and he ended up getting fired from his job. So now is this really essential? Now actually, if we see in the fifth canto, Vishwanath Chakradhakur in his commentary says that this fifth canto cosmology is primarily given for people who are too caught with the cosmos, those who are too captivated by the cosmos for them to give a spiritual orientation to their thoughts, the description of the cosmos is given.
So those who want to think of what is there in this planet, what is there in this planet, what is there in that planet, but too inquisitive about that, it is told for their sake that how to spiritualize their vision of the cosmos. But he says for those who are devotees of Krishna, this description of the cosmos is not the most important thing, by far not the most important thing. And what to speak of today when what the Bhagavatam's cosmology is, you know, we don't understand it at all.
What to speak of depicting it? Now our devotee scientists are trying, devotee researchers are working to try to build a model of the planetarium, but it's a huge challenge. And naturally it is going to be a challenge because, you know, in the, from the 16th chapter to the 25th chapter in the Bhagavatam fifth canto, although there are several hundred verses, those who describe cosmology are very few. And even then the description of the cosmos is not much in detail.
Now, trying to construct a model of cosmology from the Bhagavatam's description is like trying to draw the map of America by reading Leela Amrit, Prabhupada's biography. Now Prabhupada did travel around in America and there is a book that is written describing his travels all over the world, including America, that is the Leela Amrit. Now Leela Amrit is a biographical book.
It is not a geographical book. If we try to construct the map of America from the Leela Amrit, it is going to be very difficult. Similarly, from the Bhagavatam to construct a model of the cosmos is not easy.
And now it has to be done very carefully with devotees putting their heads together, praying to Krishna and waiting for some proper insights. And Prabhupada said that we need experts to do this and you should find who the experts can be. So there is no need for a devotee who is working in a space such as an organization to go around challenging things like the moon mission, especially when one is utterly unequipped to do so.
So not only does this disturb people's mind, it disturbs one's own mind also because so much agitation comes in the mind and then we cannot practice Bhakti Yoga properly. So this is an extreme example, no doubt. But the point is, there are things in scripture, ultimately we have to challenge people's conceptions and we want to help people develop faith and developing faith in scripture does mean giving up faith in many of the things in which they had faith earlier.
But all of us have to choose our battles. Now what is most important for people to know? Is it important for people to accept the fifth canto cosmology or is it important for people to start chanting Hare Krishna to understand that their identity is not, they are not the body, they are the soul. So what is most important, that is what we should focus on and avoid speaking things that will unnecessarily agitate others' minds.
Krishna says, na buddhi-bhedam janayet ajnanam karma-sanginam joshyet sarva-karmani vidhvan yukta-samachar Don't disturb the minds of others but engage them in a way by which they can grow in their spiritual evolution.