2014
From Dānavīr Goswami to Çréla Prabhupäda
My dearest Guru Mahäräja, Çréla Prabhupäda,
nama oà viñëu-pädäya kåñëa-preñöhäya bhü-tale
çrémate bhaktivedänta-sväminn iti nämine
namas te särasvate deve gaura-väëé-pracäriëe
nirviçeña-çünyavädi-päçcätya-deça-täriëe
Jaya Oà Viñëupäda Paramahaàsa Parivräjakäcärya Añöottara-çata (108) Çré Çrémad A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupäda ké jaya!
Modern astrophysics, based as it is on atheistic speculation, acts as the epicenter of demoniac principles. By its propagation, the people of the world plunge further into insatiable lust (kämaà duñpüram), pride (dambha), false prestige (mäna), conceit (mada-anvitäù), unclean work (açuci-vratäù), and illusion (moha).
Astrophysicists say that the universe came out of the void and then accidentally exploded. Although the void cannot exist, if it did exist it would be nothingness by definition. How is it scientific to say that something, such as a huge universe filled with diversity, comes from nothing? It contradicts the scientists’ Law of Conservation of Energy, which states that energy can be neither created nor destroyed. The void creation theory is analyzed in the Bhagavad-gétä (16.8):
asatyam apratiñöhaà te jagad ähur anéçvaram
aparaspara-sambhütaà kim anyat käma-haitukam
“They say that this world is unreal, that there is no foundation, and that there is no God in control. It is produced of sex desire, and has no cause other than lust.”
One may ask whether modern void creation theory is really so bad. Lord Kåñëa says that such a harmful theory is demoniac and leads to the destruction of the world:
etäà dåñöim avañöabhya nañöätmäno ’lpa-buddhayaù
prabhavanty ugra-karmäëaù kñayäya jagato ’hitäù
“Following such conclusions, the demoniac, who are lost to themselves and who have no intelligence, engage in unbeneficial, horrible works meant to destroy the world.” (Bhagavad-gétä 16.9)
Since you are a pure devotee, your heart was pained to see the fallen souls cheated and tortured by mäyä. You knew that by exposing atheism at its astrophysical origin, the accomplice theories of Darwinian evolution and chemical evolution would also be proven guilty. To defeat mäyä, dear Çréla Prabhupäda, you decided to create the world’s largest planetarium in Mäyäpur.
Using Vedic cosmological principles to demonstrate and prove the phenomena of eclipses, day and night, seasons, and moon phases will, in my humble opinion, require hundreds of devotee-scientists to become trained and learned in the cosmological çästras. Formerly we did not have access to so many devotee scientists, but fortunately our movement today has a vast resource to draw from. Such work, however, will need to begin immediately so that when the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium is actually ready to open, the purpose for which it was built will be explainable.
If we establish a permanent Institute of Vedic Cosmology at Mäyäpur right away, we will insure that the planetarium will not be criticized for espousing merely “religious beliefs.” We will also be saved from excluding important Vedic cosmological features from the planetarium in the hope of sidestepping controversies. If we do our homework thoroughly—i.e., reconciling the Puräëas and the jyotiña-çästras—we’ll have an army of well-trained, mighty-armed devotee scientists equipped to launch and defend the great dharmic planetarium. Moreover, we’ll have devotee preachers traveling the globe displaying and illuminating Vedic cosmology, using dozens of high-tech animation videos projected inside portable planetarium domes.
Although we are tiny, crippled, blind, and dumb, Çréla Bhaktisiddhänta Sarasvaté Öhäkura is a giant in both jyotiña and Puräëic scriptures. We pray for your mercy and for your Guru Mahäräja’s mercy, and we also pray that Lord Kåñëa, who helped Your Divine Grace present the Fifth Canto of Çrémad-Bhägavatam, will guide your faithful followers to fulfill this transcendental project.
Trying to take shelter at your lotus feet,
Your insignificant servant,
Dänavér Goswami
