Also Russia and China have announced a joint adventure to build a settlement on the Moon by 2030.
And India and the European Union are also planning to send manned missions to the Moon.
Frankly it is foolish for ISKCON to keep denying the achievements of the 1969/72 NASA Moon landings.
If ISKCON continues these silly Moon hoax claims, "The Temple of Vedic Planetarium" project in Mayapur WILL be the butt of jokes around the World.
Already making new devotees in Western Nations have been way, way down over the last 30 years, less than 20 Brahmacaris (students) in Melbourne Temple as at the beginning of 2022, there were more living in the Temple in the mid 1970s!
Only in India and the old Soviet Union has ISKCON grown.
However, the silly past ISKCON claims that the Moon landings were a hoax found on the Internet sites, does not help, devotees look ignorant, misinformed and foolish fundamentalist fanatics!
Many over the years have left ISKCON because of many laughable recorded silly 50 year old conversations that claim the Moon landings were a hoax and Moon rocks came from the Arizona desert.
But blinded by sentimental love, immature devotees accept this nonsense.
I have tried to explain these facts respectfully because the majority of Prabhupada's AMAZING eye opening teachings are fool-proof, and only His views on Cosmology is questionable, that he himself admitted, he did not know everything about.
Maybe humbly this is how ISKCON should explain the Moon controversy-
It could be explained there are "two Moons" in the same space,
1 - One realm we see in our gross material body,
2 - The other we do not see because it is subtle material energy.
This conclusion is reached because the Moon has two realities -
1 - Subtle material reality.
2 - Gross matter material reality.
We in a gross material body cannot see or experience the "subtle matter reality" but we CAN see and experience the "gross matter reality".
This also answers how man could go to the Moon.
Lets look at the facts in 2022 about these old 1970s Moon landing conspiracy theories claiming, even by Srila Prabhupada, the Moon landings never happened however, he really meant they could never go to the "subtle reality" of the Moon, a heavenly material realm called Chandraloka.
As far as the "gross moon" landings are concerned, over 450,000 people worked on the Apollo missions that eventually took man to the Moon in the late 1960s, to keep a secret like this among all these people, believing it was all some clever hoax is impossible.
And today in 2022 many Countries are continuously sending space crafts and probes to the Moon.
Therefore it is not only NASA anymore, it is China, India, Japan, Russia, Israel, European Union.
To claim they are all in on some hoax and conspiracy is ridiculous, the manned Moon landings between 1969 and 1972 DID happen without any doubt, the evidence is overwhelming!
And if Srila Prabhupada's opinion does NOT convience me the Moon manned landings never happened and was "all bluff", then no one else has any chance of convincing me we never went to the "gross Moon".
Where Srila Prabhupada is right is the Astronauts and their space crafts can NEVER enter or percieve the heavenly atmosphere on the Moon
Srila Prabhupada always maintained they never went to the Moon but I believe he really meant the "subtle reality of the Moon".
This technically means there are really "two Moons" not considered by the devotees back in the early 1970s.
The Moon landings therefore were NOT a hoax or some silly Government conspiracy that only 3% of Americans believe in 2022.
And Prabhupada's reasons they never went to the Moon are different from those mundane Conspiracy theories mentioned above.
That is because he knows there is a higher material heavenly reality on the Moon that we in gross material bodies cannot visit or even perceive.
But the Astronauts DID go to the gross reality of the Moon.
What we see in the sky and what the Astronauts visited was the "gross Moon" NOT the "subtle Moon" that is not seen.
If we see the Moon from earth then that must be the "gross reality Moon" otherwise we would not be able to see it.
Since 1969, as far as the gross Moon is concerned, many have said they never went to the Moon.
This was also because very little of this new technology was understood back in the late 1960s and early 1970s, even by Prabhupada, and especially by his very young disciples, some with university degrees, all in there early 20s back then, never fully understood it either.
Today in 2022 it is nonsense to continue these mundane conspiracy theories that they never went to the Moon (the gross Moon) such conspiracy theorists never even considered what Prabhupada said all along. And that is the Moon has an unseen heavenly higher dimension to (a subtle reality)
As said above, Srila Prabhupada emphasis they NEVER went to the "subtle heavenly realm on the Moon" called Chandraloka, and he is right!
But they DID go to the same gross Moon we see at night.
It seems Prabhupada back then did not discuss this aspect back in the 1970s of two Moon realities (gross and subtle) that make the Moon landings possible.
This means the Moon is both "subtle and gross" matter, making it two Moons in different realities at the same time in the same space.
We cannot see the "subtle matter" but we CAN see the "gross matter".
After all we all see the Moon at night from Earth which is the gross reality of the Moon.
Back in 1969 they did not understand any of this, it is even fair to say Srila Prabhupada himself seemed to also be trying to understand Vedic Cosmology with his disciples and suggested we need someone qualified in Vedic Cosmology to teach us.
Srila Prabhupada had said he did not know everything about Vedic Cosmology and therefore sent Tamal Krsna Maharaj to Southern India in search of an advanced Brahmana who could teach us the science of Vedic Cosmology and how to properly understand it.
Discussion with that Southern Brahmin is found here-
The fact is they DID go to the Moon but was only to "the gross Moon" did they see and experienced that we also see from earth.
They could not see or enter the "subtle material heavenly atmosphere of Chandraloka" also being Moon.
To be clear, they NEVER went to the "subtle heavenly realm on the Moon called Chandraloka" that we also cannot see, detect or visit in these gross material bodies.
However the Astronauts DID go to the same Moon we see at night but was the "gross Moon" they visited.
This means the Moon we see from Earth MUST be the gross aspect of the Moon otherwise we would not be able to see the Moon at night or day.
Even Dandavats today for some reason avid printing articles denying the Moon landings just like they no longer condemn vaccinations like they fanatically did 10 years ago.
ReplyDeleteDevotees are attempting to explain the Moon in a way where they do not embarrass Prabhupada.
Presently the issue is being avoided by devotees at the TOVP, sadly there are some fanatical devotees in Mayapur who not only deny the Moon landings but foolishly claim the Moon is 95 million miles from Earth and our Earth planet is flat.
Above in the article I have given a suitable explanation about the "subtle" Moon's heavenly realm, and the "gross" Moon the Apollo Astronauts went too.
These issues should be maturely sorted our before 2024.
Today the new James Webb Telescope entered space and is 1000 times more powerful then the Hubble Telescope.
But sadly there are some ignorant leaders in ISKCON claiming it is all another hoax.
This is because their attachment to Prabhupada is based on sentimentality instead of mature realizations of Prabhupada's mission.
Some foolish devotees, sannyasis and Gurus are doing is turning people away from Lord Caitanya’s Sankirtan Movement with their fundamentalist narrow minded nonsense.
The new generation of devotees especially from India, are not so naive and ignorant as the 1970s young immature devotees who had very little understanding.
ReplyDeleteThere are some ISKCON Indian devotees today in nearly 2022 who work for NASA, one just told me, how can they deny the fact that China, Russia, Japan, India, European Union have all sent space crafts to Moon with Japan having footage of the Apollo landing sites from 1969 to 1972?
To claim it's all a hoax is crazy talk.
Already hundreds have left ISKCON because of these nonsense claims the Moon landings were a hoax, and that the Moon is 95 million miles from Earth!
Not even Sadaputa prabhu believes such silly distances claiming the Surya Siddhanta explains the Moons REAL distance is close to 238,000 miles away from Earth.
The truth is, I never excepted Prabhupada's comments in lectures and in His books the Apollo missions between 1969 and 1972 were faked.
ReplyDeleteFrankly, I thought even back then in 1972, his opinion was lacking full information.
All this technology was new back then to everyone.
This was made more questionable by his comments that the moon is further away from earth than the sun is, as mentioned in the 8th Canto of Srimad Bhagavatam.
And why didn't I speak up back then in ISKCON's pioneering years?
I was just a naive 20 year old but at 18 years old in 1969, I did spend time with the head scientist at the Radio telescope in Parks NSW that had a major role in the Moon landings that same year.
I feared if I spoke out against Prabhupada's opinion the Americans never went to the Moon, it would make things difficult for me.
So, I just played along, I loved prasadam too much and did not want to jeopardise that.
My attachment to prasadam was EVERYTHING back then, I was young and immature who had nothing, so I just played along.^^