View source for One devotee asked me, "If the scientists don't know anything about the universe, then how is it they can predict exactly when there is going to be an eclipse of the sun or the moon for hundreds of years in advance?"

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{{terms|"If the scientists don't know anything about the universe, then how is it they can predict exactly when there is going to be an eclipse of the sun or the moon for hundreds of years in advance"|"One devotee asked me"}}
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[[Category:Questions asked to Srila Prabhupada]]
[[Category:Questions asked to SP... 1975]]
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<div id="Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" class="section" sec_index="5" parent="compilation" text="Conversations and Morning Walks"><h2>Conversations and Morning Walks</h2>
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<div id="1975_Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" class="sub_section" sec_index="8" parent="Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" text="1975 Conversations and Morning Walks"><h3>1975 Conversations and Morning Walks</h3>
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<div id="MorningWalkNovember111975Bombay_0" class="quote" parent="1975_Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" book="Con" index="237" link="Morning Walk -- November 11, 1975, Bombay" link_text="Morning Walk -- November 11, 1975, Bombay">
<div class="heading">That is very preliminary knowledge. That is not... Just like you can predict that after two months there will be winter. That does not mean that you are very advanced scientist. (laughter) Any child can say. The rascal predicted that there is some comet, and it never appeared. He did. So therefore they are rascals. What is already scheduled, everyone knows. He can say that.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Morning Walk -- November 11, 1975, Bombay|Morning Walk -- November 11, 1975, Bombay]]: </span><div class="text"><p style="display: inline;">Prabhupāda: Apollo airship, thousands of technologists and scientists were engaged to make this Apollo, and it burst out. So they have no foreseeing power that it will burst out. At that time they began to pray to God.</p>
<p>Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: I think President Ford said, "Every American should pray to God."</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Why?</p>
<p>Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: When that Apollo thing, it was burst, he said. He said we should all pray to God.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Why God? Why not scientist ? (laughter) Pray to scientist. Why the order was for God, not for the scientist? Churchill also, when the war condition was very, very severe—they were going to be finished—then he asked everyone to go to church and pray. That "V"? "V"? Victory: "For victory, go and pray."</p>
<p>Harikeśa: Well, they were thinking God was on their side.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes, but they are thinking of God but in a different way, that "God is my order supplier. God is not to be worshiped, but He has to supply as I order." That's all. (break)</p>
<p>Brahmānanda: ...this book written by one priest during the war. The name of the book was Somebody Up There Likes Me, referring to God.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Still, he did not dare to utter the name of God.</p>
<p>Brahmānanda: No, he said "somebody."</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: "Somebody."</p>
<p>Brahmānanda: "Somebody Up There Likes Me."</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: As soon as he had written "God likes me," nobody would purchase the book. (laughter) Nobody would. He is clever—"Somebody."</p>
<p>Harikeśa: One devotee asked me, "If the scientists don't know anything about the universe, then how is it they can predict exactly when there is going to be an eclipse of the sun or the moon for hundreds of years in advance?"</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: That is very preliminary knowledge. That is not... Just like you can predict that after two months there will be winter. That does not mean that you are very advanced scientist. (laughter) Any child can say. The rascal predicted that there is some comet, and it never appeared. He did. So therefore they are rascals. What is already scheduled, everyone knows. He can say that. (break) ...story about Kali dāsa. Kali dāsa was such a fool. It is a long story. It will take time. So he was sitting on a branch of a tree and cutting. So some intelligent man came, was passing: "Oh, you rascal, you'll fall down." So he did not care. He would go on. And when he actually fell down, he, "Oh, you are so nice astrologer." What is astrology? It is a common sense. If I say, "At six o'clock in the evening there will be no sun," (laughter) is that astrology? Even it is astrology, this astrology is known to everyone. Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break)</p>
<p>Indian man (2): ...of anecdote where gopīs, you know? When gopīs' dress were taken by Kṛṣṇa, He wanted these gopīs to give away all their humility and humbleness, to show everything. "Then only, unless you surrender to Me, you cannot have any salvation." So when they took out all their dress and then went prayed before Him without any dress, then only they have become muktas. Like that Draupadi also. When Duhsasana...</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: That is Māyāvādī interpretation.</p>
<p>Indian man (2): No, that is what I...</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Why should you interpret? Gopīs prayed Kṛṣṇa and all the Katyāyanī devīs that "Let Kṛṣṇa become our husband." So Kṛṣṇa fulfilled their desire because a woman can become naked only before husband. That is the purport, no other interpretation. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa, when that so many gopīs called, "So you wanted Me as your husband? All right, I become your husband." That's all. Because for a woman there is no shame before husband. So this was acceptance of husband. And so far renouncing everything, they had already done that. Therefore we take everything, śāstra, as it is, no interpretation. Then, simply by making oneself naked, he would have gone to Vṛndāvana. They interpret. These Māyāvādīs, they interpret in so many ways just to make the statement of Bhāgavata story. This is their real purpose. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya. (Hindi) Without being liberated, can anyone expect to become wife of Kṛṣṇa? They were already liberated. These interpretation are there only to minimize the value of Kṛṣṇa and the value of gopīs. Māyāvāda bhāṣya sunile haya sarva nāśa. Caitanya Mahāprabhu has warned, "If you hear the comments by the Māyāvādīs, then you are finished."</p>
<p>Harikeśa: Why do people use spiritual things for material enjoyment when material enjoyment is available by itself?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: That is another foolishness. It looks like material; it is not material. Completely spiritual. Your body is moving on spiritual strength, but you have no eyes to see spiritual strength. You see the body. And when the spirit goes away, you cry, "My father has gone away." "Why my father has"...? "Your father is there. The body is there." So you have no spiritual vision: therefore you are thinking that gopīs' līlā with Kṛṣṇa is also material. Avajānanti māṁ mūḍha ([[Vanisource:BG 9.11|BG 9.11]]). This is mūḍha's business. They are thinking spiritual activities of Kṛṣṇa as material. That is avajānanti. Paraṁ bhāvam ajānantaḥ. Paraṁ bhāvam, the spiritual activities, they do not know. Therefore it is forbidden for materialistic person to hear about gopīs' pastimes with Kṛṣṇa. It is forbidden, that's all, because the rascal will take it as material. (break) ... Rūpa Gosvāmī and Sanātana Gosvāmī and other Gosvāmīs, they left everything in the material world. Tyaktvā tūrṇam aśeṣa-maṇḍala-pati-śreṇīṁ sadā tuccha... They gave up everything. Bhūtvā dīna-gaṇeśakau karuṇayā kaupīna, gopī-bhāvāmṛta... Then, in Vṛndāvana, they were thinking of the gopīs' līlā. So after giving up all these things, again they were thinking of material things? Gopī-bhāvāmṛtābdhi-lahari-kallola-magnau. So they were thinking of gopīs' pastimes with Kṛṣṇa. So after giving up everything material, again material? Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, ramyād kaścid upāsanā vraja-vadhubhir yā kalpitā. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu, after so much renunciation, so much vairāgya and strict following the sannyāsa rule, again He is recommending gopī? This is foolishness. Gopīs' līlā with Kṛṣṇa is completely spiritual. They do not understand. They think it is material. Therefore it is better not to go there. First of all become experienced in spiritual life; then try to understand gopīs' līlā.</p>
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