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💬 Text of the lesson
The orbit of the moon
“Above the rays of the sunshine by a distance of 100,000 yojanas [800,000 miles] is the moon, which travels at a speed faster than that of the sun. In two lunar fortnights the moon travels through the equivalent of a saṁvatsara of the sun, in two and a quarter days it passes through a month of the sun, and in one day it passes through a fortnight of the sun.” (SB 5.22.8)
Previously, it was stated that the sun has its orbit in a plane 100,000 yojanas above the plane of Bhū-mandala, and now it is stated that the moon has its orbit in a plane 100,000 yojanas above the sunshine.
The direct meaning is that taking the plane of Bhū-mandala as ground zero, we have the sun 100,000 yojanas above it, and the moon 100,000 yojanas above that, or 200,000 in total. The expression arka-gabhastibhyaḥ upariṣṭāt (above the rays of sunshine) also appears to suggest that the moon is more distant than the sun, something that Prabhupāda appears to accept as a fact. Let’s try to unpack this.
The first point is that 100,000 yojanas for the sun and 200,000 yojanas for the moon is not the total distance from our planet, but simply the vertical elevation above the plane of Bhū-mandala. Most of the distance is in the horizontal orbit of the sun, and not in the elevation. Horizontally, the sun is over 10 million yojanas from earth, with its orbit over the ocean of yogurt.
In his research, Sadaputa Prabhu came up with a figure of 93 million miles for the earth-sun distance according to the description of the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam using a 8.5-mile yojana, a figure that closely matches modern estimates. This is a point to keep in mind. Many universal distances and dates given in the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam closely match modern estimates that were published only very recently. This reinforces the point that the scripture is divinely revealed, since it would be impossible to ancient sages without computers and telescopes to come to these numbers. This also makes the point that we should not discard the version of the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam when it appears to disagree with scientific research.
Back to the moon, the orbit on top of Bhū-mandala is not directly stated, and therefore, we can’t directly calculate the precise distance like in the case of the sun. However, the Bhāgavatam mentions that “arka-gabhastibhya upariṣṭāl lakṣa-yojanata”: the moon is 100,000 yojanas above the rays of the sunshine, and Śukadeva Goswami also states that it moves faster than the sun. Prabhupāda uses this as a basis to conclude that the moon is further away than the sun. Since both appear to be more or less the same size when observed from our planet, the next conclusion is that the moon is larger than the sun.
How is that? The point made by the Bhāgavatam is that the moon is a celestial planet, even higher than the sun in the vertical dimension. Yogis who desire to attain the moon have to first elevate themselves to the sun to be purified, and from there move upwards in the direction of the moon.
It’s interesting to note that this same Vedic conclusion appears to have been accepted by all ancient civilizations. In both India and Europe, the weekdays are named after the planets, with Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday for English, dies Solis, dies Lunae, dies Martis, dies Mercurii, dies Jovis, dies Veneris, and dies Saturni for Latin, and Ādityavāra, Somavāra, Maṅgalavāra, Budhavāra, Bṛhaspativāra, Śukravāra, and Śanivāra in India. The meaning for the three sets is exactly the same: The day of the sun, moon, mars, mercury, jupiter, venus and saturn. Each day is named after the planet that governs the first hour after sunrise.
Prabhupāda noted that Sunday (the day of the sun) comes before Monday (the day of the moon). He saw this as not just an accident or cultural whim, but as a reflection of the cosmic order described in the Bhāgavatam, with the sun as the primary regulator of time, and the moon as a higher, faster-moving luminary beyond it. This is an argument he insisted upon in many conversations.
In this way, from the account of the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, it is clear that the moon is taken as higher than the sun, behind it in the universal order. Solar eclipses are taken as caused by Rāhu, instead of the moon coming in front of the sun. By the description, it is clear that in the higher dimensional reality of Bhū-mandala it is so. The question is how we can relate it to our physical reality.
An interesting clue is that the Surya-siddhanta (4.1) offers a different descriptive framework. There, it is mentioned:
sārdhāni ṣaṭsahasrāṇi yojanāni vivasvataḥ
viskambho maṇḍalasyendoḥ sahasrityā catuḥśatam
sphuṭa svabhuktyā guṇitau madhyabhuktyoddhṛtau sphuṭau“The diameter of sun’s disc (ravimandala) is 6,500 yojanas and that of moon’s disc is 480 yojanas.”
This description is similar to modern calculations, giving the idea of the moon being much smaller than the sun and closer to our planet. The Surya-siddhanta also gives formulas to calculate the distance. Āryabhaṭa and Bhāskarācārya came up with values very close to modern estimates by interpreting these formulas. Āryabhaṭa gave 237,540 miles, and Bhāskarācārya 238,700 miles. The modern estimate for the mean earth–moon distance is 238,855 miles. In other words, both came within a margin of less than 1% of modern estimates. Just as in the case of the distance to the sun, this can’t be mere coincidence.
This suggests that these two accounts, of the Bhāgavatam and Surya-siddhanta, describe two different dimensional objects, otherwise such great contradiction would not be possible in the scriptures.
The description of the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam describes the higher-dimensional reality of Bhū-mandala, with the moon as a celestial planet, the abode of Soma, which is higher than the sun in the hierarchy of the planets. Yogis can reach this celestial moon for a very long life of material enjoyment after becoming purified of all sinful contamination. Rāvaṇa tried to construct a tower to reach this celestial moon, and Triśaṅku tried to reach it without relinquishing his gross body by performing a special sacrifice with the help of Viśvāmitra, but both failed. Based on these accounts, Prabhupāda insisted that modern humans would never be able to reach this celestial moon using spaceships, and all efforts in this direction would be doomed to fail.
The Surya-siddhanta, on the other hand, describes the gross moon that orbits our planet, which is some kind of physical projection of the celestial moon. When we look to the sky, the moon we see is, somehow, simultaneously both; however, when we try to reach the moon using a spacecraft, we reach this gross moon, which appears to be uninhabited.
In other words, the true moon is a celestial planet, but it is represented in our gross reality as the celestial body that is close to our planet. When we consider the multidimensional nature of the Vedic universe, this doesn’t seem too implausible, since there are many other cosmic bodies that are not visible to us, only partially visible, or that appear differently in our dimension. Bhū-mandala is not visible at all, and we can see the sun as just a globe of light, instead of a demigod seated on a cosmic chariot. Similarly, we see the moon as much closer to our planet, and its celestial opulences remain hidden to mere mortals. Vedic sages, however, understood this multidimensional nature of the moon and described both in different scriptures. The Bhāgavatam describes the higher-dimensional body, while the Surya-siddhanta describes the gross manifestation that is visible to us.
“When the moon is waxing, the illuminating portions of it increase daily, thus creating day for the demigods and night for the pitās. When the moon is waning, however, it causes night for the demigods and day for the pitās. In this way the moon passes through each constellation of stars in thirty muhūrtas [an entire day]. The moon is the source of nectarean coolness that influences the growth of food grains, and therefore the moon-god is considered the life of all living entities. He is consequently called Jīva, the chief living being within the universe.
Because the moon is full of all potentialities, it represents the influence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The moon is the predominating deity of everyone’s mind, and therefore the moon-god is called Manomaya. He is also called Annamaya because he gives potency to all herbs and plants, and he is called Amṛtamaya because he is the source of life for all living entities. The moon pleases the demigods, pitās, human beings, animals, birds, reptiles, trees, plants and all other living entities. Everyone is satisfied by the presence of the moon. Therefore the moon is also called Sarvamaya [all-pervading].” (SB 5.22.9-10)
Although the Surya-siddhanta gives a description of the gross moon that is close to our planet, the Bhāgavatam calls our attention to the characteristics of the celestial moon and presents it as the real object to be studied.
We can see that even in scientific circles, the interest in the moon largely waned after the Apollo program. People came to the conclusion that there is simply nothing interesting there. There were a few unmanned missions to the moon, like the Indian probe, but these are more a matter of national prestige, and not in hope of finding anything new there. Similarly, when we study other parts of the cosmos using telescopes and other physical means, everything appears to be sterile and purposeless. In comparison, the multidimensional description of the Bhāgavatam is much more interesting and useful, offering us real understanding of the universe, and helping us to find our way out of it.
The moon is very important, because it acts as a primary channel for the potency of the Lord. The moon is called Manomaya because it is the regulator of the mind. The Supreme Lord Himself presides over the mind as Aniruddha, and His influence is manifested inside the material universe through Chandra, the moon-god. Just as Indra presides over the rain, and Vāyu over the wind, Chandra acts as the presiding demigod of the mind, channeling the potency of the Lord. Sometimes, sages who desire to control the mind worship the moon, but the ones with higher insight understand that the one being worshiped is not the demigod, but the Supreme Lord as Aniruddha.
The mind also functions as a universal nourisher, nourishing the plants and vegetables with not only nutrients, but vital force that is later transferred to humans, animals, demigods, etc. The Vedic concept of anna, or food, is not just a source of gross material nutrients, but also of subtle and spiritual nourishment. All of this is governed by the moon. This leads the moon to be called amṛtamaya, the source of life for all.
It’s also interesting to note that the moon performs all these functions not only for our planet, but for the whole planetary system of Bhū-mandala. Just as in the Vedic universe there is just one sun, there is just one moon. This reinforces the idea of a higher-dimensional moon that transcends the earth satellite. This is yet another mysterious characteristic of the mystic Vedic universe.
“There are many stars located 200,000 yojanas [1,600,000 miles] above the moon. By the supreme will of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, they are fixed to the wheel of time, and thus they rotate with Mount Sumeru on their right, their motion being different from that of the sun. There are twenty-eight important stars, headed by Abhijit.” (SB 5.22.11)
Further than the moon is a region with many stars. Among these stars there are 28 which are prominent (led by Abhijit), and each of these 28 stars is assigned a sector of the sky. These are the 28 nakṣatras studied in Vedic astrology.
In the vertical dimension, they are 200,000 yojanas higher than the moon. Different from the sun and moon, these nakṣatras don’t have an independent counterclockwise movement, but they still move daily following the movement of the whole sky. The sun, moon, and other planets move on this background, and their movements are studied in Vedic astrology. Just as the sun and the moon, the nakṣatras are channels for the manifestation of the potency of the Lord, regulating karma, destiny and other influences according to our time and place of birth.
It’s important to note that the position of these stars doesn’t match anything in the modern cosmological model. According to the modern interpretation, these stars are all many light-years away. In the multidimensional model of the Bhāgavatam, however, they appear relatively close to us, lower than visible planets like venus and mars.
The description of the Bhāgavatam can be loosely connected with the modern cosmological model if we take Dhruvaloka as being Polaris, the many stars described in this verse as being other stars closer to us, Śiśumāra as the path of the Milky Way we see in the sky, and Svargaloka as the many stars that comprise it. Beyond it are the planetary systems of Maharloka, Janaloka, Tapoloka and Satyaloka as the rest of the structures of our galaxy, as well as the other galaxies and other cosmic structures beyond it. Even the distances can be harmonized to a certain extent if we accept the concept of yojana corresponding to the concept of distance of the inhabitants of each level, and thus the distances growing exponentially from our perspective.
This can be is useful to harmonize the description of the Bhāgavatam with our observable universe, and sustain the validity of the explanation, not just from a mystical standpoint, but even in the practical level. However, it is important to keep in mind that the Bhāgavatam describes not only our physical universe, but higher spheres of existence that match different levels of spiritual development. Our goal is not just to accumulate information and speculate about them, but to understand this map of the vertical dimension given in the scripture and see the blue hand behind all of it. By understanding the different levels of the material universe, we can gradually lose interest in it, and fix our consciousness on what is beyond, back home, back to Godhead.
On this path, becoming fixed in modern cosmological models based on what our eyes can see is a trap, because it keeps us chained to the gross realm of our physical senses.
Context is also important. Śukadeva Goswami is not describing the universe in these verses as a mere intellectual exercise. He is answering the question Maharaja Parīkṣit posed on SB 5.16.3: “When the mind is fixed upon the Supreme Personality of Godhead in His external feature made of the material modes of nature — the gross universal form — it is brought to the platform of pure goodness. In that transcendental position, one can understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vāsudeva, who in His subtler form is self-effulgent and beyond the modes of nature. O my lord, please describe vividly how that form, which covers the entire universe, is perceived.”
Kṛṣṇa pervades the entire cosmic manifestation, and this is visualized as the universal from. By fixing our mind in this description, it can be brought to the platform of pure goodness, and when this is achieved, we can finally understand the Supreme Lord in His spiritual form.
The orbits of the planets
From text 5.22.12 to 17, Śukadeva Gosvāmi completes the description of the visible planets and their influence on us. This description helps us to see the planets as not just cosmic bodies, but as mediums for the distribution of karmic results and the manifestation of the potencies of the Lord.
The orbits of venus, mercury, mars, jupiter and saturn are described from the point of view of someone observing from earth. When we look up at night, the sky looks like a vast dome, where the stars appear fixed in position in relation to each other. In the midst of this mass of stars, we have the path of the zodiac, which serves as a planetary highway for the sun, the moon, and all the planets. They all stay within it.
Different from the stars and the sun, which trace a predictable path in the sky, the planets wander around, constantly shifting their position. Sometimes they move to the east, sometimes to the west, sometimes they pause and then move in the opposite direction and so on.
In Vedic cosmology, the planets (as well as the sun and the moon) are called grahas. The word graha comes from the root graḥ, which means to seize, grasp, hold, influence. They are cosmic agents that influence us, acting as instruments of our karma.
In the Vedic model, the planets are situated between the stars that form the nakṣatras, but below Dhruvaloka. They are all described as celestial planets, but they are positioned below the plane of Dhruvaloka. It’s also probable that the gross planets we see in the sky may be just gross representations of these celestial bodies, just as in the case of the moon. No one should expect that one traveling to mars or venus in a space probe would find apasaras there. Even if such a trip were to become technically possible, one would find only rocks, just as in the case of the moon.
“Some 1,600,000 miles above this group of stars is the planet Venus, which moves at almost exactly the same pace as the sun according to swift, slow and moderate movements. Sometimes Venus moves behind the sun, sometimes in front of the sun and sometimes along with it. Venus nullifies the influence of planets that are obstacles to rainfall. Consequently its presence causes rainfall, and it is therefore considered very favorable for all living beings within this universe. This has been accepted by learned scholars.
Mercury is described to be similar to Venus, in that it moves sometimes behind the sun, sometimes in front of the sun and sometimes along with it. It is 1,600,000 miles above Venus, or 7,200,000 miles above earth. Mercury, which is the son of the moon, is almost always very auspicious for the inhabitants of the universe, but when it does not move along with the sun, it forbodes cyclones, dust, irregular rainfall, and waterless clouds. In this way it creates fearful conditions due to inadequate or excessive rainfall.” (SB 5.22.12-13)
In the modern concept of the solar system, the sun is at the center, with mercury and venus orbiting it, followed by the earth. The Bhāgavatam, however, describes their orbits from a geocentric perspective. When we look at the sky at night, we can see the movements of venus and mercury exactly as described here. They never appear very far from the sun, but sometimes appear in front of it, sometimes behind, sometimes alongside it, and so on.
Basically, you can imagine that from a geocentric perspective, mercury and venus continue to orbit the sun, while the sun orbits around the earth, creating these patterns.
“Situated 1,600,000 miles above Mercury, or 8,800,000 miles above earth, is the planet Mars. If this planet does not travel in a crooked way, it crosses through each sign of the zodiac in three fortnights and in this way travels through all twelve, one after another. It almost always creates unfavorable conditions in respect to rainfall and other influences.
Situated 1,600,000 miles above Mars, or 10,400,000 miles above earth, is the planet Jupiter, which travels through one sign of the zodiac within the period of a Parivatsara. If its movement is not curved, the planet Jupiter is very favorable to the brāhmaṇas of the universe.
Situated 1,600,000 miles above Jupiter, or 12,000,000 miles above earth, is the planet Saturn, which passes through one sign of the zodiac in thirty months and covers the entire zodiac circle in thirty Anuvatsaras. This planet is always very inauspicious for the universal situation.” (SB 5.22.13-16)
All these planets influence us in different ways, and their influence can be seen as auspicious or inauspicious in different circumstances. Venus, for example, is favorable in the sense of creating the conditions for material life and sense enjoyment, while jupiter is often feared by materialists for bringing fulfillment of our karma, but is seen as very auspicious by brāhmaṇas and transcendentalists.
After the planets, there is a very special group of stars, the Saptarṣi constellation (Ursa Major), which is the abode of the seven sages. These are sages who are perfect knowers of the Vedas and are chosen to disseminate the principles of dharma over the universe in each universal cycle. At the beginning of each manvantara, a new group of seven sages take charge, following the change of the Manus and demigods:
“Situated 8,800,000 miles above Saturn, or 20,800,000 miles above earth, are the seven saintly sages, who are always thinking of the well-being of the inhabitants of the universe. They circumambulate the supreme abode of Lord Viṣṇu, known as Dhruvaloka, the polestar.” (SB 5.22.17)
Just as all the other stars and constellations, the Saptarṣi honor Dhruvaloka by circumambulating it daily, following the movement of the whole sky.
The Bhāgavatam thus offers a list of some of the prominent stars, but it is important to understand that these are not the only ones. The path to Dhruvaloka includes millions of other stars, and there are many more beyond it. All these stars form the Śiśumāra, the Divine Dolphin, another divine form of the Lord visible in the material universe.
Dhruvaloka, the universal pivot
“Śukadeva Gosvāmī continued: My dear King, 1,300,000 yojanas [10,400,000 miles] above the planets of the seven sages is the place that learned scholars describe as the abode of Lord Viṣṇu. There the son of Mahārāja Uttānapāda, the great devotee Mahārāja Dhruva, still resides as the life source of all the living entities who live until the end of the creation. Agni, Indra, Prajāpati, Kaśyapa and Dharma all assemble there to offer him honor and respectful obeisances. They circumambulate him with their right sides toward him. I have already described the glorious activities of Mahārāja Dhruva [in the Fourth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam].Established by the supreme will of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the polestar, which is the planet of Mahārāja Dhruva, constantly shines as the central pivot for all the stars and planets. The unsleeping, invisible, most powerful time factor causes these luminaries to revolve around the polestar without cessation.” (SB 5.23.1-2)
The pastime of Dhruva Maharaja is described in the Fourth Canto. He is such a great devotee that He was given a Vaikuṇṭha planet that manifests inside of the universe and is the central pivot of the rotation of the whole sky. The analogy is that all luminaries are yoked to this central pivot, just like bulls in an oil-pressing machine, where they are yoked to a central pivot and made to walk in circles.
The glories of Dhruvaloka are the best explanation of how the whole sky can rotate around a central axis. Dhruvaloka is different in essence from all other planets and stars. It is not a material planet, but an eternal Vaikuṇṭha planet that appears inside the universe, just as the abode of the Lord is manifested in Vṛndāvana. These places are transcendental, but they become manifest inside the material universe. Dhruvaloka is also the abode of Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣnu, who is present in Śvetadvīpa, the divine island in the middle of the ocean of milk present there. When the demigods need assistance, they go there and pray for the Lord’s divine intervention from the shore.
When the material universe is destroyed, Dhruvaloka remains invisible (or unmanifested), but it is not destroyed. It continues to exist eternally as a spiritual planet and is later revealed again inside another material universe in the course of another pastime.
Later, on SB 7.3.11, there is a verse where Hiraṇyakaśipu mentions: “By dint of my severe austerities, I shall reverse the results of pious and impious activities. I shall overturn all the established practices within this world. Even Dhruvaloka will be vanquished at the end of the millennium. Therefore, what is the use of it? I shall prefer to remain in the position of Brahmā.”
This verse just reveals the materialistic thinking of Hiraṇyakaśipu in seeing Dhruvaloka as an ordinary planet. It should not be taken as a contradiction to the description of Dhruvaloka as an eternal Vaikuṇṭha planet that is manifested inside the universe.
“When bulls are yoked together and tied to a central post to thresh rice, they tread around that pivot without deviating from their proper positions — one bull being closest to the post, another in the middle, and a third on the outside. Similarly, all the planets and all the hundreds and thousands of stars revolve around the polestar, the planet of Mahārāja Dhruva, in their respective orbits, some higher and some lower. Fastened by the Supreme Personality of Godhead to the machine of material nature according to the results of their fruitive acts, they are driven around the polestar by the wind and will continue to be so until the end of creation. These planets float in the air within the vast sky, just as clouds with hundreds of tons of water float in the air or as the great śyena eagles, due to the results of past activities, fly high in the sky and have no chance of falling to the ground.” (SB 5.23.3)
In the description of the process of creation given in the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, it is described that kāla (time) is the mixing element, the energy that puts the material energy in motion, creating the material manifestation. This same time energy, operating under the will of the Lord, controls the movements of all stars and planets around Dhruvaloka. Each star and planet has a precise path to follow. This is the main point behind Vedic cosmology: it is not about mechanics, but about the will of the Lord. Even though the universe operates under certain forces and rules, these are not blind impersonal laws, but potencies of the Lord acting under His order.
As Prabhupāda explains in his purport: “Material scientists want to avoid the ruling government of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and therefore they imagine different conditions under which they suppose the planets move. The only condition, however, is the order of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. All the various predominating deities of the planets are persons, and the Supreme Personality of Godhead is also a person. The Supreme Personality orders the subordinate persons, the demigods of various names, to carry out His supreme will.”
Modern researchers observe the movements of the planets and call the law supposedly behind it “gravity”. However, “gravity” is just a name for an observable phenomenon. They see an orderly universe and create a “law” to explain it. It doesn’t answer the question of why there is an orderly universe in the first place.
By focusing on the phenomenon, they fail to understand the cause behind it. An aborigine observing planes flying at regular times over his island could conclude there is a force called ‘air-drive’ that makes these objects fly at specific times. However, even if the aborigine came to perfectly understand the flight schedule, his explanation would remain flawed. The flights follow a certain schedule and happen through consistent physical principles, but the reason they fly at those times is the desire and coordination of persons.
Similarly, what we call ‘gravity’ describes the regularity of motion, but the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam points to an ultimate governance behind that regularity, including the different demigods, kāla, the results of karma, and so on, all operating under the will of the Lord.
In general, scientists prefer impersonal explanations so they can avoid acknowledging a supreme controller. They thus focus on explaining the mechanics, but they fail to find the cause behind it. The Bhāgavatam goes in the opposite direction: it explains how Kṛṣṇa controls the cosmic manifestation through His different energies (such as kāla, karma, and so on) and servants (such as the demigods).
This is the main point of Vedic cosmology: it offers an explanation of the cosmos that properly acknowledges the true causes behind the cosmic manifestation and its goals, instead of merely describing physical phenomena.
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