Prabhupāda: Means calculation. It is going on, regulated way. Just like everyone knows that this month is February. In the month of June the summer will begin. Everyone knows. It is not conclusion; it is experience. There is no need of calculating. So one who has got better experience, he can say like that. Calculation and experience. Just like if somebody says, "Two plus two plus two plus two," somebody says immediately, "Six." And another calculates, "Two plus two plus..., six." So experience and calculation. Lacks experience, he calculates. One who has better experience, he doesn't calculate. One who knows past, present, and future, he doesn't require to make calculation. He knows everything. So God knows past, present, and future, and others who are favored by God, he also knows by the grace of God. Because he hears from God. God knows past, present, and future. Then he simply reproduces God's words, that's all. He doesn't require to calculate. Just like in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, sahasra-yuga-paryantam ahar yad brahmaṇo viduḥ (BG 8.17). The Kṛṣṇa says. Now, we can say what is the age of Brahmā by Kṛṣṇa's words. I don't require to be a very expert astrologer or astronomer. I hear from Kṛṣṇa, and I reproduce. Just like child. Father said, "This is this;" I say, "This is this." That's all. The child is not perfect, but when he says, "Father said this is this," that is perfect. Therefore our process of gathering knowledge from the father—we don't calculate or don't concoct or put theories, no. We don't do that. This is called śruti, śruti-pramāṇa, evidence from śruti.
Expert astronomers
Expressions researched:
"expert almanac astronomers"
|"expert astrologer or astronomer"
|"expert astronomers"
|"great astrologer and astronomer"
|"great astronomer"
|"learned astronomer"
Srimad-Bhagavatam
SB Canto 3
The transitional periods before and after every millennium, which are a few hundred years as aforementioned, are known as yuga-sandhyās, or the conjunctions of two millenniums, according to the expert astronomers. In those periods all kinds of religious activities are performed.
Conversations and Morning Walks
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Correspondence
1969 Correspondence
Regarding you first question, we observe Ekadasi from sunrise to sunrise. The 12 midnight is western astronomical calculation, but the Vedic astronomical calculation begins either from the sunrise or the moonrise. Generally it is sunrise. Our calculation is like this: when the sunrise is there, Ekadasi tithi (date) must be there. If Ekadasi tithi is not in the sunrise and the tithi begins, say after a few minutes after the sunrise, then we accept that day as previous to Ekadasi. All our ceremonies are calculated in that way. This means we must see the tithi during sunrise. Therefore, sometimes our dates of ceremonies do not exactly coincide like the western calculations. Just like Christmas Day they have fixed up on the 25th December, but our Janmastami tithi is not fixed up like that. My birthday is on the 1st September, 1896, but this year the tithi of my birthday was fixed for the 4th September. So it is very difficult to calculate, therefore we have to take help from the Indian expert almanac astronomers.
1975 Correspondence
Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated June 6, 1975 and have noted the contents. No, you should not bother with all this nonsense. Astrology will not save you at the time of death. My Guru Maharaja was a great astrologer and astronomer, but he gave it all up. It is meant for the karmis. We have no interest in such things.
Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated November 29, 1975. I have noted the contents carefully. Your book is selling very nicely in south India, people are appreciating it very much. This scientific book should be done very carefully, so that people in general may not be mislead by the over intelligent scientists. There are so many contradictory things, but we have our authority and they have their authority. Our knowledge is from vedic scriptures which we accept as definite and without any mistake. A modern scientist believes that there was no civilization before 3,000 years, our Bhagavatam was spoken by Sukadeva Goswami 5,000 years ago and he is explaining "as I have heard it from authority", so we have got parampara system for millions of years. If there was no civilization before 3,000 years, then how this subject matter of knowledge could be discussed? How could it be received through the param-para system? So there is contradiction certainly. But the statement that there was no civilization 3,000 years ago can be adjusted by the conviction that there was civilization, millions and millions of years ago.
For more information regarding vedic astronomy you can consult any learned astronomer, there are many in Calcutta, my Guru Maharaja was also very learned in this field.
My point is life comes from life. They say life has come from chemicals, so how these things can be adjusted? Besides that the scientists change their theories after some years, this proves that they have no perfect knowledge, otherwise where is the necessity of changing? That is the basic point of our argument. Perfect knowledge is never changeable. If we can prove that life comes from life, or the soul is from the supper soul, then all other things can be brought into serious consideration. So you try to prove that chemical combination can never bring about life, this is our main argument. If we can prove this particular subject matter, that the soul cannot be manufactured by combination of chemicals, then gradually we can prove that vedic knowledge is perfect, while other sources of knowledge by speculation and imagination are all wrong.
| Page Title: | Expert astronomers |
| Compiler: | Matea, Namrata, Visnu Murti |
| Created: | 12 of Nov, 2009 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=1, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=1, Let=3 |
| No. of Quotes: | 5 |