Reporter: Now Dan not only said that you said that if people try to land on the moon they would not be able to. Can you explain what you meant by that?
Prabhupāda: Yes, it is very common sense. Suppose if somebody wants to land on your country, America. You do not allow. There are so many restrictions, visas, passport, and immigration. And how do you expect to land there, all of a sudden there? They are so intelligent and their duration of life so long. They are far advanced in knowledge. Everything they're advanced. So you cannot expect in that way to land there. This is common sense affair. Besides that, the scientists also agree that the temperature there is two hundred degrees below zero, so how you can expect to land there and live there?
Reporter: In other words, you don't... How do you yourself feel? Do you feel that if the United States or the Soviet Union were to attempt a landing and their spacecraft went down, what do you yourself expect...
Prabhupāda: No, so far our calculation goes, from the books, nobody can do so. That is impossible.
Reporter: Well, does the book say that it would be impossible for anyone to even approach it? At what point would it be impossible...
Prabhupāda: Impossible means the process by which you are trying to reach there.
Reporter: To live there.
Prabhupāda: No, to reach there.
Reporter: Oh, to leave there.
Prabhupāda: Leave there and reach there also. Reach.
Reporter: Reach, I see. But would the flight that was just completed, that doesn't contradict with anything in this book? I mean they were within, I don't know, so many miles...
Prabhupāda: But so far we have got information, no flight has been successful to land there till now. So I do not think how they are going to be successful in the future. This process, just like we are going from one place to another by motor car or by airplane, this process will not help us to go to the moon planet. The process is different as described in the Vedic literature. One has to qualify.
Reporter: What would be, when you say impossible for one to land or to reach the moon's surface.
Prabhupāda: Just like why you speak of moon? Suppose in the ocean, in the ocean you can land by some artificial means for some time, but it is not suitable for human being to live on the ocean. Apart from moon planet, you take the ocean, water, ocean.
Hayagrīva: You can't live in the ocean. It's a different atmosphere. You cannot live on the moon because the climate is so different. You can't survive on the moon.
Prabhupāda: Everything is different. You require different type of body to live there, to go there. Just like if you want to live within the water, this body will not be suitable. But the fish, it has got a type of body, they live very peacefully. Similarly, the residents of moon planet, they are meant for living there. You cannot go and live there, abruptly. That is not possible.
Hayagrīva: Swamiji? Are there people living on the moon now or were they in other yugas living there? Are they in this yuga living there?
Prabhupāda: No, they're still living there. Yes. As we are living here, they are living there. Yes.
Reporter: And how would you describe these people that live there? Would they be invisible to us or visible?
Prabhupāda: Almost invisible, yes.
Hayagrīva: Spiritual body.
Prabhupāda: Not spiritual. That is also material.
Hayagrīva: Like ghost bodies? Subtle bodies?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Hayagrīva: Excuse me.
Reporter: Okay, thank you. Thank you. (door closes)
Hayagrīva: Their bodies are subtle bodies. They're not like gross bodies.
Prabhupāda: Just like... You try to understand me, that this matter, consisting of five elements, earth, air; earth, water, air...earth, water, fire, air, ether. And then, still subtler than ether is the mind, and then, subtler than the mind is intelligence, and subtler than intelligence is the spirit soul. So before we reach our spiritual platform, there are so many elementary material platforms. So in different planets one of the element is prominent. Just like we can experience in the ocean and sea the water is prominent. In the land earth is prominent. Similarly, in different, just like in the sun planet fire is prominent. So in each and every planet there are particular type of body, particular type of residents. You cannot expect that the same type of body and same type of residents are there.
Reporter: Now, in a way, when you talk about this, you're getting into an area which to outsiders would be interpreted as a type of prophecy since...
Prabhupāda: No, it is not prophecy. We have got this description in the Vedic literature. We are speaking on the strength of authority of Vedas. We are not prophesying.