Prabhupāda: So our Bhāgavata says the whole planetary system is moving like this.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Centering the polestar.
Jayapatākā: They admit that there's some center of the universe. Everything is going around that, including the sun. But they don't know exactly where it is.
Prabhupāda: That is polestar.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: No, that's admitted, that the polestar, the stars are revolving around, everything. They take photographs.
Pañca-draviḍa: What?
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Of the.... Everything revolving around the polestar, the constellations.
Gurudāsa: Are the moon's phases due to the planet Rāhu, Śrīla Prabhupāda?
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Gurudāsa: Are the moon's phases due to the planet Rāhu?
Prabhupāda: Space?
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The phases of the moon-quarter moon, half moon, full moon.
Gurudāsa: Waxing and the waning of the moon.
Prabhupāda: No.
Pañca-draviḍa: What's it due to, then?
Prabhupāda: That I should not exactly immediately say.
Gurudāsa: We don't accept.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: No. Prabhupāda just said, "Not right now."
Prabhupāda: But moon is far away from the sun. That is from Bhāgavatam.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda, there's another question I have. I remember on a walk.... I have read in your books that the moon's glowing is due to reflecting the sun. Then I remember on a walk in Vṛndāvana you said that the moon is fiery just like the sun, but there's a cooling atmosphere around it. So is it actually fiery glow, or is it simply a reflecting glow?
Prabhupāda: That is stated in Bhāgavatam.
Gurudāsa: It says reflection in the Bhāgavata.
Prabhupāda: No, it is also a fiery place. But it is because it is far away from the sun, it is not so glowing.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So it's not a question of reflection only.
Prabhupāda: The reflection theory is the modern theory.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Because sometimes in the books it's stated...
Prabhupāda: Yes. Sometimes I have said or taken this modern theory.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Just so that people will understand an example. I see.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Another question is "How do the different seasons come about-winter, summer, spring?"
Prabhupāda: That is due to the movement of the sun.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The...?
Prabhupāda: Movement of the sun.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Movement of the sun.
Prabhupāda: But they say sun if fixed up.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes, they say the earth is tilting back and forth like this.
Prabhupāda: That is always doing, but it takes little time. But the movement of the sun, uttara and dakṣiṇa, what is their explanation?
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They say that the earth is tilting like this. The sun is fixed. When the earth tilts like this in the northern hemisphere there is summer, and when it tilts like this, the southern hemisphere, there's summer. It's tilting back and forth as it revolves around the sun.
Prabhupāda: Tilting?
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes.
Prabhupāda: But they say it is...
Pañca-draviḍa: Well, they say the earth is on a tilted axis.
Trivikrama: Twenty-three degrees from the north pole.
Pañca-draviḍa: So, as it revolves around the sun...
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: That's another theory too.
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: There's two different theories.
Haṁsadūta: It's simultaneously going around the sun, and also, in itself, it is turning. And then it's sometimes tilting on a particular axis. It's simultaneously moving around the so-called central sun...
Prabhupāda: But for six months that, it tilts?
Haṁsadūta: And then it also spins, the globe spins, and then it also...
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Haṁsadūta: It has different tilts. It takes different degrees.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The tilt is always the same.
Haṁsadūta: And when the sun's rays hit the earth at a particular angle, it becomes cooler or hotter. This is their sum and substance.