Man on the Moon – A case of mass brainwashing

Back To Godhead May 1977 Krishna – The Personal Form Of God Back To Godhead May 1977 PDF Download Beyond Animal Technology Chanting Hare Krishna in Amsterdam Man on the Moon – A case of mass brainwashing Calling the Blind Scientists’ Bluff Spreading the Holy Life Around Every Town and Village: Deprogramming smashed in courts The Song of God

A case of mass brainwashing

By now it’s no secret that the space scientists have cheated us out of billions of dollars. But the hoax is even more colossal than we could have imagined.

by Satsvarupa dasa Goswami

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, the spiritual master of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, once described materialistic civilization as “a society of the cheaters and the cheated.” Looking at our modern world, we can easily see why: massive advertising campaigns for cigarettes and liquor that promise pleasure but deliver disease; widespread gambling rackets of all kinds, some government-sponsored, that bilk the public of billions each year; high-level corruption of many leaders in industry and government that reveals a nearly total disregard for the public’s welfare. From all this, and much more, the only conclusion to draw is that the vast majority of people, out of ignorance of a meaningful goal of life, actually desire to be cheated—actually feel the need for the false promises and outright lies of the hucksters to provide some hope of happiness from day to day. Thus a few clever, aggressive professionals take advantage of the ignorant masses and engage in large-scale cheating for their own selfish interests.

While cheating goes on in all fields of endeavor, one of the most outstanding is modern science. Scientists can make useful contributions to material life, but they become cheaters when they claim that science is (or someday will be) independent of the laws of nature. Theories such as “Life originates from matter and can be created in the laboratory,” or “Since there is no supreme intelligence directing the universe, we [the scientists] are the only ones who can explain existence,” are all bluffs perpetrated without a shred of scientific proof. Their only purpose is to advance the prestige of the scientists and net them billion-dollar government grants for endless research. Recent efforts to travel to the moon provide a prime example of this kind of lucrative mass “brainwashing,” which is still succeeding with a large portion of the gullible public. Despite the tremendous volume of propaganda proclaiming the “conquest of outer space,” we have information from a very reliable source, the Sanskrit Vedic scriptures, that the so-called “astronauts” never actually went to the moon. Although most people hold it as an article of absolute faith that man first reached the moon in July, 1969, the manned moon landing is actually a colossal hoax.

We realize that this is very difficult for you to accept, since it directly contradicts your established beliefs. But since you yourself have not actually gone to the moon, you owe it to yourself to consider why you are so confident that the “astronauts” actually have gone there. Why do you accept the popular version of the manned moon landing? Because you believe the authority of the scientists, the journalists, and the politicians who propagate that version. When we cite the Vedic scriptures, which state that the “astronauts” could not have gone to the moon, we are simply favoring another authority. In both cases, it is a matter of accepting an authority and believing what it says.

Now, why do we believe the Vedic scriptures rather than the material scientists? Because the Vedic scriptures differ from the conclusions of material science in that they are not based on imperfect sensory investigation, but are apaurusa, i.e., they emanate from God, who is beyond the material world. In other words, Vedic evidence stands above the defects of conditioned souls within the material world. Thus, when it comes to real scientific knowledge, the standard of Vedic authority is perfect because it originates directly from the all-perfect, omniscient Personality of Godhead.

The Vedic account of our planetary system is already researched, concluded, and perfect. The Vedas state that the moon is 800,000 miles farther from the earth than the sun. Therefore, even if we accept the modern calculation of 93 million miles as the distance from the earth to the sun, how could the “astronauts” have traveled to the moon—a distance of almost 94 million miles—in only 91 hours (the alleged elapsed time of the Apollo 11 moon trip)? This would require an average speed of more than one million miles per hour for the spacecraft, a patently impossible feat by even the space scientists’ calculations.

Another important reason why the manned moon landing must be a hoax is that, according to the Vedas, each planet has its particular standard of living and atmosphere, and no one can transfer from one planet to another without becoming properly qualified. This means that if someone wants to go to Mars, for instance, he has to give up his present gross material body and acquire another one suitable for life on that particular planet. Vedic knowledge teaches that the living being doesn’t die with the death of the body, but that he is an eternal spirit soul. As Lord Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gita, “As the embodied soul continually passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death” (Bhagavad-gita, 2.13). At the time of death the human being transfers to another material body according to the desires he cultivated and the work he performed during his lifetime. Therefore, since the moon has a particular standard of life and atmosphere, if one wants to travel there he has to adapt his material body to the conditions of that planet.

Even on the earth planet these restrictions hold true. For example, a human being cannot possibly live in the water, nor can a fish live on land. These are the rigid conditions of life, and any attempt to defy them is artificial and will fail. Similarly, just as you have to change your dress if you want to go from India to Europe, where the climatic conditions are different, so you also have to change your physical “dress” if you want to go to the specialized atmosphere of the moon. In other words, if you want to go to the moon or the sun or any other higher planet, you can keep your finer dress of mind, intelligence, and ego, but you have to leave behind your gross dress (your physical body) made of earth, water, fire, and other material elements, and acquire a body suitable for your destination.

Of course, none of this will help you solve the real problem of life—entrapment in the vicious cycle of birth and death. As Krishna states in the Bhagavad-gita, even if one transfers in his next life to a very elevated position in the highest planet in the universe, Brahmaloka, he will still have to experience birth and death. The goal of human life is to free the soul from its continuous transmigration among different species of life on various planets, and to transfer to the spiritual planets, where life is eternal. To reach these planets, a complete change of both gross and subtle bodies is necessary, for one can reach the spiritual sky only in a spiritual form. We will elaborate on this a little later, but our point here is that you cannot simply force yourself onto another planet without the proper qualification.

Just as in the United States there are laws controlling the entry of foreigners through the issuance of visas, so in the universe there are also laws controlling the movement of all living beings—even astronauts and scientists—and unless one’s karma is such that he deserves to take birth on the moon or the sun or the earth or wherever, he cannot defy the laws of nature and go there by force. The scientists are always claiming they are independent of nature’s law, but even they have to submit to death and rebirth; they cannot check them. Similarly, they cannot go to the moon planet, which the Vedas describe not as a lifeless desert but as a heavenly planet of extraordinary material pleasures. Where the astronauts actually went, or how this fabrication of lunar visitation will one day be exposed to people in general, are not part of our present discussion. But the Vedic teachings warn us that the manned moon landing is certainly an empty bluff.

When we contradict the revered scientists like this and warn people that, through the use of brainwashing propaganda, they are being cheated out of billions of hard-earned tax dollars—we ourselves are accused of brainwashing. But which is better: a sober warning or a colossal multi-billion-dollar hoax? Furthermore, even if, for argument’s sake, we accept that the “astronauts” did go to the moon, our main contention still holds: the moon excursion is a hoax, a mass brainwashing job. Why? Because it has no value. Even the scientists now admit its uselessness, and their interest in going to the moon has subsided. After many years of concentrated effort and billions of dollars of public money spent, the scientists have concluded that the moon is uninhabitable and have stopped trying to go there. But the public is encouraged to regard this failure as a wonderful achievement! “Just see! They have come back with some moon dust!” Long ago the Vedic literatures said the moon was uninhabitable by man, before going there the scientists themselves predicted they could not live in that atmosphere, and upon reaching the moon they discovered the same thing—that they could not live there. So what is the value of this kind of billion-dollar excursion, which has produced only a few rocks?

The scientists’ stubbornness is like that of a boy who is repeatedly warned by his father not to stick his finger in the revolving blades of a fan, but who goes ahead and does it anyway, and is hurt. The scientists insisted that a lunar landing would prove the United States to be the most advanced nation. Never mind that it cost billions, which could have been spent on worthwhile projects, such as feeding the starving. The brainwashing was so extreme that at one point Pan American Airlines was even selling tickets to the moon, and there was talk of colonizing it, although everyone acknowledged that it is impossible to live there. And yet if we speak out strongly against this nonsense, people say we are brainwashed—for not believing in the bluff of the moon excursion. Now, having squeezed as much prestige as possible out of their great “success” in reaching the moon, the scientists have become disappointed and set their sights on Mars—and the huge expenditure of public funds goes on.

Again, we do not say that man should neglect science, but rather that he should practice science according to the authorized knowledge of the laws of nature. The scientists should not attempt to defy the laws of nature, or those of God, but should work humbly in harmony with the real purpose of human life—liberation from the cycle of birth and death. Despite all scientific theorizing, research, and technology, the scientists do not even know the nature of the life within the body, how life enters the body, and where life goes after death. Not being able to produce even the smallest living creature, and being unable to stop death, the modern scientists should not consider themselves the all-in-all.

If we desire to praise someone for scientific achievements, let us praise the Great Brain who is actually controlling all living beings by directing His material energy, and who regulates the immense machinery of the universe. Let us follow Lord Brahma, who sings in the Vedic scripture Brahma-samhita (5.52): “I worship Govinda [Krishna], the primeval Lord, by whose order the sun assumes immense power and heat and traverses its orbit.” The sun is a creation of God; it is not a creation of the scientists. So also are the oceans and the great mountains, the resources of nature, and outer space—all are works of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As for machine-making, the material energy of Krishna, the Supreme Energetic, has expertly fashioned male and female forms that go on reproducing themselves without further assistance from Him. And this happens over and over in millions of species. Can the scientists create such replicating machines? Can they create a sun and keep it floating perpetually in space? Can they create the oceans, the brain of a great scientist like Einstein, or even an ant or an amoeba? No. All these scientific achievements are the works of God. And when God Himself speaks through authorized scriptures like the Bhagavad-gita, He explicitly says, “Do not waste your time trying to go to the moon; that is not your place.” If the godless human scientists defy this Supreme Scientist and Supreme Controller, then disaster will befall them and whoever follows them. Therefore we are protesting a godless science that defies God’s laws.

In Easy Journey to Other Planets, written back in 1959, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada warned us that attempting to reach the moon by materialistic methods is a waste of time. In a speech ten years later he further explained:

If we go to live on the moon-assuming that it is possible—even with an oxygen mask, how long could we stay? Furthermore, even if we had the opportunity to stay there, what would we gain? We might gain a little longer life perhaps, but we could not live there forever. That is impossible. And what would we gain by a longer life?… Near San Francisco I have seen a forest where there is a tree 7,000 years old. But what is the benefit? If one is proud of standing in one place for 7,000 years, that is not a very great credit.

Of course, scientists, journalists, and politicians are not known for considering things in the philosophical light of transcendental knowledge, but a sober fact to consider is this: if, even after all the scientists’ achievements, we must still die and suffer the miseries of repeated birth and death, then what is the benefit of that science? Krishna tells us not to waste our valuable time with things that are only temporary and do not lead to liberation from birth and death. “Don’t waste your time going from this planet to that planet,” He says in the Bhagavad-gita. “Your material miseries will only follow you.” So the moon excursion is a hoax in yet another, all-important sense: the scientists are leading people to believe they will be happy if they go to the moon, but when considered in the context of the eternal soul’s welfare, going to the moon and living there for many, many years still won’t solve the problems of life. It is a hoax to claim that the endeavor to travel to other planets will bring happiness. A person can be happy only if he receives information from authorized scriptures about the nature of the soul and the method of liberating the soul from his suffering condition. This liberation is the goal of Krishna consciousness.

And yet, when we warn people not to waste their lives in temporary achievements, when we warn them not to engage in sinful activities that will force them to transmigrate to lower planets and lower forms of life—they accuse us of being duped and spreading false propaganda. But we will not be quieted by their accusations. As devotees of Krishna, we must go on repeating His instructions for everyone’s benefit. As Krishna tells us in His incarnation as Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, “Instruct everyone to follow the teachings of Lord Sri Krishna as they are given in the Bhagavad-gita and the Srimad-Bhagavatam. In this way become a spiritual master and try to liberate everyone in the world.”

So you have to decide who is actually cheating: the materialist, who promises happiness in the context of temporary advancement and enjoyment, and who thereby ignores the eternal soul, or the spiritualist, the Krishna conscious person, who says, “Always think of Krishna and become His devotee. Worship Him and bow down before Him. If you practice in this way, at the end of life you will certainly return to the supreme spiritual planet, which is eternal and free from all miseries, because of your full absorption in and devotion to the Lord.”