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May 8, 1975 : Perth

Srutakirti: While in Perth, Srila Prabhupada engaged his disciples in many lively conversations during the morning walks. Around this time he had been translating the Fifth Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam regarding the structure of the universe and the movements of the planets. Srila Prabhupada would have mock debates. His disciples would pose as materialistic scientists. This would always be very exciting. And Paramahamsa Swami took much pleasure in it.

This day, he told us the different planetary orbits were all independent and that the so-called law of gravity was not mentioned in the Vedic literature. Paramahamsa Swami asked Srila Prabhupada, "How is it that the sun is always shining somewhere on the earth planet if it is going behind Sumeru Mountain? Wouldn't it be dark on the entire planet?" Srila Prabhupada was silent for a moment and then replied, "We are not so interested in these details. The Srimad-Bhagavatam is just a very short summary to give some idea of the creation of the Lord but it is not scientific. We are not interested in science. We are interested in developing love of God."

It was evident to us that Srila Prabhupada did not want us to become sidetracked from that goal he worked non-stop to teach us. He continued, "If this were to be scientific it would take volumes to explore how the creation is done. But this was not Sukadeva Goswami's purpose in speaking, to explain very scientifically the creation. He just wants us to understand, 'Krishna has created everything. Develop love of Krishna.' That is all. If you can't understand it, you accept it because it is there in the scriptures. We do not bother our minds trying to understand how it could be like this. We just want to develop love of God."


Reference: What is the Difficulty? - Srutakirti Dasa