“Beings still greater than these have passed away-vast oceans have dried, mountains have been thrown down, the polar star displaced, the cords that bind the planets rent asunder, the whole earth deluged with flood-in such a world what relish can there be in fleeting enjoyments?” (Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura in VNB, p. 18)

The precession of the equinoxes is another astronomical phenomenon that seems to involve a contradiction between the Vedic description of the universe and the picture built up in recent times on the basis of observation. According to Vedic literature, the stars and planets execute a continuous daily rotation around a fixed axis that extends from Mount Meru through the polestar. This motion is generally described in such a way as to indicate that the polar axis of rotation is rigidly fixed. Thus we read that “all the planets and all the hundreds and thousands of stars revolve around the polestar, the planet of Mahārāja Dhruva, in their respective orbits, some higher and some lower. Fastened by the Supreme Personality of Godhead to the machine of material nature according to the results of their fruitive acts, they are driven around the polestar by the wind and will continue to be so until the end of creation” (SB 5.23.2-3).

In contrast, it is taught in modern astronomy that the polar axis of rotation is not fixed. It is supposed to rotate slowly about the axis of the ecliptic at a fixed angle of about 23.5 degrees. (The axis of the ecliptic is the line perpendicular to the plane of the ecliptic.) One complete revolution is said to take place in about 25,770 years, and thus the amount of rotation occurring in one year is about 50.29″ of arc. This slow shifting of the polar axis has two important consequences. One is that the position of the equinoxes will rotate slowly around the ecliptic at 50.29″ per year. The equinoxes are the locations of the sun in its orbit at the times of the year when the day and night are of equal length. Since they correspond to the points of intersection between the ecliptic and the celestial equator, they will rotate at the same rate as the polar axis.

The other consequence is that the center of daily rotation of the heavens will move slowly in a large circle centered on the axis of the ecliptic. As time passes, the center of rotation will sometimes lie on a particular star, which will then be known as the polestar. At other times no prominent star will lie at this center. At present the polestar is Polaris, and it is said that in about 12,000 years it will be the star called Vega.

Although this appears to contradict the Vedic view, it turns out, as usual, that things are not as simple as they might seem at first. In the Sūrya-siddhānta there is a rule for calculating something that seems quite similar to the precession of the equinoxes. According to this rule, the position of the sun at the time of the equinox will slowly shift back and forth over a total angle of 54 degrees. The time for one complete back-and-forth movement (covering 54 degrees twice) is given as 7,200 years, and thus the movement occurs at a rate of 54″ of arc per year (SS, pp. 29-30). A rule of this kind is said to describe trepidation of the equinoxes.

This rule seems rather artificial. It assumes that the motion makes an abrupt about face at the endpoints of the 54-degree interval, and thus one suspects that it may be intended simply as a rough approximation. However, it does predict the observed motion of the equinoxes over the period of two thousand years or so for which we have records of observations. And similar rules are given in the jyotiṣa śāstras that smoothly round off the motion at the endpoints of the interval of motion (BJS).

Another consideration here is that in SB 5.21.4-5 the times of the equinoxes and solstices are given relative to the zodiac. These timings are the same as in the Western zodiac. Thus the equinoxes occur in the beginning of the signs Meṣa and Tula, which correspond to the Western Aries and Libra. The Western zodiac moves with the precession of the equinoxes, and thus the equinoxes always occur when the sun enters Aries and Libra. However, the zodiac of the jyotiṣa śāstras has a fixed starting point at the star Zeta Piscium, and thus the position of the equinoxes in this zodiac should shift gradually with the passage of time.

According to modern calculations, the last time the equinoxes occurred at the beginning of Meṣa and Tula was about A.D. 650, and the time before that was some 25,800 years previously. However, according to the trepidation theory of the Sūrya-siddhānta, they would also have occurred at the beginning of Meṣa and Tula at the beginning of Kali-yuga.

In the Siddhānta-śiromaṇi we find the idea that the equinoxes precess through a complete circle. There it is stated that “the motion of the solstitial points spoken of by Muñjala and others is the same as the motion of the equinox: according to these authors its revolutions are 199,669 in a kalpa” (SSB1, p. 157). This comes to about one complete revolution in 21,636 years.

Since Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī studied both the Siddhānta-śiromaṇi and the Sūrya-siddhānta, and cited them in his commentary on the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, it would seem that the Vaiṣṇava tradition must include some conception of the precession of the equinoxes. Unfortunately, we have very little information on this topic, and thus further research will be needed to clarify the exact nature of this conception.

As a final point, we should note that according to the modern understanding of the precession of the equinoxes, the present polestar, Polaris, is now about 1 degree from the north celestial pole and will pass within 28′ of it around the year 2100. One thousand years ago, Polaris was about 6.5 degrees away from the pole, and a thousand years before that it was about 12 degrees away. Since 6.5 degrees is about 13 times the width of the full moon, it is hard to see how Polaris could have been regarded as the polestar prior to one thousand years ago.

Due to a lack of suitable bright stars, it would appear that there was no prominent polestar from a few centuries ago back to about 1200 B.C. At about this time the pole passed between Beta Ursae Minorus and Kappa Draconis, and one could have said, roughly speaking, that there were two polestars. To find a prominent, single polestar, however, one would have to go back to about 2600 B.C., when Alpha Draconis was situated at the pole.

We therefore ask, How can this be reconciled with the fact that the Bhāgavatam strongly states the existence of a single polestar? One would think there must have been a prominent polestar when the Bhāgavatam was written. Western scholars maintain that the Bhāgavatam was written about 1,000 years ago, at a time when there had been no notable polestar for thousands of years. Could there be some mistake in the scholarly dating of the Bhāgavatam or in the modern reconstruction of the past history of the polestar, or both? Further research may shed more light on this issue. However, Śrīla Prabhupāda has said, “Whether the Vedic calculations or the modern ones are better may remain a mystery for others, but as far as we are concerned, we accept the Vedic calculations to be correct” (SB 5.22.8p).

If we go 80,000 miles above the region of the Siddhas, Cāraṇas, and Vidyādharas, we come to the level of the planet called Rāhu. Some 80,000 miles above Rāhu we reach the level of the sun, which is said to lie between Bhūrloka and Bhuvarloka in the middle of antarikṣa (SB 5.20.43, 5.24.1). We note that these measurements account for only part of the distance from Bhū-maṇḍala to the sun, since this is given as 100,000 yojanas (or 800,000 miles) in SB 5.23.9p.

In the Vedic literature it is often mentioned that Rāhu causes solar and lunar eclipses by passing in front of the sun or moon. To many people, this seems to blatantly contradict the modern explanation of eclipses, which holds that a solar eclipse is caused by the passage of the moon in front of the sun and a lunar eclipse is caused by the moon’s passage through the earth’s shadow. However, the actual situation is somewhat more complicated than this simple analysis assumes.

The reason for this is that the Sūrya-siddhānta presents an explanation of eclipses that agrees with the modern explanation but also brings Rāhu into the picture. This work explicitly assumes that eclipses are caused by the passage of the moon in front of the sun or into the earth’s shadow. It describes calculations based on this model that make it possible to predict the occurrence of both lunar and solar eclipses and compute the degree to which the disc of the sun or moon will be obscured. At the same time, rules are also given for calculating the position of Rāhu and another, similar planet named Ketu. It turns out that either Rāhu or Ketu will always be lined up in the direction of any solar or lunar eclipse.

In Chapter 1 we have already described how the astronomical siddhāntas define the orbit of Rāhu, and a similar definition is given for Ketu. The positions assigned to Rāhu and Ketu correspond to the ascending and descending nodes of the moon-the points where the orbit of the moon (projected onto the celestial sphere) intersects the ecliptic, or the orbit of the sun. These nodal points rotate around the ecliptic from east to west, with a period of about 18.6 years. One of them must always point in the direction of an eclipse, since the moon can pass in front of the sun or into the earth’s shadow only if the sun, moon, and earth lie on a straight line. Thus, by placing Rāhu and Ketu at the nodal points of the moon, the Sūrya-siddhānta conforms both with the modern theory of eclipses and the Vedic explanation involving Rāhu and Ketu.

One objection that may be raised to the explanation given in the Sūrya-siddhānta is that it contradicts the Vedic statement that the moon is higher than the sun. However, we have seen that this statement refers to the height of the moon above the plane of Bhū-maṇḍala, and not the distance along the line of sight from the earth globe to the moon.

Another objection one might raise is that the explanation in the Sūrya-siddhānta seems to be a cheap compromise between the Vedic account of eclipses (which many will regard as mythological) and the modern account (which many will regard as an import into India from the Greeks). It is true that Rāhu and Ketu seem to play a rather superfluous role in the eclipse calculations given in the Sūrya-siddhānta. However, there are reasons for supposing that these planets do not appear in these calculations as a mere decoration.

The principal reason for this is that the positions of Rāhu and Ketu play an important role in astrology. This means that astrologers need some system of calculation that will tell them where Rāhu and Ketu are at any given time. We have argued in Chapter 1 that astrology has traditionally played an important role in Vedic culture. From this it follows that some methods for calculating the positions of Rāhu and Ketu have traditionally been required in Vedic society. Since we have no evidence that any other method of calculating these positions has ever been used, this can be taken as an indirect indication that the method used in the Sūrya-siddhānta has co-existed with the Vedic śāstras for a very long time.

Of course, by this argument we cannot conclude definitely that this particular method of calculation has always been used. But we can at least be sure that the Vedic society, with its emphasis on astrology and the astronomical timing of religious ceremonies, has always needed more than a mere qualitative story to account for eclipses and other astronomical phenomena.

In the West there is also a long tradition ascribing solar and lunar eclipses to the action of some celestial beings of a demonic nature. There these beings have also been associated with the nodes of the moon, and they are known as the head and tail of the dragon. The story of this eclipse-dragon may help give us some indication of how little we really know about history. Figure 16 is a medieval Islamic picture showing an angel severing the head of the eclipse-dragon. (This is reminiscent of the story of the decapitation of Rāhu by Lord Viṣṇu.) Figure 17 is a strikingly similar picture showing St. George, the patron saint of England, slaying a dragon. Unless this is a complete coincidence, it would seem that the story of the eclipse-dragon was somehow woven into the iconography of early Christianity without any indication of its significance being preserved. (St. George is said to have been born in Asia Minor in about A.D. 300, but there is apparently no information indicating how he came to be connected with a dragon (BD, p. 539).) Unfortunately, our knowledge of the ancient history of this story is practically nonexistent.

According to the Bhāgavatam, the seven lower planetary systems have the same width and breadth as Bhū-maṇḍala, and they lie beneath Bhū-maṇḍala in successive strata separated by intervals of 80,000 miles (SB 5.24.7). Since the diameter of Bhū-maṇḍala is four billion miles, it follows that the complete system consisting of Bhū-maṇḍala and the seven lower worlds can be visualized as a relatively thin disc, comparable to a stack of eight circular sheets of paper. As with Bhū-maṇḍala, this means that the major part of the seven lower worlds lies many millions of miles away from us in what we regard as outer space. Also, the geometric projection of these lower worlds on the celestial sphere is nearly the same as the projection of Bhū-maṇḍala.

Traditionally, people in cultures throughout the world have spoken of subterranean realms, and the lower planetary systems described in Vedic literature also have a subterranean aspect. Thus the Bhāgavatam points out that the rays of the sun cannot reach the bila-svarga (SB 5.24.11), and in the Mahābhārata there are accounts of people traveling to these regions by entering tunnels leading down into the earth. Also, the astronomical siddhāntas place the lower worlds in the “concave strata of the earth.”

The Bhāgavatam’s description of the dimensions of the lower worlds indeed suggests that these worlds constitute a subterranean stratum of Bhū-maṇḍala as a whole. According to this idea, this lower region does lie below our feet, and due to the vast extent of Bhū-maṇḍala, it also lies in outer space. Both of these locations, however, are simply three-dimensional projections (or aspects) of the actual, higher-dimensional position of the lower planetary systems. We could not reach Nāgaloka, for example, by tunneling into the earth using ordinary three-dimensional methods. But we could do so if our tunneling was accompanied by movement along a higher dimension.

Some 240,000 miles below the lowest of the seven lower worlds, Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu lies on Ananta-śeṣa on the surface of the Garbhodaka Ocean (SB 5.25.1). As we have already noted, even Lord Brahmā was unable to see Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu when he tried to trace out the origin of the lotus from which he himself had taken birth. It is therefore to be expected that this scene must lie beyond the range of ordinary human sense perception.

However, since the Garbhodaka Ocean is almost directly beneath the plane of Bhū-maṇḍala, one can imagine that all points on the celestial sphere south of the projection of Bhū-maṇḍala should correspond to this ocean. This amounts to a simple, three-dimensional visualization of an essentially higher-dimensional situation. Our thesis in this book is that in the Vedic civilization, the relationship between higher-dimensional realms and the visible firmament was visualized in this way. (In Section 3.b.3 we have noted the existence of ancient traditions that are consistent with this idea.)

According to the Bhāgavatam, as we move up from the earth’s surface, we ultimately reach a point where clouds and wind are no longer found. This is the beginning of antarikṣa, or outer space. At an altitude of 800 miles above the base of antarikṣa are the abodes of the Rākṣasas, Yakṣas, and Piśācas, and at a still higher altitude are the realms of the Siddhas, Cāraṇas, and Vidyādharas (SB 5.24.4-6). For comparison, the highest clouds are about 50 miles up according to modern observations, and the American and Russian manned orbital flights range in altitude from about 100 to 900 miles above the earth (MSF, pp. 534-36). The various types of beings mentioned in these verses are known in Vedic literature for their great mystic powers, and they clearly operate on a level that is inaccessible to ordinary human senses. The Rākṣasas, of course, are particularly known for their inimical nature and their ability to create various kinds of illusions.

One aspect of our interpretation of the planetary distances in Table 8 is that the vertical dimension in Vedic cosmology is more than just a third coordinate axis, as understood in ordinary geometry. It also involves a higher-dimensional aspect that goes beyond the range of our senses. We can obtain one indication of this by considering the highest destination that one can reach within this universe by traveling in this vertical direction. This is the planetary system called Satyaloka, which is the abode of Brahmā, the secondary creator of the universe.
According to the Bhāgavatam, Satyaloka is located near the top of the universal globe, in the direction of the north celestial pole. Since the earth is located near the center of this globe, this means that Satyaloka is about 2 billion miles from the earth. A spaceship traveling at 500 miles per hour (a moderate speed for a jet plane) could cover 2 billion miles in 457 years, and thus it would seem that it might be feasible for human beings to reach Satyaloka using mechanical technology.

Yet in SB 5.1.21p we read the remarkable statement that Satyaloka “is situated many millions and billions of years away.” Similarly, SB 1.9.29p states that “even attempting to reach the highest planet will take millions of years at a speed of millions of miles per hour.” And SB 2.2.23p completely rules out the possibility of going beyond Svargaloka or Janaloka by “mechanical or materialistic activities, either gross or subtle.”

SB 5.1.21 describes the abode of Brahmā as being “indescribable by the endeavor of mundane mind or words.” In the terminology adopted in this book, this means that to describe Satyaloka adequately, we would have to make use of higher-dimensional concepts that cannot be grasped by our present minds and senses. At the very least, this implies that our ordinary concepts of space and time might break down when applied to this region of the universe.

An interesting indication of the form this breakdown might take is given in the following story from the Bhāgavatam:
Taking his own daughter, Revatī, Kakudmī went to Lord Brahmā in Brahmaloka, which is transcendental to the three modes of material nature, and inquired about a husband for her. When Kakudmī arrived there, Lord Brahmā was engaged in hearing musical performances by the Gandharvas and had not a moment to talk with him. Therefore Kakudmī waited, and at the end of the musical performances … [he] submitted his long-standing desire.

After hearing his words, Lord Brahmā, who is most powerful, laughed loudly and said to Kakudmī, “O King, all those whom you may have decided within the core of your heart to accept as your son-in-law have passed away in the course of time. Twenty-seven catur-yugas have already passed. Those upon whom you may have decided are now gone, and so are their sons, grandsons, and other descendants. You cannot even hear about their names” [SB 9.3.29-32].

Here we see that when one visits Satyaloka, one experiences a transformation of time reminiscent of the time dilation of Einstein’s theory of relativity. King Kakudmī and his daughter were evidently advanced yogīs who were able to travel to Satyaloka by nonmechanical means. Although for them the trip took only a short time, when they returned to the earth they found that millions of years had passed. We may then ask, Did the distance that they traveled seem like two billion miles to them? If so, then it might also be that from our perspective the distance was billions and billions of miles. Although this is merely a conjecture, it does indicate some of the things that are possible in a universe that is ultimately inconceivable by our mundane minds. (Note, by the way, that Revatī is the name of the star Zeta Piscium, which is used as the zero point for celestial longitudes in the jyotiṣa śāstras.)

Between the earth and Satyaloka there is a standard path traversed after death by transcendentalists and highly elevated persons. This is called the uttarāyaṇa path, and it is mentioned in the Bhagavad-gītā (8.24). A more detailed description of the various stages of this path is given in the Vedānta-sūtra commentary of Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa:

(1) Archis, the Deva of light, (2) Dinam, the Deva of day, (3) Śuklapaksam, the Deva of the Bright-fortnight, (4) Uttarāyanam, the Deva of the northern progress of the sun, (5) Samvatsaram, the Deva of the year, (6) Devalokam, the world of the Devas (the same as Vāyuloka, according to some), (7) Vāyu, the world of Vāyu, (8) Ādityam, the world of the sun, (9) Chandram, the world of the moon, (10) Vidyut, the world of lightning, (11) Varuṇam, the world of water, (12) Indram, the world of Indra, (13) Prajāpati, the world of Prajāpati, or of the four-faced Brahmā [VSB, p. 729].

Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa comments that in this list, the various items refer not to landmarks on the path, but to various demigods who make arrangements for the passage of the soul (see BG 8.24p also). This indicates that higher-dimensional travel along the “vertical dimension” of the universe involves more than a simple ballistic trajectory of the kind followed by a rocket. It also involves the action of a hierarchy of beings, all of whom are inaccessible to our ordinary senses. The motion towards the north celestial pole is simply the three-dimensional aspect of this higher travel.

The descent of the Ganges River from the upper regions of the universe to the earth provides another interesting indication of the nature of travel along the vertical dimension in Vedic cosmology. According to the Bhāgavatam, the Ganges consists of water from the Kāraṇa Ocean that entered the upper portion of the universe through a hole kicked in the universal covering by Lord Vāmanadeva (SB 5.17.1). This water takes a thousand yugas to reach the planet Dhruvaloka, or the polestar, which is situated approximately 30 million miles above the sun. (Here the term yuga indicates a divya-yuga of 4,320,000 years.) Since the sun is situated vertically in the center of the universe (SB 5.20.43), this means that the Ganges covers a distance of some two billion miles in 4,320,000,000 years. Since this is a very slow rate of progress even for a very sluggish river, this may be another example of the transformation of time, and possibly of space, which occurs in the higher regions of the universe.

From Dhruvaloka the Ganges reaches the planets of the seven sages, and from there it is carried to the moon “through the spaceways of the demigods” in billions of celestial airplanes. From the moon it falls down (nipatati) to the top of Mount Meru, where it divides into four branches. Finally, one of these branches becomes the Ganges of India (SB 5.17.3-9).
Since the moon is continuously moving in its orbit, it is hard to see how the top of Mount Meru could always be directly underneath it in an ordinary geometric sense. It therefore seems that the descent of the Ganges from the moon to Mount Meru must involve physical principles that are presently unknown. Of course, as we have already pointed out, the final appearance of the Ganges in India also requires such principles, since we certainly do not see its descent from a higher region of the universe.

Thus our conclusion is that if we take the description of the descent of the Ganges seriously, then we must be prepared to view it in the context of principles that go beyond the framework of our familiar physical theories. We suggest that although these principles are not explicitly explained in the Bhāgavatam and other Vedic texts in Western terms, they are nonetheless employed in these works in a consistent way. One example of this is Śrīla Prabhupāda’s statement in Light of the Bhāgavata that “one has to cross Mānasa Lake and then Sumeru Mountain, and only then can one trace out the orbit of the moon” (LB, p. 48). This statement is consistent with one idea that emerges from the story of the Ganges: In some higher dimensional sense, the route from the earth to the moon passes through the region of Mount Meru in Jambūdvīpa.

In SB 5.23.5 the celestial Ganges is identified with the Milky Way, and in SB 2.2.24 it is said that the Milky Way is a pathway that mystics follow through the heavens on their way to Satyaloka. It is interesting to note that similar ideas have traditionally been held in cultures around the world. Thus, both the Polynesians and various American Indian tribes maintained that the Milky Way is a pathway to heaven followed by the souls of the departed, and they also held that those souls who were not perfectly pure would eventually have to return to the earth (HM, p. 243).

The ancient Egyptians apparently regarded the Nile as an earthly continuation of the Milky Way (HM, p. 260), an idea they may have imported from an original homeland in India. (Śrīla Prabhupāda indicates in SB 2.7.22p that according to the Mahābhārata, the kings of ancient Egypt were driven there from India by Paraśurāma.)
The Chinese also had the idea that the Milky Way is a celestial river that descends to the earth. Their account is as follows: “The celestial river divides into two branches near the North Pole and goes from there to the South Pole. One of its arms passes by the lunar mansion Nan-teou (lambda Sagittarii), and the other by the lunar mansion Toung-tsing (Gemini). The river is the celestial water, flowing across the heavens and falling under the earth” (HM, p. 260).