Something called the Vedic Planetarium is going to be built very soon in Mayapur, India. For some, it has religious importance, for others it has economic importance. For West Bengal Government, it could be of economic importance. But for astronomers and archaeologists, it is of great scientific and archaeological importance — ‘Archaeological importance’ because the planetarium will represent age old idea of the Universe. Many things might make sense when the model of the Universe is completed in Mayapur. For astronomers, its an even more interesting thing. They will more than just love it.
In May, June and July of 2009, the West Bengal government gave the project all the permission to International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), popularly known as Hare Krishnas, to start the project. The project will be inaugurated in February this year.
Vedic texts is rich in astronomical knowledge and cosmology. Vedic religion, which is called Hinduism today is the only religion that talks about time scales of billions of years old corresponding to what the modern science says. According to Vedas, a day of Brahma is 4.32 billion years corresponding to the exact age of the Earth. A day and night of Brahma is 8.64 billion year old, which is the age of Solar System. The Vedas themselves mention that in the age of Kali, which we are passing through now, the knowledge of the Vedas will be gradually lost. So, it seems humans knew about science better when Vedas were ‘available’ in its original form than today when most of it is lost. It is a great subject for Archaeo-astronomers to find out what humans knew about the Universe in the past. There could be numerous important cosmic events recorded by ancient astronomers important for research today. For the same reason, it is also important to protect the age old Vedas and other scriptures available to us today. A model according to the scripture is an even more better deal.
ISKCON reports, ‘Well, it was back in the 1970s that ISKCON’s founder Srila Prabhupada first expressed his desire to build a Vedic Planetarium at his society’s headquarters in Mayapur, India. “Within the planetarium we will construct a huge, detailed model of the universe as described in the text of the fifth canto of Srimad Bhagavatam,” he said.’
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