From Dark Matter to Krsna
Hare Krsna Prabhus,
Please accept my humble obeisances All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
A few days ago I met a student at the University of Toronto who at first maintained his distance, saying, "I'm not really into yoga and that kind of stuff."
I asked, "Ok, what kind of stuff are you interested in?"
"Ice hockey," he replied.
"I don't know anything about ice hockey, but check out this book." And I showed him a "Beyond Birth and Death." "This is a very rare the book," I told him as he listened intently. "It explains how while the body changes and the mind changes, something about us remains the same. Yoga is the process for realizing what we are beyond the body, not only for keeping the body healthy."
He agreed to take the book. I wanted to know him better, so I asked, "What are you studying at the university?"
When he said "I'm studying for a PhD in astrophysics," I instantly thought of the Vedic planetarium project in Mayapur, and how it would be nice to have him serve there. He explained about supernova explosions he was researching, and I asked if he had heard about Vedic cosmology. I tried to describe briefly what Prabhupada explains in the Bhagavatam, and he replied that that kind of explanation is classical astrophysics. I then asked him if he could explain why 99% of the matter astrophysicists study is dark matter. He corrected me and said, "Actually, 75% of the matter is dark matter, and 25% is observable matter. This dark matter is expanding very rapidly — some force is propelling it out — but it is a great mystery as to how that is happening."
I told him how in the Bhagavad-gita Krsna explains that the material world is just a portion of Krsna's energy, and that there is so much more which we cannot observe with our material senses. I asked him to keep in touch and come sometime to hear the Srimad-Bhagavatam class.
As I spoke to him I realized that if we just study the Bhagavatam and the Gita properly, we will find full information about everything we need to know, without having to go through the grind of modern education.
Your Humble Servant,
Mangal Arti Devi Dasi
