Transcriber: Suresh Gupta

Edited by: Raji Nachiappan

Question: ​Is there any scientific proof of the existence of higher and lower planetary systems?

Answer: ​There are different models of reality. Science is basically a map of reality and that map is meant
for a particular perspective. For example, you are in place A and you want to go to place B to meet a
friend. Someone gives you a map to get to place B. As the directions shown on the map turns out to be
right at every step, your faith in the map starts increasing. Finally, when you reach the address and find
your friend, you will not look into the map to check if it shows your friend. Also, you do not say to your
friend that since he is not shown on the map, he does not exist.

Therefore, the map is a very powerful tool for navigating reality but the map is not a comprehensive guide
to reality. There are many things that do not exist inside the map. People do not exist inside the map but
people do exist. Similarly, science is a map and this map is for a primary purpose. When science
commenced, the pioneers of the scientific methods from Galileo, Newton, Francis, Bacon and others,
decided that reality will be divided into two sets of properties, i.e. primary and secondary. Primary
properties are those which are measurable or quantifiable such as mass, density, velocity, viscosity etc.
Secondary properties are taste, colour, smell, beauty, love, kindness etc. Science focussed on the primary
properties.

In our day to day experience, what science considers as primary, is secondary for us. For example, if we
tell our friends that we met a very interesting person, and they ask us to describe that person, we do not say
that the person was five feet and three inches tall and weighs one fifty pounds. While this may well be a
description of the person, it does not actually tell us much about the person. If we have to describe a great
meal, we do not say that we had eight hundred calories weighing 250 grams. These are aspects of the meal;
however, they are not the primary aspects. When we talk about people, we talk about their personalities,
their qualities, their nature and when we talk about food, we talk about taste, texture, flavour and its visual
appeal. The point is that what we in our day to day life consider as primary, science considers it secondary.

Science is the map of reality and on that map, subtler realities do not exist. The higher and lower planetary
systems and then the spiritual world are all subtler realities. They do not exist on the map of science.
However, that does not mean they do not exist in reality. If say for example, your friend invites you to his
house for a chat. You, however, say that first your friend has to prove based on the map that he exists and
that only then will you come. This will be absurd. In the same way, to ask for scientific proof for spiritual
realities is like asking your friend, to prove based on the map that he exists. The map is a tool, and a very
valuable and an indispensable tool, but it is still a tool. It does not describe reality completely.

To ask for scientific proof of subtler or spiritual realities, is to misunderstand science as well as spirituality.
Science is a tool and it cannot tell us about spiritual truths directly, but we can use inference. How do we
know that higher planets exist? Well, scripture talks about the whole world and if we consider the whole
universe, it is ultimately meant as a facility, for us to fulfil our various desires for enjoying and then to
evolve to a higher understanding. Different people have different desires and they go to different places
using different resources to fulfil their various desires. Therefore, higher and lower planets are simply
places just like the Earth, where we fulfil our desires. Similarly, there can be other places which can be
venues for the soul to experiment with various objects of enjoyment.

This way within the philosophical world view, we can reasonably postulate the existence of higher planets.
However, science itself is a tool which cannot tell anything about higher planets, just as we cannot use a
thermometer to measure weight. Thermometer may be valuable tool but you cannot ask someone to prove
their weight using a thermometer reading. Every tool, has its purpose and every tool has its limitation.
Science is a tool, it has its purpose but has its limitations too.
End of transcription

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-lower-planetary-systems/