In Western culture people in general have a great aversion to the idea of hell, perhaps due to Christianity having been abusing this idea for centuries. Even people who are religious usually prefer to believe that people just go to heaven, or that we immediately reincarnate, without passing through any form of judgment. Even one and a half century ago, when Srila Bhaktivinoda was preaching in India he encountered resistance to the idea of hell, which led him to minimize the idea and instead focus on more important issues.

However, the Puranas describe in detail the activities of Yamaraja and his servants, as well as the hellish words they use to punish the sinful. According to the Puranas, with the exception of devotees, who are escorted to their next body by the Vishnudutas (as described in the Brhad Bhagavatamrta), everyone has to pass through the judgment of Yamaraja before receiving his next body.

The best way to avoid that is of course by becoming a sincere devotee of Krsna and chanting His Holy Names. As Srila Haridasa Thakura explains, even chanting on the stage of Namabhasa is capable of destroying one’s sins and bringing a person to the liberated platform, where there is no question of meeting the Yamadutas. The history of Ajamila, narrated in the 6th canto of Srimad Bhagavatam is a graphical illustration of how one can be saved from hell even by chanting at the last moment.

Because Ajamila was so sinful, the Vishnudutas were prepared to bring him to hell, but at the moment they started snatching the soul from the body using their subtle ropes, the Vishnudutas appeared carrying weapons and ordered them to release Ajamila, or else. It happened that Ajamila destroyed all his karma by desperately chanting the name of Narayana at the last moment. Even though he chanted to call his son, not directly addressing Lord Narayana, because he chanted in full concentration it was sufficient to free him from all his past sinful activities. By the time the Yamadutas started taking the soul out of the body, he was indeed an innocent man, and thus the Vishnudutas immediately appeared to protect him.

What about the souls who are not so fortunate? How the severity of the punishment one will receive in hell is determined?

In the Srimad Bhagavatam, we read about the mysterious history of Jaya and Vijaya, and how these two powerful associates of the Lord in Vaikunta ended up coming to the material world to play the role of demons for three lives, becoming at first Hiranyakashipu and Hiranyaksha, then Ravana and Kumbhakarna, and finally Sisupala and Dantavakra, after which they were finally reinstated in their original positions after being killed by Krsna.

For the ones’ who observed Sisupala being killed by Krsna at the sacrifice of Maharaja Yudhistira, it appeared that Sisupala merged in the Lord’s bodily effulgence, attaining the impersonal Brahmajoti, but in his purports (7.1.20) Prabhupada explains: “Śiśupāla and Dantavakra were formerly Jaya and Vijaya, the doorkeepers of Vaikuṇṭha. Merging into the body of Kṛṣṇa was not their final destination. For some time they remained merged, and later they received the liberations of sārūpya and sālokya, living on the same planet as the Lord in the same bodily form.”

Hiranyakashipu and Hiranyaksha appeared about 400 million years ago, during the reign of Caksusa Manu (the 6th Manu in the sequence, immediately before the current one). Chronologically speaking, this is after the rebirth of Daksa. The history is that the first birth of Daksa happened at the beginning of the current day of Brahma, during the reign of Svayambhuva Manu. In this birth, he offended Lord Shiva and ended up being killed by Virabhadra, and was later revived with the head of a goat. Although he used this body to conclude the sacrifice he was making, he later left this body due to shame (it’s probably not easy to live with the head of a goat). Other pastimes described in the Srimad Bhagavatam, such as the appearance of Lord Kapila and the pastime of Dhruva Maharaja also happened around this time, during the reign of Svayambhuva Manu.

The next birth of Daksa happened only much later, during the reign of Caksusa Manu. During this birth, Daksa married Pāncajanī and begot 10,000 sons with the purpose of increasing the population of the universe. All these sons, however, decided to take Sannyasi after being instructed by Narada Muni. Daksa then begot 1,000 more sons, just for the same thing to happen again. Frustrated, he cursed Narada Muni and begot sixty daughters who were married to great sages and became the mothers of most of the population of the universe.

Seventeen of these daughters were married to Kasyapa Muni, including Diti, who became the mother of Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakashipu.

Here are a few more details about this pastime that you may find interesting:

Everything that exists in this material world was created at a certain date and everything will be destroyed at a certain date. Everything is temporary. This happens because we are under the influence of the material time.

On SB 3.26.15, time is counted as one of the material elements, just as earth, water, fire, etc. Time is described as a “mixing element” or as an “agitating element” because it puts the universe in motion, activating the innumerable transformations that lead to the creation and destruction of everything that exists inside the universe, including the universe itself. Because of the influence of time, everything that is material has a beginning and an end.

This is further corroborated in SB 7.1.11, where it’s described: “King, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the controller of the material and spiritual energies, who is certainly the creator of the entire cosmos, creates the time factor to allow the material energy and the living entity to act within the limits of time. Thus the Supreme Personality is never under the time factor nor under the material energy.”

All conditioned souls are put under the influence of time from the moment they take part in the material creation, but the Lord remains outside of it, in His transcendental position. He may act under time when He comes in His different incarnations, appearing inside the material universes and executing His pastimes here, but He is never under time’s control. As Srila Prabhupada mentions in the purport of the same verse: “One should not think that the Lord is dependent on the time factor. He actually creates the situation by which material nature acts and by which the conditioned soul is placed under material nature. Both the conditioned soul and the material nature act within the time factor, but the Lord is not subject to the actions and reactions of time, for time has been created by Him.”

As he further explains in his purport to SB 3.26.17: “Material nature appears to the material scientist to act and react in a wonderful manner, but in reality, it cannot act without the agitator, time, who is the representation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. When time agitates the neutral state of material nature, material nature begins to produce varieties of manifestations. Ultimately it is said that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the cause of creation. As a woman cannot produce children unless impregnated by a man, material nature cannot produce or manifest anything unless it is impregnated by the Supreme Personality of Godhead in the form of the time factor.”

This time that puts matter into motion is a representative of the power of God, as Prabhupada mentions in his purport to SB 3.26.16: “The fear of death is the action of the kāla, or the time factor, which represents the influence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In other words, time is destructive. Whatever is created is subject to destruction and dissolution, which is the action of time. Time is a representation of the Lord, and it reminds us also that we must surrender unto the Lord.”

The beginning and end of time can’t be calculated from the material perspective, because everything (material) that exists exists inside the boundaries of time. From the material perspective, thus, time is eternal. Prabhupada refers to the material time as “eternal time” in a few purports, using the expression as a translation of the Sanskrit word “Kala”. However, there is another reality that is outside, the spiritual reality.

With the platforms of virtual reality growing and becoming more realistic, many started to question what is reality. The fact is that what we call reality is just we way our brain interprets the different inputs it receives from the eyes, ears, and so on. Virtual reality exploits that to create virtual worlds that exist only inside the memory of a computer, creating artificial stimuli that are transmitted to our senses using a headset and other accessories. In this way, VR adds another layer of illusion on top of the illusion we are already in.

In reality, what we call “real life” is already a type of virtual reality. At least, that’s what the Vedas say. Even the date of when this simulation started is given: 155.522 trillion years ago, the date when our Universe was first created by Lord Brahma. Before that, there were other iterations in the form of other cycles of creation, and therefore our imprisonment here is practically beginningless.

The Vedas actually go further, saying that we are actually eternal beings, but somehow we got trapped in this simulation, and we have been inside it since then. What we call “death” is just the process of transference of our consciousness into a new phase of the simulation. Just like one may play with different avatars in different virtual worlds, we take birth on different planets and in different species of life. This process has been going on for so long that we have already forgotten that there is a real life outside of it.

How does this artificial reality work?

One of the points we are forced to face when we study the Srimad Bhagavatam is that there are many things we can’t understand. For example, in the first canto, it’s described how Maharaja Pariksit met Kali, Dharma, and Bhumi. One can question how such a meeting could be possible since none of the three are persons. Kali-Yuga is an age, just like Satya-Yuga or Treta-Yuga. Dharma is a concept, just like justice or greed, and the Earth is a planet. How could the three of them be present in physical forms in the same place, and how could a human being (whomever powerful) be able to meet them?

When faced with such descriptions is important to not fall into the same mistake as the frog in the well, an allegory that Prabhupada mentioned several times. Just like the frog in the well was trying to calculate the size of the ocean based on the measurement of his minute well, we shouldn’t think we can understand the workings of the Universe based on our limited experience since such an attempt will be futile.

The model of the Universe described in the Vedas is not only incredibly complex but also multidimensional, with the concept of the reality of beings at different stages of spiritual development being radically different. Many of us have difficulty even understanding the four-dimensional reality we live in (three dimensions plus time), which results in all the speculation about flat earth and so on, so what to say about understanding all these high dimensions?

One example of this is that the Vedas explain that all kinds of material manifestations, qualities, and energies have a predominating deity. Just like different forces of nature are controlled by demigods like Indra, Surya, and Vayu, qualities like envy, dishonesty, and even death have their predominating deities, living entities who are elected as controllers of such energies. We can imagine such predominating deities as beings similar to the demigods in nature.

Just as the wind doesn’t have a form, but the demigod who controls it does, the age of Kali in itself doesn’t have a form, but is controlled by Kali, who does. Similarly, the concept of Dharma has its controller, just as our planet also has. These are all subtle entities that can’t be seen by ordinary people, but that can be met by an elevated personality like Maharaja Pariksit.

In the first canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, it’s narrated that Maharaja Pariksit was able to tour the other realms of Jambudvipa, which are inaccessible to other human beings. This shows that he had access to higher dimensions that we don’t have access to nowadays. This explains how he could have this meeting with Kali, Dharma, and Bhumi, seeing them in their personal forms and interacting with them.

Other pastimes can be even harder to understand, like, for example, how Dhruva Maharaja could stay without breathing and moving for such long periods, or how Hiranyakashipu could continue living even after his body was completely eaten by the ants, keeping his vital air circulating around his bones. Certainly, such feats are not possible for a human being of our time, but we should keep in mind that such great personalities from past ages could do many things we are not capable of, by using techniques that are unknown to us.

In paleontology, it’s believed that life on Earth started at about 3.5 billion years ago (with some studies putting the date earlier, up to 4.4 billion years ago), with the first multicellular animals (Metazoa) appearing about 800 million years ago. Of course, modern scholars attribute this to evolution and the shaping of the environment by Volcanic activity and other factors but the Srimad Bhagavatam offers another explanation that is quite interesting.

In the 4th canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, we hear the story of Daksa being killed by Virbhadra as a result of his offenses to Lord Shiva. Often we just take it as a pastime and don’t bother to check the dates, but when we do that we find it actually provides a fascinating explanation of how life appeared on our planet.

According to Srimad Bhagavatam, Daksa appeared during the reign of Svayambhuva Manu. The Bhagavatam explains that there are 14 manus in a day of Brahma, and I found that this sequence of Manus is the key to being able to understand the chronology of the different events being discussed.

Svayambhuva Manu is the first of the 14 manus, and his reign corresponds to the early history of our planet. When he took charge, Bhu-Mandala was still submerged in the water of the causal ocean, and white Lord Varaha had to appear to rescue it. The dates for these pastimes roughly correspond to what modern astronomers give for the formation of the planets in our solar system.

In a previous article, I mentioned that the date for the creation of the Universe given in the Vedas is 13.819 billion years ago, which is staggering close to the calculation given by modern theories, which put the age of the Universe at 13.801 billion years. This is certainly impressive, but you could question how I came to this number. That’s what I wanted to explain in more detail today.

To reach this number it’s important to understand four important details about Vedic cosmology. Not many know these details, and without them, it’s not possible to come to the correct numbers.

We learn in school that the appearance of days and nights comes due to the movement of the earth around the sun (revolution), and the rotation of the earth in its axis (rotation). This explanation is used to make models that explain in detail the passage of days and nights as well as the seasons. True or not, such models work.

When we study the 5th canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, hearing about the features of Bhu-mandala and the movements of the sun around it, we may get the idea that the model of the cosmos explained in the Vedas doesn’t offer a working model for the movement of the sun. If the earth is part of Bhu-mandala, which is a flat structure, then the sun should be circling overhead once per year, and there would be constant daylight. When we look into the sky and realize this is not what happens, we may think that the whole model is wrong or incomplete and that the Vedas don’t have an explanation for the passage of days and nights. This idea is incorrect.

The 5th canto offers a working model for the movements of the sun that perfectly explain the days and nights, as well as the passage of the seasons. It is very clearly described, it is just that it is very difficult to understand since it is mixed with other information.

Understanding this point is especially important now that we are building the presentations for the ToVP that will show how this model works for great audiences. If we fail to show this point, people will not take the model seriously.

How does it work?

The Universal form of Krsna is described in the Bhagavad-Gita as having unlimited heads, hands, and legs. Arjuna saw that some of such heads were eating the soldiers on both armies, and some were even being crushed amongst their teeth. Although the Universal form included both beautiful and terrible manifestations, the mind of Arjuna seemed to be more affected by such ghastly scenes, as described in the Bhagavad-Gita.

The Universal form is also described in the second canto of Srimad Bhagavatam as an imaginary form that is used by yogis coming from impersonalism to adjust to the idea that God has a form. Since they can’t directly see the spiritual form of Krsna at this stage, they are recommended to meditate on different aspects of the material universe as parts of this gigantic universal form.

From time to time, speculations about the appearance of alien vehicles floating around our planet appear. Are aliens real?

For one who studies the Vedas, aliens are just part of life. Even in our own Parampara, both Brahma and Narada are technically …aliens. They are not from this planet. Krsna is also obviously not from this planet, or even from this universe. Thus, the Vedas themselves are technically an alien technology.