Gauragopala DasaatSri Dham Mayapur, West Bengal. Nabadwip, India.

Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 5 Chapter 23 Text 3
By His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Text 3
Translation
When bulls are yoked together and tied to a central post to thresh rice, they tread around that pivot without deviating from their proper positions—one bull being closest to the post, another in the middle, and a third on the outside.
Similarly, 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.
These planets float in the air within the vast sky, just as clouds with hundreds of tons of water float in the air or as the great śyena eagles, due to the results of past activities, fly high in the sky and have no chance of falling to the ground.
PURPORT
According to the description of this verse, the hundreds and thousands of stars and the great planets such as the sun, the moon, Venus, Mercury, Mars and Jupiter are NOT clustered together because of the law of gravity or any similar idea of the modern scientists.
These planets and stars are all servants of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Govinda or Kṛṣṇa, and according to His order they sit in their chariots and travel in their respective orbits.
The orbits in which they move are compared to machines given by material nature to the operating deities of the stars and planets, who carry out the orders of the Supreme Personality of Godhead by revolving around Dhruvaloka, which is occupied by the great devotee Mahārāja Dhruva.
This is confirmed in the Brahma-saṁhitā (5.52) as follows:
yac-cakṣur eṣa savitā sakala-grahāṇāṁ
rājā samasta-sura-mūrtir aśeṣa-tejāḥ
yasyājñayā bhramati sambhṛta-kāla-cakro
govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi
“I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, under whose control even the sun, which is considered to be the eye of the Lord, rotates within the fixed orbit of eternal time. The sun is the king of all planetary systems and has unlimited potency in heat and light.”
This verse from Brahma-saṁhitā confirms that even the largest and most powerful planet, the sun, rotates within a fixed orbit, or kāla-cakra, in obedience to the order of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
This has nothing to do with gravity or any other imaginary laws created by the material scientists.
Material scientists want to avoid the ruling government of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and therefore they imagine different conditions under which they suppose the planets move. The only condition, however, is the order of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
All the various predominating deities of the planets are persons, and the Supreme Personality of Godhead is also a person. The Supreme Personality orders the subordinate persons, the demigods of various names, to carry out His supreme will. This fact is also confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (9.10), wherein Kṛṣṇa says:
mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ
sūyate sa-carācaram
hetunānena kaunteya
jagad viparivartate
“This material nature is working under My direction, O son of Kuntī, and it is producing all moving and unmoving beings. By its rule this manifestation is created and annihilated again and again.”
The orbits of the planets resemble the bodies in which all living entities are seated because they are both machines controlled by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As Kṛṣṇa says in Bhagavad-gītā (18.61):
īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ
hṛd-deśe ’rjuna tiṣṭhati
bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni
yantrārūḍhāni māyayā
“The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone’s heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy.”
The machine given by material nature—whether the machine of the body or the machine of the orbit, or kāla-cakra—works according to the orders given by the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
The Supreme Personality of Godhead and material nature work together to maintain this great universe, and not only this universe but also the millions of other universes beyond this one.
The question of how the planets and stars are floating is also answered in this verse. It is not because of the laws of gravity. Rather, the planets and stars are enabled to float by manipulations of the air.
It is due to such manipulations that big, heavy clouds float and big eagles fly in the sky. Modern airplanes like the 747 jet aircraft work in a similar way: by controlling the air, they float high in the sky, resisting the tendency to fall to earth.
Such adjustments of the air are all made possible by the cooperation of the principles of puruṣa (male) and prakṛti (female).
By the cooperation of material nature, which is considered to be prakṛti, and the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is considered the puruṣa, all the affairs of the universe are going on nicely in their proper order. prakṛti, material nature, is also described in the Brahma-saṁhitā (5.44) as follows:
sṛṣṭi-sthiti-pralaya-sādhana-śaktir ekā
chāyeva yasya bhuvanāni bibharti durgā
icchānurūpam api yasya ca ceṣṭate sā
govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi
“The external potency, māyā, who is of the nature of the shadow of the cit [spiritual] potency, is worshiped by all people as Durgā, the creating, preserving and destroying agency of this mundane world.
I adore the primeval Lord Govinda, in accordance with whose will Durgā conducts herself.” Material nature, the external energy of the Supreme Lord, is also known as Durgā, or the female energy that protects the great fort of this universe. The word Durgā also means fort.
This universe is just like a great fort in which all the conditioned souls are kept, and they cannot leave it unless they are liberated by the mercy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Lord Himself declares in Bhagavad-gītā (4.9):
janma karma ca me divyam
evaṁ yo vetti tattvataḥ
tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma
naiti mām eti so ’rjuna
“One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities does not, upon leaving the body, take his birth again in this material world, but attains My eternal abode, O Arjuna.”
Thus simply by Kṛṣṇa consciousness, by the mercy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one can be liberated, or, in other words, one can be released from the great fort of this universe and go outside it to the spiritual world.
It is also significant that the predominating deities of even the greatest planets have been offered their exalted posts because of the very valuable pious activities they performed in previous births. This is indicated herein by the words karma-nirmita-gatayaḥ.
For example, as we have previously discussed, the moon is called jīva, which means that he is a living entity like us, but because of his pious activities he has been appointed to his post as the moon-god.
Similarly, all the demigods are living entities who have been appointed to their various posts as the masters of the moon, the earth, Venus and so on because of their great service and pious acts.
Only the predominating deity of the sun, Sūrya Nārāyaṇa, is an incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Mahārāja Dhruva, the predominating deity of Dhruvaloka, is also a living entity.
Thus there are two kinds of entities—the supreme entity, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and the ordinary living entity, the jīva (nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām).
All the demigods are engaged in the service of the Lord, and only by such an arrangement are the affairs of the universe going on.
Regarding the great eagles mentioned in this verse, it is understood that there are eagles so big that they can prey on big elephants. They fly so high that they can travel from one planet to another.
They start flying in one planet and land in another, and while in flight they lay eggs that hatch into other birds while falling through the air. In Sanskrit such eagles are called śyena.
Under the present circumstances, of course, we cannot see such huge birds, but at least we know of eagles that can capture monkeys and then throw them down to kill and eat them. Similarly, it is understood that there are gigantic birds that can carry off elephants, kill them and eat them.
The two examples of the eagle and the cloud are sufficient to prove that flying and floating can be made possible through adjustments of the air. The planets, in a similar way, are floating because material nature adjusts the air according to the orders of the Supreme Lord.
It could be said that these adjustments constitute the law of gravity, but in any case, one must accept that these laws are made by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The so-called scientists have no control over them. The scientists can falsely, improperly declare that there is no God, but this is not a fact. End of Purport
This is the understanding of the ''Vedic Universe'' where intelligent human beings have clearly proved space IS a vacuum at least from our material bodily point of view.
In other words the air that our material bodies breath does not exist in outer space.
Just on this planet in our realm of existence we know that air becomes thinner and thinner the higher you go, we have all experienced that in a 747 at 45,000 feet and those who climb Mount Everest know this, in fact recently 12 climbers died due to lack of oxygen at 29,000 feet.
We also know from the International Space Station there is no atmosphere in space, at least from our dimensional view in these gross material bodies, this is no theory or hoax or some silly ''bluff'' it is a fact and intelligent devotees and people in general understand this.
However, Prabhupada says in Bhagavatam – ''The planets and stars are enabled to float by manipulations of the air''.
How do we understand the following comments by Prabhupada?
Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 5.Chapter 23 Text 3 purport
"The question of how the planets and stars are floating is also answered in this verse. It is not because of the laws of gravity. Rather, the planets and stars are enabled to float by manipulations of the air.
It is due to such manipulations that big, heavy clouds float and big eagles fly in the sky. Modern airplanes like the 747 jet aircraft work in a similar way: by controlling the air, they float high in the sky, resisting the tendency to fall to earth."
We can understand here modern science do not yet have a field of science to study air in its full potential known as prana.
Prāna means "breathing air", the word for air (vāyu) or wind (pavana) are elements in Vedic teachings. Vedic science says there are five different types of airs that circulate in the material body, meeting in the heart where the soul is situated. We utilized that air to breathe, to evacuate, to open and close our eyes. Some claim the force of air is resistant so you cannot jump up very high because the air is pushing you down, but is it the air or is it so called gravity?
Srila Prabhupada explains in Srimad Bhagavatam it is the force of the air that keeps things floating above the earth and all the Planets in their orbits and not the modern theory of Gravity. The scientists however would say that force Prabhupada is talking about is also gravity, just a word describing a ''force of nature'' but Prabhupada tells us that force comes from the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
When many read this they sincerely ask, "Does the the ''air'' we breath on Earth exist in outer space? Modern scientist certainly do not believe it does based on their space travel. They tell us that the air we breath in these gross material bodies certainly does not exist in outer space. Astronauts tell us that outer space has no air or water molecules and therefore sound also cannot be heard in the vacuum of outer space.
Therefore could Srimad Bhagavatam be referring to another type of air that keeps the planets afloat in the ocean of outer space? Possibly the "flow of the solar winds" (pravaha) or a type of prana not detected by modern day scientist's mundane instruments due to being on a higher plane of existence not yet discovered by modern science due to denying the existence of God?
We think we know all about air because we breathe it and can now break it down into different elements like nitrogen, oxygen and carbon dioxide however that is just one form of air seen on the gross mundane platform.
The fact is there are also subtle energies of air (vāyu) or wind (pavana) the flow of the solar winds (pravaha) involved here controlled by higher beings known as demigods who govern all material affairs on behalf of Krishna the Supreme Personality of Godhead presently unknown to modern atheistic science in Kali-yuga because of their denial of God's laws.
Even though there is no air to breath outside Earth's atmosphere by present day space explorers with their limited Knowledge, there are many unseen and unknown ingredients to them within outer space that permeates throughout this Universe and does keep all planets afloat as Prabhupada tells us. This knowledge is known by the pious sages, yogis and devotees like Narada Muni who travel throughout all the Universe.
In the Puranas it is said that pravaha or the flow of universal wind is the prana of the Universal Form. As the body has nerve currents (pranic routes) so the universe also also has. As the material body has nerve currents (pranic routes) so the universe in outer space also has a different type of ''air'' than the air we breath
Prāṇa is the Sanskrit word for "life force" and permeates the Universe on all levels presently not fully understood by modern materialistic science. Prana is often referred to as the "life energy" needed to keep the Universe a float.
In Vedic literature, prana is sometimes described as originating from the Sun and connecting the elements of the Universe. This life energy has been vividly invoked and described in the ancient Vedas and Upanishads.
We are only in the very early pioneering stages of understanding the Srimad Bhagavatam given to us by Srila Prabhupada just a short 50 years ago.
Srimad Bhagavatam also says there are Islands and Varsha's existing but its real meaning is there are Planets within the ''ocean of air in outer space'' and all those different seas of Milk, Yogurt, Liquor, Sugar cane, etc are not on this Earth Globe we are on but on those different spherical Planets within the Bhu-Mandala Universe made up of all the 14 Planetary Systems.

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