From Denmark to Finland to Estonia

26 September 2011 was a full travel day for us. Immediately after mangala arati at 4:30am at the ISKCON temple in Copenhagen, Denmark we headed out to the airport to check in for an early morning flight to Helsinki, Finland. After landing in Helsinki, devotees from ISKCON's Helsinki temple picked us up and drove us to the Helsinki temple for lunch. After lunch we rested for a bit, and then we took a ship across the Gulf of Finland to Tallinn, Estonia, where the devotees greeted us with a super ecstatic kirtan and where we will be teaching the science of bhakti for a week both in and outside of Tallinn.

26 September 2011 After Crossing the Gulf of Finland...

We Had an Ecstatic Kirtan Arrival in Tallinn, Estonia

Answers by Citing the Vedic Version

Question: Are the Vedas Mythology?

Dear Guru,

Please accept my humble obeisances.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

I pray that I am not asking a question that was covered before I became a member of the course or that I am doing anything to offend you or Lord Krishna. But I was watching a BBC production today on the history of India. They talked about the great battle that happened 5,000 years ago with Arjuna and Lord Krishna. They said that the battle was nothing more than Indian mythology and that Krishna was a king at that time. What proof is there that Lord Sri Krishna is who we know Him to be, and not just a man of the time? Or are we to take this on faith? In mythology people are said to be able to do great magical things, but it does not necessarily mean that they are true. For example in one of the early cantos of the Srimad Bhagavatam it says the because of all the mining for gold the earth fell into a place of greater evil ( if you like) and that if we do not stop our oil drilling the same thing could happen to us. The Bhagavatam explains that Lord Krishna out of His infinite compassion changed Himself into a gigantic boar and lifted the earth into its proper orbit with His tusks. Please help me with my dilemma. I would like to take these things at face value, but some of them seem a bit of a stretch for me. If I cannot believe all of them, which parts should I accept as historical fact and which as mythology?

Your humble servant,
Bruce

Answer: The Vedas Are History, Not Myth.

Because the Vedic histories describe many events that are beyond the limited experience and comprehension of modern day men, we often hear the foolish mundaners claim that the Vedic histories are mythology. But where is the proof of such a claim? There is no proof. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is unlimitedly powerful and can do anything both conceivable and inconceivable. So-called intellectuals blindly reject the authority of the Vedic literatures, but someone who is actually intelligent does not blindly accept or reject anything. All the descriptions given in the Vedic scriptures, even the most inconceivable ones, can be personally confirmed by anyone who awakens their original divine consciousness. The fools blindly say that only those things that are empirically verifiable can be accepted as true, even though the truth of this philosophical principle is not empirically verifiable.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari