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youtube: JD4opuIJFhE|Vedic Cosmology - Mysteries of the Sacred Universe
source: http://www.vedskaakademija.yolasite.com/resources/PDF/nauka/Mysteries%20of%20the%20Sacred%20Universe%20-%20An%20Overview.pdf
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Mysteries of the Sacred Universe
Richard L Thompson

In Conclusion (from the pdf)
For centuries the cosmology of the Bhagavatam has seemed incomprehensible to most
observers, encouraging many people either to summarily reject it or to accept it literally with
unquestioning faith. If we take it literally, the cosmology of the Bhagavatam not only differs from
modern astronomy, but, more important, it also suffers from internal contradictions and violations of
common sense. These very contradictions, however, point the way to a different understanding
of Bhagavatacosmology in which it emerges as a deep and scientifically sophisticated system of
thought. The contradictions show that they are caused by overlapping self-consistent interpretations
that use the same textual elements to expound different ideas.

Each of the four interpretations I’ve presented deserves to be taken seriously because each is
supported by many points in the text that are consistent with one another while agreeing with modern
astronomy. I’ve applied the context-sensitive or multiple-aspect approach, in which the same subject
has different meanings in different contexts. This approach allows for the greatest amount of
information to be stored in a picture or text, reducing the work required by the artist or writer. At the
same time, it means that the work cannot be taken literally as a one-to-one model of reality, and it
requires the viewer or reader to understand the different relevant contexts. This can be difficult when
knowledge of context is lost over long periods of time.