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Compiled by:

Tapasvini devi dasi

Hare Krishna Sunday School Program sponsored by:

ISKCON Foundation

Contents

Lesson

Introduction

1. Can There be Life on Other Planets?

2. UFOs and Heavenly Vimanas

3. Extraterrestials and Mystic Powers

4. Order in the Universe

5. Is Earth Special?

6. Description of Life on Other Planets

7. Test or Projects

Quiz

Worksheets

Page

1

3

7

9

13

17

20

22

23

25

Introduction

"Is there life on other planets?" This stimulating question has beenasked for hundreds of years. Modem scientists have taken a keen interest inthe subject and billions of dollars have been spent on research in outer space.In this session we'll hear some of the UFO experiences of recent years andcompare them with examples from the Vedas.

This subject is fascinating for children and adults alike. Most of theinformation from the children's book was taken from Richard Thompson's(Sadaputa das) book entitled Alien Identities. The teacher should mostdefinitely have a copy of this book for this session. It is invaluable as areference and you will probably also want to read more of the incredibleaccounts of UFO encounters to the students.

The Vedic explanation for what is typically seen in UFO encounters isgiven. Most explanations are quite logical once you know the Vedic scienceof mystic yoga siddhis. The knowledge available in the Vedas, which hasbeen ingeniously presented in Alien Identities, sheds light on the hazy topic oflife on other planets.

From this course we would like the children to understand that lifedoes exist on other planets. There are references throughout the scriptures ofintelligent beings from other planets. Lord Brahma, Lord Siva, DhruvaMaharaj, and the Devas are just a few. Although this point is very clear, thechildren often believe in what they hear in school and from the scientists: Nolife on the moon, signs of plant life on Mars but no intelligent life, etc. We'reasking them to be open-minded and realize that modem science may bedeficient in determining these things .

For that reason, as well as keeping students' interest at its peak, relatemany other close encounters (well-documented ones) throughout the session.Many experiences can be found in Alien Identities. You can also find manybooks available at your local library that are listed in the bibliography ofAlien Identities. Many features of typical close encounters will be explainedin Vedic context throughout the session.

You have a choice of giving a test at the end of the session, orrequiring the students to do a project. If you decide on doing the projects,allow some class time for them to work on their projects and have appropriatebooks available for them to use for research. At the end of the session, youmay want to have a parent/student party in which they can present or displaytheir projects and receive recognition.

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Lesson OneCan There be Life on Other Planets?

1. Ifpossible, attain pictures of UFOs , aliens, demigods , demons and theplanets to place around the room. You may also want to copy short excerptsof close encounter experiences and put them up around the room.

Introduce the topic for the session. Tell the children that men havealways been curious about life on other planets. In this session, we willexplore what our scriptures have to say about life on other planets and alsohow our scriptures may help explain modem UFO information.

It may be helpful for the students if you go over some terms you will beusing this session. Define the words alien, UFO, close encounter, humanoid,and extraterrestial. Write the terms on the board and make sure theyunderstand the meanings of the words.• UFO -- unidentified flying object• Close encounter -- an encounter with a UFO or an alien; there are 6

categories of close encounters:1) Close encounters of the first kind: a UFO is spotted within 500 feet2) Close encounters of the second kind: sighting of a UFO that also leaves

physical traces, such as marks in the dirt, burned grass, etc.3) Close encounters of the third kind: a UFO sighting in which humanoid

occupants are seen4) Close encounters of the fourth kind: a UFO encounter in which a person

is taken aboard the spacecraft5) Close encounters of the fifth kind: repeated encounters by the same

person; contactees6) Close encounters of the sixth kind: encounters that result in an injury or

death• humanoid -- one of the 400,000 species ofhumans from various planets• extraterrestial -- a being or spacecraft from a planet beyond ours.

2. Introduce the verse for the session. It is Bhagavad Gita 8.16.

a-brahma-bhuoanai {otalipunar aoattino 'tjuna

mam upetya tu taunteyapunarjanma na vUyate

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~rom the fiigfiest planet in tfie material wodd down to tfie louiest, af{ are places ofmisery wherein. repeated birtfi and death. ta~ peace. tEut one wfio attains to Myabode, 0 son ofx:.unti, never tal(es birtfi again.

This should be written in advance on a large chart paper or chalkboardthat can be seen by all the children. It is also in their booklets on Page 1.Teach it the same way we learn a Bhagavatam verse -- first having studentsrepeat each word, then each line, as you lead. Chant three or four times withthem responding, then ask for volunteers to lead the chanting. As studentslead, the rest of class still chants responsively. Students then repeat Englishtranslation after you.

Chanting of the sloka should be done at the beginning of each weeklylesson. It is an excellent way of getting the children settled in and theirattention focused. By the end of the session, they should easily havemastered the verse having practiced this way.

3. Ask students some of the questions they have when they think of life onother planets. Let them toss out questions without worrying about theanswers right now.

Ask why people might not believe that there is life on other planets.Take a poll. How many students in the class believe intelligent life exists onplanets besides Earth? How many think Earth is the only planet withintelligent life?

4. Take a minute to talk about the varieties of life we find on the earth.Collect some library books or magazines that have good pictures of animalsthat live in extreme conditions, such as penguins, desert animals, fish oraquatic animals, polar bears or other arctic animals, moles. Show eachpicture and ask the students what sort of surroundings this animal lives in andwhat special features the animal has to survive in such a situation.

Ask students to name other animals that live in water; in high altitudes,in very hot and very cold places; under the ground; in places where there isno sun. Ask how it is possible that these beings can live in places thathumans could not. From this they can see that life can adapt itself to manysituations -- situations in which a human could not survive. The animal hasthe proper body for its environment.

Point out that if this is possible on Earth, it can also be possible onother planets. There may be living entities who don't need oxygen to survive.Perhaps there are those who can live without sunlight and fresh water. We

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may not find life exactly as that on the earth but that doesn't mean that thereis no life.

5. Tell the children that there have been accounts of people seeing strange"flying machines" and beings that are clearly not humans (as we know them).You can take the time now to read some accounts of these UFO or aliensightings. Two are told of in their booklets. There are others listed in AlienEncounters. You can choose a couple more that you feel your students maybe interested in.

6. After students have heard personal accounts of close encounters tell themabout the statement in the Vedas saying that there are 400,000 species ofhumanlike beings living on various planets. This is a straightforward Vedicstatement that shows that life, intelligent life, is present on planets besides ourown.

Ask students if they know any people on other planets. Lord Brahma,Lord Siva, Dhruva Maharaj, Yamaraj, Narada Muni are some possibleanswers. None of them reside on Earth now. If we accept that there are400,000 species ofhuman life, we can expect a great variety of humans, somesimilar to us and some very different. It is possible that these modemaccounts of encounters with aliens could be true.

7. The purpose of this first class is to encourage the children to be open­minded. You may want to show a video about UFOs and close encounters.If so, stick to a documentary or one based on true experiences rather thanHollywood fiction, Later we will be showing how there are logicalexplanations in the Vedas of how these seemingly unbelievable accountscould be real.

If you are unable to obtain a video, you can also relate more accountsof sightings. Some are listed in Alien Identities that tell of Air Forcepersonnel who have seen strange objects that registered on radar. Thestudents may find these more believable.

Whether you show a video or tell other UFO stories, encouragediscussion afterwards. The children will be very enlivened about the topicand will look forward to the upcoming classes where we explore differentaspects of alien life.

8. Reading of the chapter and the questions on Page 7 can be assigned forhomework. If you have classtime left, this can be done in class.

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Lesson TwoUFOs and Heavenly Vimanas

1. Chant the verse for the session.

2. Review last week's lesson briefly. See who can remember how manyspecies of human life there are. Let children relate the answers to thequestions they did for homework.

3. In this lesson we will explore the "flying machines" or aircraft of otherhumanlike beings. You may read the account related on Page 8 of the studentbooklet. Ask them to tell you of some of the special features that the UFOexhibited. (It appeared suddenly, had bright glowing lights, fluttered from sideto side, was silent and was huge.)

Many sightings ofUFOs have common characteristics. The aircraftmay appear suddenly as if out of nowhere and it may disappear instantly.Extremely bright lights are noticed and sometimes a humming noise is heard.The flying object may speed up very quickly and move faster than an airplaneor jet.

There are videos available that show actual footage ofUFOs. Portionsof such a video can be shown so that students can see what sort of things arebeing seen and reported. One video entitled "UFOs: Above and Beyond" isan interesting and shows many UFO sightings.

4. Tell the students that fantastic flying machines are often mentioned in theVedas. They are called vimanas and seemed to be quite common. You canrelate the story of Salva and his mysterious airplane. This is from Chapters21 and 22 of Krishna Book. You can read the entire section before class formore details.

After describing Salva's machine ask students how Salva's vimana wassimilar to a UFO. (It could disappear and reappear, accelerate quickly, flewabout unsteadily -- not straight and was bright [like a whirling firebrandj),

Other mentions of vimanas are told in the student booklets on Page 10and 11. A very famous one not mentioned is Kardama Muni's palatialairplane in which he and Devahuti flew throughout the universe. Adescription of this can be found in Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto 3, Chapter 23,Texts 12 -43. Tell of these and let students compare with modem UFO

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information. How are the airships similar? How are they different? Whatcould be an explanation for the differences in appearance?

5. Alien Identitites contains a whole chapter on vimanas (Chapter 7). Youcan find more information and more comparisons to relate to your class.Read the section before class and mark appropriate passages you'd like toshare.

6. Conclude with the thought that UFOs are certainly not a newphenomenon. Perhaps ifVedic knowledge was still widely practiced in theworld people would not be so astounded to see actual UFOs. Theirexistence, recorded thousands ofyears ago, leads us to believe that flyingmachines, made by humans who have great technological abilities, are still inexistence. Is it possible that other humanoids have also evolved and havegrown in their knowledge oftechnology and space travel? One hundred yearsago we were not sending mannedspaceships to other planets. Yet now, abeing from Mars or from the moon may stumble upon a "UFO" from Earth!

7. The matching exercise on Page 13 can be done in class or for homework.Answers are below.

UF

flying machine mentioned in the Vedas

Iso owned a vimana made for combat

a Danava ruler who was expert in technology

an enemy of Krishna who owned a wonderful flying machine

unidentified flying object

leased by Salva's austerity

omething vimanas and UFO's can do

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Lesson ThreeExtraterrestials and Mystic Powers

1. Chant the verse for the session.

2. Review last week's lesson briefly about vimanas and the special abilitiesthey may have.

3. Tell the children that it isn't only the flying objects that seem to havespecial powers. People who claim to have seen extraterrestials have reportedthat the beings have powers that humans don't possess. We will discuss thisin greater detail shortly.

The accounts given ofthe way the extraterrestials look are also unique.You can relate some descriptions of extraterrestials given by witnesses.

In many cases they are described as being small grayish figures withlarge heads, Their eyes are large and black, their nose may be only twonostrils and a slit maybe all they have for a mouth. Some drawings made bywitnesses appear on Pages 14 and 15 of the student booklets.

There are other reports of "aliens" appearing extremely graceful andbeautiful. In Alien Identities an account is given of a beautiful womandressed in traditional Vedic clothing ("The Smallpox Lady"). All thesedescriptions fit in well with the Vedic idea of entities being in the mode ofgoodness, passion or ignorance.

4. Read the accounts ofMaurice Masse and William Herrmann that are inthe student booklets on Page 14. Ask the students to tell you what unusualpowers or results they hear in this passage.

5. There are many books available from libraries about the UFOphenomenon. You will find them in both the adult section and the children'ssection of the library. Try to get several books, preferably from the children'ssection, that tell about encounters with UFOs and aliens. Mark a fewexamples before class of encounters in which the beings may have exhibitedspecial powers. Alien Identities also has several short accounts that can beused for this activity.

Divide the class into groups of three or four. Give each group one ortwo books (with the appropriate passages marked) and have one person in thegroup read the account to the other group members. Within their groups they

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should write down any display of special powers an alien or spacecraftseemed to display.

When all groups have finished, let each group summarize the accountthey read to the rest of the class. They should then read the list of specialpowers that they came up with.

6. Now we'll explore the accounts of the aliens' special powers. In theVedas we read of many Devas and other higher beings who haveextraordinary powers. Ask the students for some examples. (Someexamples: The fighting in the battle of Kurukshetra was filled with amazingfeats and unimaginable skills like invisibility, weapons sent by mantra,weapons that showered rain, hail, thunder and lightning, etc. The friends ofHanuman lifted boulders to build the bridge to Lanka and Hanuman himselfcarried a mountain while flying through the air. Narada Muni floats throughthe universe playing his vina. Putana was able to change her shape into abeautiful woman -- when she died she assumed her real form which stretchedfor eight miles. It is said that the Pandavas never walked upon the ground -­they were held several inches above the earth as other Devas are.)

7. Explain that many of these powers seem to resemble mystic siddhis.Write "siddhis" on the chalkboard so the students will become familiar withthe term. Siddhis are special powers that the Devas are endowed with.Through long and difficult yoga practices, these siddhis are available toanyone but they are very rare for someone of this earth to achieve. Thesiddhis that are listed in the student booklets follow. Following each is anexample ofways that extraterrestials have been reported to use that siddhi.Give examples of specific accounts for as many as you can. The students willbe greatly interested.

1. Mental communication and thought-reading. Often extraterrestials havecommunicated with humans this way, not through normal speaking.Vedic humanoids also can communicate this way.

2. Being able to see or hear at a great distance.3. Laghima-siddhi: antigravity or becoming lighter than air and floating.

Witnesses report extraterrestials as ''floating through the air" or movingalong as ifon a beam oflight.

4. Anima-siddhi and mahima-siddhi: the power to make objects or livingbodies larger or very, very small. Often UFOs are seen to shrink orgrow.

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5. The ability to move objects directly through the ether, without beingstopped by solid objects (walking through walls, carrying things throughdoors or closed windows, etc.) Witnesses have reported many instancesofthis.

6. Vasita-siddhi: the power of controlling someone through hypnosis, eventhough far away. Witnesses often are unable to remember encounterswith extraterrestials, as if they have been programmed to forget. Theymay also feel compelled to go to a certain place (as if someone iscontrolling their thoughts) and thereby meet a UFO or extraterrestial.

7. Antardhana: invisibility. UFOs frequently "disappear" after beingclearly seen for awhile.

8. The ability to assume different forms or to generate false bodily forms.Vedic accounts of this are numerous -- Putana, Suparnaka, KardamaMuni, Ravana, Marici, etc.

9. The power ofentering another person's body and controlling it. Similarto Number 6, witnesses report doing things in cooperation with aliens,speaking alien languages, etc. that they have no knowledge ofor interestin.

8. Students can now learn of some Vedic accounts where the mystic siddhiswere employed. The story of Aniruddha and Usha is related in the studentbooklet on Page 16. The complete story can be found in Volume 2 ofKrishna Book, Chapter 7. The telepathic power of Vyasadeva is alsomentioned.

Allow time for discussion of other examples that you or the studentsbring up. Ask for more instances of mystic powers or unusual appearances.End with the point that with 400,000 species of human life we have to expectsome variety. But we do wonder.... If other beings are so much morepowerful than we are, why don't they just conquer us? We'll learn why inthe next couple ofweeks.

9. For this session, you have the choice of assigning projects or giving a fmaltest. If you are going to require the students to do a project, announce it atthis time so they will have time to decide what they wish to do.

Pass out copies of Worksheet _ which gives several suggestions forprojects. Students may work alone or in a small group. It isn't necessary tolimit the projects to the ideas listed on the worksheet. If a student wants todo something different, he should first have the idea approved by the teacher.Be sure to tell them the date that the project is due. For best results, allow

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