Question: If human beings ever establish colonies on the moon, will their presence affect the moon in any way that will be evident? I mean, will it give the moon a different kind of consciousness or will the people who live there have a different kind of consciousness?

Sri Chinmoy: If millions of human beings colonise the moon, there is some possibility that the moon will be affected. It will be affected because human beings are so impure. By nature the moon is purer than we are, but it is also affected by wrong forces and tempting forces. The presence of human beings will make the moon more impure.

We will also be affected because when we go there, we will not go with aspiration. Earth’s technology is highly developed; that is why we will be able to go to the moon. But we will not go with any aspiration. Once we are there what will happen is that we will not find any link between the earth and the moon. Here on earth at least we are solid. We have a firm foundation. Today we can pray and meditate or we can sleep, but there we will not be able to. In the moon world for centuries and centuries we will have no foundation at all. If the cosmic forces that have already attacked the moon spontaneously attack us, at that time we will be baseless.

On earth at least we have a base. Earth was made for human beings to live on, but it has taken millions of years to develop. For human beings to live in the moon world will be a new adventure. And as we will create problems for the moon, even so the moon will create problems for us. No matter how much we attack the moon with our own forces, it will be able to escape somehow. But when the moon creates problems for us, we will be helpless and hopeless because we will be strangers there. If I come and attack you at your place, it will be difficult for me to defeat you because you know that particular area well. And once I am there if you decide to attack me, I will be totally lost because I will not have any footing there. So when we are on the moon, if the forces from the moon attack us, we will be totally lost. But if we attack the moon, the moon will somehow survive.