Instruments of acquiring knowledge are imperfect

Expressions researched:
"acquiring knowledge is always imperfect" |"imperfect. We cannot acquire knowledge" |"instrument of acquiring knowledge, are so imperfect" |"instruments by which we acquire knowledge, that is imperfect" |"instruments by which we acquire knowledge, they are imperfect" |"instruments of acquiring knowledge are imperfect" |"knowledge acquired through such imperfect eyes" |"knowledge acquiring senses, are imperfect"

CC Adi-lila

To our untrained eyes the sun appears to be just like a plate, and to the eyes of one who is suffering from jaundice everything appears to be yellow. Therefore we cannot rely on the knowledge acquired through such imperfect eyes.

CC Adi 7.107, Purport:

The final defect of the materialistic person is his inefficient senses. Although our eyes, for example, have the power to see, they cannot see that which is situated at a distance, nor can they see the eyelid, which is the object nearest to the eye. To our untrained eyes the sun appears to be just like a plate, and to the eyes of one who is suffering from jaundice everything appears to be yellow. Therefore we cannot rely on the knowledge acquired through such imperfect eyes. The ears are equally imperfect. We cannot hear a sound vibrated a long distance away unless we put a telephone to our ear. Similarly, if we analyze all our senses in this way, we will find them all to be imperfect. Therefore it is useless to acquire knowledge through the senses. The Vedic process is to hear from authority. In the Bhagavad-gītā (4.2) the Lord says, evaṁ paramparā-prāptam imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ: "The supreme science was thus received through the chain of disciplic succession, and the saintly kings understood it in that way." We have to hear not from a telephone but from an authorized person, for it is he who has real knowledge.