Anumana means

Expressions researched:
"Anumana means"

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Anumāna means you can conjecture, make an..., "It may be like this. It may be like this. Perhaps it is like this." This is called anumāna.

Lecture on BG 2.13 -- New York, March 11, 1966:

Now, now, this, in these days of scientific advancement you take a dead man. You sit down. Now, we shall see how the soul transmigrates from this body to another. You cannot see. You cannot see. Our eyes are not qualified to see it. Therefore the all the senses, they should be spiritualized. If we want to see the spirit whole... The Lord is spirit whole. We cannot see even the spirit part. Our, our... We are very much proud of our senses, but our senses are so imperfect that... Now I see with my eyes, but I cannot see my eyelid. You see? The eyelid is always attached with my eye, but I cannot see. So our power of using the senses, that is very limited. So we should not depend only on the senses. Pratyakṣa. It is called pratyakṣa-anumāna. There are three kinds of evidences, pratyakṣa, anumāna, and aitihya. Pratyakṣa means that you can directly perceive. That is called pratyakṣa. And anumāna. Anumāna means you can conjecture, make an..., "It may be like this. It may be like this. Perhaps it is like this." This is called anumāna. And the other evidence is aitihya. Aitihya means to take evidences from the authority. So according... Out of these three evidences, this aitihya evidence, just like we are taking instruction of Bhagavad-gītā, sound, sound vibrated by the greatest personality, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, that sort of pramāṇa is acceptable. That is the best. This is the best way of acquiring knowledge. Because so far direct evidence is concerned, it is impossible. Because our senses are so imperfect, we cannot have anything. We can, we can have some direct experience of certain things, but not for all, especially for these spiritual things which is beyond our experience.

Anumāna means speculation, simply, "It may be like this. It may be like that."

Lecture on BG 2.13 -- New York, March 11, 1966:

So pratyakṣa means direct evidence you cannot have. And anumāna means speculation, simply, "It may be like this. It may be like that." Oh, that is also imperfect because our thinking is also limited, because our senses are limited. So our thinking power, mind, is one of the senses. Out of the ten, mind is considered to be the eleventh sense. There are five karmendriya and five sensory organs and working organs, ten, and the mind is the chief. So mind is also considered as one of the senses, the chief senses. You see? So because it is sense, it is imperfect. So by mental speculation we cannot have a into right conclusion, by mental speculation. Those are simply speculating on mind, they can make some progress to a certain extent, but they cannot reach the ultimate goal. It is not possible by mental speculation; neither it is possible by direct evidence. The only, only possible evidence is authority, authority.

Anumāna means just like the children are playing there. We are hearing their sound.

Lecture on BG 4.3-6 -- New York, July 18, 1966:

There are three kinds of proofs. According to Vedic system, they accept three kinds. For establishing truth, they, they take three kinds of proofs: pratyakṣa, anumāna, aitihya. In logic also, these three kinds of proofs are accepted. What is that? Now, direct perception. You are seeing. I am sitting here. That is direct knowledge. I am seeing that you are sitting here. That is direct knowledge, pratyakṣa. Anumāna. Anumāna means just like the children are playing there. We are hearing their sound. So we can conjecture that there are some children. We don't see the children. But we can conjecture, we can think, we can imagine that there are some children who are playing there. This is called anumāna.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Anumāna means I cannot see directly, but by the symptoms I can imagine. That is anumāna.

Lecture on SB 6.1.46 -- San Diego, July 27, 1975:

Anumīyate. Anumīyate means hypothesis. This is also an evidence. Pratyakṣa, anumāna, and śruta. According to Vedic principles, there are three different types of evidences. Everything must be proved by evidence. So these are primarily three evidences. Pratyakṣa, direct perception, pratyakṣa; anumāna; and śruti. Anumāna means I cannot see directly, but by the symptoms I can imagine. That is anumāna. Just like I have seen that in the month of April, May, June, we can get mangoes. That is our direct experience. So similarly, we can say, in the month of January, we can say that "In the month of April, May, June, we shall have mangoes." In the January there is no mango. But because I know, I experienced in my last April, May, June, so similarly, this intuition is nothing but experience of my last life. That is called intuition. The rascals, they say that there is no experience.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Anumāna means "by right person." Thinking that it may be like this, anumāna. That is called anumāna.

Morning Walk -- May 19, 1975, Melbourne:

Madhudviṣa: In other books, Śrīla Prabhupāda, it says things and then in time you can see them, you can substantiate them. But some of the descriptions in the Bhāgavatam are so fantastic that people, I mean, its very difficult for people to even...

Prabhupāda: Therefore you have to believe only. You have to accept what Bhāgavata says. That is your business. Not to try to make an experiment. That is not possible. It is already experimented, and the mature knowledge is stated there. You have to accept, that's all. Śruti-pramāṇa. Śruti means Vedas. Evidence... Vedic literature there are three kinds of evidences. The most powerful evidence is śruti. If it is stated in the Vedas, that is first-class evidence. Therefore whatever we say, immediately quote some Vedic version, that is the way of understanding. Kṛṣṇa says, Vyāsadeva says, Parāśara says, that's all. We don't require much proof. This is the first-class proof, when you find the statement corroborated by the Vedas. And śruti, smṛti. Smṛti means literature written according to the Vedic version. Śruti-smṛti-purāṇādi (Brs. 1.2.101). Purāṇādi is itihāsa, history. And another pramāṇa is anumāna. And anumāna means "by right person." Thinking that it may be like this, anumāna. That is called anumāna.