So we have to take this knowledge from authority. Here is Kṛṣṇa speaking. He's authority. We accept Kṛṣṇa: the Supreme Personality of Godhead. His knowledge is perfect. He knows past, present, and future. Therefore, He is teaching Arjuna, "My dear Arjuna, the spirit soul within this body is eternal." That's a fact. Just like I can understand, I was in the past, I am in present, so I must be in the future. These are three phases of time, past, present, and future. In another place, we read in this Bhagavad-gītā, na jāyate na mriyate vā kadācit. The living entity is never born; neither it dies. Na jāyate means he never takes birth. Na jāyate na mriyate, it never dies. Nityaṁ śāśvato 'yam, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). It is eternal, śāśvata, existing forever. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). By annihilation of this body, the soul does not die. Because... This is also confirmed in the Upaniṣads, Vedas: nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām eko bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān. The God is also eternal, and we are also eternal. We are part and parcels of God. Just like gold and fragments of gold; both of them are gold. Although I am fragment, a particle of gold or the spirit, still, I am spirit. So we get this information that both God and we, living entities, we are eternal. Nityo nityānām, nitya means eternal.
Receive knowledge from authorities
Expressions researched:
"knowledge from authorities"
|"knowledge from authority"
|"knowledge from the authorities"
|"knowledge is received from authorities"
Srimad-Bhagavatam
SB Canto 1
As mentioned above, the cosmic creation is the property of the Supreme Lord. This is the basic philosophy of Īśopaniṣad: everything is the property of the Supreme Being. No one should encroach upon the property of the Supreme Lord. One should accept only what is kindly awarded by Him. Therefore, the earth or any other planet or universe is the absolute property of the Lord. The living beings are certainly His parts and parcels, or sons, and thus every one of them has a right to live at the mercy of the Lord to execute his prescribed work. No one, therefore, can encroach upon the right of another individual man or animal without being so sanctioned by the Lord. The king or the administrator is the representative of the Lord to look after the management of the Lord's will. He must therefore be a recognized person like Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira or Parīkṣit. Such kings have full responsibility and knowledge from authorities about the administration of the world. But at times, due to the influence of the ignorance mode of material nature (tamo-guṇa), the lowest of the material modes, kings and administrators come into power without knowledge and responsibility, and such foolish administrators live like animals for the sake of their own personal interest. The result is that the whole atmosphere becomes surcharged with anarchy and vicious elements. Nepotism, bribery, cheating, aggression and, therefore, famine, epidemic, war and similar other disturbing features become prominent in human society. And the devotees of the Lord or the faithful are persecuted by all means. All these symptoms indicate the time of an incarnation of the Lord to reestablish the principles of religion and to vanquish the maladministrators. This is also confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā.
SB Canto 7
A saintly person doesn't wish to speak to anyone and everyone, and he is therefore grave and silent. Generally a common man does not need to be advised. Unless one is prepared to take instructions, it is said that a saintly person should not address him, although sometimes, because of great kindness, a saintly person speaks to ordinary men. As for Prahlāda Mahārāja, however, since he was not a common, ordinary man, whatever questions he posed would have to be answered, even by a great and exalted personality. Therefore the saintly brāhmaṇa did not remain silent, but began to answer. These answers, however, were not concocted by him. This is indicated by the words yathā-śrutam, meaning "as I have heard from the authorities." In the paramparā system, when the questions are bona fide the answers are bona fide. No one should attempt to create or manufacture answers. One must refer to the śāstras and give answers according to Vedic understanding. The words yathā-śrutam refer to Vedic knowledge. The Vedas are known as śruti because this knowledge is received from authorities. The statements of the Vedas are known as śruti-pramāṇa. One should quote evidence from the śruti—the Vedas or Vedic literature—and then one's statements will be correct. Otherwise one's words will proceed from mental concoction.
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
He (Kṛṣṇa) comes and He sends His own, I mean to say, confidential sons or servants to give us information of the spiritual world of God, or everything, both material and spiritual. This knowledge is perfect knowledge. We have to receive from the authority.
In the material world also. Now some students, they come here to learn scientific knowledge because it is understood Western countries, they're advanced in scientific knowledge. So why they come? Because they think that Western scientists are authorities. The process is there, to receive knowledge from authority. Similarly, some serious students, they go to India, they try to search out some saintly persons to receive knowledge about the spiritual world.
This is very important point. The process of understanding knowledge. The modern tendency is to understand by dint of one's sense perception. That is not possible. There are many things, especially spiritual matters; nobody can understand by simple speculation. So one has to accept the authority. So according to Vedic culture, the Vedas are the authority. If there is some information in the Vedas, you accept it, authority. That is very nice system.
Just like a child. If he wants to understand something out of his own intelligence, it is very difficult to understand, but if he asks his parents, "Mother, what is this?" mother says, "My dear child, this is this." So he understands immediately, "Oh." Because mother is the authority. Mother will not cheat the child. Similarly, those who are liberated persons... Vedas means the knowledge given by the liberated person, by God. So if you accept it, then you get the knowledge immediately. You haven't got to make research or philosophical speculation.
That process is deductive process. That process is very nice. So Vedic process means, as it is stated in the Fourth Chapter, that evaṁ paramparā-prāptam (BG 4.2), by disciplic succession, if you try to understand the truth, then you get infallible knowledge. Your purpose is to get knowledge. As soon as you get the knowledge from authority, your knowledge is perfect. But if you want to get the knowledge by your own sense perception, you will never be able to come to the right conclusion; neither it is possible to get knowledge in that process.
So even for material understanding which is beyond our sense perception we have to receive knowledge from authority. Similarly, we cannot understand what is God. But from the authoritative sources we can understand that God is so great. Just like in the Brahma-saṁhitā it is stated that yasyaika-niśvasita-kālam athāvalambya jīvanti loma-vilajā jagad-aṇḍa-nāthāḥ (Bs. 5.48)—that you see this universe, and in each universe there is a predominating demigod which is called Brahmā, or jagad-aṇḍa-nātha, the master of the universe. That master of the universe is living, only taking the duration of breathing of Mahā-Viṣṇu. Just like you are breathing, inhaling and exhaling. So when Mahā-Viṣṇu exhales, innumerable universes come out. And when He inhales, all these universes go into His body. So just imagine how great He is, how big He is. That is not conceivable with our limited sense. But if we believe, then you get the perfect knowledge. There is no doubt. If you don't believe, there is no other way. You cannot understand what is God, or what is His length, what is His breadth.
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
So a layman can put up his own theory in so many ways. Then what shall be the conclusion? The conclusion should be to take authoritative knowledge from authorities—one who is beyond the four defects of common man; one who does not make any mistake. One who is not illusioned, one who does not cheat, and one whose senses are perfect. We are devoid of all these qualifications. We commit mistakes; we are illusioned; we cheat; and at the same time, our senses are imperfect. So how we can give by speculation perfect knowledge? That is not possible. Therefore, our principle, Vedic principle, is to receive knowledge from the perfect. So-called scientists, so-called philosophers... Because basically they're imperfect, how they can give you perfect? They can speak something, "Perhaps it it like that," "Maybe like that," "Perhaps it was like that." All their theories are like that. But actual fact is different. Actual fact we get from the Supreme Person, Kṛṣṇa, that dehāntara-prāptiḥ, tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati
Now we are discussing instruction of Nārada to his disciple, Vyāsadeva. Such a learned scholar, Vyāsadeva. He's known as Vedavyāsa, the authority on all Vedic literature. And he's supposed to be incarnation of Nārāyaṇa, exalted position. Still, he requires the instruction of a spiritual master. That is the way of Vedic way. Avaroha-panthā, āroha-panthā. Āroha-panthā means inductive process. To know from here, from the lower status to the higher status, speculative method, or ascending process. And avaroha-panthā is deductive process, getting knowledge from higher authorities. So our Vedic understanding is to receive knowledge from the authorities. That is perfect knowledge.
Boys and girls, today I shall explain to you the importance of Kṛṣṇa consciousness as it was conceived by one of the greatest devotees in this disciplic succession. You know we are under disciplic succession. We do not manufacture anything by mental concoction. We do not approve that method. We receive knowledge from the authorities and out of such many ācāryas, or authorities, who have appeared and disappeared... We don't say born and died, no. (laughter) Appear and disappear. This is the actual explanation. None of us, either Kṛṣṇa or we or all living entities, they appear and disappear. It is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, Lord Kṛṣṇa says in the battlefield, "My dear Arjuna, either you or Me or all the kings and soldiers who have assembled in this battlefield, don't think that they did not exist in the past and they'll not exist in the future." That means they existed in the past and they're existing at present and they would exist also in the future. That means eternal. Eternal, we are all eternal.
The material scientists, they have no information of ātmā. Therefore they think that in the moon planet there is no life, in the sun planet there is no life. Simply... This is kūpa-maṇḍūka-nyāya. Dr. Frog PhD., he's thinking in his own way. Dr. Frog thinks that this three feet dimension of the well is all in all, there cannot be anything. These rascal philosopher and rascal scientist, they think in that way, Dr. Frog. There cannot be Atlantic Ocean. That three feet dimension, well water is sufficient. Therefore we have to receive knowledge from authorities. We cannot speculate. Speculation will not help us in approaching the real destination.
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures
So one who is dazzled by this glaring effulgence of the rays of Kṛṣṇa, they can realize the Supreme Lord or the Supreme Absolute Truth as impersonal. Sūrya yena carma-cakṣe jyotirmaya bhāse. Carma-cakṣe, with our present eyes, defective... All our senses are defective. We are very much proud of our eyes. I want to see personally. But we do not know that with these eyes or any sense, they are all defective. They are not perfect. Just like in the glare of the sunshine, oh, we see nothing. We see sometimes darkness. So we cannot believe these eyes or senses. We have to take information of perfect knowledge from the authorities. That is the Vedic way. So those who want to see God or the Supreme Absolute Truth by the agency of their imperfect senses, they say that God is impersonal. They're imperfect. That is a realization of the imperfect senses. Perfectly, the perfectly vision, perfect vision of the Supreme Lord is a person. Just like nobody can enter into the sun disc. They can say from distant place, "Oh, there is nothing. It is simply fire." But from scripture we understand, "No, that is a planet." And as in this planet we have got so many variegatedness, similarly, in that planet also, there are... In every planet. There is no reason to disbelieve that in, in the, in other planets there is no life, there is no variegatedness. No. According to Vedic literature, it is not acceptable. Each and every planet, there is variegatedness as we find in this planet. The difference is that in some of the planets earthly matter is prominent, some of the planets fiery elements are prominent. So in the sun, sun planet, fiery elements is very prominent. There the living entities and everything, they are made of fire.
General Lectures
It is not that those who are preaching this Kṛṣṇa cult, they are all perfect. There may be many deficiencies. Any conditional soul has got four deficiencies naturally. He is to commit mistakes. However great man he may be, surely, because he is conditional soul, he'll commit mistake. You know. In our country Mahatma Gandhi, he was a great man undoubtedly, but he also committed mistake, so what to speak of us? A conditioned soul must commit mistake. And he must be illusioned. To accept something as something else, that is called illusion. Just like illusion, best example of illusion, is given that māyā-marīcika, to accept water in the desert. An animal sees that there is water in the desert, and being thirsty, he goes after the water, but the water also makes progress, and he also makes progress. In this way he dies. That is called illusion. Actually, there is no water, but he is fleeing after water. So for conditioned soul these are the defects. He is to commit mistake, he is illusioned, and he has got a cheating propensity also. Everyone is thinking in transaction that "I have cheated that man very nicely. In business transaction I have gained; he has lost." And of all the deficiencies, most important deficiency is that our senses are imperfect. We say, "I want to see God," but we forget that our eyes are so imperfect that I cannot see in the nearest eyelid. As soon as I close my eyes, I do not see the eyelid. This is the power of my seeing. Therefore we should not be so much proud of our seeing power that we'll say that "I want to see God. Can you show me God?" This is not possible.
So these four deficiencies of conditioned soul are there; therefore we cannot have perfect knowledge by our mental speculation. That is not possible. We have to receive knowledge from authorities. That is the process. Mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ (CC Madhya 17.186). If we receive knowledge... Our process is that we are trying to receive knowledge from Kṛṣṇa, the greatest mahājana, the greatest authority, and if we follow the instruction of Kṛṣṇa, then we are perfect.
So this Brahma-saṁhitā, the point is, in this Brahma-saṁhitā Kṛṣṇa's name is there. In the Atharva Veda there is Kṛṣṇa's name. So our process of knowledge, if there is Vedic evidence, that is perfect. You don't require to experiment. Experimental knowledge is never perfect. The same example as we have given several times: that which is unknowable, inconceivable, that knowledge you cannot get by experiment. That is not possible. You have to receive the knowledge from authority. Just like you cannot understand who is your father by experiment, laboratory. Bring every man and analyze him whether he is your father. Is it possible? No. How many men you will bring in the laboratory? That is not possible. But if you approach to the authority, the mother, immediately you get the knowledge. Ask your mother, "Who is my father?" She'll say, "Here is your father." That means you receive the knowledge from the authority, not by experimental knowledge. Which is inconceivable, beyond your perception, beyond your imagination, that knowledge you cannot get by experiment. They are trying to make experi... (break) ...soul. The so-called scientists, they say, "We are trying." You can try on, but it is beyond your experience, beyond your knowledge. Your senses are all imperfect. You can... You cannot understand soul by experimental knowledge. You have to hear from the authority.
Philosophy Discussions
Prabhupāda: Prahlāda Mahārāja recommends that, that when he was asked by his father what is the best thing he had learned, he said this is the best thing: that he should give up this materialistic way of life and take shelter of the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa. That is the best thing. Tat sādhu manye 'sura-varya dehinām. Dehinām means those who have accepted the material body. For them. And dehinām, one who has accepted this body, sadā samudvigna-dhiyām asad-grahāt (SB 7.5.5), because he is eternal, but he has accepted something which is not eternal, asat. It is limited. He is unlimited, but he is entrapped by something which is limited. Therefore, sadā samudvigna-dhiyām. Just like we have got our own land in Māyāpur, so we can go and live there. There is no question of Bhatiwalla. But we won't go there. We have accepted this apartment. Therefore we must change it. Is it not? We are paying three thousand rupees—still anxiety, because we know at any moment he can be a trouble and kick out. So asad-grahāt. It is not your place you have accepted. Similarly, because you have accepted this material body, then there must be anxiety. Anyone, he may be Mr. Nixon, or he may be Mr. Ayub Khan, or a man in the street, or an ant, or Brahma, or anyone, because he has accepted asad-grahāt, this body, it is not exist; he must be in anxiety. This is knowledge. Therefore you have to learn knowledge from authorities-Prahlāda Mahārāja. So Prahlāda Mahārāja says, recommends, that you should give up this, this way of life. Hitvātma-pātaṁ gṛham andha-kūpam. This acceptance of body is just like to fall down in a dark well, blind well. So one should give it up. How give it up? How it can go? Harim āśrayeta: just take shelter of Kṛṣṇa. So that is the meaning. That means Kṛṣṇa consciousness. You give up this material consciousness. Material consciousness means how I shall live, how I shall eat, how I shall sleep, how I shall enjoy my senses, how I shall defend. This is material existence. This is material existence. And spiritual existence means I take shelter of Kṛṣṇa, He is my protector, I am (indistinct). This. (Sanskrit). To have firm faith that I have taken shelter of Kṛṣṇa, He is giving me protection. I have no anxiety. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We are giving that. So take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and become anxietyless. That's all. That is our propaganda. "Come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness and be free from all anxiety." That's all.
Hayagrīva: Well he (Jung) felt that the level of consciousness could not supersede whatever knowledge is available on this planet. I guess that's clear.
Prabhupāda: No, it can supersede, provided you get knowledge from authority. Just like somebody is sitting here, he has not seen India. But somebody who has full knowledge of India or seen or gone there, he can describe, and he can understand that there is place, India, the place is like this, like that. So similarly, from authority, just like Kṛṣṇa says, there is another nature: paras tasmāt tu bhāvaḥ anyaḥ avyaktaḥ avyaktāt sanātanaḥ (BG 8.20). That nature is eternal. Here, this nature as we find, it is not eternal. It is temporary. It takes birth, it is maintained for sometimes, it changes, it becomes old, and again destroyed, finished. And therefore in this material there is dissolution, but there is another world, which has no dissolution. That information we get from authority, Kṛṣṇa. Sanātanaḥ. Everything finished here, that is not finished. So we have to receive this knowledge from authority, not necessarily by your personal experience. Parokṣa, aparokṣa this is called. There are different stages of knowledge. Pratyakṣa, parokṣa, aparokṣa, adhokṣaja, aprākṛta. So that requires advancement of knowledge. So, not that all knowledge we can have by direct perception. That is not possible.
Devotee: Eight million.
Prabhupāda: Eight million. Does it mean there is only eight million persons?
Acyutānanda: And how do you know they're mortal anyway, by examining?
Śyāmasundara: No. This is his idea, that this type of knowledge may not be always true.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is it. It is not true.
Śyāmasundara: The first type of knowledge, centralized in the senses, such as "This snowball is white," he says that type of knowledge, there is no possibility of error, because it is knowledge that's direct or immediate. There's no mediation between. Immediate.
Prabhupāda: Therefore our proposition, to receive perfect knowledge from the authorities, that is perfect. As Kṛṣṇa says, evaṁ paramparā-praptam (BG 4.2). Kṛṣṇa is perfect, and whatever knowledge He imparts, that is perfect. If we take knowledge from Kṛṣṇa, then our knowledge is perfect. I may not be as perfect as Kṛṣṇa, but if I simply accept the statements of Kṛṣṇa, then my knowledge is perfect.
Śyāmasundara: He (Marx) says that man's nature is the result of historical forces. Therefore ideas change according to material conditions. In other words...
Prabhupāda: This ideas cannot change, these basic ideas, that I want some property, I want some adoration and I want some position. This will never change. These rascals, they do not know the basic principles of human psychology.
Śyāmasundara: Their philosophy is gross materialism. They believe everything in science matters.
Prabhupāda: Superficial, no depth of knowledge.
Śyāmasundara: So they even (indistinct) material in factors of clothing, matter (indistinct). It was his idea that matter changes through history according to economic development, economic changes.
Prabhupāda: We take our knowledge from authority. Just like this (indistinct) pratiṣṭhā. We take it from authority. So this is the science. Everyone is after some profit, some adoration and some position.
Conversations and Morning Walks
1971 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prof. Kotovsky: But another approach is that there is no separate own..., there is no separate..., no two phenomena, owner of the body and body.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Prof. Kotovsky: The body and owner of the body is the same.
Prabhupāda: No.
Prof. Kotovsky: When body dies, the owner also dies.
Prabhupāda: No.
Prof. Kotovsky: There is no separate...
Prabhupāda: That... Why? Why there is no department of knowledge in university to study this fact scientifically? That is my proposition.
Prof. Kotovsky: Yes.
Prabhupāda: So that means they are lacking. It may be as you say, or it may be as I say, but there must be a department of knowledge, what is the... Now, recently one cardiologist, a doctor, he has accepted that there is soul, in Montreal and Toronto. I had some correspondence with him. So he is strongly in belief that there is soul. So that is another point of view, but we accept knowledge from authority. Authority. Just like this statement is given by Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is accepted as the authority by all the ācāryas, in Bhagavad-gītā. Bhagavad-gītā is studied amongst the scholarly circle and philosophical circle still, all over the world. And this statement is given by Kṛṣṇa:
- dehino 'smin yathā dehe
- kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā
- tathā dehāntara-prāptir
- dhīras tatra na muhyati
- (BG 2.13)
So dehāntaram prāpti... Just like the childhood, now, giving up the childhood body, the soul is coming to the boyhood body, from boyhood, youth..., similarly, the soul, giving up this body, he accepts another body. This statement is given by Kṛṣṇa, the greatest authority according to our tradition of knowledge.
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Those who know Sanskrit, they know what is the meaning of Veda. Veda means knowledge. Vetti veda-vid jñāne. Jñāna means knowledge. That means the history of Veda means from the date of creation of this material world. Now find out the date of creation of the material world. Approximately, nobody can give what is the date of. We can, we cannot... Date of Brahmā, he got the, first of all, the Vedic knowledge. Now, one day of Brahmā you cannot calculate. One day of Brahmā. And the... When Brahmā's night is there, there is devastation up to some extent. So again in the daytime of Brahmā, that creation takes place. There are two kinds of devastation. One devastation is at the night of Brahmā and one final devastation is the whole cosmic manifestation finished. So these teeny people, they are after the dates of Vedas, and that is ludicrous, that is...(laughs) Just like there are many microbes, they grow in the evening and die just in the day beginning. So whole night is their span of life. So our life is like that. What history you can write? Therefore, we receive Vedic knowledge from the authorities. And what is the value of these dates?
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Satsvarūpa: He asked if anyone now has seen Kṛṣṇa.
Prabhupāda: How now one can see? He has to see through the paramparā, succession. You have not seen your great-grandfather. How do you know that he was? How do you know? Great-grandfather or his father, you have not seen. How do you believe?
Guest (2): By your parents telling you.
Prabhupāda: Yes. So therefore you have to receive the knowledge from the authorities, paramparā.
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Faill: Do you think that the great mystics down the ages have actually seen this spark? This is what...
Prabhupāda: What do you mean by mystic?
Faill: Well, there seem to be chaps who've had some very odd experience and always remembered it and found it very difficult to put it down in words.
Prabhupāda: Mystic means something jugglery? What do you mean by mystic?
Faill: Well, it's just the name they seem to give people who've had an experience of another level of reality.
Prabhupāda: Yes. So yes, that... We don't say mystic. Our reality is God realization. There are different stages. I mean to say, direct perception, then receiving knowledge from authority, then personal experience between the two, then above that transcendental, and then, I mean to say, spiritual. In this way we have to go, step by step. We have to come to the point, to the spiritual platform. So, so long we are on the bodily concept of life, our understanding is sense gratification because body means the senses. And then, if we go still up, then we can see that mind is the center of sense activities. We take the mind as the final, and that is mental platform. Then, from mental platform, we come to the intellectual platform. Then, from intellectual platform, we come to the transcendental platform.
| Page Title: | Receive knowledge from authorities |
| Compiler: | Siddha Rupa, Visnu Murti, Alakananda |
| Created: | 21March08, |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=2, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=15, Con=4, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 21 |