View source for Vedic process does not accept that one should endeavor to know the ultimate truth by exertion of our present senses, which are conditioned by so many ways

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{{terms|"Vedic process does not accept that one should endeavor to know the ultimate truth by exertion of our present senses, which are conditioned by so many ways"}}
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{{compiler|Narottama}}
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[[Category:Vedic Process]]
[[Category:Does Not Accept]]
[[Category:that]]
[[Category:One Should]]
[[Category:Endeavor]]
[[Category:To Know]]
[[Category:Truth]]
[[Category:Exertion]]
[[Category:our]]
[[Category:present]]
[[Category:senses]]
[[Category:Which Are]]
[[Category:Conditioned]]
[[Category:by]]
[[Category:So Many Ways]]
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<div id="Lectures" class="section" sec_index="4" parent="compilation" text="Lectures"><h2>Lectures</h2>
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<div id="General_Lectures" class="sub_section" sec_index="11" parent="Lectures" text="General Lectures"><h3>General Lectures</h3>
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<div id="EngagementLectureBuffaloApril231969_0" class="quote" parent="General_Lectures" book="Lec" index="47" link="Engagement Lecture -- Buffalo, April 23, 1969" link_text="Engagement Lecture -- Buffalo, April 23, 1969">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Engagement Lecture -- Buffalo, April 23, 1969|Engagement Lecture -- Buffalo, April 23, 1969]]: </span><div class="text">(I offer my respectful obeisances unto my spiritual master, who with the torchlight of knowledge has opened my eyes, which were blinded by the darkness of ignorance.)
The meaning of this verse... It is offering obeisances to the spiritual master. The spiritual master opens the eyes of the ignorant disciple in the matter of transcendental knowledge. Therefore it is the duty of the disciple, before speaking, to offer obeisances to the lotus feet of the spiritual master. Our Vedic process is not research work. Just like in the mundane scholarship, one has to show his academic career by some research work. The Vedic process is different. Vedic process is that our research work is not complete because the instruments and the means by which we make progress in research work are blunt and imperfect. We are conditioned. At this stage of our material existence, we are conditioned by so many laws of nature. Under the circumstances, every conditioned soul has four defects. Just like to commit mistake. There is no man, even great man, who does not commit mistake. More or less, he commits mistake. Just like in our country there was Mahatma Gandhi. He was supposed to be a very great personality, mahatma, but he also committed mistake because when he was killed, five minutes before his coming to the meeting, he was warned by his confidential associates not to go to that meeting, but he persisted, and as soon as he entered the meeting hall he was killed. So I am giving an instance that even a great personality like Mahatma Gandhi, he also committed mistake. So in the conditioned state of our life, committing mistake is very natural. Just like we say, "To err is human." Any human being is susceptible to commit mistake. Another imperfectness is that every man is illusioned. Illusioned means to accept something which is not, phantasmagoria. Just like every one of us in this meeting, we are under the impression that "I am this body." But actually I am not this body. This is called illusion, maya.
So to commit mistake, to become illusioned, number two, and number three: a cheating propensity. Everyone, conditioned soul, thinks himself very expert, and he talks with his, I mean to say, fellow man as a very intelligent man. And he has got every... Just like in business. In business you go to a storekeeper. He'll say, "Oh, you are my great friend. I am not taking a farthing profit from you." But you must know that he is taking profit, at least fifty percent. So this is called cheating propensity. One who is not in the knowledge, but he puts forward his theories and theses and so many by the words "perhaps," "it may be," like that -- this is called cheating. So to commit mistake, to be illusioned, and cheating propensity, and at last, imperfectness of the senses. Our senses are limited. We cannot see far distant place. We cannot see nearest. Just like our eyes cannot see the eyelids because it is the nearest. And you cannot see the farthest. So the eyes also see under certain condition, in certain perspective position. Similarly, all our senses are limited. They cannot understand, or it is not possible to understand the unlimited by these imperfect, illusioned, and cheating senses. Therefore Vedic process does not accept that one should endeavor to know the ultimate truth by exertion of our present senses, which are conditioned by so many ways. Therefore those who are students in the Vedic literature, they accept authorities. Just like you are reading Bhagavad-gita. The Bhagavad-gita is being taught by Lord Krsna to Arjuna. He is authority. And Krsna says that "This Bhagavad-gita is taught from time immemorial by disciplic succession," not by research work. As soon as you study Bhagavad-gita by your academic knowledge, without reference to the authoritative description, then you commit mistake. You do not understand what is Bhagavad-gita. Krsna says, therefore, that "This disciplic succession is now broken. I therefore establish again the disciplic succession unto you." That means Arjuna becomes the disciple of Krsna, and anyone who understands Bhagavad-gita, following the footprints of Arjuna, he can understand rightly what is the purpose of Bhagavad-gita. So all Vedic literatures, not only Bhagavad-gita, all the Vedas... There are four Vedas: Sama, Yajur, Rg, Atharva. Then there are Upanisads, 108 Upanisads. Out of that, nine Upanisads are very important: Isopanisad, Katha Upanisad, Taittiriya Upanisad. So then again, Vedanta-sutra, then Srimad-Bhagavatam. In this way there are various Vedic literatures. And if you are interested... You should be interested. These Vedic literatures are not meant for a particular class of men. It was meant for the human society so that they may take advantage of this knowledge and make a perfection of their human life.
So I shall try to speak before you this evening one of the instruction of Vedic literature spoken by Rsabhadeva. So our offering of obeisances to the spiritual master is in accordance with the disciplic succession. Ajnana-timirandhasya jnananjana-salakaya, caksur-unmilitam yena: "The personality who opens the eyes by the torch of knowledge." Tasmai sri-gurave namah: "I offer my respectful obeisances unto the spiritual master." So here is a speech by Rsabhadeva. Rsabhadeva is accepted as incarnation of Godhead. And long, long years ago He appeared on this earth, and He was father of the King Bharata, under whose name this planet is called Bharata-varsa. He had one hundred sons, and out of them, Bharata was the eldest. He was very intelligent. So the father entrusted the kingdom to the eldest son, Bharata Maharaja, and before retirement He was speaking to His sons a spiritual instruction which is recorded in this Bhagavata. And He said,
:nayam deho deha-bhajam nrloke
:kastan kaman arhate vid-bhujam ye
:tapo divyam putraka yena sattvam
:suddhyed yasmad brahma-saukhyam tv anantam
:([[Vanisource:SB 5.5.1|SB 5.5.1]])
He is advising, "My dear sons, this life..." "This life" means this human form of life. Ayam deha. Ayam means "this," and deha means "body." Na means "not." Na ayam deha: "This body is not meant." Nayam deho deha-bhajam nrloke. Deha-bhajam: "those who have taken or accepted this material body, amongst them." Now, this is a very significant word, those who have accepted this material body, deha-bhajam. And according to Vedic literature, we understand that this material world is only one-fourth manifestation of the complete creation of God. The three-fourths' portion of God's creation is spiritual world. That you will find in the Bhagavad-gita. Krsna says,
:atha va bahunaitena
:kim jnatena tavarjuna
:ekamsena vistabhyaham
:idam krstnam jagat
Ekamsena means a part, a fractional part. This material world is a fractional part of the whole creation. You see this universe, as far as you can see up to the sky. That is only one universe. And there are unlimited universes. They are clustered together. And that is called material world. And beyond that clusters of unlimited number of universes, there is another, spiritual sky. That is also mentioned in the Bhagavad-gita. Paras tasmad tu bhavo 'nyo 'vyakto 'vyaktat sanatanah. Lord says that "Beyond this material world, there is another bhava, nature." Just like this is material nature. He says, paras tasmat tu bhavah, bhavah anyah ([[Vanisource:BG 8.20|BG 8.20]]). Anya means another. "There is another nature, which is sanatana." Sanatana means eternal. There is no history of its beginning, or there is no end -- that is called sanatana, eternal. Eternal means which has no end, no beginning. Nobody knows where it has begun and where it has ended. Nobody knows. Just like the Vedic religion is called sanatana-dharma because nobody can trace out when this Vedic religion begun. Therefore it is called sanatana-dharma. Every religion in our present experience, it has got a history. Your Christian religion, it has got a history, two thousand years old. Buddhist religion, it has got a history, 2600 years. Muhammadan religion, it has got a history, one thousand years. But if you trace out Vedic religion, you cannot find out the history, date. There is no date. You cannot find out. No historian can give. So therefore it is called sanatana-dharma. And in the Bhagavad-gita, Krsna says that "There is another nature, which is sanatana." Sanatana means there is no history of its creation or... But this material creation, as you know... We say, "God created." "God created" means before creation, God was existing. "God created" -- this very word suggests that before this creation of this cosmic manifestation, God was existing. Therefore God is not under this creation. If God is under this creation, then how He can create? He becomes one of the object of the material creation. So God is not under creation. He is the creator. Before creation, He was existing. That is called sanatana. That means He is also sanatana. And there is a spiritual nature, sky, where there are innumerable spiritual planets also. And there are innumerable spiritual living entities also. And some of them, those who are not fit to live in that spiritual world, they are, I mean to say, sent to this material world. The same idea is expressed in Milton's Paradise Lost.
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