So finer than the ether is the mind, and finer than the mind is intelligence, ego. And finer than the intelligence and ego is the soul. So how you can see soul? You cannot see even the material things, as soon it becomes finer. How you can see the soul? They cannot see, but soul is there. Therefore when the soul departs from the body we see the bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ khaṁ mano buddhi-ahaṅkāra... (BG 7.4). Buddhi-ahaṅkāra The man, the dead man, is lying. The gross thing we are seeing, but the mind, intelligence, ego, which is carrying that soul, that we do not see. How transmigration of the soul takes place, that we have no knowledge, poor fund of knowledge. We can simply think gross. Jaḍa-darśana. It is called jaḍa-darśana. Even there is no sūkṣma-darśana. Although there is mind, but we cannot see. Then how you can see the soul?
So this is the defect of modern education. So what is beyond your perception, sense perception, that you have to hear. There are two kinds of knowledges: by practical experience, direct perception, and by hearing from authority, aitihya. According to Vedic system, there are three kinds of evidences: direct, and pratyakṣa... Pratyakṣa means direct. And then aitihya and śruti. Śruti. Śruti means hearing from the authority. Just like here we see that there is mind. Everyone knows mind, but it is confirmed by the śāstra because we are hearing from Kṛṣṇa which is called śruti. Similarly, when Kṛṣṇa says in the Second Chapter,
- dehino 'smin yathā dehe
- kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā
- tathā dehāntara-prāptir
- dhīras tatra na muhyati
- (BG 2.13)
Asmin dehe, "Within this body, there is the proprietor of the body," that you have to learn by hearing. If you want to see immediately, "Let me see where it is in the...," oh, your so-called scientific research cannot help you. You have to learn it simply by hearing from the authority. This is called śruti, śruti-pramāṇa, śruti-pramāṇa, evidence from śruti.
So the Vedic knowledge is called śruti. You have to learn things beyond your perception simply by hearing from the authorities. So Vedic knowledge is the authority. Why we accept Vedas as authority? Because there is the perfect knowledge. I have discussed so many times the authority of the Vedas, accepting cow dung as pure although animal stool is impure. But Vedas accept that cow dung is pure; we accept it. Cow dung is pure. This is called śruti-pramāṇa. Śruti-pramāṇa means the real knowledge, perfect knowledge, is coming from the supreme perfect, Kṛṣṇa. That perfect knowledge after creation... Brahmā is the first created being, so Brahmā was instructed the śruti, perfect knowledge, by Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is the original spiritual master. Vedānta-vit. He says, Kṛṣṇa, in the Bhagavad-gītā,
- sarvasya cāhaṁ hṛdi sanniviṣṭo
- mattaḥ smṛtir jñānam apohanaṁ ca
- vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyo
- vedānta-kṛd veda-vid eva cāham
- (BG 15.15)
So Vedic knowledge means the instruction given by Kṛṣṇa to the first living being, Lord Brahmā. Janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). From Kṛṣṇa everything is born, everything is emanated. He says in the Bhagavad-gītā that ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate (BG 10.8). Everything is coming from Him. So the first engineer of this universe, Lord Brahmā, he comes from Kṛṣṇa. Not directly Kṛṣṇa, but from Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu. There is viṣṇu-tattva: Kṛṣṇa, Balarāma, Saṅkarṣaṇa, Catur-vyūha, Nārāyaṇa. Dvitīya-catur-vyūha: again Saṅkarṣaṇa; from Saṅkarṣaṇa, Mahā-Viṣṇu; Mahā-Viṣṇu to Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu; Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, then Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu; in this way. So Kṛṣṇa is the origin. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavaḥ (BG 10.8). Sarvasya means even this Mahā-Viṣṇu, Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, Nārāyaṇa, Saṅkarṣaṇa, Aniruddha, Pradyumna—everything. Then again the material world—Brahmā, Viṣṇu, Maheśvara. Then from Brahmā so many demigods, in this way, this way. Therefore He is the ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavaḥ. This is the point. And the knowledge is also coming from Him. Knowledge is coming from Him.
It is explained in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, janmādy asya: (SB 1.1.1) "The original person from whom everything is born," yataḥ, anvayād itarataś ca artheṣu abhijñaḥ, "He knows everything perfectly, indirectly and directly." Anvayād itarataś ca abhijñaḥ. And wherefrom He got the knowledge? Now, svarāṭ. That is His... God means svarāṭ. He hasn't got to get any knowledge from anyone else. Everyone gets knowledge from Him, but He hasn't got to take knowledge from anyone, svarāṭ, independent. So the Brahmā, the first lord, first creature, living creature, so he got knowledge from Kṛṣṇa. Tene brahma hṛdā ādi-kavaye: (SB 1.1.1) "That Supreme Person gave the knowledge to the ādi-kavi." Ādi-kavi means Lord Brahmā, the first learned man.
So our Vedic conception of life, creation, is not like the Darwin, that his first creation... I do not know what is, but they think that they'll get knowledge from monkey. But we do not take knowledge from monkey. (laughter) Therefore we do not keep ourself in darkness. If you take knowledge from monkey, then you remain always like monkey. You cannot be advanced. But here it is... Bhāgavata says, tene brahma hṛdā ādi-kavaye: We got knowledge directly from Kṛṣṇa, the most perfect. Therefore Brahmā is generated from Viṣṇu. So the first living creature, the perfect person within this material world who got instruction there, that is the beginning of creation. Beginning of creation is not crude or ignorance. Beginning of creation is first-class knowledge. That is the Vedic conception.
So Kṛṣṇa says that how you are thinking of the material. Material scientists, they are studying earth. What is called? Soil expert, they are studying soil: "Where is mine? Where is gold? Where is coal? Where is this, that?" So many thing, they are studying. But they do not know wherefrom these things came. Here is... Kṛṣṇa explains that bhinnā me prakṛti: "This is My energy, My energy." How these different chemicals and earthly matters became manifested, everyone is inquisitive, any thoughtful man. Here is the answer. Here is the answer, that
- bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ
- khaṁ mano buddhir eva ca
- ahaṅkāra itīyaṁ me
- bhinnā prakṛtir aṣṭadhā
- (BG 7.4)
Bhinnā prakṛtir aṣṭadhā. Just like I am speaking, it is being recorded, recorded. But in my absence, if the record is played, it will exactly vibrate the same sound. So that is my energy or anyone's energy, but bhinnā, separated from me. You have to understand like that. So everything is energy of God, Kṛṣṇa, but this material world means we are missing Kṛṣṇa. Wherefrom this energy has come? That point we are missing. Bhinnā. One who knows... Just like the same example. In the record the play is going on, but one who does not know who has recorded this speech, he cannot find out. But one who knows voice, he can understand, "It is coming from Prabhupāda, or the Swamiji." Similarly, the energy is there, but because we have forgotten the source of the energy or we do not know the source of the energy, therefore we take material things as final. This is our ignorance.
This prakṛti, this material world, is composed of these things: bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ khaṁ mano buddhir eva ca (BG 7.4). So wherefrom this came? That Kṛṣṇa explains, that "They are My energies." Because we have to know, so... To understand Kṛṣṇa means one must know what is this earth, what is this water, what is this fire, what is this air, what is this sky, what is this mind, what is this ego. These material things, they should know that wherefrom these things came. They only theorize that water is combination of some chemical, hydrogen, oxygen. But wherefrom the chemical came, hydrogen, oxygen? That they cannot answer. So therefore this is called acintya-śakti. Acintya-śakti. If you do not apply, if you refuse, acintya-śakti, in God, acintya-śakti, inconceivable energy, then there is no God. Acintya-śakti-sampannaḥ.
Now you can understand what is that acintya-śakti. Acintya-śakti you have got also, acintya-śakti, everyone, because we are part and parcel of God. Therefore minute... But we are... What is the ratio? The ratio is, it is said in the śāstra... What is that? Keśāgra-śata-bhāgasya śatadhā kalpitasya ca jīva-bhāgaḥ sa vijñeyaḥ sa cānantyāya kalpate (CC Madhya 19.140). Keśāgra-śata-bhāgasya. Just giving an idea. What is that? The tip of the hair, just a small full stop, you divide this point into one hundred parts. And that one part again divide into one hundred parts. That is, mean, one ten-thousandth part of the tip of the hair. That is a full-stop-like. That is the magnitude of the jīva, spirit, spiritual spark, molecular parts, atomic parts. So keśāgra-śata-bhāgasya śatadhā kalpitasya ca jīva-bhāgaḥ sa vijñeyaḥ sa cānantyāya kalpate (CC Madhya 19.140).
So there is magnitude, but because in the material eyes we can see simply the gross thing, the subtle things we cannot understand. But from the śāstra you have to understand, from the śruti. Then you'll understand. There is verse in the Bhagavad-gītā, indriyāṇi parāṇy āhur indriyebhyaḥ paraṁ manaḥ manasas tu parā buddhiḥ (BG 3.42). Just like here it is said mano buddhiḥ. Manasas ca parā buddhiḥ. Finer or superior than the mind is intelligence. That is... Another place it is also explained that gross thing means these senses. Indriyāṇi parāṇy āhuḥ. This is gross vision. I see a man means I see his body, his eyes, his ear, his hands and legs and everything. That is gross vision. But finer than these gross senses, there is mind which is controlling the senses. That you do not see. Indriyāṇi parāṇy āhur indriyebhyaḥ paraṁ manaḥ (BG 3.42). Then mind is controlled by the intelligence. Manasas ca parā buddhiḥ. So you have to study like that. Simply like layman if you dismiss that "There is no God, there is no soul," this is simply rascaldom, simply rascaldom. Don't remain rascals. Here is Bhagavad-gītā. Learn everything very particularly, very minutely. And it is open for everyone. Kṛṣṇa spoke Bhagavad-gītā to Arjuna, not for Arjuna. He came for everyone because He loves everyone. Everyone is son.
- sarva-yoniṣu kaunteya
- mūrtayaḥ sambhavanti yāḥ
- tāsāṁ brahma mahad yonir
- ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā
- (BG 14.4)
He is the seed-giving father. Don't take Kṛṣṇa as a foreigner or something else. No. He is your father, original father, seed-giving father. And the material nature is the mother. Just like father and mother, the father giving seeds, similarly, God gives the seeds, and the mother, material nature, gives the body. That you have got experience. The father gives the seed in the womb of the mother, and mother creates the body. Similarly, all living entities, they are coming from Kṛṣṇa. It is not possible to create by chemicals. That is not possible. But one who is not convinced, rascal, he tries to make chemical combination to create living beings. This is foolishness.
So because we are learning knowledge from śruti, from the perfect person, we will never be convinced. We shall challenge, "You create, rascal, create first of all. Then talk. Otherwise I shall kick." (laughter) This is our challenge because I know. We know very well that it will not be possible to create living being by combination of chemicals. He is talking nonsense. That is not possible. So we have to study from śruti. Then we become learned. Then we can know what is our constitutional position. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati (BG 18.54). Then he does not lament and neither he aspires everything, because he knows everything is complete there, conducted by the Supreme Being. And the Supreme Being said, mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram (BG 9.10).
So this is the understanding of knowledge. So you take it very seriously, study Bhagavad-gītā and learn everything nicely, become learned, and jñānavān. Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān māṁ prapadyate (BG 7.19). And just try to surrender to Kṛṣṇa. Then your life is successful.