Now, if we believe Kṛṣṇa as the supreme authority, if we believe Him, then we can adopt this. And there is no question of disbelieving Him, because all great souls, all great scholars and all great spiritualists . . . Arjuna, you say the example of Arjuna. He's not an ordinary man. He belongs to the royal order. And he's a very, I mean, a great fighter, great general. And he is taking instruction from Kṛṣṇa.
If Arjuna has taken instruction from Kṛṣṇa . . . he's a . . . Rāmānujācārya has taken, accepted Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme. He . . . Śaṅkarācārya has accepted the Kṛṣṇa as Supreme. And all the ācāryas . . . Lord Caitanya has accepted Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme. Then what is the difficulty of my understanding about His greatness? Mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ (CC Madhya 17.186).
Just like when we go to the market, if we see that everyone is purchasing at the same time, then I think, "Oh, undoubtedly it is the exactly price. Oh, let me purchase at this price." The doubt is gone at once, because I see several persons, they're accepting at that price. So it is right price. That is the standard. Mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ.
The śāstra says that knowledge . . . because our receptive power of knowledge is very limited. We are not perfect. Our senses are not perfect. Therefore whatever knowledge we acquire by these blunt senses, they cannot be perfect.
The direction is, therefore, tarkaḥ apratiṣṭhaḥ (CC Madhya 17.186): "If you want to reach to the ultimate conclusion simply by arguments and speculation, that is not possible." Because argumentative power is a special gift. Suppose you can argue very nicely, that's all. I cannot. But somebody may come—he's more powerful in arguments—he can defeat you. So don't depend on your speculative function or arguments. Don't depend on that. They're all imperfect. Tarkaḥ apratiṣṭhaḥ. These are the direction of higher authorities.
So tarko 'pratiṣṭhaḥ śrutayo vibhinnāḥ. Śrutayaḥ means scriptures. If you take scriptures, different scriptures there are, and one scripture may differ from another scripture. So that is also very difficult, to find out the real truth, transcendence, from the scriptures. So tarko 'pratiṣṭhaḥ śrutayo vibhinnā nāsāv ṛṣir yasya mataṁ na bhinnam. And so far philosophy is concerned, each and every philosopher is different from the other philosopher. One philosopher is putting some theory, another philosophy is putting another doctrine or theory. So we are puzzled which of them has to be accepted.
Śrutayo vibhinnā nāsāv ṛṣir ya . . . because in the mundane philosophers, mundane scholars, they want to give his own interpretation of everything. That is their habit. They don't accept the interpretation of the higher authorities. They want . . . each and every one of them want to become the higher authorities.
So our this principle, this devotional principle, is not like that. We don't pose ourselves as the higher authority. We just try to follow the higher authority. We don't pose ourself. We never . . . we'll never say that, "In my opinion, it should be like this." Oh, what opinion I have got? What value I have got of my opinion? What is my value? I am a blunt man. I cannot acquire any knowledge perfectly. And what is the use of my opinion?
So this is the line. Kṛṣṇa consciousness is, er, they do not accept anything which is not authorized by the higher personality. But in the material world you'll find one philosopher is putting one doctrine, another philosopher is putting another doctrine, and they're differing with one another.