Prabhupāda: Yes. Therefore, our speculative knowledge, intellectual platform, is not helpful. We must receive knowledge from superior source, perfect source. That knowledge is perfect. Just like we give generally this example, that to find out who is my father, my search out, research, will not help me; but if my mother says: "Here is your father," that is perfect knowledge, because she's authority. Therefore, for perfect knowledge we have to take it from the perfect authority, not by our speculative intellectual gymnasium. No. That will not help. Because our intellectual jurisdiction is very limited. That is Vedic process. Vedic process is not to acquire knowledge by ascending process, inductive process. Vedic knowledge is to receive knowledge by descending process, knowledge coming from authority.
That, that you will find in the Bhagavad-gītā, Fourth Chapter: evaṁ paramparā prāptam imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ (BG 4.2). Knowledge has to be received . . . just like a child receives knowledge. He is inquisitive: "Mother, what is this? Father, what is this?" And mother informs him, "My dear child, this is this, this is this." So he is acquiring knowledge by descending process. And if the child wants to get knowledge independently, that is not knowledge. He'll touch the fire. Mother: "Don't touch, don't touch, my dear child!" But he does not know. He's thinking the fire as something eatable.
So by the Vedic process, this experimental knowledge is no useful. Yes. The Vedic injunction is, tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet: (MU 1.2.12): "In order to receive perfect knowledge, you must approach the guru." Guru means who has the perfect knowledge. So you cannot independently get perfect knowledge, intellectual. That will remain always imperfect. So intellectually, how you can conceive about God, who is unlimited, beyond your sense perception? We cannot know even ordinary material things, how great the sun is, how this universe is. We have imperfect knowledge.
So our process is to receive knowledge from the perfect. Therefore, we are receiving knowledge from Kṛṣṇa, the supreme perfect. I am not perfect, but because I am receiving knowledge from the supreme perfect, therefore whatever I say, it is perfect. And that is guru. Guru does not say anything of his own manufacture or research. He says only what he has heard from the Supreme. That's all. So it is easier. It is easier. If the child says: "A watch, a watch," the child may be imperfect, but he has heard from his father, "Here is a watch," then that knowledge is perfect. This is our process. And Veda, Veda means knowledge, perfect knowledge. Veda, this word, Sanskrit word, it means perfect knowledge. Otherwise, there is no way to have perfect knowledge. There must be some source of perfect knowledge. That is Veda.
For example, we . . . just like cow dung. Cow dung is the stool of an animal. So in the Vedic principle, if you touch the stool of an animal, even your own stool, you become impure; you have to take bath. But the Vedas says: "The stool of cow is pure." And we accept that, because Vedic injunction. And if you analyze, it is full of antiseptic properties, although it is stool. So by argument, one will say: "How is that? Sometimes you say that stool is impure, and again you say this stool is pure." But that is fact. Similarly, if we accept Vedic injunction, we save so much time for so-called research work. That is the standard knowledge.
So every knowledge is there in the Vedas. There are so many Vedas. Even for our ordinary dealings . . . just like Āyur-veda. Āyur-veda means medical science. Similarly, Dhanur-veda, military science. Similarly, Jyotir-veda, jyotis, the astronomical science. And those who are, mean, accustomed with Vedic knowledge, it is so nice and, I mean to say, perfect that . . . take, for example, that Āyur-veda, medical science. Their process is that this body, the physiological condition, is depending on three things, tri-dhātu, kapha-pitta-vāyu: mucus, bile and air. And the air is felt by the pulse beating.
So they learn how to examine the pulse beating, the heart beating. And they have got description. Just like the sparrow walks, the crow walks, so in this way they have given the example, "If the pulse is beating like the walking of the sparrow, walking of the crow, then his health, his condition, is like this, and the symptoms will be like this." So the physician first of all studies the pulses, and he remembers the symptoms, and he corroborates, asking the patient, "Do you feel like this? Do you feel like this? Do you do this, like this?" If it is corroborated, then his diagnosis is there: "He has got this disease."
So similarly, in Jyotir-veda they have got similar symptoms, "If such-and-such stars are now nearer to this star"—they have got this calculation—"then the position is this." So they learn very quickly. Indian brāhmins, they learned Jyotir-veda, Āyur-veda very quickly. Because brāhmaṇas, they are meant to go to every house to inform the date, the everything. So generally people are inquisitive about the health. So they ask, "Now I am feeling like this." So they give medicine. And they give some astrological hint also. So in this way people gave them some contribution. That is their livelihood. So this . . . all the systems were made very easy on account of this Vedic injunction.
So therefore we take Vedic knowledge as perfect, and we understand everything by Vedic knowledge—about God, about His place, about His activities. And God comes as incarnation. He sends His representative. Then it is corroborated. And that is perfect knowledge of God. Kṛṣṇa's . . . God's feature—everything is described in the Vedas: Brahma-saṁhitā, Yajur-veda, Sāma-veda, like that. And when Kṛṣṇa descends, He practically demonstrates all the symptoms of God. So then we accept God. And it is confirmed by authorities.
Just like Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa Himself says that, "I am the Supreme." Arjuna accepts, the direct listener from God. And later on, the ācāryas, big, big ācāryas, who control the society, just Śaṅkarācārya, Rāmānujācārya, Madhvācārya, they accept. Latest, Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He accepts. So our guru-paramparā all accepts Kṛṣṇa. And Kṛṣṇa describes Himself. So where is the difficulty to understand God? The symptoms are there in the śāstras, and those symptoms are visible in Kṛṣṇa. Just like everyone can understand, "God is all-powerful." So Kṛṣṇa showed that He is all-powerful. So there is no difficulty to understand.