In Bhagavad-gītā you will find, "Here is the end." Kṛṣṇa says, mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiñcid asti dhanañjaya (BG 7.7): "My dear Arjuna, here is the ultimate goal, I am—Kṛṣṇa. There is no more anything higher than Me." Nānyad asti kiñcid dhanañjaya. Mayi sarvam idaṁ protaṁ sūtre maṇi-ganā iva: "Just like in a thread, the pearls are woven, similarly, everything is standing in Me."
So if we read different scriptures, then we are also bewildered and we cannot come to the conclusion by arguments. And nāsau munir yasya mataṁ na bhinnam. And if you read different speculative methods or philosophical doctrines, that is also different from one another.
Because the philosophy . . . one philosopher is big philosopher if he can defy his predecessor philosophers. Matam na bhinnam. Therefore, dharmasya tattvaṁ nihitaṁ guhāyām. Therefore the truth of a religious path is in oblivion. How one can understand what is actual Absolute Truth, what is the religious path?
The last instruction is mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ (CC Madhya 17.186). Therefore you have to follow the footprints of authorities. You can take anyone as you authority, as authority, but according to Bhāgavata there are twelve authorities. That is also mentioned. They are authorized persons from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and they have got disciplic succession.
The twelve authorities are Brahmā, Nārada, Lord Śiva and Kumāra, Manu and Lord Kapila, Bhīṣma and Prahlāda, Janaka and Yamarāja and this Śukadeva Gosvāmī, who is speaking the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Vaiyāsaki. Vaiyāsaki means "the son of Vyāsadeva." And they have got their disciplic succession. And if we receive that knowledge from disciplic succession, then we can get perfect knowledge. That is the process of Vedic way.
Vedic way is to receive knowledge from the authority, not to manufacture knowledge by mental speculation. Manufacturing . . . your manufacturing process is very poor, because you are imperfect. At least your senses, by which you will produce knowledge . . . sense, there are senses to acquire knowledge. Just like by hearing I have acquired knowledge, and by speaking I am distributing knowledge. So these are all sense activities.
But our senses are imperfect, therefore we cannot manufacture knowledge. We have to receive knowledge from the authority. Just like we receive knowledge from our father, mother, "This is this." The child learns, "This is lamp." The father tells, "My dear boy, this is called lamp," and the boy understands, "This is lamp." The mother says: "My dear boy, this is your father," and the boy accepts, "This is my father." He doesn't make any research "Who is my father?" because mother is the authority.