experimental always imperfect

Prabhupada: That is not the denied. Dinosaur you may not have seen; it may be existing some other... Neither I have seen the 8,400,000 different species of, different forms of life. But my source of knowledge is different. Your source of knowledge is different. You are experimenter with imperfect senses. I am taking from the perfect who has seen, who knows things. Therefore my knowledge is perfect. Just the same example: I am receiving knowledge from my mother, "Here is your father," and you are trying to search out where is your father. You don't go to the mother, but you are searching out. So therefore however you may search, your knowledge always will be imperfect. (More...)

Knowledge is the light by which the darkness of ignorance is vanquished. Knowledge implies real knowledge, or knowledge free from error. Any kind of knowledge can be obtained in one of two ways. One way is by experimental knowledge, which is compared to blind men feeling the different limbs of an elephant and giving their postulations on the form and nature of the elephant. The blind man holding the trunk thinks and elephant is a gigantic snake, and the man holding the leg thinks another way. In this way different theories are evolved from different angles of observation, with no angle being complete or correct. The other method is by receiving knowledge by the descending process, i.e., through guru-parampara, or disciplic succession. Knowledge handed down from the source of all knowledge, or descending knowledge, is perfect and free form defect because it doesn't depend on the imperfect perceptions of imperfect people. Just as the sun is self-illuminating, real knowledge from Krsna is self-effulgent and doesn't depend on empirical speculation. (More...)

They do not see who is behind this explosion. That is their ignorance, or poor fund of knowledge. We have got practical experience that no explosion takes place without the touch of a human being. Similarly, even there was explosion going on, but there is a touch of the Supreme Being. That is the statement in the Bhagavad... Mayadhyaksena [Bg 9.10]. We are seeing the explosion. Just like child sees the explosion. He does not know that there, behind the explosion, there is a management of a superior being. This is childish observation. Because in sastra we see that behind everything the hand of the Supreme Being is there, and by our practical experience also, we see that matter does not act automatically without being touched by a living being. So how we can accept this argument that the explosion is going on automatically? What is the evidence? There is no evidence. So this is not... Besides that, we have to accept the Vedic injunction, sastric injunction, not nonsensical theories. If we are guided by nonsensical theories, then we'll never be able to understand how things are going on. (More...)

You can go on observing, one after another, by many, many years; many, many years. Just like if you start your jet plane from here to see where is the original cause, panthas tu koti-sata-vatsara, and go on for many, many millions of years with the speed of mind, panthas tu koti-sata-vatsara-sampra... Koti-sata-vatsara. Millions and millions of years. And panthas tu koti-sata-vatsara-sampragamyo vayor athapi. These airplane, vayu-ratha... Vayu-ratha means airplane. There is airplanes. There are different speeds. What is the speed? The speed is mental speed. Now their speed, say, eighteen thousand miles per hour. But if there is question of mental speed, it is more speedier than the vayu speed. We have got experience. Many thousand miles, by your mind, you can reach within a second. So with the mental speed airplane, if you start today and go for many millions of years, still it will be not possible to find out wherefrom the explosion is coming. That's it. (More...)

So that is not the way. Therefore sruti-pramanam. Sruti-pramanam means from the Vedic evidence we have to understand. Now, just like in the Vedas it is said, jalaja nava-laksani []. In the Vedas, all knowledge was there, all the living entities described fully and with minute, exact quantity. Now, within the water, we understand from the Vedic literature there are 900,000 forms of aquatics. Now, the modern scientists, how many they have observed or studied? But it is said exactly, 900,000's. Jalaja nava-laksani sthavara laksa-vimsati. Of course, you cannot enter within the water. But on the land, now different species of plants and trees, and that is two million. How many the botanists have studied? Two million. Sthavara laksa-vimsati. Even in your country, in your village, you'll find daily some new vegetable. You see? So these are the Vedic calculation. And not only that, there are different species of life, and how they are working, what senses are predominant in each and every life and everything is described. Everything is very minutely described. Therefore, if we want to have knowledge, you cannot do it by mental speculation. We should know that our mind is very, very limited. Simply by theorizing, it is not possible. Therefore tad-vijnanartham sa gurum eva abhigacchet sampit-panih srotriyam brahma-nistham [Mundaka Upanisad ]. (More...)

Prabhupada: Eh? It is actual fact. That is pragmatic. It is actual fact. There is... So many things there are, but you do not know because your senses are imperfect. Your eyes are imperfect, your touch, imperfect, the gathering senses... The senses which gathers knowledge... Just like eyes... We can see and gather knowledge. We can hear; we gather knowledge. We can taste; we gather knowledge. So, because your senses are imperfect, therefore your knowledge gathered, that is imperfect. (More...)

imperfect. So you, by speculation, cannot have perfect knowledge. This is axiomatic truth. (More...)

Prabhupada: No, argument you can go on, but if you want to know the truth it will not be attained by argument, because argument is also within your thinking power: thinking, feeling, willing. So if your thinking, feeling, willing is imperfect, what is the use of your argument? What is the use of your so-called advancement of knowledge? Basically, if the senses, knowledge-acquiring senses, are imperfect, then how you can get perfect knowledge? (More...)