Everyone accepts some kind of authority, whether it be their teachers, the news or at least their parents. We learn everything we know from some kind of authority. But all these authorities are imperfect.
To understand spiritual knowledge, one must first accept a guru. This fact is clearly explained in the Upanishads: tad-vijanartham sad-gurum evabhiacchet (Mundaka Upanishad 1.2.12)
Why? Because spiritual knowledge is transcendental to gross material knowledge. Material knowledge is perceivable to the blunt material senses, i.e; what we can tangibly perceive through our sense organs like objects, sounds, tastes and so on. The material senses cannot go beyond the material platform as we have limited senses. For example, although scientists are very proud of their eyes, they rely on microscopes to see germs within a room, or telescopes to see the sun. They need a camera to see even their own eyelids, although eyelids are part of their own body. We can conclude therefore, that our senses are imperfect, yet science relies entirely on the gross senses to obtain knowledge. Scientists and modern people alike want to see everything. Scientists cannot conceive of how things are really working, because they ascertain reality based on their limited capability and experience, like frogs stuck in a well trying to understand the enormous ocean. But Krishna and transcendental knowledge is beyond these limitations.
So Vedic knowledge is not like that. Vedic knowledge is delivered by the perfect source of all knowledge, the supreme scientist, Sri Krishna. It’s passed down through disciplic succession, as is stated in the Bhagavad-gita; evam parampara praptam (BG 4.2), and kept in perfect purity by the same process. It comes from the apuaresya, the perfect source, and therefore it defies so called science and logic, which are used and generated by imperfect, conditioned minds.
Actually, in the scientific world we also have experience that knowledge comes from an authority. In order to learn, we must go to school, or go online, or consult some book to understand anything in that field of knowledge.
The first step in spiritual understanding is that when we approach a guru, we understand that we are fools, and that everything we have learned from the mundane world is useless in understanding the actual nature of the absolute truth, Krishna. We have to kick out our previous conceptions before we enter spiritual understanding. Actually these misconceptions are like dust on the mirror of the mind, and Lord Caitanya says ceto-darpana-marjanam, the chanting of hare krsna cleanses this dust so that one can understand the truth.
In the 2nd chapter, 7th verse of the Bhagavad-gita, Arjuna says sisyas te’ham: he accepted Krishna as a guru, one who can actually give him real knowledge. Arjuna realized that all mundane conceptions were useless, and he therefore felt distressed. He had to approach a guru in a submissive attitude to understand.
Modern science is tomfoolery and rascaldom because the so-called scientists change their opinion every few years, and there are so many different conclusions. Ultimately, all of it is just “theory." In other words, it's not actual knowledge. It's just their guesswork. Krishna is the real source of knowledge, and that has been accepted since the beginning of creation: tene brahma hrda (SB 1.1.1), and has been passed down by much more intelligent living entities than ourselves for millions of years: imam vivasate yogam (BG 4.1), and is accepted by all scholars, yogis and saintly acaryas like Madhavarcarya, Ramanujarcarya, and even Sankarcarya. So there’s no doubt about the authenticity and authority of Vedic knowledge, but even without accepting it's authority through statements of recognized teachers and scholars, by practical experience, logic and philosophy we can understand its value. Modern science, however, has never resulted in any tangible useful result except creating an atomic bomb for killing people en masse, because it relies entirely on the senses, which in most, if not all cases are uncontrolled.
So we don’t accept this science as authoritative, especially if it defies the Vedic version. If it coincides with the Vedic siddhanta, or conclusion, then alright, very nice, that is the proper use of such research work.
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