What makes Vedic knowledge infallible and human knowledge fallible?

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Are there any questions or comments? So, what makes Vedic knowledge infallible and human knowledge fallible? It is the fallibility of us human beings. In Vedic epistemology, epistemology is the branch of knowledge which studies the nature of knowledge.
It is you could say knowledge about knowledge. So, what are the ways in which we come to know things and which of them give us reliable knowledge, which of them give us unreliable knowledge. So, that whole aspect is studied in epistemology.
So, in Vedic epistemology, it is understood that all human beings, indeed all living beings, have four defects. So, the first defect is we all have imperfect senses. Our capacity to perceive the senses is limited.
So, from the immediate experiential perspective, we can see things which are at a particular distance. We can’t see things which are very far away. And similarly, from scientific perspective, within the broad electromagnetic spectrum, we can see only within the visible spectrum.
So, our senses themselves limit how much we can know about the world. So, if we consider if I am in a house, where there is one window. So, I can only see from that window outside.
So, the senses comprise that one window for us. Now, within what we can know through these imperfect senses, there is further a tendency to be illusioned. That means, if I eat a mango, and after that I eat some grapes, the mango is very sweet, I won’t feel the grape as sweet, although it is sweet.
Somebody has taken lemon and after that they take the grape. Hey, this is so sweet. So, what is it really? So, we are illusioned.
This is a context generated illusion, this is called. There are various kinds of illusions that come up in this way in our sensory perception. So, because we are put into illusion, so, again, the knowledge that we get through our senses is not reliable.
So, this is like a second window. So, if you consider if I am sitting in a room, I am looking out through one window and there is a wall on the other side, I cannot see what is there beyond. So, there is or there is a passage and then the passage there is another window.
So, it is like a narrower window. So, I start from a big window, ahead I go there is a narrow window. This is the second window.
So, within what we can see with our senses, which itself is limited, within that limited, what is accurate will be lesser because we are put into illusion. So, it is like a, I am going in a tunnel, we could say, or a passage which is becoming increasingly narrow. And then after that, we have a third defect that is a tendency to commit mistakes.
So, a tendency to be illusion refers to the mistakes that we commit unconsciously or unknowingly, they just happen. Whereas, the tendency to commit mistakes refers to our human fallibility in general, where after some time, I made a mistake over there. Sometimes while counting money, there are 100 notes when you count them to be 99.
So, like that, even in the history of science, history of various branches of knowledge, there have been mistakes that have been committed. And that is why the knowledge which we get today, it may be considered authoritative, but tomorrow it may be found to be a mistake. So, this is like a third narrowing of the accurate knowledge that we can get.
And then fourthly, is the tendency to cheat. We do not just inquire dispassionately, objectively, when we are trying to look at the world. Many times people have their agendas, people want to want things to turn out to be in a particular way.
So, accordingly, they heighten up or prop up some of the observations, and they push into the background some other observations so that their own pet ideas can be confirmed. And in this way, they cheat effectively. So, by they we mean we all do this.
This is a fourth limiter of the knowledge that we can acquire. So, because our senses are imperfect, because we are put into illusion, because we commit mistakes and because we cheat. So, by our human sources alone, the knowledge that we can acquire is limited, and it is bound to be fallible.
And this does not mean that it is to be rejected or it is entirely unreliable. Rather, it means that we should also be open to alternative modes of acquiring knowledge. And that mode of acquiring infallible knowledge is the Vedic knowledge which is received through disciplic succession.
So, Vedic knowledge comes from an infallible source. We human beings are finite beings and therefore we have these fallibilities. The absolute truth, the source of everything, God, He is infinite, He is infallible.
And knowledge that comes from Him is also infallible. So, if we are going to, if we got a new device, which is expensive, complicated, now we could just monkey with it and try to figure it out. Maybe this button means this, maybe this lever means this, maybe the switch means this, and we might be able to make it work to some extent.
But at best, we would end up underusing it. Maybe we could even damage it. But if along with that device came a manual, then taking the guidance of the manual for understanding how to use the device, this is actually intelligence.
The device will help us to, the manual will help us to make sense of the device and it will help us to work better with the device. Similarly, Vedic knowledge, it helps us to do these two things with life. Firstly, it enables us to make better sense of what is happening and what life is all about.
And secondly, it helps us to function better, more effectively, more productively, more joyfully. So, this knowledge coming from an infallible source is the manual, which gives us the most reliable way of working with a device, because that manual has come from the maker of the device. Similarly, Vedic knowledge, it transcends human fallibilities and guides us in a way by which we can put our life to the optimum use.
Thank you.