How can we understand unbelievable statements from scripture?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
when we find in scripture certain statements that say are difficult to believe or difficult to accept and we may lose faith so how to keep our faith in the scripture we don’t have to emphasize during our scriptural study that which is not emphasized in the scripture itself so for example if a section where it is said Chitraketu Maharaj he had 10 million wives now if you see there is just one verse or one section of a verse which says that and it’s not like a repeated central point in the in the scripture Aishwarya Prabhupada also there in his purport he says Chitraketu Maharaj had tens tens and had hundreds and thousands of wives he also does not say hundreds of thousands of wives hundreds and thousands just a large number so if we see in that story’s context the point of the story is although he had so many wives he could not get a child so the specific figure of how many wives he had that is not as important as the point that despite having so many wives he could not get a child so from the from the amount of verses devoted to that particular passage from the purport given by Aishwarya Prabhupada from the essential message from that story from all these perspectives that exact figure is not important so to see that as a poetic ornament there is nothing wrong in that Bhagavatam is not making up a law it is not a Siddhantic point over there there are other places where Krishna lifted Govardhana now we won’t call that as a metaphorical description because we understand that Krishna is God and by the way there in Vijaya God is God is only potent so it is not unscientific it is trans-scientific that means miracles are not against science miracles are above science so because scientific laws by Krishna’s will the law of gravity operates if Krishna wants he can stop the law of gravity in certain extraordinary situations he has the capacity to suspend the laws it is under his supervision that material nature works so if you understand this point then when Krishna himself or one of his avatars is performing some miraculous activity we understand that as testimony to Krishna’s omnipotence and we understand that Krishna has made certain systems for functioning in this world and most of the times things function according to that system but these past times demonstrate that Krishna is not restricted by these laws so they actually can include their faith in Krishna, how wonderful he is, he is really God so that way depending on the specific overall if we keep the purpose of a particular story clear or a particular scripture clear then we can so I gave two examples, one thing is something poetic ornament something is like a central philosophical principle and further also there are many certain other things, say somebody curses someone and then their form changes or whatever, we will see how is that possible but we have to understand that science as it functions today has tremendous predictive power within a particular framework of apparition so even within science there are cases of documented but not explained cases of say medical miracles and some people they went and bathed in a particular river they had a terrible disease and they got cured there is a book by Dhritarashtra called Human Devolution in which there is a chapter called I think titled Paranormal Modification of Biological Form by Michael Cremo, Human Devolution there are many such cases, well documented doctors have said this patient has got this disease, he cannot be cured and then they did something and they got cured these are in medical history, these are called medical miracles they are not the norm but they do happen sometimes so we see such incidents don’t prove that science is incorrect or science needs to be rejected, they only prove that science has explanations but science explanations are not necessarily exhaustive so sometimes there have been factors beyond what are explainable by science as we know it and they may also come into play and they may by then things may happen which we cannot understand by recognizing if scientific progress has taught us anything it has taught us humility actually humility means the more we know the more we understand how little we know in the past we thought that telescopes now know what is there in the space but when we went out in space then we saw the earth itself is so small and space is so big the more we know the more we know how little we know so initially they thought atom is an irreducible particle now atomic physics itself is such a big field that about the atom we know so little so basically if we have truly the spirit of science then we will be humble if some things don’t make sense within the scientific framework rather than simply rejecting them as unscientific we will suspend judgment and openly investigate them but overall the best way to center our faith is on linking it with our practice that means as far as I am concerned practicing bhakti, chanting Hare Krishna these have helped me to become a better person these helped me to control my anger to control my desires to control my negativity and there may be much in scripture and it’s not that we have to have the same level of faith in everything in scripture the scripture I said central teachings which we need to have faith in so that we practice and transform ourselves and other things we can just keep them in a state of suspended judgment this don’t make sense to me so I leave it aside we may consult with some senior devotees who may be able to explain to us things better if he has a specific doubt sometimes over a period of time by practice and realization we will understand then we will move on that way . .