Should devotees move beyond demonizing scientists?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
thank you should devotees move away from the idea that from saying things like scientists are demons yes I would say that even Prabhupada himself was very conscious and cautious of what he spoke when I met Swaroop Damodar Maharaj who was one of Prabhupada’s prominent scientific disciples and I was talking with Giriraj Maharaj also that when they were organizing this big world conference of science synthesis of science and religion so devotees asked Prabhupada Prabhupada sometimes you refer to scientists as fools and rascals when the scientists come for conferences should we speak to them like that so Giriraj Maharaj says Prabhupada is horrified so obviously not you should speak politely with them you should be like gentlemen with them so now what does it mean there is always a time place circumstance which is to be considered if science claims to give knowledge of ultimate reality or if people in general think that science provides us ultimate reality then that is where science becomes a competitor to scripture becomes a competitor to spirituality becomes a competitor to bhakti now in some scientists minds and in many people’s minds it may be like that science is the ultimate source of knowledge so many times when Prabhupada speaks something it is from the ultimate perspective that if anybody is making an ultimate truth claim and that truth claim is contradicted to what scripture is saying then that has to be strongly strongly challenged but as you rightly said yourself that Prabhupada used technology Prabhupada used dictaphone and Prabhupada is appreciative of that there is a same conversation in which people often quote Prabhupada speaking so heavily about scientists Prabhupada said that we are not against the knowings the desire of scientists to know the spirit of scientists wanting to know we are against their atheism so if we look carefully at what Prabhupada is saying Prabhupada is not so much against science as he is against scientism scientism is the ideology which claims that science can answer all questions it’s ideology, it’s not science so sometimes some devotees even in their classes they want something sensational to speak and sometimes Prabhupada’s strong sound bites they are taken out of context without nuance and they are replicated and then everybody starts saying that this is what it is but it’s any person who carefully studies Prabhupada not just his words but also his life you will see that actually Prabhupada was not at all like that where he was dismissive of everything else there were times in particular context when anything was presented as the ultimate truth which was contradictory to scripture Prabhupada was heavy but if something was contextually useful, Prabhupada would use it and Prabhupada would appreciate it so yes definitely the idea of condemning science and scientists that is sophomoric that is childish and because in most people’s minds at least now maybe it was a little different few decades ago now people are interested in science because it provides them technology but very few people actually think that science is a reliable source of ultimate knowledge there may be some atheists who may use science to promote to propagate their atheistic ideology but for most people whether it is people who use science or people who develop science for all of them science is primarily operational tool it’s not a tool to ultimate knowledge it’s a tool for functioning in the world and when it is like that there is no need to criticize that because we are also using it in this world so it is only when science is claimed or portrayed by some people that it is a tool to ultimate knowledge then it becomes a challenge so otherwise certainly we should move away from it and we all have to take the responsibility to find like minded association even among devotees there may be many different kinds of devotees and some devotees we may just not be able to gel with them and then we keep a distance from them and we focus on connecting with those devotees who with whom we can connect nicely and we move forward, we understand that Krishna’s movement is very big and there can be many different people with different backgrounds, different ideas and they may be within the broad rubric of bhakti or they may consider themselves to be in that broad framework of bhakti but I have a responsibility to nourish my spirituality and let me see what association nourishes that except that which is favorable and avoid that which is unfavorable so and that applies not just to material things which are anti-devotional but sometimes even in devotee association some devotees presentations we just not able to connect with them so keep a distance from them and I would say the second generation things are in large way becoming moderated I have not seen practically any second generation devotee scientist and a gung-ho campaign against science and even second generation devotees who are who are little who have studied the world a little bit who are well educated they are not so much against science per say so things are changing gradually and we take responsibility to get that association which nourishes our spiritual life and we try to provide that association to others