Dasha Mula Tattva 2 – Scripture is the only way to know inconceivable Absolute Truth

Om Gyanatmi Rangasya.

Gyananjani Shalakaya. Chakshuruli Tamleno. Asmai Shri Gurve Namaha.

Namao Vishnupadaya. Krishnaprasthaya Bhutale. Shrimate Bhaktivedanta.

Swaame Tenaamine. Namaste Saraswati Deve. Gauravani Pracharine.

Nirvishesha Vishwanyavadi. Pashchatya Desha Tharine. Mancha Kalpataru Vyascha.

Krupasindhurya Evacha. Patidana Pavanebhyo. Namo Namaha.

Jai Shri Krishna Chaitanya. Prabhu Nityananda. Shri Advaita Gadadhara.

Shri Vasadika Urbhakta Vrinda. Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna.

Krishna Krishna. Hare Hare. Hare Rama.

Hare Rama. Rama Rama. Hare Hare.

Hare Krishna. So now, we'll continue our discussion about the Dashamulatva. Yesterday we discussed about the historical and the philosophical significance of this categorisation.

The Dashamulatva. And now, we will discuss about one by one the Tattvas. So, here.

So it begins with Aamnaya Praah Tattvam Harihiparamam. So you can Are you projecting it or what is happening? Okay, fine, no problem. So, Aamnaya Praah Tattvam Harihiparamam.

Aamnaya So, Tantattvas, I'll just read out the Sanskrit first. We'll talk about them one by one. So, how the Dashamulatva is not a very big thread.

It is basically there are ten principles and then there are one verse which gives all the ten principles in summary. And then there are verses which talk about each of those principles. So, the first verse is Aamnaya Praah.

So, Aamnaya. Aamnaya, it refers to Vedic scriptures. Those are the sources of knowledge.

And the primary knowledge that we get from them is Harihihaparamam. The absolute truth is Hari. Sarvasaktim Prasabdhim.

What is the characteristic of Hari? He is the reservoir of all energies and all Rasas. So, let's, if we can the projector, I'll display it and talk about it. But let's start with them one by one.

Aamnaya Praah. So, script Aamnaya Praah. Praah means it is said.

Aamnaya. Human beings are differentiated from all other living beings by their capacity for enquiry. All living beings enquire.

But only human beings can enquire about the purpose of existence. All other living beings enquire about the means for existence. Means for existence means we need food to live.

We have a biological drive to mate and reproduce. We have a biological need to rest. And we of course have the biological as well as the psychological drive for self-protection.

So, these correspond to Aahaar, Nidra, Bhai, Maithan. These are the four drives that all living beings have. And for fulfilling these biological needs we require certain things.

Those are the purposes for living. Eating, sleeping, mating, defending. These are actually primary biological drives.

And all living beings enquire, what is the food that I can eat? In fact, if you consider eating, animals are very proficient. If we were left alone in a forest, we would find it very difficult to know which fruits are edible, which leaves are edible, which flowers are edible. But animals can sense it innately.

So, this is the enquiry about the means for existence. Food is a means for existence. Enquiry.

All animals do that. But the purpose of existence, the why am I living, that is something which only human beings can enquire about. Sometimes we say that animals have no interest.

And experiments have been done where the Atma is Sat-Chit-Ananda. The Atma is eternal, full of knowledge and full of bliss. So, the Atma's Sat-Chit-Ananda is in this place.

It's coming now. It's coming now, isn't it? So, this is the Paschimottatva. आम् नाया प्राह तत्वम् हरिम् इः परमं सर्वशक्तिम् प्रसाप्धिम् तद्भिन्नाम् शाम् सिजीवान् प्रकृति कवलितान् तद्विमुक्तांस् च भावाद् भेला भेद प्रकाशं सकलं अपिहरे साधनं शुद्धभक्तिम् साध्यं तद्प्रीतिम् एवेत्य उपदिषिति जनान् गौवर चंद्रः स्वयं सह गौवर चंद्रः स्वयं सहि पक्तुर ठाकुर आम नाया प्रहा तत्वम आम नाया प्रहा तत्वम आम नाया प्रहा आम नाया प्रहा तत्वम सर्वशक्तिव रसाब्धिम् That Hari is the possessor of all potencies is the ocean of rasas तद भिन्नांशांस च जीवान So the Jivas are his separated parts बिन्नांश Separated parts Fragmented parts प्रकृति कवलितान They have been swallowed by प्रकृति, by material nature तद विमुक्तांश भावाद They are being liberated from material nature, from the illusion of material nature, that is their सुभावाद They are bound presently by माया and they can be liberated from माया These are two distinct points The present situation and their potential situation भेदा भेद प्रकाशं सकलं अपिवरे Now okay, what is the relationship between things and Hari? There is, this is an elaborate philosophical point in Vedanta Are things the same as Hari or are things different from Hari? So he says भेदा भेद प्रकाशं They are one and different And how do we, how does the soul become liberated? How does the soul realise the absolute truth? साधनं शुद्ध भक्तिन It is by the practise of भक्ति that the soul will become liberated साध्यं तत्पृतिन When we do, साधन is like a road and every road is meant to have a destination So we take a road particularly we go to Kolkata, another road we may go to Pune, another road we may go to Baroda There are different roads and different destinations So साधन शुद्ध भक्ति, what will that lead to? The goal that is to be achieved is तत्पृतिन, तत् is a pronoun which refers to Hari So साध्यं the goal is devotion to Hari It's, so भक्ति is the process, पृति is love the fruit of that process एवेति उपदिशति जनान So उपदिशति जनान this is what has been taught to people by गौरचंद्रः सोयंसः गौरचंद्रः has taught this to all people So let's summarise once again, प्रमाण is the Vedas are the प्रमाण परम तत्त्व is Hari कृष्ण is सर्वशक्तिमाण and कृष्ण is अखिल सामरत संधु these are two separate points then विबिन्नांश तत्व that the souls are in separated parts all souls so that they are bound or liberated, they are separated parts the जीवाs are presently in material nature bound, they are बद्ध जीवाs and the जीवाs can be liberated from material nature there are liberated जीवाs and we all can become liberated अचिन्दवेदावेद तत्व that is, everything in existence is one and different from the Absolute Truth शुद्धबक्ति is the साधन as we discussed in कृष्णप्रीति that is the साध्यवस्तु so in one sense we may feel there is nothing new in this I know all these things these are all familiar points but the point is in spiritual circles what is important is not familiarity it is affinity familiarity means we know something but affinity means our affections are invested in it our heart is invested in it so there is when something enters our ears that is information when something enters our head that is comprehension when something enters our heart that is realisation there is information, comprehension and realisation so for example I am not the body, I am the soul this is the information which we have and to some extent if we study the philosophy we also have comprehension we can explain it to others, we can give logical reasons scientific reasons, scriptural reasons to explain how our essential identity is different from the body so that is intellectual but then when it enters into the heart, when we accept it when we live according to it then that is realisation so now the philosophy itself can be very vast and complex and sometimes we may get lost in the details shabda jala maharanyam nabhuktaye nabhuktaye shabda jala there are so many words that one can get trapped in that maharanyam 2.52 2.53 he talks about yadate mohakalilam buddhir vithitareshyate tadha gantase nirvedam shrotavyasa shudrasvacham when your buddhi will go beyond the forest of delusion yadate mohakalilam buddhir vithitareshyate tadha gantase nirvedam when you will be situated in knowledge shrotavyasa shudrasvacham you will not be affected by what you have heard in the past nor will you be affected, allured by what you have heard in the future so here the forest of delusion that Krishna is talking about is actually the forest of vedic knowledge so in vedic knowledge itself there are so many subjects talked about that one can forget the ultimate goal the yagic brahman pastime is dramatically demonstrative of this shabda jala maharanyam of getting lost in shabda jala they knew vedas but they forgot the purpose of the vedas so we will come to vedas in detail but here the point I was making is that amnaya prahatatvam that the absolute truth can be understood from the vedas so I was talking about how all living beings have this faculty for enquiry but it is only humans who have the faculty for enquiry about existence why do I exist at all what is the purpose of existence this is a question which lower beings can't ask there is awareness and there is self-awareness so awareness means for example if an ant were moving over here the ant is aware some danger will come suddenly I start moving my hand the ant will freeze so that it doesn't get caught or there is a mosquito here it sees a hand coming it will fly away awareness is there but there is awareness and there is self-awareness self-awareness means we turn our capacity for awareness inwards and look at ourselves ok what am I thinking about it is sometimes an act of mental projection for example if I am sitting here I can visualise maybe if I was sitting over there how do I look I may think ok maybe my talak is not straight maybe the words I am speaking are too fast or too complex I have the capacity to project myself outside of myself and observe this is one of the defining differences between humans and animals it is by the self-awareness we have the capacity for self-awareness but not everyone has developed that capacity so most people they are just aware and they are aware within their external reality of the how to fulfil the purpose of existence this kind of knowledge we can acquire from our senses and now there is if you see how knowledge is acquired there are the senses from the senses information goes inside to the eyes sorry to the optic centre of the brain from the optic centre of the brain further what happens that is a mystery for example if I see a blue a red rose the information is going through the eyes but it is not that in a particular part of the brain there is a red rose that is emerging the brain simply contains of neurones and there are electrochemical cells that are being fired in the neurones but then how is it that a picture of the red rose appears in my inner eye inner eye means if I see a red rose and I observe it carefully and then I close my eyes I can see the red rose again maybe not as precisely as it is really but I can see it fairly well so where is this picture formed that means there is an inner screen and there is an inner seal the two things inside there is an inner screen and there is an inner seal so where are these if you just stick to the neural circuitry of the brain that just contains electrochemical signals but the electrochemical signals they themselves do not contain any visual picture so where is the seal where is the screen neither of them we can understand from reductionistic science so the screen actually is the mind and the seal is the soul so just like if I have a computer which is like a multimedia device and the sound input is coming in suppose somebody was recording this lecture using the webcam of this computer and the audio input of the computer then the input is to say the visual input is going on through the webcam the audio input is going in through the mic but what after that I have to have some software which integrates it and then sometimes skype if you are broadcasting you can see the same image which is coming on the whatever is being broadcast that you can see in the screen of the computer so how does that happen there has to be some software which integrates it the hardware alone cannot do that hardware can receive the signals but putting the signals together is something which does not happen automatically there is some software required for that that software which integrates the sensory inputs and presents them as a unified stimulus for the perception by the soul that software is the mind the software that integrates the sensory inputs and presents a unified picture for the soul to observe and respond to that software is the mind and what is the connection of all this with our topic that scripture are the source of knowledge what I am trying to draw out the point here is if we see animals and humans the where is the difference we may say brahma jijnasa humans have the capacity for brahma jijnasa but where does this difference lie is it biological, is it psychological is it spiritual is it that the human body is different from the animal body and that is why humans have the capacity for spiritual enquiry if you say human body are we referring to the gross body or the subtle body the gross body it is true that the human brain is much more developed than the animal brain even the simian brain, the monkey brain also is nowhere close to the human brain in its complexity but still the human brain is like a hardware somebody may have a 2 GB RAM, somebody may have a 8 GB RAM, somebody may have a 16 GB RAM but the 16 GB RAM itself does not do any processing there has to be someone who uses that and not just the user but the 16 GB RAM has to be accompanied with a software that can use the 16 GB RAM so the physical capacity of the computer automatically does not mean higher functions it means the capacity is there for higher functions like that the human brain has a greater capacity for information processing but the human faculty for spiritual enquiry does not come because of the brain it comes because of something deeper and the soul is essentially the same the soul is whether it is an animal body or a human body, the soul is always Satchitananda so where is the difference between human body and animal body that is in the subtle body the subtle body it keeps changing constantly, even in this life when we say change, it is not in shape or form because the subtle body does not have a physical shape it is not made of gross matter but if you have, each of us whether we know it or not, we have a google profile if we have a gmail id and if we use computers and we search something on google using our computer then all our searches they are stored in the computer they are stored not only in the computer we can delete our computer also but google keeps a track that means if this person is logged with this gmail id and while being logged with this gmail id, all these searches have happened if you can get the government, if it demands, google has to give that and google has access so there are researchers, they say that if you look at all your google searches is google search very common so you can actually understand the state of your mind by looking at your google searches ok, i search for this, this shopping items i search for this, this topic so it is like, you look at the record of your google searches, you understand what was the frame of mind on that day, this year, this year so every single search that we do, google keeps track record of that of course, if we search on a computer where we are not logged in then google cannot correlate that search with our id or otherwise it does get searched so everything is tracked and each time we search new for example if go i typed and if i am from goa so earlier i was typing goa but now i become a devotee and when i type goa, i am typing god so god so initially the autocomplete was coming out to be goa but now if i keep searching for god then when i type go, the default autocomplete will come to be god so here what has happened the essential software is the same but the software preferences connected with me have changed the google preferences connected with me have changed like that, when the soul moves from one body to another body Krishna says that when the soul moves from one body to another the various senses that it requires appropriate for birth body are centred around the mind and then accordingly various kinds of gratification take place so when we come to the human body the subtle body has the subtle body is now allowing the soul's capacity for spiritual enquiry to be manifested in the other subtle bodies, in non-human bodies don't allow that capacity so first point is this that we have the first point i made is that we search for the purpose of life then i discussed about where does this capacity to search for the purpose of life come from it doesn't come from the gross body it is always there in the soul so why is it expressed in the human body because the subtle body does not cover the soul so much, subtle body allows the soul's spiritual enquiry to start manifesting so this human search for knowledge it is fulfilled at its highest level by scripture if you see all branches of knowledge which are developed they are ultimately catering to our jignasa the human quest for knowledge whether it be physics biochemistry, whether it be genetic engineering whatever it is all these are ultimately they are expressions of the human urge for knowledge and we can fulfil that urge through various means so there are two primary modes of acquiring knowledge called arohan pantha and which is the other one arohan pantha so arohan arohan means to climb so arohan is ascending arohan is descending climb down so arohan pantha is the ascending form of knowledge that means we by our enquiry try to find out the upanishads are often characterised by arohan pantha because upanishads are for intellectuals and intellectuals like to speculate so they use their own intelligence to speculate what is what and in this way they try to understand the purpose of life once we, but the upanishads are a part of a broad body of knowledge when I say the upanishads are a part of arohan it is not, what do I mean by that we would say that isn't the upanishads they are a part of scripture and isn't scripture actually arohan pantha yeah scripture itself is arohan pantha scripture itself gives us descending knowledge but the upanishads contain passages, many passages that demonstrate the arohan pantha arohan pantha means that the upanishads, for example a story where Indra and Bali both of them go to Brahma no not Bali who was the father of Bali Maharaj Mirocha yeah, so the story that the head of the devatas and the head of the asuras both of them go to Brahma and both of them want to acquire knowledge so the story goes that when both of them are trying to acquire knowledge at that time he says that you have to if you are coming to me for knowledge you have to do tapasya and then they both ask who am I so he takes them to a lake and he says what you see in a river that is who you are so both of them are satisfied and they go back as they are going along Indra starts thinking now see if what I see in the mirror is my body but my body is going to deteriorate if it deteriorates after that I will remain the same my figure will change but I will remain the same the body weakens, the body sickens but I remain the same so how can I be the body now Mirocha just doesn't think much he just goes back and says oh and the body's goal of life is sense enjoyment and he keeps enjoying but Indra comes back and he asks Brahma what is this how is it possible he says do more tapasya and then he does more tapasya and then he is studying many things and then as he moves forward I will tell this whole story later because it is an intricate story I am focussing on a particular point here so again Brahma gives one answer and then Indra says ok this is good and he is about to go no no this is not the right thing there is some problem with this answer so like that there are 3-4 stories he goes through and finally Brahma gives the answer to Indra so here the idea is Indra is also thinking so Aarohan pantha itself is not necessarily wrong it is at least involving the capacity for enquiry being used but what we need to recognise is that we we can understand in a general sense that there is some reality beyond the physical that means we can understand there must be some reality beyond it now what that reality is we cannot understand with our senses we cannot understand by Aarohan pantha for that we need Aarohan pantha so there is I talked a little about rational theology there is a revelation of theology so with our rationality what can we understand it is not that rationality is useless reason should be our minister not our master now reason reason is our rational capacity our reasoning capacity we should use it but it should be our minister minister means a king a king has some wise assistants so the king considers them takes their input but the king is not a slave of the minister the king doesn't have to obey the minister's orders the king may sometimes take the minister's counsel sometimes may not take the minister's counsel but on the other hand if there is an employee, the employee has to take the master's counsel as an instruction so our reason should be our minister not our master that means that we need to use our reason for understanding things at the same time we also need to understand that there will be things beyond reason we are finite the absolute truth is infinite even atheists acknowledge this now one of the biggest champions of atheism is Richard Dawkins he is considered one of the world's biggest atheists so when he asks some questions about how this thing could have come about by evolution this is so complex so his answer is if you can't understand how evolution works that is not evolution's problem that is your problem so what is basically he is trying to do he is ascribing god-like powers to evolution evolution is true if you can't understand it is not evolution's problem, it is your problem so basically what is he calling for he is bowing down to the god of evolution and he is saying oh the god of evolution is so great that we tiny mortals can't understand how great this god is so it is a call for faith in a different name so any field of knowledge if you start going deep deep deep deep into it there is a physicist who has said the universe is not only queerer than what we imagine it is queerer than what we can imagine it is not only queerer than what we imagine because why queerer than what we imagine he is saying that now according to our normal observation this table is made of solid material but if you look at it from the point of view of atomic physics Einsteinian physics actually most of it is empty space the nucleus is less than 10% of an atom, any atom much much less than 10% and rest is just electrons surrounded by empty space which is largely empty space with some electrons revolving around so how does something which is largely empty space lead to the formation of solid matter and further if we go deeper according to quantum theory everything is just waves so if everything if everything is just waves how from waves we have something like this existing some solid matter existing Einstein was very peeved he was very irritated by the whole concept of quantum physics and its ontological implications ontological implications what it means about the nature of existence so he said I would like to believe that the moon continues to exist even when I am not looking at it now what does it mean according to quantum physics everything is just waves but when there is an observer who observes something at that time the waves collapse into a particular shape so of course the quantum physics is very complex and I am giving a very simple sketchy bare bones outline of this but the point is that when this glass of water will it not exist if I am not looking at it obviously it is existing we may say so many of the implications of quantum physics are very counter intuitive so responding to this physicist said I think it is Mondoro he said that universe is not only queerer than what we imagine it is queerer than what we can imagine this is nothing but he is talking about achintya in terms of science he is saying quantum physics is achintya it is not only achintya what he is saying is it is akalpanyu it is queerer than what you can imagine so it is not just in the field of spirituality and god that we have to leave strict rationality behind science which claimed that it was run by the fuel of reason science says everything will go by reason by logic by rationality the very science which was run by the fuel of reason has now run beyond what the fuel of reason can take is this point what I am saying if it is not too complex science claims that we are going to study everything by logic and reason science is run by the fuel of reason but now science itself has run into territory into an area which cannot be understood by reason so how things are scientists don't know not in terms of operation so in terms of operation yes how electromagnetics move how we can send SMS, how we can send email that's all fine in terms of operation science has a fairly good understanding but in terms of origins in terms of fundamental nature of existence science is becoming increasingly clueless one of the most famous books written about science in the 20th century is called from certainty to uncertainty by a science author called David Peat so he said at the start of the 20th century scientists are certain now, everything is understood Lord Kelvin had said that the biggest problem for physicists in the future centuries is going to be unemployment because he said all the questions are answered all the questions are answered and they will just have to fill details but then he said this in 1895 and just within 20 years after Einstein wrote his papers and this quantum physics and Einstein relativity came up the whole foundation of physics itself was shaken so by the time of 21st century there was Stephen Hawking he said that the universe is so complex he was trying to come up with a theory of everything and he kept searching, searching, searching and finally in 2004 he said I am happy to announce that humanity's quest for knowledge will never end what it means is always changing the roots what is there to be happy about it is spin doctoring the truth so even in the field of science which is supposedly run by the fuel of reason we see that we run into territory which cannot be reached by reason so even in science there is a concept of achyantya which comes up now I am talking about achyantya in a general way in a philosophical way what the Gaudiya Vishnavas talk about achyantya that is more technical which we will come to later but this principle that by human reason alone we cannot understand everything that is a universal principle which is being increasingly vindicated even by other branches of knowledge this all analysis is the background for understanding why we need scripture we have an urge for acquiring knowledge at the same time our instruments for acquiring knowledge whether they be our senses or they be our branches of knowledge which are developed by using our senses they are all instruments we can have sensory objects we can have instruments such as books such as telescopes and microscopes and we can have methodologies summarised in books all of these are just extensions of the senses through all of these we can acquire some knowledge but they all eventually run into a barrier that barrier we may be able to push the barrier a little bit more and more but the barrier inevitably we run into it and if this is the case with material knowledge what to speak of its spiritual knowledge science hope was that the complexity of the observable universe will be reduced down to the simplicity of the fundamental particles that how are these big planets and cosmic bodies moving in the sky how are storms generated how are tsunamis originating all this we will try to explain in terms of fundamental particles and fundamental forces so from simplicity complexity emerges that is the basic principle of evolution but what scientists have found is at the very fundamental root of the universe at the basic level where scientists were expecting simplicity there is phenomenal complexity just like an atom was supposed to be Dalton thought that it was an individual particle but then Dalton found that atom has nucleus, it has electrons and now within the nucleus there are so many fundamental particles that have been postulated Higgs boson which is called the god of particles that is just one of them but there is a whole universe of particles and there is one philosopher he said you know how many fundamentals of particles are actually there so he said there are as many fundamental particles as there are funds for scientists to find those particles what he means is not that all these fundamental particles are imaginary but it is just that he is saying that to the extent we keep studying we will find more and more things and we find more and more things so instead of the simplicity of the fundamental particle of atom within the atom within the nucleus we have infinitely complex and seemingly innumerable particles so similarly if you look at biological organism our human body is quite complex the idea was that complexity will go down to simplicity, there are cells which are simply blocks of protoplasm and from those cells we have the complex living beings coming about but as scientists went deep into the cell they found within the nucleus there is a DNA and the DNA encodes the genome the genetic code and the scientists who did the human genome project there are several hundred scientists who work from various parts of the world and one human genome which they made it contains more information how the DNA how the how the DNA encodes the information through the genes that itself is if you make a physical book of the human genome code, that book would be bigger than the empire state building, the tallest building in America that is the amount of information that is there within the DNA in the genome so instead of complexity giving rise to simplicity what we are having is simplicity as you go deeper and deeper it is more and more complex so the point again is that there is a barrier to the human capacity for knowledge acquisition independently so this is where scripture comes in some people may ask how can I know that scripture is the word of God so first we have to start from basics that we can see within nature many of our necessities are provided for so for example we have within nature we have hunger and food exists in nature we have thirst, water exists in nature we need air to breathe, we need oxygen and oxygen is there in nature so just as our physical needs are provided for similarly one need for existence is knowledge without knowledge what is the point of it all suppose we got suppose on our birthday we got a gift coming by mail to us a very complex looking very high tech device if I see that gadget I can understand this must be expensive it is a high end gadget but if I get the gadget but I have never seen this gadget before I can understand it is complex but I don't know how to use it at all and if some friend has sent it to me, has spent the money purchasing it and mailing it would that friend also not send me some information of how it is to be used maybe some manual or at least some address where I can get a manual without that what would be the point of sending the gadget so if we look at our human body, if I look at the world around us it is complex we have been provided not only the body but also along with that the resources for the survival of the body so wouldn't we be given knowledge about how we are supposed to live what we are supposed to live for without this knowledge the point of new living would be pointless so in principle we can understand just as within nature our various needs are provided for similarly our need for knowledge will also be provided for and that knowledge need is provided for through scripture, through revelation now we may move forward and we may ask ok but different religions are there and they all claim that they have their revelations so Muslims will claim that Quran is the revelation Christians may claim that Bible is the revelation we may claim because of the revelation so how do you know what is the revelation so again this comes to something which is first there is a principle the principle is if a person has given me a gift of a device that person also gave me some gift of a manual to use that device now if I have three books how do I really know which is the manual well I have to study the book see if that book helps me to make sense of the sense of the device and then I have to use the book to operate the device and see if it helps me to operate the device better if it does then I can understand yes this device is fine this book is manual for this device now it can also be that a device can have multiple manuals, it's not that there has to be only one manual for a device there are different manuals and it's like if if you go to a website, if you have got a particular computer now there is on the website of the computer there may be a manual for general users and then there may be another manual for users those who are going to go into the coding, sophisticated coding for them, there may be another manual and for those who are actually going to work on the OS and change the OS for them there may be another kind of manual also so it's not that the first book is not a manual, the third book is not a manual all the manuals are of different levels so when wisdom comes from God that wisdom is called as revelation and here when he says that, Bhaktivinoda Thakur says that we need to learn from scripture so so scripture can give us various kinds of knowledge but the most important knowledge that we get from scripture it is of the absolute truth we don't have to see scripture as a competitor to science that means it is scriptural knowledge, it is scientific knowledge we shouldn't think that scripture and science have to be competitors see science primarily gives us material knowledge scripture may also give us material knowledge but scriptures primary purpose is not to give us material knowledge scriptures primary purpose is to give us spiritual knowledge so with that purpose in mind Amnaya Prahad Tattva that we study Amnaya we study scripture for the sake of Tattva, for the sake of getting spiritual knowledge just connect this so I will show a quick powerpoint here which demonstrates this point of how there can be different levels of knowledge or annals of knowledge so why is it not visible no signal disconnected ok no problem I will show this later if you consider scriptural knowledge to be like a circle so in this circle there will be one sector which agrees with science the other sector which contradicts science and there is a big sector not circle, sector I would say sector is a part of circle big sector that transcends science so for example there is it's coming so there is a circle that agrees with science a circle that contradicts science and there is a circle, not circle, sector sector that transcends science and primarily our focus in studying scripture is to understand Tattva, the essential truths so as far as the material world is concerned the material world can be analysed from different ways and when it is analysed from different ways there are different ways of understanding it so to give a simple example of this that if we go to Ayurvedic doctor and if we have digestive problems Ayurvedic doctor may say that you are Jatraagni your digestive fire is weak now if you go to allopathic doctor what do you mean by digestive fire? there is no fire in the body like that what do you mean by fire is weak so it's basically two different frames of reference within which the body is studying there will be some similarities even Ayurveda explains that there is a heart and there are bones and there is large intestine and small intestine so there are some commonalities but the frame of reference is different and that's why the approach to studying the body the analysis of the body that happens will be different so it's not that one is right and another is wrong there are two different ways of looking at the body and both of them within their own approaches work so like that there is cosmology which is given in the scriptures and there is cosmology that is revealed by science so these are two different ways of looking at the cosmos and the two are not necessarily contradictory the two are just looking at things from different frames of reference so we don't have the point I made is that we don't have to see science and scripture as competitors by positioning scripture as a competitor of science we devalue scripture we devalue scripture why? because scripture is giving us spiritual knowledge if we put scripture as a competitor to science then what is happening? we are looking for material knowledge in scripture and if we don't find material knowledge in scripture which is equal to or superior to what is the material knowledge given by science then people will start saying why do you read scripture? from scripture also I want to get material knowledge only and I am getting better material knowledge from science better get rid of scripture, I don't need scripture so there is scripture is primarily a source of spiritual knowledge amnaya praha tattvam tattva refers to ultimate truths scripture is a source of knowledge about ultimate truths for us these are truths that cannot be conceived by empirical sense observation or simply by mental inferences these are truths which are beyond and that's why we will look at this in our next class the first what is the first sutra of vedanta sutra? mathato brahma jijnasa second sutra who knows? janmadyasyata third shastra yonitvat so first sutra says that therefore enquire about brahma second says what is brahma? janmadyasyata so first enquire what is the absolute truth? where has everything come from? oh everything has come from everything has come from that which is the source of janmadyasyata, creation, mental destruction that is the source brahma is that from which all this has come but how can I know about brahma? that is shastra yonitvat that shastra is the womb shastra is the yoni from which knowledge of brahman will manifest so here the third sutra of vedanta sutra bhaktivinoda thakur is presenting as the first of his tattvas, dashamon tattva he is saying that if you want knowledge of tattva the source is amnaya it is through scripture that we can acquire spiritual knowledge knowledge of absolute truth so there are truths which are beyond independent human comprehension but that doesn't mean they are utterly beyond human comprehension when we get divine revelation coupled with human investigation that can lead to comprehension of the higher spiritual truths also what those truths are and how those truths can be comprehended that we will discuss in a future talk so to summarise what I talked about today is that what is the need for amnaya what is the need for scripture so we discussed about how all living beings enquire but they enquire about the means of existence only human beings talk about the purpose of existence all living beings have awareness but only human beings have self awareness we can turn inwards and ask we do ask where can I get food where can I get to reproduce where can I get all these things they are important but what am I living for that is the question which we alone can ask then we discussed where does this capacity come from yes our human brains are more sophisticated but they are like the RAM higher capacity RAM that itself does not automatically lead to greater processing information, there is a capacity that is there so the human brain allows us to think more think deeper but the thinker is different from the brain the mind allows us to think sorry the brain provides us the physical infrastructure for deeper cognition deeper contemplation so then what is there beyond the brain, we discussed how when say I see a red rose the visual information goes inside it goes through the optic nerves it goes through the optic centre of the brain but what after that where is the screen and where is the seer so that screen is the mind the mind is the integrator of various sensory inputs and the presenter of those inputs to the soul for observation and decision and the soul is the seer, the mind is the screen so it is within this mind that there is a greater capacity for perception rather the mind is subtle body is less it covers the soul less and that's why the soul's capacity for spiritual perception or spiritual contemplation is manifested in the human body and this can be developed further and then after discussing this background we have the capacity to enquire about deeper truths, we discussed how how various branches of knowledge by which we refer to Aarohan and human Aarohan acknowledges that it began in human enquiry those branches of knowledge have led not as science hoped from complexity to simplicity that everything can be explained in terms of simple particles, simple rules simple laws governing those particles that was science's hope but from complexity we came to simplicity but from simplicity we are going again to complexity you know from the complex, colourful things in this world we came to simple atoms but within the atoms there is a whole universe of subatomic particles from the complex living organisms we came to the cells which we thought to be blobs of protoplasm but within this blobs of protoplasm there is genes and there is DNA and the DNA has genetic code and genetic code of one organism can be big, can comprise a book that can be bigger than the Empire State Building so so then that means in every field of knowledge we come to the point of achintya I talk about atheism, atheists also say if you can't understand it, it's not your problem it's not evolution's problem, it's your problem they are also saying that you can't understand it so evolution is achintya so Hawking said that humanity's quest for knowledge will never end again what is he saying that ok the nature and the universe and science, it's all achintya and that's what Einstein said quantum physics implications also counterintuitive and that also doesn't make sense so if we recognise that even by our human search for knowledge we come to blocks within our capacity for knowledge which indicates that there is some, there are things which are beyond the ken of our knowledge, beyond the scope of our knowledge acquisition and how do we get that knowledge so then we discuss that just as our basic biological needs are provided for similarly one of our needs for living is knowledge and that will also be provided for just as somebody who gives us a sophisticated device and gives us a power cord, gives us a battery so that we can run that device but then doesn't give a manual or how do we use the device that would be pointless so if God through nature has provided us the fundamental needs for living then knowledge is also a need which he will provide and the manual that he provides for how we can live life that is scripture so within scripture we may say that can different scriptures say different things yeah, there can be manuals also of different levels and when we look at scripture, we study scripture we study scripture not for material knowledge but for spiritual knowledge, if you get material knowledge that's a bonus but that's not the primary purpose scripture if you consider the circle where one sector is knowledge that agrees with science another sector disagrees with science the large sector that knowledge that transcends science so we appeal to study scripture primarily for knowledge that transcends science knowledge about our inner world knowledge about how we can transform ourselves, how we can become better human beings better spiritual, more spiritually aware and so scripture by placing scripture as a competitor to science we devalue scripture, because scripture is offering us spiritual knowledge, so for that scripture which is a revelation of God guides us to tattva, guides us to essential truths of life and what those tattvas are which are revealed in scripture that we will discuss in our future talks.