Does expertise in shabda make one expert in fields in which one may have no practical experience?
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna question from Nandasundari Mataji can one get complete knowledge of practical matters only from Shabda without having any practical experience for Aptaksha sometimes some devotees who have say no experience of parenting may give classes on parenting or sometimes some devotees who have no experience of may talk about spousal relationships so can one get just by study of Shabda knowledge of practical affairs isn't experience needed to make that knowledge complete and say if we want to do brain surgery if we had to do brain surgery we would go to surgeon who has not just theoretical knowledge but also practical knowledge so doesn't that principle apply even in these areas can one be simply based only by understanding Shabda give guidance in all walks of life answer there is there is a confusion about the scope of different forms of knowledge if we look at the Bhagavad Gita first of all the Bhagavad Gita gives knowledge of knowledge to Krishna by which he can knowledge from Krishna to Arjuna by which he can fight the war now Arjuna fought and won the war based on the inspiration that he got from Krishna through the Bhagavad Gita but Arjuna literally in terms of physically fighting the war that was the knowledge of archery which he had learnt from Drona so was that Shabda the knowledge of archery is one of the traditional branches of knowledge which is coming down so we could say that it is traditional but the practical skills are not necessarily learnt from Shabda in the strict sense of the word or we say Bhima learnt about mace fighting or whatever weapons if Kshatriyas are fighting it is not necessary that the weapons which they are using the specific skills that they learn they are going to come from their spiritual master they may come from many other teachers and they will also learn it from their from real life experience so if we see when Krishna when Lord Ram had to search for Sita at that time he asked Sugriva to take charge and Sugriva decided to send the different monkeys in different directions and he gave all of them guidance you go here you go here and when you go in this direction there will be a mountain over here you can go in this way there is a river you can cross this river at this place so he gives quite an elaborate description of what all he will have to what all these different monkeys will have to face when they go in different directions and then Ram asks Sugriva you studied your geography very well it seems he did not use those words exactly but then Ram enquired about him and Sugriva said that actually it was not out of interest it was out of necessity that I learnt all this since Vali was chasing me all over the world and I was trying to find places to hide and that's why I went all over in different places so now Vali is here with respect to searching for Sita there is no talk about Shabda being the authoritative basis for finding out where is Sita this is practical geographical knowledge and Sugriva says I have learnt it by travelling so there has to be a practical understanding that there is a differentiation between material knowledge and spiritual knowledge and now scripture also gives us material knowledge but essential point we learn from scripture is how to attain Krishna now as you rightly say if something is directly a very practical physical skill like brain surgery now obviously that knowledge is not going to come from Shabda it is not necessary that somebody wants to learn computer skills that knowledge is not going to come from Shabda so when it comes to direct interaction with matter and material things especially things which are found in today's world we understand that it is not necessary that somebody who is a master in Shabda somebody who is very learned in Shabda it is not necessary that they will be adept at technology we understand this is clearly a material field and one may have to learn specific skills materially so same may apply to specific medical skills so technology, medicine these are specific fields and Srila Prabhupada he had some Ayurvedic experience and he gave devotees guidance based on Ayurvedic experience but then he also consulted Ayurvedic doctors and he recommended it was not that he wanted to be a substitute to a doctor for his disciples in many cases he has asked disciples to go and consult doctors so even when Ayurveda is a part of the broad body of Vedic knowledge still Prabhupada did not claim that because he was knowing Shabda that he would substitute as a doctor for all his disciples so or for even those of his disciples who were with him Prabhupada asked them for serious problems to consult appropriate doctors so now when it comes to parenting or when it comes to relationships in general there are specific aspects to this and there are broad principles in this so now specific aspects means that ok each person is different each situation is different each relationship is different and if one starts telling people in this situation you do this, in this situation you shouldn't do this specifically that one has to be a little careful about it but there are broad principles so when we are talking about broad principles about how one should interact in relationships then that is knowledge that can be learnt through scripture principles so specific skills about surgery this is very mechanical, very physical material skill and that has to be learnt through experience but with respect to broad principles of living in the spiritual masters they may not have their own children but in a sense the spiritual master is like a parent and all disciples are children and they are also helping the children grow so the principles of how to nurture, how to discipline, how to help a person grow, those principles are universal and similarly relationships are universal renunciates may not be in a spousal relationship with anyone but the dynamics of relationships essentially have same principles so for example talking about humility, tolerance being understanding, being empathic these are principles which are universal which apply to all relationships so these we can learn from scripture and we can also in our specific situation get some experience of those relationships so that means that shabda is not just scriptural knowledge in terms of letters of shabda shabda is principles and those principles are having, often have universal applications so based on the study of scripture one understand those principles and then one can share those principles to different people in different situations in different contexts now there are situations where experience can make one learn better but there are also situations when actually distance can help one learn better so for example if somebody wants to understand how how alcoholism is harmful now the person actually takes alcohol then they may just get intoxicated they may go into a stupor and everything is fine on the other hand a person who is who has religiously avoided alcohol they can see how alcohol is so much distressing, damaging to a person so to understand harmful effects of alcohol it is not necessary to drink if we started applying this principle that everybody who is everybody who has to help anyone else they have to have gone through their experience then if there is a re-addiction center where say somebody is helping a person get free from alcohol or smoking or drugs would we make it a criteria at that time that every single staff in this re-addiction center must have been an addict earlier, only if they had been an addict earlier that they have the experience and then they can help no that's not necessary in fact unless a person has been totally cured if a person had been addicted earlier and they have recovered, still associating with people who are addicted that might cause a relapse also, so it's not, we can't make it a flat rule that experience alone will lead to deeper understanding there are many situations in life when experience can actually obscure our understanding of course it's also possible that a person who has been alcoholic and has now given up alcohol they may be able to understand the struggles of alcoholics better but that does not necessarily mean that they will be best positioned to guide an alcoholic about how to give up alcohols, that might itself be a whole branch of therapy and it might require specialized training for that so the important point is that there are principles and there are principles which have to be applied so when we go to a spiritual master and take guidance from them, we go to them primarily for learning spiritual knowledge and spiritual knowledge is not just knowledge about Krishna and the spiritual world it is also about knowledge of how to interact in this world in a way that we can go closer towards Krishna and for that knowledge there are principles and there are specific practices so generally those who are spiritual guides, they should not get into specific practices that will become too much of a too much of a getting into specifics and that can the specifics can vary according to time, place, circumstance but the broad principles they tell then we can use our good intelligences and see how best we could apply those principles so Shabda is is ultimately meant to take us towards Krishna and Shabda may also provide us material knowledge, now how much of the material knowledge we practically use that can vary according to time, place, circumstance Srila Prabhupada he recommended Ayurveda he himself took Ayurveda most of the time but he did not insist that everyone has to take Ayurveda so devotees found that there were no Ayurvedic doctors available in the western part, in other parts of the world or some Ayurvedic treatment was not working, Prabhupada was pragmatic is wisely practical, whatever works you take it and Prabhupada also once or twice when he was in London he had a surgery done, that was allopathic surgery, so the point is that even when there is a traditional form of medicine, Vedic form of medicine, there is a contemporary form of medicine Prabhupada did not mandate that everybody has to, in order to be faithful to Shabda, has to take only the traditional form of medicine alone he was open to devotees taking other forms of medicine, whatever works so Shabda tells us our purpose that is to serve Krishna and it gives us inspiration, it gives us education it gives us direction to move towards Krishna, now specifically how we move towards Krishna that will vary according to time, place, circumstance so now if we can learn something about practical dealings from devotees, that's wonderful if we find that if the war is going on, so if we find that sometimes some devotees are talking about something practical which doesn't seem to work for us then that is not necessarily scriptural knowledge and if we feel apprehensive about taking it and internalizing it, that is also ok we don't have to absolutely give Shastric authority to everything that is talked by devotees, if it is not directly based on Shastra it is practical application, so devotees may give guidance about parenting, devotees may give guidance about relationships and when it is based on Shastra and it is talking about principles, we can understand those principles and according to our situation we can decide how best we can apply those principles in our life so sometimes actually, as I said, lack of distance from the situation may also help one to learn better, so if a war is going on a particular soldier may be fighting with another soldier, another soldier may be fighting with another soldier but sometimes the generals, they come out of the heat of the war and they look from the broad, want to see the broad picture if there is a general who is flying above, they can see ok the enemy soldiers are thin over there maybe we can attack over there better here the forces are too strong if we try to fight over here, we will get slaughtered they may decide to make strategic moves and strategic moves require not just involvement in the specifics but understanding the broad picture sometimes just seeing from above may give a bigger picture and better picture than just being down there in the middle of the action so sometimes there are many situations where detachment from a particular situation non-involvement in a particular situation, that might give a broader understanding so overall we take principles from scripture and we apply those principles according to our time, place, circumstance thank you.