How can we get perfect knowledge when our senses are imperfect?

From: Shashikant

It said that we recieve knowledge from perfect source. prabhupada himself said many times that although we are imperfect bt as we r repeting the same words of krishna the knowledge is perfect. furthermore anything we manifacture is defective. then when u r preaching, although u r repeting same words bt listeners are always with 4 defect. then cn they take and understand ur perfect knowledge with imperfect senses. afterall they hv to use there senses to undrstand as far as primary level is concern.

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Question from Shashikant Prabhu. It is said that we receive knowledge from perfect source. Prabhupada himself said many times that although we are imperfect, but as we are repeating the same words of Krishna, the knowledge is perfect.
Furthermore, anything we manufacture is defective. When you are preaching, although you are repeating the same words, but listeners are always with four defects. Can they take and understand your perfect knowledge with imperfect senses? After all, they have to use their senses to understand as far as the primary level is concerned.
Answer. When we say that the senses are imperfect, that does not mean that they are useless. Imperfect means that they cannot give us perfect, accurate knowledge.
But still, if used in a proper way, they can give us knowledge. In the Vedic tradition, Pratyaksha and Anuman are not rejected in favor of Shabda. They are subordinated so that they are harmonized with Shabda.
Our senses are imperfect, and we have the four defects, because of which we cannot acquire perfect knowledge, especially about the spiritual realm, because the spiritual realm is something to which we don’t have any access with our material senses. But at the same time, we can use our senses to receive knowledge. So the difference between receiving knowledge and determining knowledge is that while receiving, we accept that there is a reliable source of knowledge, and we acquire the knowledge from that reliable source.
In determining knowledge, we don’t accept the authority of any source of knowledge, and we accept only the authority of our own senses, our own intelligence, and assume that using these we will be able to acquire final knowledge. That assumption that with our senses we can acquire full and final knowledge is defective to the core. But that doesn’t mean that the senses themselves are entirely useless.
Suppose there is an extremely complicated machine, and a person comes first time to see it, and the person is told that in future you have to become the operator of this machine, and you have to learn how to operate it. And the person starts monkeying around with the machine, pulling a knob here, pushing something there. It’s extremely unlikely, and it’s practically impossible that the person will himself figure out how to use the machine.
At best, the person maybe will use it in a underutilized fashion. At worst, the person’s experimentation with the machine may harm the machine, or may harm that person himself. But on the other hand, the complexity of the machine and the lack of the training of the person doesn’t mean that this person is useless.
If he acquires knowledge about the machine from a person who has used that machine systematically, and then he uses that knowledge to use the machine, then he can make the machine function quite well. So, the difference between receiving knowledge and determining knowledge, as seen through the example of this person learning to operate a machine is that a person learns the knowledge about how to operate a machine from a trustworthy source, in the first case, in the case of receiving knowledge, and in the case of determining knowledge, the person tries to monkey around with the machine, hoping that he’ll find out how it works. So, monkeying around with the machine might give us a few insights.
It’s like sometimes if a computer is not working, we may just try this and try that and something may work. But, by monkeying around, we cannot get complete and comprehensive knowledge, at least not in a systematic way, about the machine. And the universe is much, much more complicated than a machine.
So, therefore, the imperfection of the senses is meant to make us understand that we need to turn to a reliable source of knowledge. Scriptures are the word of God, and God is the maker, the manufacturer of the machine of the universe. So, when he gives us the scriptures, he is giving us the knowledge of how we can use this machine.
And that knowledge has been passed down in a succession of spiritual teachers, that is the parampara. And when we receive that knowledge through the parampara, then we also learn how to live in the world, how to operate the machine of our physical body, how to operate the machine of this material existence, so that eventually we can get the maximum result. The maximum result is eternal life.
We can reclaim our right to eternal life by learning to love the eternal, that is Krishna. And that is the ultimate purpose of scriptural knowledge. By all the Vedas, it is I who am to be known, Lord Krishna says.
So, therefore, even if people have defective senses, still they can acquire functional and effective knowledge if they learn it from a reliable source. So, the essential point is that just because our senses are imperfect does not mean that they are useless. They are useful, but in a… but when engaged in a proper way, not to determine knowledge, but to receive knowledge, even in the practical day-to-day life, perfection and human are used even by devotees.
Vishal Prabhupada went to America when he was not having his eyes closed and he was seeing everything only through scripture. He was seeing with his eyes, but his eyes were evaluating what he was seeing based on scripture. At the same time, he also acquired knowledge about American culture.
There are certain class of people called hippies and they are frustrated with material life, but they are looking for… they are looking for spirituality. So, this knowledge he acquired not from Shabda, but from Pratyaksha and Anuman. So, Pratyaksha and Anuman are not wrong, but they have to be harmonized with Shabda.
Vishal Prabhupada was using that knowledge so that he could help them to get knowledge about Krishna. So, the whole principle of we having imperfect senses and we requiring proper knowledge of this world means that we should turn to scriptures as a source of knowledge. So, while receiving knowledge from the scriptures, our senses are tools for receiving that knowledge.
But our senses are not the sources of our knowledge. If we make our senses the sources of our knowledge, then we will be trapped in ignorance because senses are imperfect. But if we use the senses as tools for our knowledge and we connect them not just with any ordinary book, but with the revealed scriptures, then the limitation of the senses does not stop us from receiving knowledge about the universal principles on which life operates and which when we harmonize with help us to enable, help us to become happy in life and attain eternal life at the end of our present existence in this material world.