How can we know that there’s no loss in transmission of knowledge through the parampara?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
in the how do we know that the Vedic knowledge has been preserved since it was transmitted normally in this transmission there is some determination some loss of knowledge when it goes from one person to another there are there is the again we have to understand this point of the concept, the words the concept, the sound and the objects so now in terms of transmission of knowledge the essential knowledge is a lived knowledge lived knowledge means that it is not that when Srila Prabhupada wrote his books, he heard it was not that Prabhupada had a tape recorder just repeating whatever was the recording he had got from now this knowledge is internalized and spoken according to the circumstances, according to the audience and according to one’s own relationship with Krishna so the importance is not exactly on preserving what we know, I mentioned earlier that Rig Veda, historians admit it has been preserved remarkably now if you look at the Bhagavad Gita especially now the Bhagavad Gita is even historians admit it constitutes among the most historically stable scriptures in the sense that it’s 700 verses not very great and especially when a scripture is widely available then it’s difficult for anyone to make any changes interpolation is difficult because if I interpolate something there are others who have it and then say this is not very vital and there are some redactional errors that are possible, redaction means when scripture is reproduced, there is called as Bhashmanta Bhashmanta normally we talk about translation in today’s usage but say when there are manuscripts and the manuscripts are getting old at that time there would be script writers who would transmit the manuscript again rewrite it, at that rewriting some mistakes could happen there were of course multiple checking that would happen to check if there are any mistakes but the important thing is that whenever any scholar writes any comment for example if you look at Jyotirtha he is writing a comment in the Bhagavad Gita so in the beginning he will give an analysis and he will state that ok this also there, say for example namam duskrtino mudhah prapadyante naradah so then he tells himself to send me a random example it may not be there like Jyotirtha but namam duskrtino mudhah so in one manuscript I found it was mudhah another manuscript mudhaha so there is a final difference even now if you see for example I saw some Bhagavad Gita there is one paragraph which is not in the Bhagavad Gita so in some parts of the Bhagavad Gita it is now that it is the flow of words coming with the gati of those words or it is the opinion of those words now if you see essentially the meaning remains the same small word variations small letter variations can take place but they are also thought and corrected but more important so from the historical point of view there was the very much the real recognition of the possibility of error and there was an inbuilt check system to correct errors what is check system? that if a serious scholar was writing a commentary then the serious scholar would actually get whatever manuscripts were available of that book and would compare this manuscript says this, this manuscript says this this manuscript says this but then if you look at the grammar this doesn’t make sense and then he by that would make sure that the right meaning comes out and even if some alternative meaning is there that meaning also said that this meaning seems consistent with the original content of the scripture so some small changes are possible but overall because there are multiple copies available there are some books which are very rare which only one person has a copy and that person changes the book because nobody else has a corrective which is correct and some books are very possible but the core books say about the many Puranas there is a very few Puranas which have got commentaries by dozens of scholars none of the other Puranas has so many commentaries so if you look at the historical point of view Shri Dhan Swami he was almost 700-800 exactly it is not known when he was there but he was at least 600-700 years old now this commentary is there and in this commentary along with this commentary is verse commentary and if you look at the Bhagavatam in this scene if you look at Shankaracharya then it was the 7th century probably so he has given Gita Bhashya and that Gita Bhashya if you look at the Sanskrit so look at the Gita Bhashya so we can see that for hundreds and hundreds of years the essential the text has not changed not only the essential literally also it has not changed but in essence this is I have talked about in terms of the object and the text sorry the object and the words see the oral transmission if somebody is very careful in transmitting you just make sure that it is written correctly if it is written text the object is there then there are checks and balances to correct any error that we do but let’s go to the concept the concept is the most important the concept is that scripture is a method for inner transformation for purification for realization so now suppose some company has produced a medicine now when I get the medicine in a medicine pack say I get tablet how can I know that this actually is the medicine that was provided for this person if I decide I want to check then I will have to check who brought it did that person make any change he did not make a change then I go to shopkeeper did the shopkeeper make any change when it was there then I have to find out how did the shopkeeper get it oh he got it from a transporter who got it from a wholesaler then I go to transporter and ask check out how did he make any change I don’t even know how I am going to check all the time do I have cameras and all that did he change anything out there then I go to the wholesaler did the wholesaler make any change now if I am going crazy like that I am never going to know anything if I was here to see this I will die before I find out another way is actually this is not psychologically possible unfortunately there are many medicines which turn out to be serious people want to use it they make good money so they actually make out of it medicines which are much cheaper to make but then it doesn’t do, it doesn’t heal as well as the authentic medicines so this is a real possibility but what do we do we don’t go about this testing all the time we make sure that we are getting the medicine from a reliable shop a trustworthy shop which looks authoritative and then we take the medicine if the medicine is supposed to cure my cough in 3 days now I am taking it for 6 days it is not curing it, something is wrong so essentially what we do is we take the medicine and check what is the result so similar is the process with the scriptural knowledge so if you look at the Bhagavad Gita what was the effect of speaking of the Bhagavad Gita on its original student Arjuna and what is the effect of hearing the Bhagavad Gita say as it is in Vaishnava Yoga on people today say going back to the medicine metaphor that if this person has a cough and this medicine at its source when it is produced will cure the cough within 3 days now I have got some medicine how do I know whether this medicine is the same as this medicine so if it cures my cough also in 3 days can you know that this medicine is right so similar to Gita what happened to Arjuna after he heard the Bhagavad Gita first thing is the main thing that happened was in general scripture is a search scripture guides our search for two things sadhya and sadhana sadhya means what is the goal of life sadhana is what are the means to achieve it and actually the sadhana is what we are looking for everything for say young Indian sadhya is America and sadhana is IIT, IIM or whatever their particular career channel by which especially in America so all of them are sadhya and sadhana so now now if you want to know whether the Bhagavad Gita’s knowledge has been preserved now let’s look at what was the understanding of sadhya and sadhana that Arjuna got at the end of the Bhagavad Gita and what is the understanding of sadhya and sadhana that we are getting today so now what how do we know what is the understanding of sadhya and sadhana of Arjuna we have to look at his words we have to look at his actions so in the Bhagavad Gita itself Arjuna shares with Krishna his understanding of Krishna from 10.8 to 11 in the Bhagavad Gita is considered the Chaturthi Bhagavad Gita that is the Gita in 4 verses and after hearing this Arjuna gives his understanding 12.5, 13.5 and then he asks the questions after that so in 10.5, 13.5 what does he say essentially he says Krishna you are the absolute truth you are the supreme brahman you are the greatest god you are life’s be all and end all so what the Ramana Maharaj said Krishna and what is the sadhana we have to say what did Arjuna do some people say actually the Gita’s message is to do yoga it’s a type of ashtanga yoga but did Arjuna go and do ashtanga yoga no Arjuna fought a war so that is fighting the message of the Gita oh Arjuna fought a war so he should also fight a war one Gita says India’s greatest actually he was an Indian if India had followed the Gita then within 15 days of the creation of Pakistan India would have liberated Pakistan now this is not the message of the Gita if you see Arjuna’s words actually there is a reference to the battle in the 2nd chapter then in the 3rd chapter and once in the 5th chapter and after that there is just one reference in the 8th chapter there are few references in the war but after the 8th chapter actually after the 2nd chapter itself there are only a handful of references to the war the Gita discussion goes far higher than war Krishna is nowadays teachers talk about experiential learning Krishna is such an expert experiential teacher that he converts the battlefield into a classroom and by his presence and his presentation he takes his student Arjuna to heights of wisdom that has rarely been scaled in the world before or after so at the end of the Gita what Arjuna says is very important Arjuna does not say I will fight the war he says in 18.73 Karishe Vachananta Vav this word is very significant Karishe Vachananta Vav so in the Bhagavad Gita’s message that all of us should do our particular duties and Arjuna’s duty is Kshatriya duty and he would have said I will fight because I am a Kshatriya but what did Arjuna say? Karishe Vachananta Vav I will do your duty this is actually an expression of Bhakti it is an expression of devotion so the Bhagavad Gita’s conclusion for Sadya is Bhakti and in the Bible there is a famous expression of Sarantra by Jesus Jesus knows that the Judas is going to betray him in the next day the previous night at the time of the last supper he says O father let the cup pass let the cup pass leave let the death that will come not happen but let thy will be done not mine he said understood also but this is a very high level person when we want something to happen or we don’t want something to happen we still accept God’s will but the Gita goes one level higher because it doesn’t say let thy will happen it says I will make thy will happen I will make thy will my will Karishe Vachananta Vav so it is an expression of Bhakti so what is Arjuna’s conclusion at the end of the Gita that I will become a devotee of Krishna so now let us look at what is the understanding people have got today when Prabhupada went to America and all over the world thereafter these people had no knowledge of Krishna at all and the people had no knowledge of Bhagavad Gita also this is one of the first clippings of one of the early clippings with Prabhupada what is he was saying on the less brain show he was not able to pronounce the Bhagavad Gita he could not pronounce it people had no knowledge of Gita but then what happened they just gave up all other conceptions and they accepted Krishna as God and that is what not just in America those who understand Bhagavad Gita they may have different conceptions of who God is or whether God exists or whatever it is also they accept Krishna as God and they accept Bhakti as it is so in terms of transformation that is happening people are becoming purified we will also become purified we will also become purified and our conceptions will change into Sathya and Sadhana and our life our consciousness will get elevated as we practice Bhakti and develop more and more attraction to Krishna so in terms of transformation we can ourselves experience the transformation and thereby understand that nothing has changed nothing in itself has changed now if one has a specific interest there are means by which you can do textual, critical research to find out how the scriptures have not changed but we are here not to learn about the history of scriptures we all have busy lives our goal is to make our scriptures to understand the importance of life and live the importance of life that scripture can help us to do even today if we live those scriptures so to summarize, how many other scriptures have been transmitted faithfully there are little check balance systems for correcting the change in the text but in terms of concept, we understand that we can see the effect in our lives and if the same effect is coming in our lives that it came originally from the Gita, then we can understand that in essence the knowledge has not changed