How do we understand and explain that the Vedas are self-evident truths?
Transcript
Disclaimer: This transcript was generated using AI and may contain occasional errors or inaccuracies.
Question from Madhusudan Vishnu Prabhu. What do we mean when we say that the Vedic scriptures are self-evident truths? How can we establish this point to others? Answer, self-evident means that that which is evidence by itself, self-evident. So that means it needs no additional proof.
So for example, if I say that water is liquid in its normal stage, so it is self-evident because it's directly the statement itself is observation. It's a very crude example, but I'm just trying to explain the point of self-evident. So now, in what sense are the Vedic scriptures self-evident? Because in the Vedic tradition it is understood that the Vedic scriptures come from God and because God's word is absolute, so therefore God's words are the absolute evidence and they don't need any other evidence to prove or support or justify or establish themselves.
So the self-evident nature of the Vedic scriptures comes from the fact that they are the revelations of God. So that is the understanding from the traditional point of view. Now, when we interact with people who do not yet have faith in the traditional understanding of the Vedas as the revealed word of God, naturally the question boils down to how do we know that the Vedas are the revealed word of God? That is what we have learned in the tradition.
That will be an inadequate justification for these kind of people right now, at that stage of spiritual evolution. So then the next step comes in is that we understand the Vedic literature using our intelligence and then apply those teachings and then check their validity by the experience in our own hearts. So when we say that Vedic scriptures are true, that truth is not just an article of faith that we have to accept without any reason or logic or any confirmation.
In fact, what the Vedic scriptures speak is also reasonable. So they speak about things which are reasonable and things which are beyond reason, they are not unreasonable, they are trans-reasonable. So if we look at the general body of Vedic knowledge, we could divide it into three broad sectors.
If we consider body of Vedic knowledge to be a circle, so one body of Vedic knowledge, one sector within that circle would be that Vedic knowledge which makes sense according to our pratyakshana naman, which agrees with our pratyakshana naman. Another sector would be that which seems to contradict pratyakshana naman and third would be that which transcends pratyakshana naman. So examples for each of these would be, for example in the Vedic scriptures it is said that the trees have life.
Now maybe a century or two ago this was considered doubtful statement by several people but now we know that trees do have life. So here's an example of statement that has been confirmed by pratyakshana naman. Now the confirmation of pratyakshana naman doesn't in any way prove the greatness of the Vedas.
The Vedas are situated in their self-effulgent glory and we don't actually in a proper way say that the pratyakshana naman have confirmed the Vedas, we say that pratyakshana naman have helped us to understand how the Vedas are true. So it is not the Vedas are confirmed, it is our faith in them that is confirmed through pratyakshana naman in some cases. There could be some things in the Vedas that seem to contradict our senses.
So for example the description of Vedic cosmology seems to contradict what we observe with our senses and what we infer with our astrophysics. And beyond that the third category would be that which transcends the reach of pratyakshana naman which is the basic of basis of material knowledge, especially scientific knowledge. For example there is a spiritual world in which there is a vast spiritual sky with innumerable spiritual planets with Goloka Vrindavan being the culmination among them and with Krishna presiding as the most attractive manifestation of the absolute truth in that planet.
This is something which is just beyond science to either prove or disprove because the spiritual is not perceivable by our material senses. So now we can talk with people about how the first sector, section is there pratyakshana naman, knowledge of the Vedic literature which agrees with pratyakshana naman to help them to develop faith and to some extent that is how we also develop faith. But the essential message of Vedic literature is the section that transcends pratyakshana naman.
By essential section I mean the most important section. The Vedic scriptures can give us material knowledge also but that is not the primary purpose of Vedic scriptures. As Krishna tells in the Bhagavad Gita the ultimate purpose is vedashti sarvair ahameva vedyo.
So the ultimate purpose is to know Krishna and this is the knowledge that cannot be got by pratyakshana naman. So now the Vedic scriptures also give us a process by which we can experientially verify that knowledge within our own hearts by our practice of devotional service. So our essential focus is on the transcendental side of the Vedic knowledge.
How does that become self-evident? So right now it may not be self-evident that there is Goloka Vrindavan and there is Krishna there and that he is the supreme Lord but it becomes revealed within. 9.2 Krishna describes. This knowledge is revealed within by direct experience.
So as our heart gets purified, as we develop a natural taste for Krishna's remembrance and service, as we move forward in our spiritual journey towards Krishna, experiencing progressive enrichment and fulfillment in our hearts, all these serve to confirm for us the truth of the Vedic literature. They are not confirming the Vedic literature, they are strengthening our faith in the Vedic literature and in one sense when we talk about faith, faith fills, faith acts as the bridge between internal realization and external instruction. That means the scriptures have told me that if I chant Hare Krishna I will become detached from material things and I have experienced that to some extent.
But the scriptures also say that if you keep chanting Hare Krishna, we will eventually behold Krishna's beautiful form as revealed through the holy name. That is not something which you have experienced till now. So there is internal realization that chanting Hare Krishna causes a decrease in material desires and there is an external instruction from the coming of the scriptures that chanting Hare Krishna reveals the form of Krishna.
So there is a bridge between the two and that bridge between internal realization and external instruction is constructed with faith. So faith holds the head and heart along the journey to Krishna till we have caught up with the loftiness of external instruction. Now this faith is not blind because we have already got internal experiential confirmation of many of the basic principles of the transcendental reality that are taught in the Vedic literature.
So as we chant more and more, it will become the verity, the reality of the Vedic literature will become increasingly self-evident for us. The Bhagavatam gives the example that just as when we eat food and our hunger gets satisfied, it is self-evident to us. We don't need anyone else to put a sensor inside our belly to find out how much the belly is full and when we should stop eating and how much more we should eat.
We know ourselves. That means when hunger is satisfied by eating, the satisfaction is self-evident. Similarly for a devotee, the realization of Krishna that comes with the practice of devotional service is self-evident.
So therefore what we as devotees need to do is keep practicing devotional service and encourage others to also practice devotional service. And as far as the section of the Vedic literature, it seems to contradict Pratyekshana and Anumana is there. Then that is not the primary emphasis.
There are various possibilities. The knowledge from Pratyekshana and Anumana could be incorrect. It could be incomplete or it could be according to a different scale of perception as it happens.
Vedic cosmology is according to one scale of perception and modern cosmology is according to another scale of perception and that's why they differ. So our focus primarily is not on the second sector but in the third sector and the first sector is a launching pad for us to move towards the third sector. So to understand these three sectors in a more systematic way, you can hear the lecture on Vedic cosmology which especially deals with the principles about how we understand what is the second sector.
So to summarize your specific question about the self-evident nature of the Vedic literature, firstly at the level of the tradition because the Vedic literature are coming from Krishna and because Krishna is the ultimate authority, so they do not need any other evidence for their veracity. That is the meaning that they are self-evident. So they are the factual realities because they come from the supreme reality who sees the actual reality.
Now at our level we may not have that faith and those whom we are sharing Krishna consciousness may also not have that faith which is expected at the seekers level. So we get faith initially by looking at that part of the Vedic literature which is in agreement with Bhaktikshanam 1 and more importantly by the practice of the transcendental section of the Vedic literature. We experience transformation, purification and upliftment in our hearts and that acts as a self-evident confirmation for us just as when we eat food, the removal of hunger and the building up of strength is self-evident and gradually by putting faith which acts as a bridge between internal realization and external instruction, we move forward till even the lofty spiritual truths that are given in the Vedic literature also become self-evident.
They become experienced to natural truths for us. This is how we understand the self-evident nature of the Vedic literature. Thank you.