How is Krishna consciousness a science?

From Promila Mataji

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SABtOS0f-pY

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna How is Krishna consciousness or spirituality in general a science? Answer, in terms of methodological delineation, in terms of experiential verification, and in terms of repeatable prediction. So, if you want to understand how Krishna consciousness is a science, first and foremost, we have to see how we define science. So, science today is defined by some atheists as metaphysical naturalism, as founded in metaphysical naturalism, that there is nothing beyond nature that exists.
If such a definition of science is chosen, then it cannot prove the existence of God because it assumes his non-existence. It assumes the non-existence of everything beyond nature, including the supreme supernatural being that is God. So now, that definition of science is actually not even accepted by the mainstream scientific community.
But there’s another lighter version of this definition called as science which is related with methodological naturalism. That science is a matter of methodology will not look at anything beyond nature. Now, when this methodology comes up, then this by this methodology also, this does not claim that there is nothing beyond nature.
Some things may exist beyond nature, but we will not investigate that. We will only look for natural explanation for natural phenomena. now, methodological naturalism is a useful tool in science.
If science is equated with that, the idea is that if a car is moving, then if a mechanic wants to study the movement of a car from a mechanical engineering point of view, then the focus will be on, okay, how are the wheels moving? What is the friction between the various parts of the car? How is the fuel consumption of the car? The mechanical engineer’s focus will not be on the expertise with which the car is driving the car, especially if the focus is on the car. So, now this does not mean necessarily that there is no designer for the car. All that it means is that the focus right now is on looking at the functioning of the car.
So, similarly, methodological naturalism does not prove the non-existence of God, but if science is using this methodology, then also it cannot prove the existence of God. Now, methodological naturalism is not necessitated by science, nor is it always used by science. For example, archaeologists, when they look for ancient civilizations, if they find some things which look like artifacts, then they try to see whether natural causes can explain it.
And when natural causes can’t explain it, then they look at, not they don’t see supernatural causes, they look at intelligent causes. Is this an intelligent thing that some intelligent human being who made it? And if he did this, then that indicates that there was an intelligent human civilization at that time. So, what I’m pointing out by this is science itself does not stick to methodological naturalism all the time.
So, whenever it’s required, science does look at non-natural explanations. And that is the general spirit of science. The word science originally referred to a branch of systematic study to find out a subject, systematically studying a subject to understand it.
That is the essence of science as it is originally considered. So, from that broad definition, if we see that systematically we study a subject to understand it, then definitely Krishna consciousness is a science. Is all spirituality a science? No, we can’t make a generic statement about that.
Many forms of spirituality just focus on some mystical visions and getting those visions is itself considered to be the primary purpose. And then who gets and who doesn’t get those visions, it all is hazy. So, that’s why we can’t say anything about all forms of spirituality.
But certainly yoga traditions and especially the bhakti yoga tradition, they do focus on clear trajectories for the inner journey. So, now, in the sense of it being a systematic body of knowledge, the Krishna conscious philosophy and practice is definitely a science. As I said, there is systematic delineation.
If you look at the scriptures, if you look at the divinity and divine service chapter in the Bhagavatam, 1.2.6 to around 22 onwards, we’ll see that it defines stages. How when one starts associating with devotees, hearing how the purification happens, how the lower modes subside, how the higher realities get revealed, how one ultimately gets self-realization and love of God. There is a progression that is described.
That progression has been further analyzed and systematized by Rupa Goswami’s Bhakti Siddhu, where he gives nine stages of bhakti, adaushraddha, sadhu sangha, vajanakriya, like that. And then further than that, there is also the, there is Vishwanath Chakra Thakur’s book Madhurya Kadamba, which analyzes these stages even further in detail. And so there is systematic delineation of the path.
And what will happen, where if say science means, if you do this, this, this will happen. If I throw a stone up, it will fall down. I can also tell at what speed it will fall down.
So now because spirituality deals with emotions and emotions are a part of consciousness. So in that sense, it’s not quantifiable. So one of the features of science is to express things in terms of mathematical equations.
So that is not possible because in spirituality, but it’s not necessary that all science has to be expressed in mathematical equations. That’s one feature. And that feature will not be present in spirituality as a science because emotions are not mathematically quantifiable.
Now beyond that, after we talk about systematic delineation, there is experiential verification. That means a science, just as a science has science gives, just as modern science, material science is experimental. Now we keep the object outside us and we do experiments to find out.
So spiritual science is experiential. The experiment is to be done on our own consciousness. And after doing experiment on our consciousness, we understand who we are.
We find changes in our consciousness. We start realizing our identity beyond the body. And so there is verification, but the verification is something which we have to do on ourselves.
We cannot, in science, one of the features is detached observer. You watch detached. But we can’t be a detached observer in spirituality because the purpose is to become free from detachment.
We can be objective observers in the sense that we can see whether actually a transformation is happening or not. But we can’t be detached. The whole purpose of spiritual life is to become attached to Krishna.
So we can be objective in the sense to check actually whether I am growing in my spiritual life, not just let fancifully imagine that I am growing in my spiritual life. So whether I am getting detached from worldly things, whether my commitment to Krishna and my attraction to Krishna is increasing or not. So in that sense, we do want feelings, but we also want to see whether those feelings are for real, whether they stay and whether they transform us.
So in that sense, we cannot be detached, but we can be objective. And there is experiential verification. And there is also the repeatable demonstration.
Repeatable demonstration means that the same process can work for others also. Just like Newton discovered the law of gravity, then it works not only for him, but for a Brazilian in Brazil also it will work, for African in Nigeria also it will work. So similarly, Krishna consciousness is a universal process.
It will work for anyone who practices it. And the very fact that Prabhupada took Krishna consciousness all over the world and inspired thousands and thousands of people to practice it and it transformed their lives, that indicates the universality. Anybody who starts practicing this in any part of the world will get such a sublime higher taste that a person will easily be able to give up sinful habits.
Far easier than what would have been possible without the practice of the Krishna consciousness and the higher taste thereof. So there is repeatable demonstration also. So systematic delineation, experiential verification, and repeatable demonstration.
All these are features of Krishna consciousness which mark it out as a science. And this contrasts with many of the Abrahamic religions which often just demand belief. We just have faith in God.
And if you have faith in God, faith is the beginning, faith is the end. In one sense, Shraddha is the beginning, Prem is the end. So faith which is much deeper and richer is the end.
But there is a whole well-defined process in between. So there is no such thing like inner guidebook in mainstream Christianity. Or there are some saints like Saint Teresa of Avila and others who have described their inner journeys and in some of their inner journeys they have talked about how their experiences of God and they are very similar to experiences of Bhakti saints.
So that is there definitely in some small fragments of Christianity. But mainstream Christianity has been reduced to a large deal. Not just Christianity, I would say.
The Abrahamic religions are often just reduced to belief and rituals. Now belief and rituals are not wrong. But they are actually meant to be tools for delivery, experience and transformation.
And that systematic… So this is not to reject other religions. This is just to point out that there is greater clarity and depth within the Vedic tradition. And there is a systematic… much more reasons why it can be considered to be a science.
Now one last point is the differences between material science and spiritual science. Spiritual science is that… I wrote a Gita Delhi article called To Understand Krishna, Stand Under Krishna. That means that in material science often we place ourselves above the object and we subject the object to controlled experiments.
Okay, do this and see what happens. Take this element. I want to take this particular thing I have found out.
I want to know what it is. Then I subject it to this chemical, subject it to that chemical, subject it to that chemical and try to find out what that is. So we can subject it to controlled experiments.
But if you want to understand God then we cannot subject God to controlled experiments because God is the controller of everyone including us also. And that’s why the experiment cannot be done on God. We cannot come and command God and check whether he is omnipotent, whether he is all-pervading or whatever.
We have to stand… To understand Krishna, stand under Krishna. Stand under Krishna means we cannot control him. We allow him to control us.
That means that we allow him to guide us through scripture and when we mould our life upon scripture then our consciousness gets purified and elevated. And when our consciousness gets elevated then we experience life’s higher realities and we experience Krishna also. So there is experiential verification but that is not by doing a controlled experiment on something outside us but by controlling ourselves so that we can open ourselves to higher spiritual experiences of Krishna.
So science requires not… So spiritual science requires not controlling but submitting. Thank you. Hare Krishna.