​If science doesn’t have authority to explain life, why does scripture have that authority?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
If science has its limits in explaining the cosmos, then how can we say that scriptures have the authority to explain the cosmos? Yeah, this is an elaborate subject, which I will talk later in the talk about scripture. But suffice it to say two points over here.
That, if we look at life around us, whatever are our basic needs, they are provided for nature. We need oxygen to breathe, and there is oxygen out there. We need water, water is out there.
We have thirst, we need water, we have thirst. And there is something out there to satisfy the thirst. We have hunger, there is something out there to satisfy the hunger.
So, our basic needs are provided for in the world. Now, for living in this world, knowledge is also an important need. So, if we consider that if our basic needs are provided for, knowledge as a need will also be provided for.
Because suppose somebody sends on our birthday a gift, a very complex device, and very nicely packed, very expensively packed. The device itself is expensive, it is very carefully packed. And then they send it, and it is such a device we have never seen before, and we don’t know what to do with it.
Then we look around in the pack, there must be a manual somewhere. Why would somebody give a gift without any explanation of what it is meant, what am I meant to do with it. So, then similarly, if we look at life, you know, our own body is a masterpiece of design.
And whatever is required for the maintenance of the body, the basic needs are provided. So, what is the knowledge, what is the purpose of all this? That knowledge surely will be provided. So, by inference we can say, our knowledge is also a need, and it will be provided for somewhere.
That provision is in scripture. Now, this is the principle for understanding how scripture will contain some valid knowledge. But with respect to specifics, how do I know? Like, okay, somebody says, this is the device, and this is the manual.
Now, how do I really know for sure, even if somebody says, this is a manual for MacBook Pro, MacBook Air. Somebody can just put a cover layer, it’s a manual for MacBook Air, I don’t really know. How do I know is, I test it.
I open it, and it says, okay, this is the key for this function. If you do this, this computer gets shut down. If you do this, then you can access this thing.
So, then as I start reading it, I start making more sense of the computer, and then I can function better with that computer. As I keep doing that more and more, I can start making sense, oh, this looks like a manual. So, something similar with respect to scripture.
If you study the work of Gita, we will start seeing that by studying the Gita, we can make more and more sense of life. And by living the Gita, we can live better, we can become calmer, we can become more productive in our lives. Our lives become more purposeful and fulfilling.
So, that’s how we can understand that scripture is a manual meant to guide us. And once we accept the principle that there is God as the source of the cosmos, and God as the source of the universe, God as the source of the universe, and God as the source of knowledge about the universe, then we can infer from there that the knowledge which is given in scripture, which comes from God, that will be authoritative. It is not that we can have a third person, someone else certifying it.
This is reliable knowledge, therefore we accept it. Yeah, there is a universe, and there is God. Now, there are many people, There are many in the past who have become purified by this knowledge.
And there are people who have tested it and they have learned it. We don’t have to just accept their authority. We can test it out for ourselves.