Should we stress materially accurate information in the Vedas to boost their faith?
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Transcript
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so should we focus about material information in the Vedas to get people to have faith in them, because later on he said the Vedas don’t give material information they give us about life purpose and values there are different strategies which we can use for getting people to come closer to Krishna so we see Prabhupada when he was talking to people who were into drugs, he used their terminology, stay high forever so he was using drug language basically you know, the idea of staying high forever, even the usage of the word consciousness in the name of our moment itself that was, consciousness was a very very new age kind of term so Prabhupada used that so what will attract people to Krishna initially, that will vary according to time, place, circumstances many of Bhaktivedanta Maharaj’s books were written for attracting people who were from a mystical kind of background so mystical means they believed in, maybe there is a lost continent Atlantis, or there is this and that, and from that background you drop something and get them closer to Krishna so quite often different people in their initial stages may require different kinds of presentations, and if a particular strategy works, that is fine at the same time, if we consider scriptural knowledge to be like a big circle then in fact, this is, I have this whole presentation, Utkarsh camp, where this diagram is what is the center of it you have a big circle, in which there is one sector scriptural knowledge is like a big circle one sector within that is that scriptural knowledge which agrees with modern science another sector within that is that which disagrees with modern science and a major section is that which transcends modern science so now that Krishna is that God is a bluish black complexioned cowherd boy this is, science can either prove this or disprove it it’s just beyond the scope of scientific knowledge so, if we consider this to be in alignment with, agreement with science another is, one sector which disagrees with science, and a major section that transcends science so our primary purpose is to get people here to focus on those things which transcend science, and then that there is something which transcends science and that, those things matter to us, that people may not be able to immediately appreciate so initially we may use this small section, where people do find, where we talk about some facts which are given in scripture, which agree with science, and that we get their initial faith, and then eventually get them to come here to the area where it transcends science, and there is some section which, there is contradiction and how to deal with that contradiction, that will vary from person to person for example, the big bang theory now someone, somebody says big bang is all, it’s useless it’s all speculation now others may say, actually if you look at the history of science the big bang theory’s acceptance was a major defeat to atheism because prior to that, atheists were saying that the universe has always existed as it is, that was a steady state theory in universe, steady state theory of the universe but the idea of the big bang theory implies that the universe has a beginning and it has a beginning, it requires a beginner so, the big bang theory was considered something which can very easily reconcile with, at least philosophically, the point that everything has a beginning, and that beginning is God so, then sometimes we may say that big bang theory is speculation but others are, Bhakti Sarodana says that, yes, there is a big bang but there is the big vision you know, the absolute truth glances and that’s how things happen so, basically to deal with this area where things are contradictory, different devotees may use different strategies and some people may just say that this theory is provisional some people may say that this theory is false and some people may try to prove how that theory is reconcilable if we add some additional features to that particular theory from the scriptural perspective so, either way, that which agrees with science and that which contradicts science, we have to get off that very soon if we start talking about, say the scriptures say the earth is Bhugod and then people say, ok, this is in this book I don’t want to attend Discover Yourself course, I want to go and read that book which says the earth is Bhugod well, then that is not the purpose for which we are here so, the starting point can be anything but the starting point has to be left soon and we get people come closer to Krishna so, in certain cases if people are very critical about things then we may have to be very careful whether to use these facts or not you know, if people are going to go and, ok, you say this, in what context is it said where is it said, what does it say, what do all commentators say you know, I answer questions on my website so, there is a student, a young man now he is passed out, so he says whenever I am hearing your answers I am searching on Google to find out what is wrong with your answers laughter so there are people nowadays with information, they feel information is available anywhere and everywhere and then, if we focus too much on this factual information then they may say, no, this is not right, this is not right and the whole purpose may get lost. So, what works with different audiences will vary so, for people who just mostly, you know, after I travelled abroad and came back to India, I feel that preaching in India is very different from preaching in America or Australia also preaching in Australia and America means we have to give faith to people we have to create faith in people’s hearts, whereas preaching in India means, we have to remove obstacles so that people can act on their natural faith laughter so, most people have some religious inclinations they have some faith, but because of their education, because of what they see on TV some doubts have been created so, once those doubts are removed people don’t obsess over those things just leave it and they start happily practicing bhakti so, it’s more of, we don’t have to make this battle bigger than what it needs to be so, initially, just help people remove their obstacles and then start practicing bhakti thank you any other questions? yes so, question