​When science keeps changing, why do we use scientific analogies to explain scriptural teachings?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
we use scientific examples and analogies to understand scripture but modern science keeps changing so when to use and when not to use good question scriptures are revelations which contain timeless wisdom at the same time they were given at a particular time in history in the Bhagavad Gita itself Krishna says that I spoke this knowledge long ago in the past and now I am repeating it to you Arjuna so the timeless message when it is revealed at a particular time naturally the language, the examples the analogies they will be according to that time so Krishna uses many analogies drawn from nature for example now Krishna’s beauty is like so and so flower Krishna’s eyes Krishna’s lips are like a bimba fruit what is a bimba fruit? Krishna’s eyes are like so and so flower what is a flower? I don’t know so the whole purpose of metaphors is to make the unfamiliar familiar through a comparison with the familiar purpose of metaphors is to make the unfamiliar familiar by a comparison with the familiar so now scriptures give the timeless principles and they make those timeless principles familiar by giving examples that were familiar at that time but if those examples are not familiar to us now then that which was meant to make scripture easy at that time becomes difficult at this time because one is to understand the principle second is to understand the example now we don’t know the principle and we don’t know the example also so it becomes very difficult how to understand it so therefore it is necessary and it is a part of the living tradition to give examples that are contemporary intelligent so using examples now no example, no metaphor, no analogy can describe the truth exhaustively even scriptural metaphors also cannot describe the truth exhaustively every comparison which we make, may be the metaphor may be the simile, may be the analogy whatever it is these are, we could say like rubber bands if I have an object and I put a rubber band around it the rubber band goes around that object but the rubber band doesn’t go around the full object if I have a pen and I put a rubber band around it, the rubber band goes around a part of the pen and that might enable me to hold it easier I put my finger in the rubber band, I can hold the pen or that might give an idea of how thick the pen is or whatever so every analogy with a rubber band gives us some grasp on the truth the truth itself is beyond the analogy so the analogy is a helpful and essential stepping stone towards understanding the truth now science keeps changing, that is true, no doubt at the same time whatever is contemporary we use that so, any example that is there, the example itself may not be there anyway so for example, Shri Prabhupada writes in Ishwopanishad in the Mantra Vanapar Port he says that so, the communists and the capitalists are fighting and unless they accept God as prophet then there will be an ultimate war and everything will be destroyed now Prabhupada wrote this in the 1960s, 1970s at that time the cold war was the foremost reality in his mind but now we may say there is no war between the capitalists and communists so the example may not be relevant the example is not relevant but the principle that if we are not God conscious if we are not centered on God we may find out many different causes which we champion but in championing those causes we will become at conflict with others who champion different causes that principle remains perennial so there will always be contextual examples for perennial principles and that’s why when we hear in classes an example, we should see that ok, at this time, for this context this example is good and I use this example and if in future we find that ok, this example is no longer relevant we don’t use it so because today science has a lot of influence in today’s society so naturally the many of the concepts and ideas told by science are familiar to me so scientific methods scientific analogies scientific examples they are useful tools for making unparalleled contextual knowledge available so if tomorrow a particular scientific principle changes then that example may not be valid but the example is meant to give access to the principle the principle itself is valid so for example, we may compare the subtle body, the gross body and the soul to this computer software, the hardware and the user now, this is an easy way in which we can help people understand this is a computer, not just the hardware although hardware is the only thing that is visible there are other things also, there is software also although it is not visible, it plays a very important role like that we have the mind and beyond that the software-hardware combination they cannot work without a user similarly, the body-mind complex it cannot work without a soul now this is an example which is very easy to understand for people who are in software field or people who are working with computers so that’s what we do we make examples use examples so that the unfamiliar becomes familiar and to the extent those metaphors are useful, we use them and if those metaphors are no longer useful because they become irrelevant for people because they don’t know them anymore or they become irrelevant because people are because scientific knowledge is used then we don’t use those metaphors every metaphor is a tool for aiding in understanding if I am going from here to Mumbai I am getting a car to go to Mumbai and if along the way the car breaks down what do I do? I have two options, either I fix the car or I change the car, I order some other car and I move onwards so metaphors are like that, metaphors are meant to aid us in our understanding so to the extent they aid us in our understanding, we use them and some flaw comes up in the metaphor either we try to fix it or we shift to another metaphor so we should mix the truth with the metaphor, the metaphor is used to give us access to the truth