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The process is there: to receive knowledge from authority. Similarly, some serious students, they go to India, they try to search out some saintly persons to receive knowledge about the spiritual world

Expressions researched:
"The process is there: to receive knowledge from authority. Similarly, some serious students, they go to India, they try to search out some saintly persons to receive knowledge about the spiritual world"

Lectures

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Because they think that Western scientists are authorities. The process is there: to receive knowledge from authority. Similarly, some serious students, they go to India, they try to search out some saintly persons to receive knowledge about the spiritual world.

The whole process is hearing. You don't require any education; you don't require any scientific qualification, this or that. Simply if you kindly come here and hear this Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, you become completely learned and completely self-realized. Simply. Sthāne sthitāḥ (SB 10.14.3). Caitanya Mahāprabhu recommended this process. We are trying to open so many branches just to give facility to the poor people who do not know what is the end of life, what is the objective of human life, how one can become perfect. These knowledges, these informations, are there. We are trying to distribute. It is not dogmatic; it is all scientific.

Now there are so many things that it is not possible even to understand by the modern process of scientific experimental knowledge. It is not possible. And what to speak of about God? You cannot know even material objects by your so-called scientific study and research. You simply . . . you can know little more, that's all. Not complete. So Vedānta-sūtra advises, therefore, acintyāḥ khalu ye bhāvā na tāṁs tarkeṇa yojayet (Mahābhārata, Bhīṣma parva 5.22). Things which are beyond your imagination, beyond your reach, beyond your thoughts, beyond your words, beyond your sense perception, how you can understand them by your experimental so-called scientific research? Acintya. Acintya means inconceivable. Inconceivable.

Now we cannot conceive even these material things. Just like in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said that sahasra-yuga-paryantam ahar yad brahmaṇo viduḥ (BG 8.17). Brahmaṇaḥ means of Brahmā and the living creatures there in the Brahmaloka, the highest, topmost planet. So in that planet the people, or the living entities, who are living there, their duration of life is like this. What is that? Sahasra-yuga-paryantam.

Now yuga means these four yugas: Satya-yuga, Tretā-yuga, Dvāpara-yuga and Kali-yuga. So these four yugas . . . satya-yuga means eighteen lakhs of years. Means eighteen hundred thousands of years. And Tretā-yuga means twelve hundred thousands of years. And Dvāpara-yuga means eight hundred thousands of years.

And Kali-yuga means four hundred thousands of years. This is the rough calculation. Eighteen, then twelve, then eight, plus four. How many years? Eighteen plus twelve becomes thirty, and thirty plus eight, thirty-eight, and four. That means forty-three hundred thousands of years makes one yuga, divya-yuga. So such one thousand. Sahasra-yuga-paryantam (BG 8.17). That means forty-three hundred thousands of years multiplied by one thousand, ahar yat. That calculation is one day of the inhabitants of the Brahmaloka.

So we cannot imagine, you see, that how long year. Such hundred years they live. That is their twelve hours. Similarly, twelve hours night. Similarly, thirty days, one month. Similarly, twelve months equal to one year. Such hundred years they live. So we cannot imagine even, even in the material world, how long a living entity can live even in this material world. So these are acintya. Acintya means beyond our conception. And what to speak of the spiritual world? We cannot calculate even anything of the material world perfectly.

Therefore the best thing is our process, Vedic process, is to receive knowledge by the ascending (descending) process. Kṛṣṇa has come from His kingdom, kingdom of God, the Kṛṣṇaloka. And it will be explained in the next verses:

yadā yadā hi dharmasya
glānir bhavati bhārata
abhyutthānam adharmasya
tadātmānaṁ sṛjāmy aham
(BG 4.7)

He comes and He sends His own, I mean to say, confidential sons or servants to give us information of the spiritual world of God, or everything, both material and spiritual. This knowledge is perfect knowledge. We have to receive from the authority. In the material world also.

Now some students, they come here to learn scientific knowledge because it is understood Western countries, they're advanced in scientific knowledge. So why they come? Because they think that Western scientists are authorities. The process is there: to receive knowledge from authority. Similarly, some serious students, they go to India, they try to search out some saintly persons to receive knowledge about the spiritual world.

Actually, it is a fact that if you want to know about spiritual knowledge then you have to know it from India. That is recommended by one Chinese gentleman; I forget his name. His book is recommended as study book in the New York University. He has plainly written that if you have to understand the science of religion, then you have to go to India. He has clearly said that.

So anyway, here Kṛṣṇa is imparting knowledge to Arjuna: the condition of the living entity, both Himself and the ordinary living entity. God and living entity, individual living entity . . . God is also individual. He is also living entity. He's not dead. Just like in your country, they have, some of them, they have taken it granted that God is dead. Is it not? Somebody says: "God is dead." So God cannot be dead. If I am not dead, if I am eternal, how God can be dead? He is also eternal. So these things are very nicely explained.

Page Title:The process is there: to receive knowledge from authority. Similarly, some serious students, they go to India, they try to search out some saintly persons to receive knowledge about the spiritual world
Compiler:SharmisthaK
Created:2022-12-07, 16:18:49
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=1, Con=0, Let=0
No. of Quotes:1