Sāstra says, Vedic knowledge, that śāstra-cakṣuṣāt, paśyati jñāna-cakṣuṣāt: "One can see by the eyes of knowledge," not by these blunt eyes. This is useless. They cannot see. And how you can see through the śabda? Śāstra means śabda. Through the ear . . . My Guru Mahārāja used to say, "Don't try to see a saintly person by your eyes. You see a saintly person by the ear." Because if you hear from the saintly person, and if he is speaking from the experience which he has heard from the . . . another saintly person—this is called guru-paramparā—then the knowledge is perfect. Yesterday we . . . The Yamadūtas said that iti śuśruma. Never said "I have seen it." Vedo nārāyaṇaḥ sākṣāt svayaṁbhūr iti śuśruma (SB 6.1.40): "We have heard it." Vedo nārāyaṇaḥ sākṣā . . . He never says, "I have seen it." No. Iti ṣuṣruma. So this is experience, real experience, real knowledge. Vedo nārāyaṇaḥ sākṣāt. Veda is directly Nārāyaṇa. So Nārāyaṇa, you can see Nārāyaṇa. You can hear about Nārāyaṇa. Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ (SB 7.5.23). Viṣṇu is Nārāyaṇa. This is the beginning of understanding Nārāyaṇa: śravaṇaṁ kīrtanam. Never says, "By seeing, by touching, by licking up." No. You cannot see. That is not experience. Real experience is iti śuśruma. So if we take our knowledge that there is no witness what we did in our previous life, that is nonsense. Here are the so many witnesses. Iti śuśruma. Hear. You cannot say there is no witness. You hear from the Vedic literature how many witnesses are present there for all your activities and how they are becoming recorded minutely, and everything will be judged. Therefore the Yamarāja is there. So this is our position, that prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā (BG 3.27). Anyone who is proud of his so-called knowledge, so-called experience—simply "I believe," "I think," "It may be," "Suppose"—what is this knowledge? They're all nonsense. When you get knowledge śuśruma, from the authority, that is knowledge. Otherwise all useless. All useless. Because your senses are imperfect. You cannot see properly. You cannot hear properly. You cannot touch properly. You cannot smell properly. These are your instruments for getting experience. You cannot go. How you can say in other planets there is no life? You cannot go. According to the scientists' calculations, they say that to go to the topmost planet it will take forty . . . Eh? Forty thousands of years. Who is going to travel forty thousand years? But we are seeing. The planets are there. Go there and see. You cannot estimate of one universe, which you are practically seeing. And in the śāstra we hear, there are millions of universes.
- yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi-
- koṭiṣv aśeṣa-vasudhādi vibhūti-bhinnam
- tad brahma niṣkalam anantam aśeṣa-bhūtaṁ
- govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi
- (BS 5.40)
So we have to take knowledge from śāstra. And who will teach me śāstra? Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet (MU 1.2.12). Go to guru. Tad-vijñānārtham. Just like you go to some superior person to learn something. That is the process. Similarly, the same process: you have to go to a person who has also heard, śuśruma. You go to that, not that person who says that "I suppose," "I believe," "Maybe." No. You go to the person who says, iti śuśruma: "We have heard it from authorities." You have to go to that person. Śrotriyaṁ brahma-niṣṭham (MU 1.2.12). Who is guru? Śrotriyam: "Who has properly heard." Śrotriyam. And what is the result? Brahma-niṣṭham: by hearing, he is firmly convinced there is God. You have to go to such guru. lf you go to a fakir, what he will teach you? No. Fakir means one who talks much without any knowledge. He is called fakir.
So everything is, direction is there. Tad-vijñānārtham. If you want to know that science, then tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum eva (MU 1.2.12). "Must," gacchet. This verb is used when there is the sense "must." If somebody says, "All right, I shall learn even without going to any guru," no, that is not possible. Therefore this verb is used, gacchet: "You must if you want to learn." Otherwise you remain in darkness. This is Vedic injunction. Śuśruma. You must hear from the right source; then you will get perfect knowledge. So therefore, whether there is witness or not witness, we cannot understand from a so-called professor. There is witness, śāstra says. And how can you deny it? If sūrya . . . First word is sūrya. The sūrya is the eyes of God, one eye. Another eye is the moon. And it is described in the śāstra,
- yac-cakṣur eṣa savitā sakala-grahānāṁ
- rāja samasta-sura-mūrtir aśeṣa-tejāḥ,
- yasyājñayā bhramati sambhṛta-kāla-cakro
- govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi
- (BS 5.52)
So sūrya, we can see that . . . We have got some rays of the eyes, three feet. But, you see, from the 93,000,000 miles away he is seeing you. So brightly he is seeing. So you have to understand in that way. The śāstra says, "Here is the eye." Another eye, another eye, one after another, one after another. How you will escape? That is not possible.