In the following discussion Prabhupada argues with professor Durckheim that to understand the fact that we are not the body, knowledge is more important than experience.
Professor Durckheim: And yet isn't there difficulty. You can already have understood very well that you are not the body, but as long, for instance, as you have still fear of death, you didn't understand that experience. As soon as you understood by experience, you have no fear of death because you know that you can't die.
Prabhupada: So experience is received by higher knowledge. Experience means higher knowledge. Just like a child...
Professor Durckheim: Experience means...
Prabhupada: Higher knowledge. Higher knowledge.
Professor Durckheim: As soon as you have the experience, you get the higher knowledge.
Prabhupada: Yes. So the more you are highly elevated in knowledge, your experience is perfect.
Professor Durckheim: I would like to say the other way around: As more as you advance in experience, the more you have higher knowledge.
Prabhupada: But experience, it may be slow. But higher knowledge you can get immediately.
There is a verbal tag-of-war here. To be clear, Prabhupada was not against spiritual realization. He writes in the purport of the Gita's verse 6.8 that a living entity is fully satisfied only if the knowledge is realized. Also, quoting the verse that nobody can understand Krishna with the corrupted senses, Prabhupada went on to dismiss aggregating ordinary knowledge, because by mere academic knowledge one can be easily deluded and confused by apparent contradictions. The right way, in line with the Gaudiya Vaisnava school, is to learn and apply, as Prabhupada calls it, higher knowledge. That higher knowledge is left by the parampara. Prabhupada indeed writes: Only the bona fide, transcendental spiritual master is capable of demonstrating pure knowledge of the self. The conclusion is that even the spiritual realization, which is individual and personal, needs to be aligned with the disciplic succession. Prabhupada left to us clear and perfect teaching, with no room for straying away or speculating.
The verse and the purport of the Srimad Bhagavatam (8.5.25) perfectly illustrate this:
There [at Svetadvipa], Lord Brahma offered prayers to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, even though he had never seen the Supreme Lord. Simply because Lord Brahma had heard about the Supreme Personality of Godhead from Vedic literature, with a fixed mind he offered the Lord prayers as written or approved by Vedic literature.
PURPORT
It is said that when Brahma and the other demigods go to see the Supreme Personality of Godhead in Svetadvipa, they cannot directly see Him, but their prayers are heard by the Lord, and the needful action is taken. This we have seen in many instances. The word sruta-purvaya is significant. We get experience by directly seeing or by hearing. If it is not possible to see someone directly, we can hear about him from authentic sources. Sometimes people ask whether we can show them God. This is ludicrous. It is not necessary for one to see God before he can accept God. Our sensory perception is always incomplete. Therefore, even if we see God, we may not be able to understand Him. When Krsna was on earth, many, many people saw Him but could not understand that He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Avajananti mam mudha manusim tanum asritam [Bg. 9.11]. Even though the rascals and fools saw Krsna personally, they could not understand that He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Even upon seeing God personally, one who is unfortunate cannot understand Him. Therefore we have to hear about God, Krsna, from the authentic Vedic literature and from persons who understand the Vedic version properly. Even though Brahma had not seen the Supreme Personality of Godhead before, he was confident that the Lord was there in Svetadvipa. Thus he took the opportunity to go there and offer prayers to the Lord.
These prayers were not ordinary concocted prayers. Prayers must be approved by Vedic literature, as indicated in this verse by the words daivibhir girbhih. In our Krsna consciousness movement we do not allow any song that has not been approved or sung by bona fide devotees. We cannot allow cinema songs to be sung in the temple. We generally sing two songs. One is sri-krsna-caitanya prabhu nityananda sri-advaita gadadhara srivasadi-gaura-bhakta-vrnda. This is bona fide. It is always mentioned in the Caitanya-caritamrta, and it is accepted by the acaryas. The other, of course, is the maha-mantra—Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. We may also sing the songs of Narottama dasa Thakura, Bhaktivinoda Thakura and Locana dasa Thakura, but these two songs—sri-krsna-caitanya and the Hare Krsna maha-mantra—are sufficient to please the Supreme Personality of Godhead, although we cannot see Him. Seeing the Lord is not as important as appreciating Him from the authentic literature or the authentic statements of authorized persons.
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