Lecture by H.H. Bhakti Vidya Purna Svami
Pratyaksa. Getting it
through your own senses.
Paroksa getting it
through someone else’s senses. So we see the similarity between anna-maya as
the senses and prana-maya as extended sense gratification. In other words, your
senses and someone else’s senses.
Aparoksa. What is not
dealing with the senses, in other words, what is experienced. When you
performing an activity there is an experience there, that experience that is
aparoksa. By the proper performance of your duties that increases the aparoksa
element. Doing something well then you get a good experience, doing something
bad then you get a bad experience. Since people do things for the experience… The
better you perform your duties the better the experience.
That is why the Vedic
culture talks so much about the proper performance of duties, because then the
experience that you are looking for is the best that there is, the best that it
gets. But doing it for oneself is not so important, doing it for others that is
more important. That means if you are doing it for someone else then you can
have a proper relationship. If you are doing it for yourself then it is not a
relationship but you are using people. You don’t think I have a relationship
with my pen, there technically is, but that doesn’t come to mind. But if it is
a person then you think of relationship, that means that dealing with people
should be different than dealing with things.
If you deal with people
like things then what is going to be the experience? You have your pen, you
work with it and it goes nicely and you get a certain experience, a
satisfaction, would you just want that much satisfaction in your personal
dealings with other people? It’s so great whenever I am with you I feel just as
if I am using my pen. It is nice to go home and be with the family it is just
like when I am with my pen…
If you have a
relationship with another person and you want that relationship to work you
have to be considering the other person. If you have a subject and an object
then the verb connects them. The verb is applied by the subject on the object.
If you are going to get a result can that application of the verb be in any way
you like. Because what is if you apply the way you use the verb for a different
object? Like my pen on your brother. The application of the verb must be
according to the object. You are one subject but the objects you deal with is
so many. So therefore how you are going to deal with your locker, and how you
are going to deal with a bucket, ball, mouse there is going to be some slight
difference. Though at the same time they all accommodate something. There is a
communality… In other words, it is different even though there is that element
of filling something. So technically the verb is the same you fill your locker
with clothes, the bucket with clothes, you fill your ball with food and your
mouth with food. There is some communality here but because the object is
different therefore the application of that verb is different.
That means we have to
know the nature of the object to apply the activity, the verb. To do that
requires what attitude: Sensitivity, submissiveness, humility, sense control
and sacrifice. Sacrifice means it is for the other person’s benefit.
If it is for my benefit
then the dealing with the other party is not going to be as committed and as
sensitive, humble and all these good qualities as if it is for their benefit,
or for someone else’s benefit. Therefore, logically, if you want to have good
relationships that must be the consideration. That means you are not focusing
on your own senses, if you focus on your own senses then it is going to be
pratyaksa or paroksa, or anna-maya and prana-maya. But if the duty is performed
for another’s benefit or for someone else’s, for Krsna’s benefit then only can
it be aparoksa.
Only devotees can
actually come to that platform of aparoksa, even impersonalists can’t obtain
that platform because they are still doing it for themselves. It is only by the
Vedic concept of duty that a quality-relationship is experienced, because VA
means the experience of relationships. You are interacting with other people, the
4 varnas interact with each other, but to do that you have to know who you are
and the rules set because they have a nature…
Without the rules and regulations
of VA how do you know how to interact? Who created humans? God. Who gave the
knowledge of what is human life and what they expect how they live? God. Then
could we take the Vedic literature on human nature which are called the
dharma-sastras, we can them as authoritative on what is human life, need and
endeavour?
By the proper
performance of duties what do you get? Good experience. You have a good
experience because it is the soul’s nature to serve. We did our duty as a
sacrifice to others. What happens if you want to benefit the tree but water the
leaves? It doesn’t work. You have to water the root. If I perform my activities
as sacrifice for others in that that is the sacrifice for Krsna, by doing that
the Lord is happy and if the Lord is happy then everybody is happy.
If you really want to
be happy then you have to perform sacrifice for the Lord’s pleasure. The
principle of sacrifice is important: The devotees know it is for Krsna and the
devotees. The materialist just knows that I have to do that because then I get
the better benefit: one I get pious activities and two the experiences of this
world will be better. Therefore even the Vedic materialist is better situated
as far as materialism than the modern materialist because he knows how to
perform activities as a sacrifice.
The experience we are
looking for is found through the proper performance of our duties. What are
religious duties: according to sastra, all our duties. When I say religious
duty generally a devotee will think my sadhana and everything else is not
religious duty. But as pointed out here everything has a nature. Religion is
the English word for dharma. Dharma means the inherent nature of something. Therefore
everything we know has an inherent nature. Dealing with the inherent nature
that we are contacting that is religion, the inherent nature done according to
what is appropriate.
Therefore if you do not
follow the Vedic literature what are you going to gain? Not so much. In the
West they are so much talking about freedom etc. how many people are getting
what they talk about? How many people have that fancy car etc. that everyone is
looking for? How many have that nice relationship, a complete family and good
relationships in that family? Have money, clothes, facilities, position and
respect? It is not there. It can’t be. Because working for others based on
their actual nature is not known. If you don’t know it how you are going to do
it? The kid is not born with a book of instructions tied on his foot.
Aparoksa is the
experience one gains. Anything you do you gain an experience, the experience
can only be full because you follow the Vedic tenets. Otherwise it can’t be
because you are not addressing the actual nature of something. Only when you
address that and you properly interact will your actions proper and therefore
will you experience be proper. Then we see according to Saunaka Rsi that the
attitude is even more important than that. Therefore the sacrifice and the
principle of niskama, which takes it to another level. Then more important than
that is devotion, then it comes to bhakti.
Krsna recommends bhakti
and how does Krsna recommend bhakti to Arjuna? Perform your duties, by proper
performance of the duty the experience will be full. In the performance of the
duty what are other considerations? Perform your duty with knowledge and
detachment, thinking of Krsna and for Krsna.
Q: Is knowledge that you are not the doer?
A: No, that is part of it. That is the metaphysical…the main would be
just how the activity is done. Where do you get that knowledge from except from
authority. Because otherwise you can only work out so much yourself. Knowledge
means never to forget Krsna because all those things that catch your attention
on the material platform must be connected to Krsna. So there is the activity
itself that can be very absorbing but then how do you perform that activity.
What is the science and art of that activity? That being done properly then you
get the best result.
If it is just coming
from somebody who is only working out experience then over a long time they
work out something. How many recipes that are there that come out of the
European experience over the last so many years? Not a whole lot. There are
some. How many kinds of preparations are there? There is quite a bit. But how
much is there in the Vedic? It is so much greater. And what you can do with
these things is so great also. Why? Because it is based on authority. The other
one is based on experience. It is coming from the art. I apply the art, I am
smart I observe it, I see pattern so I start to see the science. But now if we
get the science from authority, from the scriptures, so much better, so much
quicker.
Aparoksa will be gained
when we are engaged in the activity itself with the proper knowledge, that is
when the greatest experience is gained. If we are worried about the result then
we become either frustrated because we don’t get it, or one may be very
insensitive because one will force trying to get a result from an improper action.
I am trying to cut the lemon and I am using a lemon squeezer. It might not get
the result we want.
This is the platform of
emotional rasa. If you don’t perform the activity then the emotional experience
you want to get you won’t have. You may get some observable results but not the
emotions you want. If you don’t get the emotions that you want the you will
find that the whole experience wasn’t as good.
That is why it must be
according to authority: Aparoksa means it is being done according to religious
principles. Even if you deal with artha and kama it is done according to
religious principles. If the emotions are gained according to Vedic
instructions then they are higher.
Q: Is this karma and jnana together? What gives juice?
A: …the experience that will more be the juice. Because juice is
according to your definition. Some person is climbing mount everest and it is
freezing out there, he is getting some juice from it. What is that juice?
Experience. Someone else they have been outside, they had to get out of their
car and walk to the house and it is cold and windy and snowy and when he gets
inside the house where it is nice and bright and warm then he gets the juice.
He goes to the refrigerator takes out a box pours a glass. In other words, it
is according to your perception what it is that gives that but the point is the
experience is the same. So the man sitting in front of his fire place with a
nice fire on a really cold day he is getting that same satisfaction and
experience as the man freezing his toes off on mount everest. So that’s the
point is that that is gotten. Now the quality of that that what you have that
you can work with. So if it is according to the Vedic directions it will be
higher.
If you are considering
the nature of something that means that you understand the science, it will be
better as if you don’t. It will be more consistent, it is something that you
can recreate because you know what you are doing, otherwise it happened just by
chance. Then if you have actually learned the science from the Vedas then it
will be even more complete because then you understand in connection with the
creation and everything about you. Then if you understand it in connection with
the proper performance of duties and all that, with the right attitude that
goes along with it. There is the action that gives a result and there is the
attitude. If the attitude is correct then you get even a better result,
naiskarmya etc. But even better than that is if it is connected to God. If it
is connected to God that gives the highest.
With this element of
aparoksa you have the choice of what you want to experience. If you reject the
Vedic then you have already dropped it down to the lowest of these two. Then if
you are intelligent and educated in a particular area you might be observant
enough to actually deal with it a little properly and get something out of it. But
it won’t come to the emotional platform, you will only be able to deal with
result.
Therefore in the modern
it is all about result because what do they get out of it? Friends are sitting
around together. One says: I am bored let’s do something, but if they were
friends why are they bored, they are friends it is a relationship, it is alive,
it is dynamic. They would just be happy being with each other because they have
a relationship of friendship and that friendship itself will generate rasa, but
it is not. Why? Because their relationship is based on obtaining some object, let’s
go to the movies, let’s go for a drive, roll some drugs… let’s do something. Therefore
their experience is very meagre. But if you follow the Vedic principle then
friends have so much that they can do and you actually taste that.
This is the whole
point: The senses, emotions and devotion are engaged properly, then you taste
very clear rasa. The difficulty is if you are not dealing on the level of
aparoksa, you are not on the emotional platform, therefore the emotional rasa
will be very minimum. If you are situated in the sensual you can get that but
it is very temporary. Unless it is based on dharma you will it expand, how will
the artha expand the experience because the emotions are more important for
your experience.
Aparoksa as soon as you
are focusing on it it doesn’t exist. If you think about it and experience you
are not experiencing the experience. You experience thinking about the
experience means the present is the thinking and the experience is in the past,
means it is not happening now. This is the subtle point that is made here: As
soon as you think about the experience, this is nice, I don’t have it any more.
But I can experience it without being absorbed in it. What are you trying to do
when you focus on the experience, this is nice, you trying to enjoy the result
yourself. When you are performing the duty in the proper way you are getting
the experience.
Who is the experience
for? Someone else! This is the nature of rasa and the nature of the soul. The
soul can’t be the enjoyer because as soon as he is the enjoyer it is in the
past, it’s in ignorance. It can only be in the present, in the mode of
goodness, if it is being done according to the nature with the attitude that it
is for someone else’s benefit, there is sacrifice. Proper performance of one’s
duties in the mood of sacrifice only then one is happy.
The soul is not
atma-rama, in the bigger picture you can say yes. Because atma-rama is the
masculine position of being satisfied in oneself. Only Krsna can do that, the
energy is dependent upon the energetic. It is not satisfied in itself, it can
only be satisfied in its connection to the energetic. When it is properly
connected to the energetic then it is satisfied. Then you can say that is
atma-rama. Because then the atma is situated in its proper position, but it is
in connection with the Lord and not on its own, that won’t happen.
Because the living
entity thinks they are purusa therefore they are trying to become atma-rama.
But we can’t be atma-rama, we can only be atma-rama as servant of Krsna, and
the soul is engaged in its proper position.
Q: Why are impersonalists called atma-rama?
A: They are trying to do it. Why is it that the big fancy executive
flying around and staying in different hotels is called an enjoyer? because
that is what he is trying for. Why is the business man called business man
because that is what he is trying for. Or the musician because that is what
they are trying for. Whether they are successful or not that is a whole other
story.
Q: What is if you analyze the situation and appreciate how nice it is
for them? Are we still in the present?
A: What action are you doing? You are appreciating! If you are
appreciating something where does it go in sambandha, abhideya and prayojana? [Abhideya]
means you are doing something. [You are appreciating prayojana?] So what is
happening at the moment? Sambandha. Because as soon as it is attained it moves
to sambandha. It is the experience that is important, you got the thing, but it
is the experience that is important, not the thing, the thing immediately moves
to sambandha.
You want something, it
is that need or feeling of want that drives you, not the thing itself. You
think it is the thing, but it is the need for it. It is the need for it that is
driving you not the thing itself. Because as soon as you get it you have
another need. If that would have fulfilled everything and would have been the
end, the goal you would be satisfied but you are not. Need and desire is
driving you. It is driving you but that is not enough you have to know what you
are doing, you have to have the proper knowledge and perform the activity
otherwise you don’t get the result
Q: How is one’s own experience tasted by another?
A: By explaining it, that is your paroksa. You explain and they are
asking questions being very interested in what you say. Somehow or another
getting the point where they appreciate what it is you experienced because they
find something common enough that they can actually experience themselves. If
you can’t explain it and they don’t ask questions then the relationship doesn’t
happen, therefore it doesn’t end up as paroksa. Because you didn’t gain
something from them. It was just engaging the senses, pratyaksa, even that you experienced that they said
something but you didn’t understand what they said. Therefore there is less
satisfaction, the sensual gives less than the emotional. Everyone talks about
the sensual because they think that is where it is coming from, you are using
the senses but to gain rasa. The sensual is the lowest, the emotional is higher
and the devotional is the highest. People focus on the senses and they get it
and are happy temporarily, but then with time they see they are not happy, then
the focus becomes on the emotional.
Aparoksa is experience,
mano-maya. Adhoksaja is realization, vijnana-maya. You develop knowledge,
skills. From that practice you will get realization. The dharma is being
performed, you are engaged in the artha and kama properly, that will give moksa.
But your central feature is the aparoksa. You put in on pratyaksa or paroksa then
you lower your standard, then it doesn’t necessarily move forward very well.
That’s why in the Vedic
they are talking about all this as a package. Yudhisthira talks about the
performance of the religious duties. Then Saunaka doesn’t disagree but he says
that there are fools who only do that, only perform their religious duties
without the proper knowledge. Then he points out that the material world is not
so important, therefore if you are performing your religious duties with the
idea that the material world is important that is a fool. Therefore the
religious duties have to be performed with the proper qualities, proper attitude
and proper motives.
In other words, your
philosophical perspective and your culture must be right. Then the proper performance
of duties is fruitful. Therefore you have proper duties, proper attitude and proper
understanding. Krsna is saying perform your duties, that is according to sastra.
With knowledge, without desire for result, that is your knowledge and proper attitude.
So the activity is being done with the proper knowledge and attitude. Now the
activity is complete. At the same time what is the use of that if it is not
connected to bhakti. An activity is useless if it doesn’t give you the proper
result, the proper result you get by the proper performance of duties. Proper
performace of duties become useless if your attitude and knowledge is not right.
The activity itself with all that is useless if it is not connected with Krsna.
Therefore you remember Krsna. I remember Krsna I don’t do it for Him. No. I
remember Krsna and do it for Him. Or I am doing it for Krsna I don’t remember
Krsna so therefore it becomes mechanical. So I remember Krsna and I do it for
Him. What am I offering Him? I offer to Him properly performed duties, which
means they are done with the right attitude, sacrifice and knowledge, then it
is complete. We are trying to learn what are our duties, what is the proper way
to perform them, we are practicing them.
Like you have a pump,
you have water, you have the pump platform, then you have motion, you have
knees. So then if you understand all these things properly then you can slide
about 30 feet. But you also have the factor into that sliding that bumping into
other people may not be according to their nature…
Q: Adhoksaja is also experience
A: You are getting experience in all of these. But the point is adhoksaja
is there in everything, but it is how you gain your knowledge. Through
experience, through others or directly from your senses. The sense gone into
the sense objects I am getting that [knowledge], so this is going on now. But
the actual experience of that. I am tasting something it is sweet. That sweet
now do I consider that nice or not? That is the adhoksaja. I am getting the experience from the other,
but what is that experience that experiencing it? That is adhoksaja. The full
manifestation of adhoksaja means according to the proper religious duties being
performed in devotional service.
Adhoksaja means Krsna
enters into it. Krsna descends into it. Krsna descends into the proper
performance of duties with knowledge. It is the knowledge of how everything is
functioning, the last chapters of the Gita, that is describing adhoksaja, how
Krsna enters whatever is in this creation. Seeing that along with proper
performance of duties is giving you a higher.
Aprakrta means it has
nothing to do with the material energy. The first 4 you are dealing with the
material energy. Are you doing it simply on the sensual platform, what you have
heard from others, or the experience you get yourself from proper performance
of duties, or through proper knowledge of the position of the soul, the Lord,
the material energy, how those energies are functioning, what is the
relationship of those.
The one is the skill in
performing the activity and the other is the actual potencies behind it that
make that work. The father knows how to deal with the son, that skill according
to dharma is generating your aparoksa. But knowing that it is actually from the
universal form: that fatherness and sonness is there and how that is working,
then they see Krsna in it, that is adhoksaja. Aprakrta means from that you think
of Krsna with Nanda Baba.
Q: Adhoksaja will then be within dharma?
A: It is always based on dharma. It is your foundation, you start in
dharma. From that you are going to go that direction. That is what Bhagavatam
says: Don’t use dharma for artha and kama, that comes on its own. Use dharma
for getting out of the material world and establishing yourself in love of
Godhead. Getting out of the material world means the moksa and the way you gain
that is through adhoksaja.
Adhoksaja means where
the Lord enters into the Creation. The universal form He has entered into everything.
Therefore we are acquiring knowledge through understanding how Krsna has
entered into the creation. If one is performing religious duties he will only
come down as far as that, not to pratyaksa and paroksa. Pratyaksa and paroksa
through the performance of religious duties one can then see the Lord in those
elements.
The natural position of
the Lord in the universe, through the method of acquiring knowledge, is on the
platform of Brahman, that is the vijnana-maya. But he will extend down to
mano-maya, because there we have the performance of one’s duties according to
scripture and the Lord will enter that. Below that in the artha and kama, your
anna-maya and prana-maya, if those are connected to dharma then you will find
Krsna in it, if not then it will be very difficult. Dharma becomes the
essential feature: Through the performance of one’s duties one can gain all the
other perception. That is why it is always the first thing: Perform your duties.
Like for the brahmacari
what is the first instruction he gets? Do your work. Because if you do your
duties from that everything else you can gain. If you don’t do your duties then
there is nothing to gain, only when something is moving you can get something
from it. If there is no movement then nothing is gained.
Aprakrta means beyond material
perception, it is transcendental. This platform means that it is transcendental
understanding.
Pratyaksa – getting
knowledge through one’s senses
Paroksa – getting
knowledge through others’ senses
Aparoksa – it is
experienced through the proper performance of activity
Adhoksaja – you are
seeing the Lord and understanding the Brahman element of what’s going on, these
last chapters of Gita, 2nd, 3rd
and 11th Canto are describing how the Lord has entered and how He is
controlling it and how everything is functioning
Q: Aprakrta can be considered on the stage of prema?
A: Not necessarily, it can be even bhava because it is spiritual. The
ananda-maya platform for us means our relationship with God and rasa, but it
can also mean being factually situated on the Brahman platform of existence and
the happiness gained from that, but that would be the lowest available
happiness on ananda-maya.
And the highest would
be interacting with Krsna. So in the same way we would have to count the
platform of bhava also in this aprakrta because it is transcendental, one is
not conditioned and one is not on the bodily platform, one is dealing with
spiritual subject matter. It is just a question of realization within that. The
higher form would be prema, lower form would be bhava.
Bhava is tatastha or junction
or sandhi, it is between conditioned and prema because it has elements of both:
It is connected with the transcendental you are working on the spiritual
platform but it is not necessarily that one can’t fall from that platform. One
is spiritually situated but one can still fall from there. Therefore it is not
prema, nitya. Even if one doesn’t fall from there one wouldn’t remain there and
move forward to prema. So it is an in-between position.
Q: Can adhoksaja be achieved by an intellectual effort?
A: Your jnana-yoga would be an element there but it can only be done by
devotional service because the Lord enters into is.
Technically speaking if
you are not a devotee you never get off the pratyaksa and paroksa platform. Only
the devotee can be situated in these other places. Because if you are not a devotee
then you are motivated. If you are motivated then you can’t function purely in
the proper situation of being able to perform the duty for someone else’s
benefit, therefore you wouldn’t be trying to enjoy the experience. Therefore
technically only the devotees can be situated on these higher platforms. The
Vedic materialist has still motive, and whenever there is a motive you are
conscious of what you are trying to get from it, as soon as you are conscious
of that then you are not in that state.
The example of the
state of aparoksa, gaining knowledge through aparoksa, means you can say to
some degree but the quality or depth of it is like when you sleep at night, you
are unaware of your sleeping but in the morning you can be questioned on how
was your sleep and you could give an answer, a definitive answer. I am not
sure, I was asleep, how would I know. You can say. You are engaged in the and
then you think about it you can yes that was… you can understand. In other
words, it is through that experience of it you can enter the experience.
Q: Adhoksaja is unmotivated…
A: Unmotivated, but still you have the element of the Brahman
understanding in that, so you can’t say that it would be technically completely
pure until aprakrta.
Q: But there needs to be some endeavour…
A: Of course maximum is pure so therefore you get that effect.
Q: At minimum if there is some commitment to the process…
A: Because that is what you are looking for. Like the principle of what
is the difference between you have a kid born in the movement they are devotee
they are doing devotional activity what is the difference between them and
someone who is initiated? Technically it is the commitment. They are born in
the movement therefore they are just following. The parents do it everyone else
around them does it, so that is what they know. So therefore they are counted
as devotees. But it is considered general devotee. Devotees are special but
within the category it is common. It is not until they themselves make that
commitment where they are qualified to get initiated then they are called
sampradayaic. Because otherwise they may follow they may not because they
consider it is theirs. Sampradayaic means now they are committed to following
it. So then that goes in that category. That is considered serious. Devotional
service is always special but within devotional service that which is focused,
which one is committed to, then that gives the most dynamic result. So always
is there that element the more one is committed the better it works.
Q: Can we classify the scientists into pratyaksa, all the materialism
into paroksa…
A: No, that you can do in the 5 levels of consciousness. This is where
you gain the knowledge through. Where you are situated that is your
consciousness not how you are gaining the knowledge.
Like a devotee can gain
knowledge through pratyaksa, he can see it. In fact, when you are able to see
sabda as pratyaksa then you actually have understood. In other words, you hear
that the material world is a place of suffering, and when you can actually
observe that and understand the connection that means that it has become
practical for you. So this is just how knowledge is gained, and naturally there
is also some connection but generally through the levels of consciousness this
is where you situate people.
Saktas and scientists they
are on anna-maya because they are dealing with the senses and the knowledge
acquired with that.
The ism’ists, they will
be in 2 categories: ganapatyas or sauryas. They are either in life in general
or specific categories of life they are worried about
Then after that, what’s
that. This is pancapasana. Then where you are worshiping maha-narayana, worshipping
Krsna in the mode of goodness, they are not worshipping transcendental Visnu, your
proper performance of duties etc.
Then Siva, is the
impersonal platform of trying to understand the soul and liberate yourself from
material existence.
So within dharma,
artha, kama and moksa these five kinds of mentalities are followed by the
materialists. Either in a proper way according to the Vedic definition or if
not, they have just the mentality and so they follow it in some modern way. It
is just a matter of what knowledge they know, if they know the Vedic knowledge…
There is still
purusa-bhava in liberation because you identify with that this is me and I am
that. There is still I am the controller and then therefore I am situated in
Brahman and therefore I am the enjoyer of brahmananda.
The purusa-bhava is
always there, it is a matter of detachment in the performance of your duties. The
purusa-bhava only really goes with devotional service. What can be observed in
general is the principle of not being attached to the results. The
impersonalist is attached to the result of getting to the Brahman for himself but
in all other material activities we call society, friendship, love etc. but
there he would be detached from. It is relative when you say.
Like you have a variety
of black and try to find out what is more and less black… Within materialists,
or dharma, artha, kama ,moksa those who are situated in liberation are
considered very elevated and not material, beyond this world etc. because your
comparison is material existence. Therefore the sinful person is considered the
lowest, the pious is considered better and the transcendentalists is considered
better than that. But looking at it from the devotional platform they are all
bogus, because only the devotee is proper. But taking it from how to get out of
the world then the transcendentalist is on something that the karmi doesn’t
have. At the same time the transcendentalist doesn’t act, so how will he get
his result? Whereas the karmi does, therefore the combination of karma and
jnana that gives you buddhi-yoga.
That’s why these
different things describe the parameter by which you make your decision. Like for
unscrewing the screw you have wood and kitchen knife, or knife and screw driver
with not exactly the same size, or not so well-fitting screw-driver and the
appropriate screw driver. You can create right and wrong, how do you make that
standard? You have to have a parameter. These Vedic ways of thinking create a
parameter of how to think and judge something. Otherwise how do judge and how
do you know?
The person has a little
bit of nice quality and therefore you forget everything or he has so much good
quality but there is something not right so therefore you don’t see the good
quality. So how do you…? People make their decision of right and wrong they are
always constantly establishing these parameters, and because it is not based on
sastra it is inconsistent. When it is based on sastra because all the different
sastras, bodies of knowledge can act together therefore there is consistency. Because
it will all be based on the same principles. If you want to be sane then you
follow a lifestyle that is consistent, if you want to be insane then you follow
one that is not. The Vedic is superior because it gives you a more consistent
perspective on how you can make a judgement on what to do and not to do or
what’s right and wrong.
Q: Relationship of sabda, anumana and pratyaksa to 5 levels of
consciousness?
A: Sabda is coming from authority that is coming from aprakrta. Aparoksa
is your anumana and pratyaksa is pratyaksa. You could take it like that
otherwise you could take it depending upon where you are getting. If your
knowledge is coming from authority but that authority is not getting it from
authority but getting it from their senses then it is paroksa. Like in the modern
academy they get their knowledge from other academics and they get it from
their senses. Therefore their knowledge is pratyaksa and them teaching them to
someone else that is paroksa. Therefore they never get out of that realm
because it came from their senses.
