The scientific basis of Krsna consciousness

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Krsna consciousness is explained in scientific terms at some length

in Srila Prabhupada's purport to Srimad Bhagavatam, 2.2.35:

 

Text 35:

"The Personality of Godhead Lord Sri Krsna is in every living being

along with the individual soul. And this fact is perceived and hypothesized

in our acts of seeing and taking help from the intelligence."

 

Purport:

"The general argument of the common man is that since the Lord is

not visible to our eyes, how can one either surrender unto Him or render

transcendental loving service unto Him? To such a common man, here is a

practical suggestion given by Srila Sukadeva Gosvami as to how one can

perceive the Supreme Lord by reason and perception. Actually the Lord is not

perceivable by our present materialized senses, but when one is convinced

of the presence of the Lord by a practical service attitude, there is a

revelation by the Lord's mercy, and such a pure devotee of the Lord can

perceive the Lord's presence always and everywhere. He can perceive that

intelligence is the form-direction of the Paramatma plenary portion of the

Personality of Godhead. The presence of Paramatma in everyone's company is

not very difficult to realize, even for the common man. The procedure is

as follows. One can perceive ones self-identification and feel positively

that he exists. He may not feel it very abruptly, but by using a little

intelligence, he can feel that he is not the body. He can feel that the

hand, the leg, the head, the hair and the limbs are all his bodily parts

and parcels, but as such the hand, the leg, the head, etc., cannot be

identified with his self. Therefore just by using intelligence he can

distinguish and separate his self from other things that he sees. So the

natural conclusion is that the living being, either man or beast, is the

seer, and he sees besides himself all other things. So there is a

difference between the seer and the seen. Now, by a little use of

intelligence we can also readily agree that the living being who sees the

things beyond himself by ordinary vision has no power to see or to move

independently. All our ordinary actions and perceptions depend on various

forms of energy supplied to us by nature in various combinations. Our

senses of perception and of action, that is to say, our five perceptive

senses of (1) hearing, (2) touch, (3) sight, (4) taste and (5) smell, as

well as our five senses of action, namely (1) hands, (2) legs, (3) speech,

(4) evacuation organs and (5) reproductive organs, and also our three

subtle senses, namely (1) mind, (2) intelligence and (3) ego (thirteen

senses in all), are supplied to us by various arrangements of gross or

subtle forms of natural energy. And it is equally evident that our objects

of perception are nothing but the products of the inexhaustible

permutations and combinations of the forms taken by natural energy. As

this conclusively proves that the ordinary living being has no independent

power of perception or of motion, and as we undoubtedly feel our existence

being conditioned by natures energy, we conclude that he who sees is

spirit, and that the senses as well as the objects of perception are

material. The spiritual quality of the seer is manifest in our

dissatisfaction with the limited state of materially conditioned

existence. That is the difference between spirit and matter. There are

some less intelligent arguments that matter develops the power of seeing

and moving as a certain organic development, but such an argument cannot

be accepted because there is no experimental evidence that matter has

anywhere produced a living entity. Trust no future, however pleasant. Idle

talks regarding future development of matter into spirit are actually

foolish because no matter has ever developed the power of seeing or moving

in any part of the world. Therefore it is definite that matter and spirit

are two different identities, and this conclusion is arrived at by the use

of intelligence. Now we come to the point that the things which are seen

by a little use of intelligence cannot be animate unless we accept someone

as the user of or director of the intelligence. Intelligence gives one

direction like some higher authority, and the living being cannot see or

move or eat or do anything without the use of intelligence. When one fails

to take advantage of intelligence he becomes a deranged man, and so a

living being is dependent on intelligence or the direction of a superior

being. Such intelligence is all-pervading. Every living being has his

intelligence, and this intelligence, being the direction of some higher

authority, is just like a father giving direction to his son. The higher

authority, who is present and residing within every individual living

being, is the Superself.

"At this point in our investigation, we may consider the following

question: on the one hand we realize that all our perceptions and

activities are conditioned by arrangements of material nature, yet we also

ordinarily feel and say, "I am perceiving" or "I am doing." Therefore we

can say that our material senses of perception and action are moving because

we are identifying the self with the material body, and that the superior

principle of Superself is guiding and supplying us according to our

desire. By taking advantage of the guidance of Superself in the form of

intelligence, we can either continue to study and to put into practice our

conclusion that I am not this body, or we can choose to remain in the

false material identification, fancying ourselves to be the possessors and

doers. Our freedom consists in orienting our desire either toward the

ignorant, material misconception or the true, spiritual conception. We can

easily attain to the true, spiritual conception by recognizing the

Superself (Paramatma) to be our friend and guide and by dovetailing our

intelligence with the superior intelligence of Paramatma. The Superself

and the individual self are both spirit, and therefore the Superself and the

individual self are both qualitatively one and distinct from matter. But

the Superself and the individual self cannot be on an equal level because

the Superself gives direction or supplies intelligence and the individual

self follows the direction, and thus actions are performed properly. The

individual is completely dependent on the direction of the Superself

because in every step the individual self follows the direction of the

Superself in the matter of seeing, hearing, thinking, feeling, willing,

etc.

"So far as common sense is concerned, we come to the conclusion

that there are three identities, namely matter, spirit and Superspirit. Now

if we go to the Bhagavad-gita, or the Vedic intelligence, we can further

understand that all three identities, namely matter, individual spirit, and the

Superspirit, are all dependent on the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The

Superself is a partial representation or plenary portion of the Supreme

Personality of Godhead. The Bhagavad-gita affirms that the Supreme

Personality of Godhead dominates all over the material world by His

partial representation only. God is great, and He cannot be simply an

order supplier of the individual selves; therefore the Superself cannot be

a full representation of the Supreme Self, Purusottama, the Absolute

Personality of Godhead. Realization of the Superself by the individual

self is the beginning of self-realization, and by the progress of such

self-realization one is able to realize the Supreme Personality of Godhead

by intelligence, by the help of authorized scriptures, and, principally,

by the grace of the Lord. The Bhagavad-gita is the preliminary conception

of the Personality of Godhead Sri Krsna, and Srimad-Bhagavatam is the

further explanation of the science of Godhead. So if we stick to our

determination and pray for the mercy of the director of intelligence sitting

within the same bodily tree, like a bird sitting with another bird (as

explained in the Upanisads), certainly the purport of the revealed

information in the Vedas becomes clear to our vision, and there is no

difficulty in realizing the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vasudeva. The

intelligent man therefore, after many births of such use of intelligence,

surrenders himself at the lotus feet of Vasudeva, as confirmed by the

Bhagavad-gita (7.19)."