Skepticism

[ancient_paztriot]

Guest: How can you say the absolute truth?

Hridy: How? Because the Absolute Truth is presenting Himself or Herself or however you like it. You see?

 

Now let us go from a different direction. If you want to begin from the point of view of skepticism, then you can deny anything. Just as there is blind faith, there is also blind doubt. In other words, if you want to be skeptical, you can deny anything. No matter what anyone says, you can just say, "Well, you're just saying that." Someone can hit me over the head and I can say, "Maybe that didn't really happen."

 

So if we want to be blindly skeptical then there's no… there's nothing anyone can do.

[ancient_paztriot]

Guest: There’s a question alot of people have and I’m wondering about it too. It’s like how can we be sure that what we’re calling the soul is really eternal?

Hridy: I would restate your question in more general terms and say how can you be sure of anything? How can you be sure that you’ve actually got a nose on your face?

Guest: Well, because you can see it.

Hridy: Can you? Well, that’s a different thing. You could see a picture of it in a mirror. Isn’t it amazing that we never in our whole life have direct experience of our nose unless it’s so big that we can push it around and see it? So the point is that God is real, God exists. And therefore you can experience Him. And therefore you can be sure. Otherwise, no matter anything that anyone says you can say well, maybe that’s not true. So you can experience God.

Guest: What is the process of experiencing?

Hridy: What we’re doing. Chanting Hare Krsna. Practicing, cultivating this spiritual science.

Guest: I don’t think you answered the initial question.

Hridy: What’s that?

Guest: The question we asked you.

Hridy: How can we be sure we know?

Guest: Yes.

Hridy: Yeah, so I said how can you be sure you know anything? In other words that type of question how can you be sure you know ultimately – although we can have a very sophisticated, philosophical discussion – what it basically comes down to is that you’re sure you know. And to say that you’re sure… Let’s say for example you’re sure that you’re in Atlanta right now.

Guest: ???

Hridy: Yes, but we’re talking… Yes, that’s exactly what we’re doing. What I want to do is…

Guest: ??? the question ???

Hridy: Yes, that’s exactly what I’m doing because I want to first see what the criteria are. What is the criteria in general for establishing that you know anything for sure and then we’ll see if in this particular case, we satisfy that criteria.

Guest: Obviously, ???

Hridy: Well, but there… We can imagine different ways in which he could not have a nose but be illusioned about that. There are some unfortunate people that don’t have noses and yet we can imagine someone… You may think this is an absurd example, but I’m actually getting at something. The point is there is such a thing as illusion. In other words as soon as the very question arises how are you sure you know, the very question implies that sometimes we can be in illusion. For example we dream, we may have hallucinations by taking certain substances or we may just sometimes for example due to extreme exhaustion, due to fever, due to heat, there’s a type of hallucination that occurs in a desert.

Guest: ??? hallucinating.

Hridy: Yes, but how do you come to that conclusion? In other words to say that… If you say that we can know something, I would agree with you. I also say that we can know these things. But if you say that, then you’re also saying… This may appear to be obvious, but it’s not actually such a simple thing. You’re saying that we have the ability to know. In other words if he says I do know that I have a nose on my face, I can touch it and I just know it’s there.

Guest: ??? know it.

Hridy: What’s that? I didn’t hear that.

Guest: I said that ??? yes you got that nose on his face. Well he admits what he does.

Hridy: Yes, but the norm… What is the norm?

Guest: The norm being the general society of everyone here agrees… ???

Hridy: Alright, but I’m sure you would agree that in certain cases a large number of people can make mistakes.

Guest: Oh, that’s true.

Hridy: So that’s something we all know.

Guest: Yea.

Hridy: So therefore I think what we would want is, what you’re in a sense implying, we want not only to say that a reasonable amount of people agree, but that those people also are somehow competent in that particular area. For example let’s say a scientists comes out with a new theory and he claims that he’s proven something. Now there’s a group of scientists who have to approve that. He may convince his mother children––his wife. They may all think, “Frederico you’ve done it. You know you’ve really discovered it”. So his family and his wife embraces him and his mother is proud of him and all his friends think he did it. But that’s not good enough. He has to convince a board of scientists. He has to present his findings in some professional journal and publish it with all the facts and figures. Other scientists will study it and hopefully approve it. Or take for example a law court. You have to convince the judge or the jury. So when you talk about proving something or you talk about everyone agreeing, what we mean is that there must be competent people that corroborate. Now in the case of having a nose on your face, you’ll probably get alot of people who are competent. You could just go up to alot of people and say do I have a nose on my face? But other things are a little more difficult.

Guest: ???

Hridy: So the question how can you be sure you know about the soul and God… Obviously if I claim that we can be sure, that means that my position is that people can be confident to know these things; we have the ability to know these things. Now lets say for example a person is born blind. He couldn’t look at him and see if he has a nose or not because he’s blind. Or what about a person who is mentally deranged and couldn’t even understand the question, “Does he have a nose?” He just doesn’t understand what you are talking about. So a person let’s say in a normal condition can know something simple like that. He can just know it. Now take for example when you dream. When you dream you also see people in your dream and when you wake up, you also see people. And yet you have the ability to know which is a dream and which is the awake state. When you wake up in the morning you know that you’ve waken up. So similarly, because we can know about the soul and God, we must have that kind of ability.

 

We must have that kind of ability to distinguish between a certain consciousness where you just think well I’m in Atlanta and I’m a man or I’m a woman and I do this and I do that and don’t even think about God and the soul. In some way that’s a type of dreaming. Take Atlanta for example or take Druid Hills out here. What is it really? Is it just Druid Hills? You could say “Well, it really just a bunch of earth and water and trees and chemicals.” But what is that really? In other words what is it really? Ultimately? And then you find ultimately that it is God’s own energy. So if you don’t see that, if you look at Druid Hills or Atlanta and you don’t see God in there, are you really seeing it? Just like for example let’s say an insect that is crawling on your arm and doesn’t know that it is your arm. The insect has no idea what you are, what a homosapien is or any idea of that. It just doesn’t even know what it’s doing. I don’t know what bugs think exactly, but he’s crawling on your arm with no concept that you’re a human being, that it’s your arm, that you don’t want him to crawl on it––although the bug is perceiving something. In other words, the bug is not completely in ignorance because it can do some fancy gymnastics on your arm. You know he can crawl around and jump around and hide under your hairs. So he has some knowledge of your arm. In fact he may know the terrain of your arm better than you do. In other words he may actually know the freckles and hairs better than you do because he’s right down there in the arm. So we could say on the one hand he knows more about your arm than you do, in some ways. As far as how to crawl around it, he knows every little bump and groove. At the same time…uh?

Guest: He’d have to learn that, wouldn’t he?

Hridy: Yes, but the point I’m making is that although the bug knows you’re arm better than you do in one sense because he’s right on it and he sees little details you can’t even see in your own arm, in another sense he’s fundamentally ignorant about your arm. He doesn’t even know it’s an arm and he doesn’t even know it’s attached to you, doesn’t even know it’s part of your body and that you don’t want him there. So in a sense he’s fundamentally ignorant. The point I’m getting at is this. When you say, “I know where I am, I’m in Atlanta. It’s just a city in Georgia,” and that’s all you say and you don’t understand God, then we’re more or less like the bugs on the arm. The point is what the bug doesn’t know and the real point that it’s your arm. Similarly what we don’t know and what the real point is, is that this Atlanta and everything else is actually God. It’s actually God’s energy. We’re actually walking on the energy of God. God is within everything and we are within God. And if we don’t know this, our scientific knowledge of this world is like the scientific knowledge a bug has of your arm. So getting back to his point how can you be sure you know. Because we have the ability to have certain knowledge. Now that may sound like a totalogy.

Guest: ??? may not have the knowledge?

Hridy: The bug has knowledge of some things about your arm. But he doesn’t understand that it’s your arm. He doesn’t understand that you’re a human being. I mean how can you understand what a human being is if you’re a bug? How can you really know what it’s like to be a human being?

Guest: ???

Hridy: Well because that is the relationship of superior and inferior. Let’s assume now for argument’s sake, that human beings really are higher evolved than cockroaches. Sometimes we doubt it, but let’s say in our better moments we’re more evolved than cockroaches. And sometimes they seem to be doing better.

Guest: ??? step on them ???

Hridy: Yes. So my point is if we are more highly evolved than cockroaches then to be more highly evolved means we can understand them better than they can understand us. Let’s say you’re teaching arithmetic in a school. Now because you have more knowledge than the students, when they fumble around trying to figure out what three times seven is, you know where they’re at. But they don’t know everything you know. There are simple instances where because you have more knowledge of something, you know what a student knows. But he doesn’t know what you know. Similarly, because we are more highly evolved we can understand lower creatures, but they may not understand us. And similarly, those who are spiritually enlightened, they can understand the soul.

 

God is not so whimsical or zany that he’s created all of us in this world, but condemned us to perpetual ignorance. God is not such a fool that he’s made us but we’re doomed to that we can never understand. God wants us to understand. Just like before I was born, my parents were so anxious for me to have a good education (what they at that time perceived to be a good education, meaning something remunerative, makes alot of money). They started an education fund, started putting away nickels, dimes, quarters and dollars and everything else so that when I grew up I could get a good education. So even mundane parents want their children to get a good education, what to speak of God. God wants you to know. No father wants to keep his child in ignorance. So we’re suppose to know and we can know.

 

It’s just a question of wether we want to or not. Just like I may say to you, “Maybe you’re not really in Atlanta, maybe you’re really in Cincinnati, Ohio.” You’re not going to believe it, “No I am in Atlanta,” ‘cause you know it. Or you know you’re a man or lots of things. So we can know God. Why not? If you say how? Just like children. Sometimes you see a child inquire “Why, why?” And they’re answered because it is. And they say in Spanish ??? So the point is that we can know because we can know. Why shouldn’t we know? And how do you know? You know because you know. It may sound silly or childish, but how else do you know anything? How do you know anything else? We have the ability to kno because we’re part of God. How can you know that two and two is four? You can say because I know it. Yeah, but how do you know it? Alright, here’s two sets of apples. You put them together. But what if every time anyone ever combined two apples and two apples, there were little extraterrestrial mischief mongers who slid another apple into the bag? So actually two and two is five apples, but someone is always sticking another apple into the bag. I mean we don’t believe that. That’s nonsense. We know that’s nonsense. So simply to say maybe it’s not true––in a sense––is not to say anything. So the point is we have authority. We have the authority of great sages––great souls––who surrender to God. What did Jesus Christ say? He said there’s a Supreme Lord. There’s a soul. We can know these things. Krsna’s also told us about these things. So if you want to know it, you can know it. If you don’t want to know it, that’s your emotional problem. And it is an emotional problem because who wouldn’t want to know about the soul? So you should try to understand. You have nothing to loose.

Guest: ??? asking questions.

Hridy: Well go ahead. You can ask questions all you want. Yes?

Guest: I was wondering ??? statement. I think that of all this in this that man seeking knowledge and wanting to find God… you know ??? proves ??? without saying how do you know in every individual we’re seeking. So that pretty much shows we have a soul going toward a certain direction which ???

Hridy: Yes. Sometimes the atheists give the silly argument that well you just accept God because you fell some need, so therefore you create the idea. That argument is not very reasonable because for example we feel thirsty. We feel thirst and we need water and there is water. We feel hungry. We perceive a need for food and there is food. So actually we perceive that all the things that we need are really out there. So to say that because we feel a need for God, therefore we created God, actually goes against our experience. Rather the fact that by nature human beings tend to feel a need for God would rather indicate not that we create God, but that God’s out there.

Guest: ???

Hridy: And so is God. God is also there if you want Him. Food and drink is there, but not in a hardware store. In the same way, God is there is you look in the right place. God is there if you want Him.

Guest: I quite want to know when people reach living things like animals, what do you think about the ???. How does this affect a person who eats living animals.

Hridy: It’s a little savage. A little insensitive I think.

Guest: What do you think happens to their consciousness as far as God is concerned?

Hridy: Well, God sees them more or less like cannibals because actually all creatures are sons of God.

Guest: So I must be a cannibal for eating meat.

Hridy: Something like that.

Guest: ???

Hridy: Well, but why not become a non-cannibal?

Guest: ???

Hridy: Why? Well, so it’s poison. There’s lots of organic poisons. You know, you could say a knifes’ been given to you so cut your throat. The point is that you’re a human being and you can choose. You can…

Guest: Right. Exactly.

Hridy: Therefore…

Guest: That’s right, it’s my choice. If I choose to eat meat, that shouldn’t be hold against me.

Hridy: Well, then why should any act be held against anyone?

Guest: Right.

Hridy: So therefore what if I kill you, that shouldn’t be held against me. Do you really believe that?

Guest: No I don’t.

Hridy: That’s the point you see. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. I’m sure we all agree that especially when people act voluntarily, they are responsible for what they do. So you can choose. But you have to understand that just as you can choose, so higher authorities can also choose to deal with you in a particular way.

Guest: That’s right. That’s the way our destiny comes in.

Hridy: Yes. So undoubtedly, no matter what you or anyone says, I’m sure all of us are trying to act in a way that’ll make us happy. So if we realize that by doing certain things we are causing alot of unhappiness for ourselves and others, then we should modify our activities. And that’s what it means to actually take control of your own life and take control of your destiny and to be in control. Otherwise, if we’re carried away by impulses, we’re not really free.

Guest: Is that perception of the ultimate being such as the human being?

Hridy: Is that the perception?

Guest: Is that I was saying is the human being to act, to do unto others as others do to them. I mean just justify that by saying that a cow should kill you for eating them.

Hridy: No, we should do unto others as we would like others to do unto us. In other words, we can empathize as human beings. We can put ourselves in other people’s position and say I wonder what it feels like to him. And if I see well it probably doesn’t feel very good to him, it probably wouldn’t feel very good to me. And that’s when it comes into the oneness. In other words you’re a person and I’m another person. So although we’re different persons, in one sense…

Guest: ???

Hridy: Yes, different being. In another sense we’re somehow one. Just like a family where’s there’s alot of affection between the people in the family. On the one hand they’re all just individuals. But on the other hand they identify with each other; that somehow we’re part of the same thing, that somehow when something bad happens to you, something bad has happened to me and visa-versa. You know, all for one and one for all. So in that way, we should extend that consideration that we extend to people we care about. We should extend it to everyone because ultimately everyone is our family. Everyone is part of God and everyone is our family. So we should not do anything to any creature which is not really good for that creature.