Epistimology

[ancient_paztriot]

Hayagriva dasa: Kant strongly advocated the right and duty of every man to judge for himself in religious and secular matters. “Have courage to make use of your own intellect” was his motto. He emphasized individual freedom and the ability of man to intuit the truth.

 

Srila Prabhupada: Does this mean that whatever anyone does is perfectly right? If we are given that freedom, then anyone can do as he likes.

 

Hayagriva dasa: At the same time, Kant considered the Bible to be the best vehicle for the instruction of the public in a truly moral religion.

 

Srila Prabhupada: This mean that he has accepted some authority. Where is his freedom then?

 

Hayagriva dasa: The individual can intuit truths within, but can be helped from without by scripture.

 

Srila Prabhupada: This means that we should not be totally independent. We should be dependent on some authority, and that authority should be recognized. Then knowledge is possible. That is Vaisnavism.

 

Syamasundara dasa: Descartes believed that knowledge comes through inate ideas, and Hume opposed this by saying that knowledge comes from sense experience. Kant tries to unify these extremes.

 

Srila Prabhupada: Knowledge comes from purified sense experience. That is seva. I may see Krsna, whereas others may see a stone. This means that my eyes and vision are different.

 

premanjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena

santah sadaiva hrdayesu vilokayanti

yam syamasundaram acintya-guna-svarupam

govindam adi-purusam tam aham bhajami

 

“I worship the primeval Lord, Govinda, who is always seen by the devotee whose eyes are anointed with the pulp of love. He is seen in His eternal form of Syamasundara situated within the heart ofthe devotee.” ( Brahma-samhita 5.38) When our eyes are anointed with the ointment of love of God, we can truly see. The same applies to the rest of the senses. Unless our senses are purified, we can neither see nor know.

 

Syamasundara dasa: In Critique of Pure Reason, Kant wrote: “Thoughts without content are empty, perceptions without conceptions are blind… Understanding can perceive nothing, the senses can think nothing. Knowledge arises only from their limited action.”

 

Srila Prabhupada: When you try to understand through the senses, that is called pratyaksa. There is knowlede through direct perception, pratyaksa, and knowledge received from higher authorities, aparo ’ksa. When we apply our senses and come to the same conclusion, that is anumana. For instance, a higher authority says that there is a spiritual world. Now, how can we come to this conclusion? Obviously, we have to apply our senses. We can reason, “I am a combination of spirit and matter. That is a fact However, I cannot see the spirit at the present moment, but I know that there is spirit.” If we understand that there is a material world, we can also understand that there is a spiritual world. We can arrive at this conclusion by applying our senses and reason. If a material world is possible, certainly a spiritual world is possible. This is preliminary knowlede. When we see a dead body, we understand that something is missing. We see this with our senses, and from higher authority, from Bhagavad-gita, we understand that this something that is missing is eternal.

 

avinasi tu tad viddhi

yena sarvam idam tatam

vinasam avyayasyasya

na kascit kartum arhati

 

“Know that which pervades the entire body is indestructible. No one is able to destroy the imperishable soul.” (Bg. 2.17) That consciousness is spread throughout the body. It is eternal and spiritual. Through our sense experience, we can also understand that the body is constantly changing from the body of a child to that of an old man, and that this consciousness is continuing. Despite the different bodily changes, consciousness is enduring. The basic principle of knowledge are received from higher authorities, just as preliminary mathematical information is given by the teacher when he informs the student that two plus two equals four. God has given us reason, senses, and consciousness, and by applying them, we can arrive at the proper conclusion.