What is beyond your Perception, Sense Perception, that you have to hear

Prabhupada, Nairobi, October 31, 1975: ..We see everything as stone and wood and earth and water and fire and everything. We have got the capacity to see all these things. Here Krishna says that this bhumi, this earth; apa, this water; anala, this fire; vayu, air; kham, the sky, ether; mana, mind… That is still subtle. Up to ether, you can see, but the mind, which is still finer than the ether, mana, that you cannot see.

Mind, everyone knows you have got mind, I have got mind, but you cannot see the mind, neither I can see your mind. Here is the subtle. First gross: bhumir apo ’nalo vayuh, up to ether. Ether also we cannot see, but we can understand here is ether by (claps) sound.

As soon as there is sound, this is the understanding of ether. Ether, vayu, you can touch, but you cannot see. Then fire, you can see. And then water, you can see also, and then earth—gross. From the finer, we are coming to the gross. Begins from the finer.

So finer than the ether is the mind, and finer than the mind is intelligence, ego. And finer than the intelligence and ego is the soul. So how you can see soul? You cannot see even the material things, as soon it becomes finer. How you can see the soul? They cannot see, but soul is there.

Therefore when the soul departs from the body we see the bhumir apo ’nalo vayuh kham mano buddhi-ahankara… Buddhi-ahankara The man, the dead man, is lying. The gross thing we are seeing, but the mind, intelligence, ego, which is carrying that soul, that we do not see.

How transmigration of the soul takes place, that we have no knowledge, poor fund of knowledge. We can simply think gross. Jada-darsana. It is called jada-darsana. Even there is no suksma-darsana. Although there is mind, but we cannot see. Then how you can see the soul?

So this is the defect of modern education. So what is beyond your perception, sense perception, that you have to hear. There are two kinds of knowledges: by practical experience, direct perception, and by hearing from authority, aitihya. According to Vedic system, there are three kinds of evidences: direct, and pratyaksa… Pratyaksa means direct.

And then aitihya and sruti. Sruti. Sruti means hearing from the authority. Just like here we see that there is mind. Everyone knows mind, but it is confirmed by the sastra because we are hearing from Krishna which is called sruti. Similarly, when Krishna says in the Second Chapter,

dehino ’smin yatha dehe kaumaram yauvanam jara tatha dehantara-praptir dhiras tatra na muhyati [Bg. 2.13]

Asmin dehe, “Within this body, there is the proprietor of the body,” that you have to learn by hearing. If you want to see immediately, “Let me see where it is in the…,” oh, your so-called scientific research cannot help you. You have to learn it simply by hearing from the authority. This is called sruti, sruti-pramana, sruti- pramana, evidence from sruti.

So the Vedic knowledge is called sruti. You have to learn things beyond your perception simply by hearing from the authorities. So Vedic knowledge is the authority. Full Lecture