Sharanagati

(from a lecture of Swami Tirtha, 09.05.2018, Sofia)

(continues from the previous Monday)

Question: I have a question regarding your lecture from yesterday. You referred to it today when you said we need to accept the things we cannot prove. And I’m very grateful that you brought in a quotation from a Christian bishop. Just to clarify, so I can remember: you said that a religion without mystery is like a religion without God. One of the things I have quite a difficulty to understand is a quote by Shrila Prabhupad that “Krishna consciousness is a science”. How does science go with mystery? And where is prema, when this is a science that needs proving? So I would like to ask you about God’s mercy and science – how do they go together?

Swami Tirtha: I think your question is a topic for a week’s seminar. But if we examine the context a little bit, usually science works in a ‘theory, try, prove, come to a higher understanding’ method. So, usually to move to a higher platform of scientific understanding you have to disprove the previous level. And usually science operates with theories or theorems. Shrila Prabhupada didn’t like this side: “Theory, theory – this is not knowledge! ‘If’ – that means you don’t know. ‘Science ‘means that you know.” So for him, ‘science’ means facts, truths. Not doubts and investigations or failures; no – facts. This was science for him. And in that sense, devotional life is a science, because it provides facts about the supreme truth, the Absolute. In this way he interpreted bhakti-yoga as a scientific understanding of Godhead. It provides facts, truths – not theories.

Of course science in general, especially the natural sciences, concern nature – ‘physis’ in Greek. But the spiritual sciences concern the divine, which is beyond the physical experience, therefore this is called ‘metaphysics’. So the natural sciences you can apply in the realm of physics and so to say the spiritual science you can apply in the field of metaphysics. And if you try to use the instruments and the methods of one field in the other, it will not work. Of course, this sounds very categorical, because there is always some overlap. But basically, the approach in a materialistic science is different than the approach in a spiritual quest. I don’t know if this clarifies the situation a little bit?

Otherwise, another feature of the scientific method is the experiment. And the necessary quality for experiments is that they can repeat and they come to the same results. One experiment proves a fact if it can be repeated and brings the same results under the same conditions. This is called scientific instrument, scientific method. And if we take this into the spiritual practices, it will also work. So, what is the experiment? If you chant the mantra, you will find peace. Some have experienced this. Now, if I repeat the experiment, I also try the mantra, I will also find some peace. Then we can take it as a proven fact.

So in the spiritual sense, in the spiritual process we can apply even some instruments of the scientific method. Of course, it is only the doubting mind that needs proofs and experiments. The inner heart needs something else. Therefore Shrila Shridhara Maharaj says: ”First you have to satisfy your intellect. Then you can go for the inner satisfaction of your heart”. Therefore we need to find such a high philosophy that will blow our mind. Or we will admire it and say, ’Oh, it’s incredibly great!’ Then our mind is satisfied and we can go on with other type of practices.

(to be continued)