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The watch face

• Subject: The watch face
• From: Todd G
• Date: Mon Jun 19 13:42:48 1995
• Message-Id: id522

From: Todd G

>I came across your post in which you said that the nature of what is
>behind the watch face, i.e. the supreme being responsible for setting this
>universe into motion, is completely unknowable to us.  I realize I may be
>paraphrasing your actual statement, forgive me please.

>Could you tell me why you believe this to be true?

>
>Thanks, Todd

I was referring to the scientists rather than the transcendentalists. For the
scientists depend on a different process. One who believes in God can perceive His
presence. God reveals Himself to His devotees. So they can see and experience the
"supreme person who set this universe in motion." They can also have some
knowledge from the scriptures as to what is beyond this universe...

The scientists, however, only accept what they can see, hear, feel, touch and
smell for themselves. They observe things and try to explain the observations with
"scientific" theories. While this is certainly a process of acquiring knowledge,
it is a very slow and imperfect one. All such "scientific" knowledge is always
flawed because it is gathered by the scientists using their imperfect senses. All
our senses are imperfect: we can't see things that are very close or far away, we
can only see a limited range of frequencies... But that is not all. Everyone has a
tendency to cheat. If I want to prove my theory I will accept the evidence that
supports it, but I may not pay too much attention to observations that contradict
it... We are also illusioned... We accept so many things as facts which are not
facts at all. Science is full of "initial assumptions", and many of these may be
wrong, so any theory which relies on these assumptions will also be wrong. If you
are doing a big calculation and you make a mistake in the beginning, no matter how
nice your calculations are after that point, the answer will be wrong... And
finally we all make mistakes. So many experiments are performed but often there
are mistakes and the results are not correct...

This "scientific process" is the ascending process for acquiring knowledge. It
means finding out things using our own power... But it is not a very perfect
method as I have described above. The other way to get knowledge is via the
descending process. That means to find a perfect authority, someone who knows, and
just accept the knowledge from him. It is not an unfamiliar process. If you want
to become a carpenter you go to a carpenter and ask him to take you on as his
apprentice... This is the best way to learn.

So we just accept the knowledge Krishna has given in the Vedic scriptures in
India. There are thousands of Vedic scriptures on every topic, material and
spiritual. There is the Auya-veda for medicine, the Danna-veda for the science of
fighting and war, there is the Joyti-veda for astronomy and astrology, there are
Vedic scriptures for everything... There are also  Vedic scriptures describing the
universe and what is beyond the universe, the spiritual sky.

The bona fide spiritual master simply presents this Vedic knowledge. He doesn't
inject his own ideas or philosophy. So the knowledge a bona fide spiritual master
presents is perfect. He can tell you all about the supreme person who is
responsible for setting this universe in motion. But such bona fide spiritual
masters are rare. There are many charlatans presenting themselves as "bona fide
spiritual masters" for fame, money, to attract followers, etc... So this has put a


lot of people off. But still if we want to find the truth we have to find a real
guru...

                          tad viddhi pranipatena
                            pariprasnena sevaya
                          upadeksyanti te jnanam
                         jnaninas tatt va-darsinah

"Just try to learn the truth by approaching a spiritual master.
Inquire from him submissively and render service unto him. The
self-realized souls can impart knowledge unto you because they have seen
the truth." (Bhagavad-gita 4.34)


There are so many things, even in this universe, that the scientists can not see
so how can they ever understand them? The only way is to find an authority and get
the knowledge in that way. Scientists can't even get complete knowledge of the
universe, they certainly have absolutely no ability to find out what is beyond the
universe...

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