2. Quiz : What general principles can you draw from the story of 6 blind men?
What can we learn from it?
Listen to the Story of Six Blind men and
the Elephant from your teacher.
3. How to gain perfect knowledge about God,
the Artist, Designer, Lawmaker, Organizer,
the Controller and Supreme Proprietor?
1. Pratyaksa Praman
2. Anumana Praman
3. Sabda Praman
Three ways of
gaining knowledge
4. 1.Pratyaksa praman – Direct perception
We cannot acquire COMPLETE knowledge
using our material senses like eyes, ears etc.
5. 3) TENDENCY TO COMMIT MISTAKES
We cannot understand God or even perfect knowledge of this world through
our blunt material senses because of the following……..
FOUR DEFECTS
1) IMPERFECT
SENSES
2) TO BE
ILLUSIONED
4) CHEATING PROPENSITY
6. Four Defects : (1) Imperfect senses
OUR EYES ARE BLIND outside the
range of 400 to 700 milli micron
OUR EARS ARE DEAF outside the
range of 20 Hz to 20 kHz
Radio Waves X-Rays
R V
Visible Range
7. Four Defects : (1)Imperfect senses
Noble Prize winning Physicist Eugene Wigner points out:
“Even if we photograph stars,
- eventually we have to take in by our senses what the photo shows.
- furthermore, without our senses we cannot handle a camera.
- even if we amplified/refined by instruments the knowledge is
no more perfect than our imperfect senses.”
Scientis
t
An uninformed Scientist
may boast:
“We will use the instrument
outside the range
for perceiving things.”
8. Four Defects : (2)To be illusioned
TONGUE : Orange after sugar = sour
Orange after lemon = sweet
SKIN : same water
touched with warm hand appears cool;
touched with cold hands appears warm
9. Observe and Identify
(5 minutes)
Each picture has at least two ways to see
depending on what you choose to discard.
Use your creativity and identify the TWO
different ways of perceiving each of the pictures.
What do you infer from such observations?
12. Four Defects : (3) To commit mistakes
Brain was thought of as an
organ to cool the blood
Pituitary or Master glands were
considered a vestige or useless
tissue in a human body !
WILDLY INCORRECT ACCOUNTS IN RESEARCH
Value of Hubble Constant,
(used as a cosmic yardstick)
has been changed 3 times !
Is it Hubble Constant or Hubble variable?
Small mistakes can lead to Large disasters.
13. Four Defects - (4) Cheating Propensity
1912 - Connecting Link “Made-up”
1953 - Fraud Revealed :
Human Skull & Filed Jaw
THE PILTDOWN MAN FRAUD
14. Four Defects - (4) Cheating Propensity
THE PILTDOWN MAN FRAUD
17. ANUMANA PRAMAN
(Theories based on observation)
"... I am a firm believer that
without speculation there is no
good and original observation.
After five years work I allowed
myself to speculate on the subject,
and drew up some short notes;
these I enlarged in 1844 into a
sketch of the conclusions, which
seemed to me probable..”
(Origin of Species).
In one of his letters to
A.R. Wallace (December 22, 1857), Darwin wrote:
18. Darwin’s theory on
How the Bear evolved into a “monstrous whale”
???
“In North America the black bear was seen swimming for
hours with wide open mouth, thus catching like a whale,
insects in water. Even in so extreme a case as this, if the
supply of insects were constant, and if better adapted
competitors did not already exist in the country, I can see
no difficulty in a race of bears by natural selection, more
and more aquatic in their structure and habits, with larger
and larger mouths till a creature was produced as
monstrous as a whale.”
‘Origin of Species’ (1964 edition, page 184)
19. RECORD OF
THE ROCKS
MAN CAME FROM MONKEYS
Human beings and
apes simultaneously
existed millions of
years ago
40,000
100,000
400,000
1 million
1.5 million
2 million
Age of Rock Strata in Years
20. Half knowledge is a dangerous thing !
What is the problem with making mistakes in research?
1. A Bisleri (or any polyvenyl) bottle, is offered as a convenient substitute
for a fragile bottle. But water stored in a Bisleri bottle for 6 months or
more becomes poisonous and can cause death to one who drinks it.
2. Mobile has an inbuilt radioactive element that is health hazardous;
- damage to brain if used for a long period of time.
- heart problems if kept in the shirt pocket.
- impotency if kept in pant pocket.
- phone call sound can’t be heard if kept in a jeans pocket below knees
3. During Bubonic plague, researchers claimed that the cats
were the cause of plague; so they killed all cats and then
realised that rats are the real cause; it was too late. Now
there were too many rats, but no cat to eat rats!
Now plague epidemic was spreading violently.
21. We can’t break God’s laws; we can only break ourselves against them.
The farther we go from nature, the greater we obviously suffer.
QUIZ for You : (5 min)
Can you cite examples to show how modern man, by his
scientific research came up with many artificial
comforts and luxuries to increase happiness, but….
1) Those inventions are creating new problems now &
2) Man is returning back to harmony with nature and God
Organic
Food
instead
of
Fast
food
Sample Ans :
22. The solution for one problem becomes another BIGGER problem...
QUIZ for You : (5 min)
(eg) At Pune the number of two wheelers and cars on road
were shooting up a few years ago. To manage traffic
efficiently, the govt came up with a fly over. At the same
time automobile industries started selling cars and bikes at
lesser prices, boosting up sales. Now the flyovers have
become ‘crawl-overs’ & traffic on flyover moves inch by inch !!!
Quiz : Give an example to show how
modern man’s solution to one problem
leads to another bigger problem and
ultimately deprives us of Happiness.
..Half knowledge is dangerous! We need full ABSOLUTE knowledge.
23. Man thought he can be happy without God,
If only he has money and comforts…….
We can never obtain complete knowledge by Pratyaksha/Anumana pramana.
………All he found was Stress and Depression. Where is happiness?
Its dangerous to operate a machine with half knowledge.
Similarly, it is dangerous to manipulate the Universal cosmic machine
without knowing about it, from the Creator who created it.
Where is the manual which can explain the operation of this machine?
If we can get it, then we have the key to happiness.
24. (1) We have IMPERFECT SENSES…….
(3) Due to which we COMMIT MISTAKES…….
(2) That leads to ILLUSION….
(4) To hide the mistakes one tends to
CHEAT OTHERS…….
Four defects keep us in Illusion
25.
26. Just see! My dear friend!
How Four defects keep
us blind to the Truth!
Is there no other way other
than Pratyaksha or Anumana
to know the complete truth
that is free from all danger?
27. SABDA PRAMAN
Hearing from a Bonafide Authority
KRISHNA
BRAHMA
NARADA
CHAITANYA
MAHAPRABHU
A C BHAKTIVEDANTA SWAMI
29. Inductive Knowledge
We will check your genes and tell
you who your father is in 800 years.
Medical test
by Genetic Finger print
takes 800 years to identify a
lot of 200 men
one of whom is
Likely to be your
Father.
32. ❑Professors – one who has heard from his guru / acharya.
❑Authorised college – Parampara or Sampradaya
❑Authorised Books – Vedic texts like Bhagavad gita
The Vedic process of Learning
36. Although Vedas are
timeless wisdom, that
was spoken and heard in
parampara, Vyasadeva,
a literary incarnation of
God, recorded all the
Vedas in writing
5,000 years back
for the benefit of people
in Kali Yuga.
37. Composed by sages
Wording may change from age to age
Revealed absolute Truth
Every word unchanged eternally
sisters sisters sisters
Rajasic
VEDIC KNOWLEDGE
SRUTI SMRTI
UPAVEDAS
Dhanurveda
Ayurveda, etc.
VEDAS
Rg, Yajur,
Sama, Atharva
VEDANGAS Itihasas
Puranas Six Darshanas
Tantras
Spoken by Lord
Siva to Parvati
Ritual Sutras
Connected to
Kalpa-vedanga
Pancaratras
Srauta Sutras
explains
public yajnas
Grhya Sutras
explains
home yajnas
Dharma Sutras
Law books
Vedanta
(Vyasa)
(Metaphysics)
theology of
Upanisads
Mimamsa
(Jaimini)
(Hermeneutics)
interpreting
scriptural texts
Nyaya
(Gautama)
(Epistemology, logic)
philosophy of
knowledge
including logic
Vaisesika
(Kanada)
(Metaphysics)
philosophy of
existence
Yoga
(Patanjali)
(Sadhana)
Sankhya
(Atheist Kapila)
(Metaphysics)
Dharma Sastras
including Manu-
samhita and others
18 Major
18 Minor
Samhitas
mantras
Brahmanas
ritual explanation
of mantras
Aranyakas
esoteric explanation
of mantras
Upanisads
Jnana-kanda
philosophy of Brahman
Kalpa
ritual details
Siksa
pronunciation
Vyakarana
grammar
Nirukta
etymology
Chandas
meters
Jyotisa
astronomy-time
calculation
Vaisnava
worship
Tamasic
Sattvic
38. सर्वस्य चाहं हृदि सदिदर्ष्टो
मत्त: स्मृदिर्ज्ावनमपोहनं च |
र्ेिैश्च सर्ैरहमेर् र्ेद्यो
र्ेिान्िकृ द्वेिदर्िेर् चाहम् || 15||
sarvasya chāhaṁ hṛidi sanniviṣhṭo
mattaḥ smṛitir jñānam apohanaṁ cha
vedaiśh cha sarvair aham eva vedyo
vedānta-kṛid veda-vid eva chāham
BG 15.15: I am seated in the hearts of all living beings,
and from Me come memory, knowledge, as well as
forgetfulness. I alone am to be known by all the Vedas,
am the author of the Vedant, and the knower of the
meaning of the Vedas.
39. WHAT DID WE LEARN TODAY ?
There are 3 ways of gaining Knowledge
Pratyaksa, Anumana and Sabda.
• Pratyaksa Praman is direct sense perception.
• Pratyaksa knowledge is relative because of
4 defects in living beings.
• Four defects - Imperfect senses, To be illusioned,
To commit mistakes and Cheating propensity.
Anumana Praman is based on hypothesis dependent on
sense perception.
Sabda Praman is hearing from a bonafide authority.
Pratyaksa and Anumana gives relative knowledge ( like the
story of 6 blind men)
Sabda Praman gives Absolute knowledge and is most
reliable and definite way of obtaining knowledge.
