buddhi<\/em>, or purified intelligence, can understand the scripture. Is it not intelligent to take advantage of knowledge that is already recorded in authorized books? In a court of law, a lawyer will cite previous cases in the legal annals. Are we to assume that the lawyer has no capacity to think on his own simply because he quotes law books? The doctor also may be found to consult so many medical texts when attempting to cure a patient of a particular disease. Should we then assume that the doctor has no ability to diagnose the patient on his own?<\/p>\nExperience shows us that a good doctor and a good lawyer have volumes of related books for their reference. So why should it be any different in the search for God? If relevant textbooks are available, should one not take advantage of such books? The scriptures are written on the basis of personal experiences of those who have had some success in the world of consciousness, God consciousness. The scriptures say, \u201cThis has been discovered. Go there are see for yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n
A man of scriptural knowledge is indeed a free thinker, a self-thinker. The ability to think for one\u2019s self is in fact a qualification to become God conscious. A dull brain cannot achieve God consciousness. What is a dull brain? One who thinks he is the material body consisting of material elements, has a dull brain. Such persons cannot think for themselves because they do not know what the self is. Under the guidance of scripture one becomes self-aware. Then one\u2019s real thinking begins. Only then can one think for one\u2019s self.<\/p>\n
A person in material consciousness is never a self-thinker, because such persons are always under the mental and physical impressions of the material body, which is false. Only one who has understood the difference between matter and spirit can be a self-thinker. Such persons always take the scripture in close alliance with their practices. It is therefore not a sign of weakness that one quotes the scriptures. Rather, it is a sign of spiritual advancement.<\/p>\n
Someone may say that we must prove that God exists. They will say, \u201cShow me God, I want to see Him.\u201d But we will say, \u201cBecause you cannot see God does not prove that He does not exist.\u201d Should a blind man say that the sun does not exist simply because he cannot see it? The blind man cannot see the sun but his blindness does not disqualify the existence of the sun.<\/p>\n
The argument may be put that the blind man cannot see the sun, but he can feel the soothing warmth of the rays of the sun. So we must be able to have some tangible experience of the existence of God before we accept Him fully. That is not unreasonable. Although the material eye has no capacity to see the transcendental form of God, we can nonetheless feel that He exists. Feeling is a higher and more reliable sense than sight. But that feeling is not skin deep, like the perception of the sun\u2019s rays; it is heart deep. With the feelings of one\u2019s heart one can confirm that God exists. God is on the deepest side of our existence. In the deepest plane of our consciousness, in the core of our heart, His existence can be felt. Indeed it is a profoundly personal experience, not something for the sightseers of the mundane world. We will exclaim, \u201cShow me God!\u201d and He will come and simply dance before our eyes? It is not like that. Many things are required if we want to see God.<\/p>\n
It is not unreasonable. First qualify yourself. \u201cFirst deserve, then desire.\u201d Is there any valuable thing in this world that you can have simply upon demand? Simply saying, \u201cI want to be rich!\u201d Do you become rich? No \u2013 many things are required before that. Simply saying, \u201cI want to be a doctor!\u201d Do you become a doctor immediately? No. Then why should one think that the demand to see God should be met immediately? First, deserve, then desire.<\/p>\n
An atheist has no proof that God does not exist, so is it not risky to base one\u2019s life on something that is just a guess? The position of the theist is always more positive than that of the atheist. Let us consider for a moment. There are two men. One is a theist and the other an atheist. Each lives out his life according to his creed, and in the end both men have to die. Let us say for the sake of argument that when the theist dies there is no God. Then what does it matter? He believed in God, but in the end there was no God. So what does it matter? Death comes and life is over, finished, the end. No loss, no gain, it\u2019s simply over.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, the atheist dies and he was wrong. There is a God! Then what? What does he do now? It\u2019s too late. He again takes birth in the material world and suffers and enjoys according to the deeds of his past life. So to be an atheist is quite a risky proposition. The position of a theist is always safer and more desirable than that of an atheist.<\/p>\n
The devotees of Krishna are not muktivadis<\/em>, those who want liberation from material sufferings. Nor are the devotees of Krishna jnanis<\/em>, who want to know God through empirical knowledge, calculation, and speculation. Nor are the devotees of Krishna among the karmis<\/em> and Sahajiyas<\/em>, the sensualists, who want to experience God with their material senses, like the eye. The devotees of Krishna are bhaktas<\/em>. They simply want to love God, and the reciprocation of their love for Him is indeed the greatest confirmation of His existence.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWhen Wise Men, Speak Wise Men Listen\u201d is a series of articles by Swami B.G. Narasingha on a variety of topics from the Vedic viewpoint in particular from the theological perspective of Gaudiya Vaishavism, the philosophical school founded by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in the 15th Century. Among the subjects covered in these articles are the existence of God, the Vedas, ancient history, physics and archeology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6363,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[218],"tags":[206,220],"krishna_talk_article":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rupanugabhajanashram.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6371"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rupanugabhajanashram.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rupanugabhajanashram.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rupanugabhajanashram.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rupanugabhajanashram.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6371"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.rupanugabhajanashram.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8735,"href":"https:\/\/www.rupanugabhajanashram.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6371\/revisions\/8735"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rupanugabhajanashram.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rupanugabhajanashram.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rupanugabhajanashram.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rupanugabhajanashram.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6371"},{"taxonomy":"krishna_talk_article","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rupanugabhajanashram.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/krishna_talk_article?post=6371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}