My Guru Maharaja used to say, “Don’t try to see a saintly person by your eyes. You see a saintly person by the ear.” Because if you hear from the saintly person and if he is speaking from the experience which he has heard from the, another saintly person—this is called guru-parampara—then the knowledge is perfect. Yesterday we … The Yamadutas said that iti susruma. Never said, “I have seen it.” Vedo narayanah saksat svayambhur iti susruma: “We have heard it.” Vedo narayanah saksa… He never says, “I have seen it.” No. Iti susruma. So this is experience, real experience, real knowledge. Vedo narayanah saksat. Veda is directly Narayana. So Narayana… You can see Narayana. You can hear about Narayana. Sravanam kirtanam visnoh [SB 7.5.23]. Visnu is Narayana. This is the beginning of understanding Narayana, sravanam kirtanam. Never says, “By seeing, by touching, by licking up.” No. You cannot see. That is not experience. Real experience is iti susruma. So if we take our knowledge that there is no witness what we did in our previous life, that is nonsense. Here are the so many witnesses. Iti susruma. Hear. You cannot say there is no witness. You hear from the Vedic literature how many witnesses are present there for all your activities and how they are becoming recorded minutely, and everything will be judged. Therefore the Yamaraja is there.

So this is our position, that prakrteh kriyamanani gunaih karmani sarvasah [Bg. 3.27], ahankara-vimudhatma. Anyone who is proud of his so-called knowledge, so-called experience—simply “I believe,” “I think,” “It may be,” “Suppose”—what is this knowledge? They’re all nonsense. When you get knowledge susruma, from the authority, that is knowledge. Otherwise all useless. All useless. Because your senses are imperfect. You cannot see properly. You cannot hear properly. You cannot touch properly. You cannot smell properly. These are your instruments for getting experience. You cannot go. How you can say in other planets there is no life? You cannot go. According to the scientists’ calculations, they say that to go to the topmost planet it will take forty… Eh? Forty thousands of years. Who is going to travel forty thousand years? But we are seeing. The planets are there. Go there and see. You cannot estimate of one universe, which you are practically seeing. And in the sastra we hear that there are millions of universes.

So we have to take knowledge from sastra. And who will teach me sastra? Tad-vijnanartham sa gurum evabhigacchet [MU 1.2.12] Go to guru. Tad-vijnanartham. Just like you go to some superior person to learn something. That is the process. Similarly, the same process… You have to go to a person who has also heard. Susruma. You go to that, not that person who says that “I suppose,” “I believe,” “Maybe.” No. You go to the person who says, iti susruma: “We have heard it from authorities.” You have to go to that person. Srotriyam brahma-nistham [MU 1.2.12]. Who is guru? Srotriyam: “Who has properly heard.” Srotriyam. And what is the result? Brahma-nistham: by hearing, he is firmly convinced there is God. You have to go to such guru. lf you go to a fakir, what he will teach you? No. Fakir means one who talks much without any knowledge. He is called fakir.

So everything is, direction is there. Tad-vijnanartham. If you want to know that science, then Tad-vijnanartham sa gurum eva: [MU 1.2.12] “must.” Gacchet. This verb is used when there is the sense “must.” If somebody says, “All right, I shall learn even without going to any guru,” no, that is not possible. Therefore this verb is used, gacchet: “You must if you want to learn.” Otherwise you remain in darkness. This is Vedic injunction. Susruma? You must hear from the right source; then you will get perfect knowledge. So therefore, whether there is witness or not witness, we cannot understand from a so-called professor. There is witness, sastra says. And how can you deny it? If surya… first word is surya. The surya is the eyes of God, one eye. Another eye is the moon. And it is described in the sastra,

So Surya can see that… We have got some rays of the eyes, three feet. But, you see, from the 93,000,000 miles away he is seeing you. So brightly he is seeing. So you have to understand in that way. The sastra says, “Here is the eyes.” Another eye, another eye, one after another, one after another. How you will escape? That is not possible.

Therefore we must be very cautious and, I mean to say, with sense we must act, and if we act according to the direction of the sastra, then our position is safe. Otherwise, we are risking life. Risking life means this human life, human life. The dog has got ear; we have got also ear. But a dog cannot understand sastra; that is not possible. Or the elephant has got ear, very big ear. (laughter) Does it mean that he can hear more? No. This is rascaldom. One must be quite able to hear to understand sastra.

Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.1.42
by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Los Angeles, June 8, 1976