# Knowledge *On the difference between material and spiritual knowledge* --- ### Experimental Knowledge Cannot Know the Father > So this is material policy, to try to understand things by his own experience. *Pratyakṣa,* direct; experimental knowledge. The Vedic understanding is different. It is *śruti. Śruti* means to hear from authoritative source. That is real knowledge. Just like I have given many times this example that if you want to know your father by experimental knowledge, is it possible? Not possible. Then how to know my father? By hearing from the authority, mother. That's all. Simple thing. — [[spoken/1970/700515ip.la|Śrī Īśopaniṣad, Mantra 10, Los Angeles, May 15, 1970]] --- ### If You Cannot Know Your Material Father > Similarly, things which are beyond our experimental knowledge you should not try to understand by your imperfect senses. That is not possible. If you cannot know your material father by experimental knowledge, how you can know the supreme father by experimental knowledge? The original father... The father of the father, father, father, you go on searching father, and the original father is Kṛṣṇa. So if you cannot understand your material father, the next generation, by experimental knowledge, how you can know God, or Kṛṣṇa, by experimental knowledge? Can you answer this, anyone? — [[spoken/1970/700515ip.la|Śrī Īśopaniṣad, Mantra 10, Los Angeles, May 15, 1970]] --- ### Born Ignorant, Wasting Life > Therefore the soul is important. One who does not know the soul, his all activities are defeat. *Parābhavas tāvad abodha-jato yāvan na jijñāsata ātma-tattvam.* Anyone who has not inquired about the soul... Because he is born ignorant, born in darkness, he does not know what is soul, what is this body, what is this world. Therefore born in darkness. So if in that darkness and ignorance he is acting so many things, what is the profit? It is simply defeat. So a person who does not inquire into the existence of soul, his real identity, all his so-called improvement is simply waste of time. *Śrama eva hi kevalam*. Simply laboring, that's all. — [[spoken/1968/680720bg.mon|Bhagavad-gītā Lecture, Montreal, July 20, 1968]] --- ### No Learned Man According to Bhagavad-gītā > So there is no learned man according to *Bhagavad-gītā. Aśocyān anvaśocas tvaṁ prajñā-vādāmś ca bhāṣase*. That "You are talking..." Actually, so many learned men, M.A., Ph.D., with university qualification, they are talking so much, but as soon as they are asked, "Do you know what is the soul?" they stop. — [[spoken/1968/680610sb.mon|Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.6.1, Montreal, June 10, 1968]] --- ### Uttiṣṭhata Jāgrata—Awaken Now! > And one who knows what is the value of life, he is *jāgrata.* The Vedic injunction is this, *uttiṣṭhata jāgrata prāpya varān nibodhata*: "Now, this time, in human form of life, you become awakened, and the benediction which you have got, utilize it." They do not know. They are just like animals, sleeping. Ignorance. Ignorance is sleeping. Does not know what is the value of life. — [[spoken/1973/730515in.la|Initiation Ceremony, Los Angeles, May 15, 1973]] --- ### Information from Perfect Person Is Perfect > So our process of knowledge is very easy and perfect. The scientists, they are searching out what is the ultimate cause or ultimate control of this material nature, and they are putting, theorizing different proposition. But our means of knowledge, very easy and perfect, because we are hearing from the perfect person, Kṛṣṇa. And He says, *mayādhyakṣeṇa*. So immediately we know that all this cosmic machine, which is working so nicely and wonderfully, behind this machine the driver is Kṛṣṇa. Exactly behind a machine here, there is a machine driver, similarly, behind this big machine of material nature, there is Kṛṣṇa. — [[spoken/1971/710720le.ny|Lecture, New York, July 20, 1971]] --- ### Don't Waste a Moment > Advancement of devotional service means always be alert whether a moment is misused. Because you cannot get back even a moment of your life if you pay millions of dollars. Not possible. Nineteen sixty-seven, 10th June, 5 o'clock, you had to do something, and if you have missed, then that 5 o'clock, 10th June, 1960, ah, '76, will never come back, even you pay millions of dollars. So if that moment is improperly passed, then what is more loss than that? So *avyartha-kālatvam.* We should not let even a moment of our life misused. *Avyartha-kālatvam. Nāma-gāne sadā ruciḥ.* This is advanced life of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. — [[spoken/1976/760610gc.la|Garden Conversation, Los Angeles, June 10, 1976]] --- ### Material Knowledge Without Soul Knowledge Is Defeat > So life after life I worked hard for comfort of this body, which I am not. Now I am understanding that "I am not this body; I am spirit soul," so what is my activity? Actually our life, span of life, should be utilized by spiritual activities, *tapo divyam.* Spiritual activities mean you have to stand on the spiritual platform by austerity. If you give away your life by the waves of this material life—eating, sleeping, mating and defending—and do not take care of your spirit soul, then the *śāstras* says, *vipala tan na jati*: then you are wasting your life. — [[spoken/1972/720720sb.lon|Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.1.10, London, July 20, 1972]] --- *8 verified verbatim quotes from Śrīla Prabhupāda on knowledge*