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Rāja-vidyā: The King of Knowledge
be dogmatic. For instance, in the Seventh Chapter Śrī Kṛṣṇa says:
mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiñcid asti dhanañjaya mayi sarvam idaṁ protaṁ sūtre maṇi-gaṇā iva
“O conqueror of wealth (Arjuna), there is no Truth superior to Me. Everything rests upon Me, as pearls are strung on a thread.” (Bg. 7.7)
Śrī Kṛṣṇa is saying that there is no authority greater than Him, and this appears to be very dogmatic. If I say, “There is no one greater than me,” people would think, “Oh, Śvāmījī is very proud.” If a man who is conditioned by so many imperfections says that he is the greatest of all, he blasphemes. But Kṛṣṇa can say this, for we can understand from the histories that even while He was on this earth, He was considered the greatest personality of His time. Indeed, He was the greatest in all fields of activity.
According to the Vedic system, knowledge which is achieved from the greatest authority is to be considered perfect. According to the  Vedas , there are three kinds of proof:  pratyakṣa ,  anumāna  and  śabda . One is by direct visual perception. If a person is sitting in front of me, I can see him sitting there, and my knowledge of his sitting there is received through my eyes. The second method,  anumāna , is auricular: we may hear children playing outside, and by hearing we can conjecture that they are there. And the third method is the method of taking truths from a higher authority. Such a saying as “Man is mortal” is accept-