Learning the Science of the Soul 23

‘*Out of many thousands among men, one may endeavor for perfection,
and of those who have achieved perfection, hardly one knows Me in
truth.”’

Understanding Krsna, then, is very difficult. But although the under-
standing of God is a difficult subject, God explains Himself in the
Bhagavad-gita. He says, ‘‘I am like this, and I am like this. The material
nature is like this, and the spiritual nature is like that. The living entities
are like this, and the Supreme Soul is like that.’’ Thus everything is com-
pletely described in the Bhagavad-gita. Although understanding God is
very difficult, it is not difficult when God Himself gives us His own
knowledge. Actually that is the only process by which we can understand
God. To understand God by our own speculation is not possible, for God
is unlimited, and we are limited. Our knowledge and perception are both
very limited, so how can we understand the unlimited? If we simply ac-
cept the version of the unlimited, we can come to understand Him. That
understanding is our perfection.

Speculative knowledge of God will lead us nowhere. If a boy wants to
know who his father is, the simple process is to ask his mother. The
mother will then say, ‘‘This is your father.” This is the way of perfect
knowledge. Of course, one may speculate about one’s father, wondering
if this is the man or if that is the man, and one may wander over the
whole city, asking, ‘‘Are you my father? Are you my father?’’ The
knowledge derived from such a process, however, will always remain im-
perfect. One will never find his father in this way. The simple process is to
take the knowledge from an authority—in this case, the mother. She
simply says, ‘‘My dear boy, here is your father.”’ In this way our
knowledge is perfect. Transcendental knowledge is similar. I was just pre-
viously speaking of a spiritual world. This spiritual world is not subject to
our speculation. God says, ‘‘There is a spiritual world, and that is My _
headquarters.” In this way we receive knowledge from Krsna, the best
authority. We may not be perfect, but our knowledge is perfect because it
is received from the perfect source.

The Krsna consciousness movement is meant to give perfect knowl-
edge to human society. By such knowledge one can understand who he
is, who God is, what the material world is, why we have come here,
why we must undergo so much tribulation and misery, and why we
have to die. Of course, no one wants to die, but death will come. No one
wants to become an old man, but still old age comes. No one wants to
suffer from disease, but surely enough disease comes. These are the real
problems of human life, and they are yet to be solved. Civilization
