Knowledge—

Empirical & Divine

• Therefore the necessity of finding the Cause of all causes (in creation) & source of everything that exists within creation.

Necessity of Understanding the Universe, “GOD”, etc.

• Purpose of Human life – pursuit of happiness

• To solve the problem in any field one must know the root cause.

Hypothetical Definition of God• The Biggest Concept

• “Non-thinkable”• CAN be philosophically formulated• CANNOT be mentally visualized

• Cause of all causes & the source of everything that exists

Intuitive – and philosophical – attraction for the concept of “God”

• Creation Implies a Creator• Law implies a law maker • Every need has a fulfillment

Complex material nature with all its laws implies a higher intelligence & thus an intelligent person - “GOD”

• Supreme controller, proprietor, enjoyer

Acquisition of Knowledge

• Pratyaksha Praman - Direct sense perception.

a) Imperfect Sensesb) Being Illusionedc) Tendency to commit mistakesd) Tendency to cheat, and be cheated

• Anuman Praman - Knowledge through Inferencespeculative process

Unreliable due to 4 fundamental defects:

Two Systems of Gaining knowledge

• Inductive• Deductive

• Shabda Praman - Hearing from Realized Authority.checks and balances

Gödel’s Incompleteness TheoremWithin any given branch of mathematics, there would always be some propositions that couldn't be proven either true or false using the rules and axioms ... of that mathematical branch itself.

You might be able to prove every conceivable statement about numbers within a system by going outside the system in order to come up with new rules and axioms, but by doing so you'll only create a larger system with its own unprovable statements.

The implication is that all logical systems of any complexity are, by definition, incomplete; each of them contains, at any given time, more true statements than it can possibly prove according to its own defining set of rules.

“... It appears to foredoom hope of mathematical certitude through use of the obvious methods. Perhaps doomed also, as a result, is the ideal of science - to devise a set of axioms from which all phenomena of the external world can be deduced.”

Need to hear from Spiritual Authority

• Verifiable through experience• Challenging mentality wastes time

Test of Authority

• Opinion does not change

• It has stood the test of time

• It has not been proved wrong.

Checks and balances

Guru – Saadhu – Shaastra

Teacher – Other Masters -- Scripture

Why Different Scriptures?• Different scriptures are meant for different audience and are revealed according to time, place and circumstance.

• The essence is always the same

Important Scriptures for this Age

• Bhagavad Gita

• Srimad Bhagvatam.