The following is an excerpt from "The Proof of The Vedas," which was written and compiled by His Grace Purujit dasa, the founder of the Bhaktivedanta Lives in Sound Society, wherein he explains how our knowledge is relative only to the body and is also therefore a cause of great disturbance to the whole society.
Although our choice of opinions is the result of our previous conditioning, we tend to think to be the originators of knowledge. Due to this deluded mentality we are very much inclined to follow authorities who keep us in this illusion of being the originators of knowledge, and those who tend to break it, we reject. Foolish rascals therefore prosper by teaching: “Do not accept authorities. You are an authority yourself!” And even more foolish followers of such down-trodden men accept such rascals as their gurus, although such garbage gurus have no knowledge to offer.
Seemingly everyone has his own truth. In reality, however, conditioned souls think that they are right and everyone else is wrong. This is why people in the world find it more and more difficult to find a common platform to resolve conflicts. Locked up in their own limited conceptions dictated by the ever-changing material nature, they are filled with doubts. They are not confident of anything. Lord Krsna describes such people as follows:
vyavasayatmika buddhir
ekeha kuru-nandana
bahu-sakha hy anantas ca
buddhayo 'vyavasayinam
“Those who are on this path are resolute in purpose, and their aim is one. O beloved child of the Kurus, the intelligence of those who are irresolute is many-branched.”
(Bg 2.41)
In this way, newer and newer so-called knowledge, new theories, new course packs, new instruction manuals are produced, new educational departments are opened. One scientist comes up with a theory, then another scientist smashes it and establishes a new one. None of the theories, however, matter, because the basis is wrong. We cannot manufacture knowledge in the factory of our imagination. The real knowledge must be standard and applicable to everyone. It does not change. Belief, however, changes according to circumstances, and it is restricted to a limited section of people. What we presently consider to be science is therefore a belief. For this reason it is so difficult for people outside of the Vedic tradition to accept the Vedas as scientific. They are mistaking their imperfect faith for science and fight like dogs when it is challenged by the scientific Vedic statements.
Furthermore, as mentioned before, any knowledge besides everything within our experience and everything beyond our experience (the complete whole) must be by definition illusion (maya –“that which is not”), or, shortly, ignorance. The so-called learning is therefore simply an expansion of ignorance—in other words the exact opposite of what knowledge should be. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, a great acarya, said that all the forms of material knowledge are merely external features of the illusory energy, and by culturing them one becomes no better than an ass. Material advancement of knowledge means actually converting a human being to the status of an ass. Srila Prabhupada states:
“The ‘knowledge’ of the common man is always in the mode of darkness or ignorance because every living entity in conditional life is born into the mode of ignorance. One who does not develop knowledge through the authorities or scriptural injunctions has knowledge that is limited to the body. He is not concerned about acting in terms of the directions of scripture. For him God is money, and knowledge means the satisfaction of bodily demands. Such knowledge has no connection with the Absolute Truth. It is more or less like the knowledge of the ordinary animals: the knowledge of eating, sleeping, defending and mating. ”
