Reasoning and the Nature of Life
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Chapters
Reasoning and the human platform
This is the continuation of the notations on Descartes. Descartes, René Descartes, the French.
Descartes writes: "The power of forming a good judgment and of distinguishing the true from the false, which is, properly speaking, what is called good sense or reason, is by nature equal in all men."
God has given to each of us some light with which to distinguish truth from error. Now in the West, this has been called conscience. And Descartes uses the term reason.
Now, is this simply a form of mental speculation? Or is not mental speculation should be there? Uh, it is not actually speculation, but it is reasoning.
Just like, uh, if we study our own body, whether this lump of matter—namely this, this skin, bone, and stool, urine and muscles and blood—if we analyze this body and we find practically these things.
So the reasoning is whether combination of these things can give life. So externally we have got all these things.
Blood we can get from slaughterhouse and bone we can collect, or we can manufacture and set up an instrument with these things; will it bring, uh, life?
So the reasoning, he said, life is different from this lump of matter. That is reasoning. Wow. Huh? He says reason is by nature equal in all men. Now, isn't reasoning power different in different men? Yes.
Uh, otherwise why it is called "this man is intelligent," uh, other man is called ass?
So when on this reasoning platform, when one comes to the conclusion that the living force within the body is different from this lump of matter, then he is on the human platform.
And if he teaches himself that this life means combination of these material things, then he remains an animal. This is the reasoning. Where is the life?
You analyze beginning from the breathing up to the urine, stool; where you will find life? That is human reasoning.
Vedic perspective on life force
Human civilization is now advanced in analyzing things in the chemical laboratory. So if we analyze this breathing, it is air. So you replace this air, let life come again, but it is breathing.
Breathing is simply exhaling and inhaling somewhere. So by machine, by electric, uh, what is called? Um, batteries. And let it work and it will act accordingly, breathing. Does it mean it will bring life?
So they say breathing is stopped, never life is stopped. So breathing can be white, but why is the light? They say the blood has become white. Well, blood can be colored.
So anything of this body, analyze perfectly and bring life, then you say that life is combination of this matter. You cannot bring it. Then it must be concluded that life is different from this combination of matter.
This is easy. This is meant easy. And if you still keep yourself, that this body is this, everything, then you are an ass. This is reason. That is the sa eva go-kharaḥ, the Vedic. Sa eva go-kharaḥ.
Yasyātma-buddhiḥ... If one is thinking still that he is this body, he is no better than anyone. There is no reasoning. Who can challenge this? Analyze every part of the body, where is life? What do you think?
Is that reason or not? Yes. Now the reason is one thing, but, uh, intellection is another thing. Intellection and reason you would call the same intellect. Intellection. And reason. And the Supersoul speaking from within.
The Supersoul? So something different. First of all come to the reasoning that this combination of air, water and bone and muscle and urine and stool is not life. First of all come to that.
Then we have to find out then what is that soul? First of all, we come to this conclusion, this is not neti. This is not. Then what is the positive thing that we have to find? Athāto brahma jijñāsā. What is that Brahman?
It is not matter. Then we come to the conclusion that Brahman is the origin of this matter. Because the matter is developing on the soul. That is also reasoning. Simply, sex does not create pregnancy.
Unless there is so many times sex. So not every time there is pregnancy. Of course, it is expected. But anyway, when the soul is injected in the womb of the woman, then the pregnancy means the matter develops.
And that we can see outside the pregnancy also: when the child comes out, it develops the body. And if the child comes out dead, there is no development. Therefore the soul is the basic principle of material development.
Take a seed of a tree. So you sow it, and in this whole texture of the seed, then it grows to a plant. Otherwise it does not grow. The same seed, if you fry it and sow it, then it will not,
because it is unsuitable for the soul to remain in that seed. So athāto brahma-jijñāsā. So the matter is coming out on the positive existence of the soul.
Without the soul being present within the womb of the woman, there is no pregnancy, there is no development of the body.
We can see for the same thing: the child is developing or changing the body because the soul is there. This is reasonable. Not very difficult.
Nature and power of soul
So the philosophy, first of all, find out what is that external thing which is the living force.
Analyzing this material body, you don't find any symptom of life, either from breathing or from blood or from therefore something extra. Now we find out what is that extra.
That extra you will find out if you come to the right platform, that is jīvātmā.
And on the basis of jīvātmā, that is very minute, if you take authority of the Vedas as a very, very minute, one ten-thousandth part of the top of the hair, a very small particle that we cannot find where it is in the body.
It is very small. So without material eyes and material instruments, it cannot be found. We are missing it. But the thing is there. We get information from this source. Therefore the life is going on. It is so powerful.
Just like the sun is ninety-three million miles away, yet it is keeping the whole universe illuminated. Similarly, although the soul is a very, very small particle, it's keeping this body alive, fresh.
So by material analysis you cannot find it out because it's so small you cannot see that. But it is to be accepted, because that small particle is there, this body is there.
So the conclusion is that matter comes on account of soul. Not that combination of matter produces soul. First of all, the inquiry: what is the living force?
Then the conclusion is that on account of this living force, this material body has come. Therefore the conclusion should be that God is the supreme living force on which the cosmic manifestation has developed.
That is our theory, that Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu is there, then the universe comes into existence and Brahmā is born and he creates everything.
And this reason, he says, "I fall into error, because the power which God has given me of distinguishing the true from the false is not in me an infinite power." So by reason we can never be certain. Yeah, it's infinite.
I am finite. I as soul, or as Brahmā, I am finite Brahman. And therefore, there must be one infinite Brahman. That infinite Brahman is God. And finite Brahman is jīva.
Therefore in the Vedic literature, God is accepted as the chief living being.
Divine perfections and human error
Just like we have got in our family, the father is supposed to be the chief man in the family. And sons and daughters, they are subordinate. It is common. Similarly, God is the origin of all living entities.
And we are individual living entities, just like the father and the sons. And that is accepted by any religious sect, that God is the Supreme Father and we are sons. That is accepted everywhere.
And as the sons, children, they exist by the mercy of the father. Similarly, our existence is continuing on account of the mercy of the Supreme Power. This is it.
She says these perfections which I am attributing to God, which are infinite, immutable, independent, all-knowing, all-powerful — these perfections are in some fashion potentially in me.
Although they do not show them, they're finite, a very small part. That I've already explained many times, that the creative force is in me; I can create also.
Now in the modern, uh, scientific knowledge, so I have created a big plane floating in the air. But, uh, I cannot create another planet with so many mountains and vast water, oceans and trees; that I cannot do.
That is done by God. This planet is also floating in the air. And the tiny 747 plane is also floating in the air. So that is created by me, finite. I have no other remote power.
Even if I float a city-like plane, it is still finite. But God has created this planet and many other planets with so many things — mountains, seas, and forests and cities and so many things.
That is the difference, although the creative power is there. Because I'm part and parcel of God, I've got the creative power. So I have got also little knowledge.
I know my knowledge within my atmosphere, but God knows everything. That is explained: janmādy asya yato 'nvayād itarataś cārtheṣv abhijñaḥ. Abhijñaḥ means He knows everything.
And in Bhagavad-gītā it is said, vedāhaṁ samatītāni, "I know everything." That is the fact. When Arjuna questioned Kṛṣṇa that how it is that You remember millions of years ago You taught Bhagavad-gītā,
Krishna said, "Yes, that is the difference between you and me. I remember, you forgot." So therefore, in all cases, God... Continuing,
Descartes, he writes: "It is not an imperfection in God that He has given me the freedom of assenting or not assenting to things of which He has not placed a clear and distinct knowledge in my understanding.
On the other hand, unquestionably, it is an imperfection in me that I do not use this freedom right." So, but one may then ask: why doesn't God give us the understanding whereby we can choose properly in all cases? Yes.
Why can't we have free will and at the same time infallible judgment? Free will means that you can act wrongly. That is free will. Unless there is a chance of doing wrong or right, there is no question of free will.
But is it free will then? If I act only one-sided, that means I am not free. Because we act sometimes wrongly, that means free will. A man may know better and still act wrongly. Yes. Yes. That is free will.
It seems as... it's just like a thief. He knows that stealing is bad. But he still does it. That is free will. He cannot check his greediness.
So in spite of his knowing that he is doing a wrong thing, he'll be punished, he knows. He has seen another thief arrested, he was punished, he was put into prison. Everything he knows. But still he steals. Why?
Misuse of the will. Unless there is misuse of free will, there is no question of free will. In a sense he says that when one knows God, he knows everything else. And if he follows the instruction of God, then he's right.
And as soon as he goes against the instruction of God, then he's wrong. And that is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Now I have given you all instruction, it is up to you to accept or reject: yathecchasi tathā kuru.
That is free will. So now it depends on me whether I act according to the instruction of God, or as I like according to my means, according to my sensual inclination.
He says, "I see that the certainty and truth of all knowledge depends on knowledge of the true God, and that before I knew Him I could have no perfect knowledge of any other thing, and now that I know Him, I have the means of acquiring a perfect knowledge of innumerable things, not only in respect of God Himself and other intelligible things, but also in respect of that corporeal nature, which is the object of pure mathematics."
Now he says he knows God, but at the same time he seems to be deceived in certain matters that we haven't
come to yet. But no, if he has actually followed God in this sense and he has actually knowledge of what is God, then he'll never be misled. Either he selects a false god or he has not met God, real God.
But to save this danger, there is God's instructions in Bhagavad-gītā. Anyone who will follow that, he will not be mistaken.
Consciousness and the two controllers
Now concerning the soul, Descartes concludes that since... In this connection regarding the soul, if he has received the knowledge of soul from God, therefore, at that time, there is no chance of his mistake.
As soon as he thinks in his own way, then there may be mistakes. Because this is imperfect, finite.
But when Kṛṣṇa says directly that within this body, the soul is... So if we accept God's instruction, then immediately we understand that the soul is different from this body.
Exactly like somebody inquires, "Where is Prabhupāda?" If somebody says that he is in this room, it does not mean this room is Prabhupāda. Prabhupāda is within this body.
Similarly, Kṛṣṇa said that the owner of the body, the soul, is within this body. So immediately the false impression that "I am this body", the false conclusion, immediately it is eradicated. The light is there.
But he will not accept that. He wants to continue to live as a fool and speculate, and waste time and give conclusions in so many ways. So many rascals, they are giving the living force is like this, like that, like that.
But Kṛṣṇa gives instruction immediately that the living force, soul, is within this body, is not this body. And he gives complete instruction on this and he says, "Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre."
This soul is never killed, even if the body is killed. This is knowledge. In spite of this knowledge, if some person, somebody sticks to his foolish theories, then anyway...
There was a lot of conjecture at this time on where the soul is located,
and he writes: "It is likewise necessary to know that although the soul is joined to the whole body, there is yet in there a certain part in which it exercises its functions more particularly than in all the others, and that it is usually believed that this part is the brain or possibly the heart.
The brain, because it is with it, because it is with that the organs of sense are connected, and the heart because it is apparently in it that we experience the passions."
He thought the soul was in the pineal gland at the base of the brain, because we think with the brain, but then he wasn't certain.
He thought, "Well, our passions are in the heart, so maybe it's in the heart, maybe we have to accept God's action." He definitely gives the information: īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati.
Īśvara means the controller. So the soul is the controller of this body. So he is in the heart, it is already... īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati. There are two kinds of īśvara, controller.
One is the ordinary controller, that means the individual living being, and the other is the supreme living being. We get from Vedic information both of them sitting together on this bar, on this body tree.
So, in both cases, the Supersoul and the individual soul, they are living within the heart. That is the right point. But at the same time the soul pervades the entire body. Yes. That is also explained in the Bhagavad-gītā.
Avināśi tu tad viddhi, that portion which is spread all over the body, that is immortal. Now, this is the illumination or the shining of the soul.
That the sun is situated, localized in a particular place, that we can see every day. But his illumination is distributed all over everywhere.
Similarly, although the soul is situated within the heart, his illumination is spread all over the body. So that is consciousness.
So as soon as the soul is out from the heart, which is known as heart failure, when he leaves the heart, when the use of this heart, it becomes a lump of matter. Immediately consciousness is absent from the whole body.
So it is upon the leaving of the soul, this body, there is no more consciousness. This is the reason.
Why a second before there was consciousness, and as there is no consciousness, if you chop the body, there will be no protest, there will be no feeling of pain. What is that? This is this. Something is missing.
The soul has gone out. Therefore, because of that, in the body it is absent. That soul is immortal, the consciousness is also immortal.
Now the consciousness, by the influence of illusory energy, is engaged in so many material things.
Consciousness of society, consciousness of nationality, consciousness of this Krishna consciousness movement is an educational movement. How the consciousness can be purified to remain only Krishna consciousness.
Then his life is success. All right. Here we go.
Soul and communication in animals
In a letter, Descartes wrote: "I know that brutes, that is animals, do many things better than we do, and I am not surprised at this, for that also goes to prove that they act by force of nature."
If they could think as we do—not force of nature, by force of God. Yes. At the heart of the brute also there is God.
"If they could think as we do, they would have an immortal soul as well as we, which is not likely because there is no reason for believing it of some animals without believing it of all, and there are many of them too imperfect to make it possible to believe it of them, such as oysters, sponges, etc."
Is thinking a necessary function of the soul? He says, well, for instance, an oyster—how does he know whether or not an oyster thinks? God is there giving him.
God gives us an instruction that we, advanced human beings, we refuse. But they do not refuse. You've said that anything that grows has a soul. The grass has a soul, has a soul. Yeah, in a dormant state. Dormant? Yeah.
Does the child have a soul? But it is not yet... The body has not yet developed. According to the body, according to the circumstances, the soul acts. He equates the mind and the higher-level processes with the soul.
No, and mind is an instrument through which the soul acts. Manas is rejecting and accepting by the dictation of the soul.
He looked on animals as machines that react, and the basis for this view is he called ratiocination or language, because they have got language. You do not understand.
It's been proved scientifically that they actually... dolphins, we we have been able to even speak to dolphins, to communicate verbally. Kṛṣṇa is speaking with everybody.
With the birds He is speaking. When an old gopī went to the Yamunā to take bath, and when Kṛṣṇa is speaking with the birds, then she heard Kṛṣṇa speak with the birds. She became surprised.
So because Kṛṣṇa is God, He can understand everyone's language. That is God. Well, even during his day, Descartes... That qualification is described in the science of bhakti. What is that? Nectar of Devotion.
Nectar of Devotion. Bahubhāṣā-vit. This qualification is called bahubhāṣā-vit. He can understand everyone's language. It's like a human being, if he understands many languages, he's called a linguist.
Similarly, Kṛṣṇa's another title is bahubhāṣā-vit. That means He understands everyone's language, even the birds, bees, and everyone. So that's the end of Descartes.