One must go to the guru. And who is guru? Guru, śrotriyaṁ brahma-niṣṭham—"One who has heard from the paramparā system and he has become completely convinced in the understanding of Brahman."
So, so this is the process. This bhūmir āpaḥ, this material, it is not a fact. People are so much attached to this material world. That is called ignorance. Mūḍha. They are called mūḍha. Māyayāpahṛta-jñānāḥ (BG 7.15). Their knowledge has been taken away. These things will be explained in the later verses, that do not try to take knowledge from imperfect person; take knowledge from the perfect person, perfect Supreme Personality. Who is perfect? God is perfect. And who carries the word of God, he is perfect. This is the definition of perfection. So Kṛṣṇa says, bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ. Matter is produced by Kṛṣṇa's energy. It is not automatically produced. Just like I have given the example that this body, this material gross body, is produced out of the soul which is put into the womb of the mother by the semina of the father. These are . . . these description are there in the Third Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, very nicely, you consult.
So that knowledge is perfect because experimentally . . . science means observation and experiment. If you are observing something, then you must experiment. Jñānaṁ vijñānam. In the previous verses we have already studied that jñānaṁ te 'haṁ sa-vijñānam (BG 7.2). Jñānaṁ te 'haṁ sa-vijñānam. Theoretical knowledge, that is observation. And sa-vijñānam means experiment. If you say, if you have observed that life is produced of chemicals, then make experiment. Then it is science; otherwise it is hodgepodge; it has no meaning. Life is never produced of matter; matter is produced out of life. This is the . . . therefore we are fragmental matter . . . life. We living entities, small portion, very small portion. That is also given in the śāstras: keśāgra-śata-bhāgasya śatadhā kalpitasya ca. One ten-thousandth part of the top of the hair, that is the magnitude of soul.
- keśāgra-śata-bhāgasya
- śatadhā kalpitasya ca
- jīva-bhāgaḥ sa vijñeyaḥ
- sa cānantyāya kalpate
- (Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 5.9)
That jīva, ananta, unlimited. That is our magnitude. They cannot find out one ten-thousandth part of the upper portion of the hair. There is no machine, no microscope which . . .
Therefore these foolish people, because they cannot see the dimension, length and breadth, of the soul, they say the soul is nirākāra. It is not nirākāra. It has ākāra, but you cannot see with the blunt eyes. "Then how can I understand?" Śrotriyaṁ brahma-niṣṭham, tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet (MU 1.2.12). You have to learn by hearing. There is no other process. The Vedas says, the śāstra says: "This is the magnitude of the soul," you have to take it. Then you will understand. Otherwise, by so-called experiment, you have neither instrument nor facility to make, find out. The first-class medical man or physiologist, find out where is the soul in this body. But they cannot. They have no such power. But there is something which, being absent, the body is dead. That is a fact. That is a fact. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). That . . . because that soul has gone out of this body, therefore the body is now dead. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ. Therefore it is authority.