Pranam to all devotees
All glories to Srila Prabhupada
Question:
My friends believe in God's existence but they don't believe that scriptures are correct or that scriptures is knowledge given by God.
What are logical/scientific arguments can I give to convince my friends to believe in Shastras??
Also please explain/elaborate about arguments like:
1. Value of Pie =3.14...... was given in Shastras way before it was found by scientists.
2. Shastras have useful ayurvedic knowledge
3. From Shastras we find calculation of distances between planets.
Replies
Hare Krishna
Most effective way to demonstrate the power of scriptures is that they predict future.
Scritures talk of future eg: SB talks of Buddha, much before His advent. In the 11th canto there are desciptions of kings of kaliyuga.
How is this possible ?
This is possible only when scriptures are beyond TIME
How can scriptures beyond TIME ?
Only when their origin is in the supreme
This way we can establish that scriptures come from Supreme lord indirectly. Since lord is prefect something that origins from him can't be imperfect. SO scriptures are perfect. is they are perfect we should follow them
YS BHarat
Hare Krsna
Hare Krsna, please accept my humble obeisances !
All Glories to Guru and Gauranaga!
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
I understand your feelings very well. According to Srimad Bhagavatam,(3.9.39): Pure devotee of the Lord always desire that the Lord be known all over the universe by each and every one of the living entities. That desire of the devotee is always blessed by the Lord.
I do apologise, my answer is not a direct answer to your question but a suggestion from Bhagavad-gita, Lord's own words, which may help your consciousness during your preaching efforts.
According to my very own experience I found out that trying to preach in the mood with 'desire' and 'wanting' to 'convince' them doesn't work.
We can't convince anybody unless they don't have the taste for bhakti that is cultivated from the past lives. So we should preach, preach and preach without thinking about the results of our actions. Krsna is the cause of our actions and the Krsna is the enjoyer of actions. So even if we preach to a wall, a stone or to a sky we should just do our duty and we shouldn't stress, suffer or enjoy ourselves while thinking that. "Oh :-( They don't get it!" or "Yes! :-) I convinced them!". These are all Krsna's doings. Not ours. We can never know the consequences of our actions in the near and very far future. These are all Krsna's plan.
So while preaching, we should act like a faithful servant without affection for the profit or loss, only with the love for the Lord, just seeing ourselves like an instrument in the Lord's hand.
The soul in the butterfly form that we preach may hear it while the soul in the devotee dress can't. We'll never know. Just try to spread the mercy with faith, love, kindness and intelligence to people, plants and to animals.
Also please don't forget to leave the scene kindly if you start to hear offensive words. We don't want to create bad impressions for the Lord and we don't have to prove anything. This is not our mood. It is already proved. We are just trying to spread the mercy of the Lord to anybody, everybody and who ever will hear it, will hear it by Krsna's mercy.
Please hear these verse from Bhagavat-gita, chapter 2, text 47,
You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of action. Never consider yourself to be the cause of the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing your duty.
PURPORT
There are three considerations here: prescribed duties, capricious work, and inaction. Prescribed duties refer to activities performed while one is in the modes of material nature. Capricious work means actions without the sanction of authority, and inaction means not performing one’s prescribed duties. The Lord advised that Arjuna not be inactive, but that he perform his prescribed duty without being attached to the result. One who is attached to the result of his work is also the cause of the action. Thus he is the enjoyer or sufferer of the result of such actions.
As far as prescribed duties are concerned, they can be fitted into three subdivisions, namely routine work, emergency work and desired activities. Routine work, in terms of the scriptural injunctions, is done without desire for results. As one has to do it, obligatory work is action in the mode of goodness. Work with results becomes the cause of bondage; therefore such work is not auspicious. Everyone has his proprietory right in regard to prescribed duties, but should act without attachment to the result; such disinterested obligatory duties doubtlessly lead one to the path of liberation.
Arjuna was therefore advised by the Lord to fight as a matter of duty without attachment to the result. His nonparticipation in the battle is another side of attachment. Such attachment never leads one to the path of salvation. Any attachment, positive or negative, is cause for bondage. Inaction is sinful. Therefore, fighting as a matter of duty was the only auspicious path of salvation for Arjuna.
Please hear these verse from Bhagavat-gita, chapter 18, text 57,
In all activities just depend upon Me and work always under My protection. In such devotional service, be fully conscious of Me.
PURPORT
When one acts in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he does not act as the master of the world. Just like a servant, one should act fully under the direction of the Supreme Lord. A servant has no individual independence. He acts only on the order of the master. A servant acting on behalf of the supreme master has no affection for profit and loss. He simply discharges his duty faithfully in terms of the order of the Lord. Now, one may argue that Arjuna was acting under the personal direction of Kṛṣṇa, but, when Kṛṣṇa is not present, how should one act? If one acts according to the direction of Kṛṣṇa in this book, as well as under the guidance of the representative of Kṛṣṇa, then the result will be the same. The Sanskrit word mat-paraḥ is very important in this verse. It indicates that one has no goal in life save and except acting in Kṛṣṇa consciousness just to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. And, while working in that way, one should think of Kṛṣṇa only: “I have been appointed to discharge this particular duty by Kṛṣṇa.” While acting in such a way, one naturally has to think of Kṛṣṇa. This is perfect Kṛṣṇa consciousness. One should, however, note that, after doing something whimsically, he should not offer the result to the Supreme Lord. That sort of duty is not in the devotional service of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. One should act according to the order of Krṣna. This is a very important point. That order of Kṛṣṇa comes through disciplic succession from the bona fide spiritual master. Therefore the spiritual master’s order should be taken as the prime duty of life. If one gets a bona fide spiritual master and acts according to his direction, then his perfection of life in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is guaranteed.
Your aspiring servant,
Hare Krishna dear Devotees, please accept my humble obeisances !
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
In previous ages disciples used to remember knowledge only by hearing. They used to hear their bona fide spiritual master and learn.
But in Kali yuga we do not have such like memory. Because of that we need knowledge in the paper. We can not memorize everything we learn because of that we need to re read over and over.
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It is true and good to be suspicious about many "spiritual" books. Many of them are changed and we have to be careful.
But true, unchanged shastra we can get from the hand of a true spiritual master who is in the parampara line coming down from Lord Krishna Himself.
In this way there are 4 bona fide lines:
1. Sri Sampradaya
2. Kumar Sampradaya
3. Shiva Sampradaya
4. Brahma Madhava Gaudiya Sampradaya.
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And it is true that it is very difficult to believe to many parts of shastras. Like, we read about Krishna killing Putana, or lifting the Govardhan Hill....so many unbelievable things.
But in order to tell us that it is true the shastras also give some basic knowledge as like ayurveda, astrology which are easy to practice and by experiencing the effects of them we start to believe to other parts of shastra also.
"How can the same shastras can say true things in one part and lies in other part???" No.
Your servant,
Hare Krishna,
Shastra means revealed knowledge from God passed from higher beings like Sages in deep meditation which they acquired from the celestial Gods and passed to their various disciples in the previous 3 Yugas in Gurukuls which existed in the form of Shruti (Vedic knowledge). Shrila Vyasdeva - literary incarnation of Lord Krishna at the end of Dwaparyuga, once again compiled in writtern format and divided the vast Vedic literatures into 4 Vedas (Rig, Yaju, Sama and Atharva) and also wrote Mahabharat which is considered as the 5th Veda, alongwith the Vedanta sutra and SrimadBhagvat Purana for the betterment of mankind in the forthcoming Kaliyuga.
Shastras are full of knowledge. In Sulbha sutras and Ghruya Sutras we find the knowledge of Geometry, trignometry and calculus. Vedic mathematics is derived from the Vedic shastras which is now used by Engineers in complex calculations. Aryabhat, Bhaskaracharya composed many books on astronomy and gave distances of the revolution of earth around Sun, distance between various planets long before the modern scientists. Puranic literatures gave description of far away universes and mention cosmic history, various dynasties that ruled earth etc and are all true since they are revealed scriptures and passed through many generations.