Why does listening to worldly knowledge from a scientist not generate love for the scientist?

[An online spiritual discussion was conducted on December 26, 2020, in which several devotees participated. Some of the questions of devotees answered by Swāmi are given below.]

[Śrī Ganesh asked: Swami, I heard from You that listening to spiritual knowledge will generate devotion towards God. My question is that when I learn about an excellent scientific concept discovered by a scientist, I feel good and grateful to him, but after learning that concept, I do not start loving him. Then, why is it that learning spiritual knowledge from a Human Incarnation of God generates devotion towards God? How are both these kinds of knowledge different?

Also, when I read an amazing scientific concept, I get happiness. I also get happiness when I read the spiritual knowledge (Brahma Jñānam) given by You. How are these two forms of happiness different?]

Swāmi replied: A scientific concept belongs to nature, whereas, the concept of spiritual knowledge touches God, who is said to be ‘Rasa’ in the Veda (Raso vai sah, Rasam hyevāyaṃ labdhvā ānandī bhavati). Rasa means interest or love. The Vedic statement means that since God is Rasa, touching God gives bliss. Even a scientific discovery gives bliss, if you can think that the discovered concept, which already existed in nature, was created by God. If you consider the scientific concept as a creation of the scientist, you will get no bliss since the scientist only discovered it. He did not create it. Unfortunately, science keeps silent about God. Hence, science only gets the credit of finding out the already-existing concept that was created by God. The discovery may give you some pleasure, but it is quite dry. Whenever God, the infinite ocean of bliss, is touched, you will feel the breeze of bliss as you experience the sea-breeze on the seashore. If you connect the scientific concept to God, you will enjoy bliss.

One day Śrī Ramakrishna Paramahaṃsa saw a flock of white swans flying in the blue sky. This scene brought to His mind the greatness of God, the Creator and Paramahaṃsa went into a state of samādhi, which is being immersed in an ocean of bliss. If a scientist were to see the same beautiful scene, he would just be pleased since he would feel that it is an accidental coincidence of the items in the scene. He would not touch the artistic or beauty-aspect of the scene. Even an artist does not get bliss unless he thinks about the Creator, who has created the creation and the beautiful scene within that creation. Hence, the artist may get more pleasure than the scientist, but even that is not the real divine bliss, which is linked to God alone.

Keywords:

| Shri Datta Swami | Why does listening to worldly knowledge from a scientist not generate love for the scientist? | Jnanam Raso vai sah Rasam hyevayam labdhva anandi bhavati Ramakrishna Paramahansa samadhi