From the above considerations, we can stipulate that the laws of bhakti are certain in that they yield a predictable outcome. By contrast, as we shall soon see, the outcomes of conventional science, contrary to popular assumption, are tentative; they only give us the illusion of certainty. In this sense, the science of bhakti is superior to conventional science.

Bhakti is rooted in the transcendental, the divine. Fundamentally and primarily, it is not the result of experiments conducted by man; it is based on knowledge revealed to man by God Himself. Contrary to common assumption, upon careful scrutiny we find that this is even more sure and certain than the conclusions based on man’s observation and experimentation with his limited senses and limited understanding of his existence, (and even of the physical world).
ddThe late Richard Feynman, physicist and Nobel laureate, has argued that despite the fact that the popular mind believes that science is based on certainty, in the final analysis it is actually based on uncertainty. Science he says, progresses because “it is uncertainty, in the quest of certainty”. As such, the truths reached by science are always to be regarded as stepping stones toward some newer certainty, newer truth.

Though the truths of science are taken as certainties in the popular mind, these scientific answers are never absolute certainties. Rather in the course of time, the methods of testing and observation become more refine, and new “certainties” emerge. This is the ongoing process of science. Therefore, science does not mean “absolute”, says Feynman; but “tested” or “what has been observed so far”.

\In other words, the “facts” of science today are subject to revision tomorrow. This means that science deals with relative knowledge, or tentative truths. As such, it is sensible to have faith in science as a procedure, but to believe that the temporary certainties of science are unalterable truths is unreasonable. For example, at one time Newtonian mechanics was the apex of science. Today it is replaced by quantum mechanics. Moreover, we may safely assume that someday, another kind of mechanics may replace the quantum version. Indeed, it would be unscientific not to allow for this possibility. Yet science has the stature in the popular mind of dealing with absolute truths. This popular belief is, so to speak, another dogma of science.

Bhakti, on the other hand, despite its unique methods, is in no danger of such fluctuation or revision. Therefore, it is more certain than what we ordinarily think of as science. Therefore, bhakti is also called sanatana dharma, meaning the eternal function of the soul, for this dharma is not subject to any revision. Moreover, because bhakti puts us in direct contact with ultimate reality, as explained earlier, it is a higher science than conventional science, which is confined to the realm of mental constructs.

Previously scientists thought the atom was the smallest particle of physical nature. In this century, it was discovered that electrons are the subunits of the atom. This discovery threw scientific thinking into confusion. Whereas Newtonian mechanics saw reality at the atomic level, and saw the world as an entirely predictable machine, (even to the point where they were thinking that man too was a machine), the discovery of the subatomic particles put everything into uncertainty. Electrons were found to be independent acting and unpredictable. Thus, the law of causation, which is the cornerstone of the whole world of science, did not apply at the level of subatomic reality.

To add to the confusion, inexplicably, although subatomic particles such as electrons individually behave unpredictably, inspiring Heisenberg to formulate his uncertainty principle, the same particles, when massed into huge groups of atoms, behave according to the laws of Newtonian mechanics.