"No Brain Behind Nature" 74/02/24 Bombay, Bhagavad-gita 7.9-10

Pradyumna: (leads chanting, etc.)

punyo gandhah prthivyam ca
tejas casmi vibhavasau
jivanam sarva-bhutesu
tapas casmi tapasvisu

Prabhupada: Next verse also.

Pradyumna: (leads chanting, etc.)

bijam mam sarva-bhutanam
viddhi partha sanatanam
buddhir buddhimatam asmi
tejas tejasvinam aham

Translation: "I am the original fragrance of the earth, and I am the heat in fire. I am the life of all that lives, and I am the penances of all ascetics. O son of Prtha, know that I am the original seed of all existences, the intelligence of the intelligent and the prowess of all powerful men."

Prabhupada:

punyo gandhah prthivyam ca
tejas casmi vibhavasau
jivanam sarva-bhutesu
tapas casmi tapasvisu

Punyo gandhah, it may be original. Also the fragrant... Just like there are some flowers like rose, the fragrance is very nice. Of course, all fragrance is varieties, but prthivyam ca: the fragrance is coming from the earth. It is not synthetic fragrance. So the same earth, the same watering, the same, what is called, sara? For growing the trees, you...

Devotee: Manure.

Prabhupada: Manure. The same manure, same water, the same gardener, but according to different flowers, the fragrance is different. How this is done? Can any scientist answer? How it is coming differently? And why there are differences? If it is nature, and the ingredients are the same, why nature is not producing the same quality or the same kind of flower or trees or fruits? Why? Therefore it is answered in the Bhagavad-gita that nature is not all in all. Nature cannot work independently. Nature is the material world, material elements.

So it is answered there in the Bhagavad-gita: mayadhyaksena prakrtih suyate sa-caracaram [Bg. 9.10]. There is superintendence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krsna. He, He likes that "This kind of bija, or the seed, will produce this kind of flower and this kind of flavor." The superintendence is there of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. We fools, we say, we cannot explain. We say "Nature." What is this nature? There must be brain behind the nature. Otherwise, how a rose, so nicely it is coming? Even from artistic point of view, if you want to paint one flower, you have to take so much labor, so many colors, reflection, and so many instruments, then hardly you can paint one nice rose flower. Still, it is not as good. And not at all good in comparison to the original flower. So if this third-class flower, you have to apply so much brain, and this first-class flower has no brain behind it? Is that very good logic? What is this logic? There must be brain. And that is stated here: punyo gandhah prthivyam ca tejas casmi vibhavasau, aham. "It is My, under My superintendence."

So Krsna is giving us intelligence that "If you do not go to the temple or do not hear to the acarya, you can at least try to understand My presence when you see a flower or smell a flower." Is that very difficult job? Krsna consciousness is so nice. Even drinking water, even by seeing the sunshine, even by seeing the moonshine, or, if you are a Vedic scholar, by chanting om, pranavah sarva-vedesu, or even by hearing the sound vibration, or by seeing a flower, or smelling a flower, something brilliant... Just like the sun is brilliant, the moon is brilliant. Tejas casmi. So wherefrom this brilliance comes? The brilliance is imitation, reflection of the bodily brilliance of Krsna. That is stated in the Brahma-sutra, Brahma-samhita: yasya prabha prabhavato jagad-anda-koti [Bs. 5.40]. Then why we should disbelieve? We can see eye-to-eye that the sun is so brilliant. It is a material product only. But wherefrom the sun has come, so brilliant? Yac caksur esa savita sakala-grahanam raja samasta-murti, samasta-sura-murtir asesa-tejah. The brilliance and the temperature is unlimited. So wherefrom the brilliance comes? You can calculate yourself, that "The sun is composition of these chemicals, this material...," but why don't you produce? Why don't you produce an imitation sun so that you'll save so much money for electricity? At night you can get one sun in Bombay city. (laughs) (laughter)

So the rascals will give all description, but they'll never be prepared to prepare it, to manufacture it. Recently... It is a practical... In California one learned chemical scholar,... He has got Nobel Prize. So he was describing that "From matter, life has come." So there was one student, he's my disciple, Svarupa Damodara. He questioned, "Sir, if I give you all these chemicals, can you produce life?" Then he said, "That I cannot say." But if you know that these chemicals composes life, so when I give you the chemicals, why don't you produce? So simply theorizing. Simply theorizing. Panthas tu koti-sata-vatsara-sampragamyah.

So we cannot decide by theorizing. But if we take shelter of Krsna, here is the perfect knowledge, that aham, "I am the background." Otherwise, how we can explain? Svabhaviki jnana-bala-kriya ca. Just like if you have to paint one flower or if you have to create some scent, you have to mix so many chemicals. But He's so powerful, His energies are so perfect, that svabhaviki jnana-bala-kriya ca, simply by His willing, immediately, everything is there. Parasya saktir vividhaiva sruyate. That is the appreciation of the energy of God. If you are not appreciating, that is your fault, but there is brain, there is work. But the energy is so perfect... Just like nowadays, electric, electronic energy. You simply push on one button and so many things happens immediately. It is still, still, hundred thousand times subtler. Simply by His willing, everything has come out. This is understanding. But because we have no such brain, neither we can think, we evade the issue. Therefore if we want to understand how this flower has come in, how this fragrance is there, you try to understand that it is due to Krsna. And appreciate. That is Krsna consciousness. You appreciate: "Oh, my Lord is so..."

There is a story, I shall... It is not story. Or take it as story, that sometimes Narada Muni was passing, and one very learned scholar, brahmana, he saw Narada Muni, and he asked Narada Muni, "Sir, where you are going?" He said, "I am going to Vrndavana, yes, Vaikuntha, to see my Lord." "Oh, you are going there?" Narada Muni has got free passage to everyone. So, "Will you ask Narayana when my liberation will come?" "All right, I shall ask." Then he met another cobbler. He was sewing shoes. So he also asked, "Sir, where you are going?" "Now I am going to Vaikuntha to see my Lord." So, "Will you ask when I shall get salvation?" So Narada Muni noted, "All right, I shall ask." So when Narada Muni met Narayana, he, after finishing his business, he asked the two men's question, that "These two men, one very learned scholar, brahmana, he also asked me this question, and the cobbler also asked me." So Narayana said "This cobbler will get his salvation after finishing this life, and this brahmana will have to take, wait for many, many births."

So Narada Muni became very much inquisitive, "How is that?" So when he came back, first of all he met the brahmana. He inquired, "Did you inquire, sir, about me?" "Yes, yes. He said that you have to wait many, many births." No, He did not say many, many births, Krsna said, Narayana said that "When you meet them again, you say that, if they inquire ‘What my Lord was doing at that time?' you say that ‘He was pulling one elephant from the hole of a nail,' " what is called?

Devotees: Needle.

Prabhupada: Needle. So when he met the brahmana he said... And he inquired, "What Narayana was doing when you met Him?" "I saw that He was pulling one elephant through the hole of a needle." So he immediately said, "All right, sir, namaskara. Your, all these big, big stories we cannot believe, that an elephant is being drawn through the hole of a needle." And the same question was raised by the cobbler, and he, Narada Muni replied in the same way. And he began to cry, "Oh, my Lord is so powerful. He can do anything." So Narada Muni inquired that "How do you believe that the elephant is being drawn through the hole of a needle?" "Now, why not? I am seeing daily. I am sitting under this banyan tree and there is fig, banyan fruit, and there are thousands of seeds, and I know that each seed's containing a big tree like this."

That's a fact. Everyone knows. Bijo 'ham sarva-bhutanam. Here Krsna says, bijo 'ham sarva-bhutanam. Is there any chemist? Just get one small seed like the fig seed. It is very small, but it contains that big tree. Where is that chemistry? Where is that physics? So here is the answer, Krsna says, bijam mam sarva-bhutanam viddhi. Big, even this big, gigantic universe, that is also bijam mam sarva-bhutanam. It is stated in the Vedic literature. Yasyaika-nisvasita-kalam athavalambya jivanti loma-vilaja jagad-anda-nathah [Bs. 5.48]. There are so many things. Everyone is inquisitive, "Where is the beginning of this thing?" The beginning is the Supreme Lord. That is the Vedanta-sutra, janmady asya yatah [SB 1.1.1]. Beginning is there. So you cannot say that life has come from matter. That is not possible. Because here it is said, Krsna says, that bijam mam sarva-bhutanam. Anything which has come into existence, the original source is Krsna. So Krsna is life. He's not dead stone. Therefore the conclusion is: from life, life has come and matter has come. Not that matter has come from life. Oh, what is that? Life has come from matter. That is not the conclusion. That is wrong conclusion.

So if you actually require perfect knowledge, then we have to accept knowledge this, like this way. It is called avaroha-pantha. Avaroha-pantha means a descendence or deductive process. So our Krsna consciousness movement, we claim that we have got perfect knowledge of everything because we are taking knowledge from the perfect person -- Krsna. Evam parampara-praptam imam rajarsayo viduh [Bg. 4.2]. And that is the real process. If you simply speculate to arrive at the conclusion, inductive process... Just like if you want to study whether man is mortal or immortal, there are two processes. Deductive process, you take the idea from superior person that man is mortal. If you accept, then your knowledge is perfect. But if you want to approach the knowledge by inductive process, by studying each man, whether he is mortal or immortal, you may study thousand, two thousand, five thousand, but you cannot study all the men. Therefore your conclusion remains always defective. You cannot do that. Therefore the best process is knowledge is to receive from the person who is authorized. Actually, you do that. We go to a school, we go to college, to receive knowledge from the superior person. That is our process. That is perfect knowledge. You cannot manufacture knowledge.

Therefore real knowledge of everything can be had from the Bhagavad-gita. If you study it nicely, it is very easier and perfect. Bijam mam sarva-bhutanam viddhi partha sanatanam. Sanatanam. Sanatanam means eternal. It is not that bija, that which is produced and again it is vanquished. Sanatanam. In another place Krsna says, aham bija-pradah pita. All living entities...

sarva-yonisu kaunteya
murtayah sambhavanti yah
tasam brahma mahad yonir
aham bija-pradah pita
[Bg. 14.4]

Aham, the person, He is the... Just like the father gives the seed in the womb of the mother and the child comes out. Similarly sarva-bhutanam, not only human beings, but also all living entities. There are 8,400,000 species of living entities. The original bija, the seed, the seed-giving father is Krsna. Therefore Krsna is international or interuniversal. Krsna is not a Hindu or Indian or this or that. Krsna is for everyone. So I have explained to my foreign students, American, European and African, and other, that "Krsna is for everyone. Don't take it that Krsna is for the Hindus, for the Indians, or for the brahmanas or the ksatriyas. No. Krsna is for everyone." Therefore our society's name is "Krsna Consciousness."

So our only request is that "Take Krsna as the original father, original father." It is very easy to understand. As I have got my father, my father has got father, his father, his father his... Who is the original father? The original father is Krsna. Aham bija-pradah pita. So where is the difficulty to understand? There must be one original father. If you go on researching who is the original father, then you'll come to the conclusion that Krsna is the original father.

isvarah paramah krsnah
sac-cid-ananda-vigrahah
anadir adir govindah
sarva-karana-karanam
[Bs. 5.1]

This is the Vedic version. Sarva-karana-karanam [Bs. 5.1]. Father's father, his father, his father, you go on, go on. you come to Brahma. Brahma is considered as the forefather or grandfather, pitamaha. But Krsna is addressed in the Bhagavad-gita: prapitamaha, even the father of Brahma. Prapitamaha. You'll find in the Eleventh Chapter, prapitamaha [Bg. 11.39]. He's father of... Tene brahma hrda adi-kavaye. You know, those who are conversant with the sastras, that Brahma's another name is Svayambhu. He's not born of any material father and mother. He's born on the lotus flower sprouted from the navel of Maha-Visnu, Garbhodakasayi Visnu. Therefore his name is Svayambhu. Svayambhu is one of the authorities because he was first educated about the Vedic knowledge by Krsna, or Visnu. Tene brahma hrda. Brahma means Vedic knowledge. Tene means imparted. Adi-kavaye, the adi-kavi, the original person. Tene brahma hrda adi-kavaye muhyanti yat surayah. Even big, big personalities, they become bewildered to understand Krsna. Therefore Krsna says... We have already discussed.

manusyanam sahasresu
kascid yatati siddhaye
yatatam api siddhanam
kascin mam vetti tattvatah
[Bg. 7.3]

So Krsna is the Supreme Person. Krsna is the original of everything, original source of everything. That is the verdict of the... Therefore Arjuna accepted; sarvam etad rtam manye yad vadasi kesava: [Bg. 10.14] "My dear Krsna, whatever You are saying, I accept Him, accept all these in toto, not deducting, not giving my own commentation." This is the way of studying Bhagavad-gita. So if you study Bhagavad-gita as it is, as it is said in the..., and if you accept it, then your life is successful. Otherwise, panthas tu koti-sata-vatsara-sampragamyo vayor athapi manaso muni-pungavanam [Bs 5.34], you'll never understand what is God or what is ultimate source, what is Absolute Truth.

So the Bhagavad-gita is the essence of all Vedic literatures because, after all, Vedic literature means vedais ca sarvair aham eva vedyah [Bg. 15.15], to understand Krsna, the Absolute Truth, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is the purpose of Vedic study. So the Supreme Personality Himself is giving the knowledge of the Supreme by Himself, personally. Therefore we are preaching this Bhagavad-gita as it is, Krsna consciousness. And the easiest method is to chant Krsna's name. Easiest method. It is recommended. It is not our manufacture. It is said. When Maharaja Pariksit learned all the defects of this Kali-yuga, then he was little disappointed, "How these men or the persons...?" Men means human beings. "How they will be relieved from the miserable condition of materialistic life in this age of Kali?" Because it is all defective.

Now, it is stated in that chapter that in the Kali-yuga the mleccha rajanya-rupino bhaksayisyanti prajas te. The government will be all mlecchas, not the ksatriyas. Mlecchas. Mleccha rajanya-rupinah. They'll take the post of government post, government service. And their business will be bhaksayisyanti prajas te, they'll devour all the prajas. And in this way the prajas will be so much, I mean to say, distressed that gacchanti giri-kananam. Gacchanti giri-kananam. They will be so much, I mean to say, harassed that they will give up their home and hearth and go to the forest. That time is coming. That time is coming. It is no more that brahmana, ksatriya, vaisya. Therefore human civilization, there is no human civilization if there is no such division as brahmana, ksatriya, vaisya, sudra. That is not human... That is animal civilization. Catur-varnyam maya srstam guna... [Bg. 4.13]. Everything is there. Social, political, economical, all solutions are there in the Bhagavad-gita. But unfortunately, it is our property, it is, it was spoken in India, and it was desired that all Indians should learn it and spread the knowledge all over the world -- the rascals are doing nothing. Caitanya Mahaprabhu ordered, bharata-bhumite haila manusya-janma yara [Cc. Adi 9.41]. It is for the perfect human being. Janma sarthaka kari' kara para-upakara. The other parts of the world, they're in darkness. So there is great necessity of spreading the knowledge of Bhagavad-gita all over the world. The customers are also ready. So if you want glory of India, if you want to glorify your life, just study Bhagavad-gita as it is and spread it all over the world. You'll be honored. Single-handed, whatever I have done, they are thinking wonderful. And if we have got many, many persons to go outside India and preach this gospel of Bhagavad-gita, they will be benefitted and you will be glorified. Your country will be glorified. This message of Bhagavad-gita, it is a fact; it is not story.

So people are fed up with this wrong type of civilization. This is not civilization. Ahara-nidra-bhaya-maithunam ca. Day and night. This is also warned in the Srimad-Bhagavatam:

nunam pramattah kurute vikarma
yad indriya-pritaya aprnoti
na sadhu manye yata atmano 'yam
asann api klesada asa dehah
[SB 5.5.4]

Rsabhadeva said that "These rascals," pramattah, pramattah, "has become mad." Nunam pramattah kurute vikarma: "Always engaged in mischievous activities." These rascals, these materialistic persons. Nunam pramattah. "They have become mad, and their business is..." Nunam pramattah kurute vikarma [SB 5.5.4]. Vikarma, akarma and vikarma. Vikarma means activities which are forbidden in the sastra. Just like according to Vedic principles, at least a brahmana, a leader, a king should avoid these four principles of sinful activities. What is that? Meat-eating, illicit sex life, gambling and intoxication. At least, these four men, who is leading the public or who is a brahmana or who is a king, he must be very much cautious about... But just see what is the... Everyone, practically, they are addicted to these sinful activities. So therefore they are mad, pramattah. Vikarma. These are forbidden in the sastras, and they are doing that. Why? Because they are mad. Why they are so mad? Nunam pramattah kurute vikarma [SB 5.5.4]. Now, yad indriya-pritaya aprnoti: "Simply for sense gratification." That's all. Simply for sense gratification. Not for any big but to satisfy the senses. "Oh, oh, my tongue is asking for a cigarette, asking for wine. All right, give the tongue wine." Why? Without cigarette, without wine, you shall die? "No, I want to satisfy my tongue." Indriya-pritaya aprnoti. "So why it is sinful?" It is sinful in this way, that... Nunam pramattah kurute vikarma yad indriya-pritaya aprnoti, na sadhu manye [SB 5.5.4]. "Oh, it is not good." Yata atmano 'yam asann api klesada. Atma, atma is eternal, but he is covered by this material body. Asann api. You can say, "All these material bodies, they are for a few years." But it is klesada, it is so much miserable. Janma-mrtyu-jara-vyadhi-duhkha-dosanu... People have lost their brain. They do not know what is actually unhappiness, miserable condition. They have no... "All right..." That is all... Animals, the animals do not know. He's going to the slaughterhouse. "All right, let me go." That's all.

So this kind of civilization will not make you happy, sir. You have got... Bharata-bhumite haila manusya-janma... You have taken your birth in the punya-bhumi, in the sacred land of Bharatavarsa. Here is your knowledge. Take it and be successful in your life.
Thank you very much. (end)

>>> Ref. VedaBase => Bhagavad-gita 7.9-10 -- Bombay, February 24, 1974