Prabhupāda: How you can be origin because you are the effect?
Devotee: The seed.
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Śyāmasundara: The seed.
Prabhupāda: The seed. Yes seed. The seed is described in the Bhagavad-gītā: bījo 'haṁ sarva-bhūtānām (Bg 7.10). Everything that is living, the root or the seed (indistinct). The seed is God. Bījo 'haṁ sarva-bhūtānām. Just like the rose tree, it has got a seed, but wherefrom this seed comes? (guests entering room) Come on. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Give him another... Seed, original seed is God. Your theory of seed is very nice but the original seed of everything is God, the cause of all causes. In the Brahma-saṁhitā it is said,
- īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ
- sac-cid-ānanda vigrahaḥ
- anādir ādir govindaḥ
- sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam
- (Bs. 5.1)
Kāraṇam. Kāraṇa means cause, cause of all causes, seed of all seeds. There are different seeds.
Dr. Weir: Causa causam. (Latin)
Prabhupāda: Ah, cause of all causes.
Devotee: Is that Latin?
Dr. Weir: Yes.
Devotee: It's similar.
Prabhupāda: What is that?
Dr. Weir: A Latin legal phrase: causa causam, the cause of the cause.
Prabhupāda: So God is cause of all causes. And in the Bhagavad-gītā it is explicitly said,
- ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo
- mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate
- iti matvā bhajante māṁ
- budhā bhāva-samanvitāḥ
- (BG 10.8)
"I am the original source of everything. Everything is emanating from Me." Iti matvā, understanding like this, budhā. Budhā means those who are conversant, thoroughly in knowledge. Iti matvā bhajante māṁ budhā bhāva samanvitāḥ, in ecstasy, "Oh, here is the original cause of all causes." So in this way those who are advanced in knowledge, budhā, they engage themselves in the service of the original cause of all causes. He's the cause of all causes, but He has no cause. That is God. Anādir ādir govindam. He has no cause, but He's the cause of all life. That is God. Just like I am the effect, my father is the cause. Similarly, my grandfather is the cause of my father. My grandfather is the effect of the cause of great-grandfather. You go on searching out, searching out. So when you find out the original cause, that is God. That is the definition of God.