Prabhupāda:
- bījaṁ māṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ
- viddhi pārtha sanātanam
- buddhir buddhimatām asmi
- tejas tejasvinām aham
- (BG 7.10)
So bījaṁ, the original seed of life: sarva-bhūtānāṁ. The modern scientists, they are trying to prove that life comes from matter, chemical evolution. But we don’t accept that. We accept from Bhagavad-gītā that Kṛṣṇa is the original life. Kṛṣṇa is not a dead stone. As it is said in the Vedānta-sūtra, janmādy asya yataḥ (Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.2): the Absolute Truth is that from which everything emanates. So that Absolute Truth, what kind of... Absolute Truth: is it dead matter or living force? It cannot be dead matter, because there are so many living entities; and the Absolute Truth is a dead matter, it cannot produce living entities, because we have no such experience that from dead matter living entities are coming out. That is not possible.
Sometimes we see that from cow dung some life is coming out. Sometimes we see from the heaps of rice the scorpion is coming out. So foolish people will think that the rice is the cause of the life of the scorpion. But that is not the fact. Real fact is the scorpion, they lay eggs within the heaps of the rice, and by fermentation of the rice the eggs become fructified, and life come out. Not that rice, a dead matter, is the cause of the life. So now big, big scientists, they are trying to prove that life come from matter. But here we understand from Kṛṣṇa, the supreme authority, that He is the origin of all life: bījaṁ māṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ. Sarva-bhūtānāṁ.
In another place Kṛṣṇa says,
- sarva-yoniṣu kaunteya
- sambhavanti mūrtayaḥ yāḥ
- (BG 14.4)
In all species of life. There are 8,400,000 species of life—aquatics, trees, plants, insect, then reptiles, then birds, bees, then human being. This is the evolutionary process. Asatiṁ caturaṁś caiva (Padma Purāṇa). These are all mentioned in the Vedic literature about the evolution. Not that the foolish theory of Darwin is the origin of evolution. The evolutionary theory is there. Not theory—fact. So Kṛṣṇa says in Bhagavad-gītā that sarva-yoniṣu kaunteya. Yoni means the original source of birth. So there are so many living entities are there. Kṛṣṇa claims,
- tāsāṁ mahad yonir brahma
- ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā
- (BG 14.4)
Again He says, ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā. Just like father gives the bījaṁ, yathā-yoni yathā-bījaṁ (SB 6.1.54). The mother is the yoni, and the father is the bījaṁ. So without father there cannot be any life, because the father gives the bījaṁ, the seed. Many places in the Vedic literature it is stated that life does not come from matter, but life comes from the supreme life, Kṛṣṇa. That is the verdict of the Vedic literature. Bījaṁ māṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ. Viddhi: you should understand. Don’t be misled that life comes from matter. It is not fact. Therefore He says, viddhi, sanātanam. Not that nowadays it has become like that, that life is coming from life; formerly life was coming from matter. So, viddhi māṁ sanātanam. The sanātanam means "eternally.” Eternally.