Adam and Eve

Expressions researched:
"adam" |"eve"

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 7.1 -- Nairobi, October 27, 1975:

Brahmānanda: He says that according to Kṛṣṇa consciousness philosophy, the first living being was Brahmā, and in the Christian Bible it says Adam was the first man. So he wants to know if in Kṛṣṇa consciousness scriptures there is any mention of Adam.

Prabhupāda: Why you want to tally with Bible and Kṛṣṇa conscious literature? Do you think that Kṛṣṇa conscious literature has to tally with Bible? There is, that "There is first living being, Brahmā," and Brahmā was also married couple. So you can take it as Adam and Eve. That's all. (laughter) Why do you want cent percent tally? But this nonsense theory, that there was a monkey first of all, (laughter) Darwin's theory, and from monkey, human being has come, this is nonsense. So any other question?

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 7.6.1 -- New York, April 9, 1969:

We have already mentioned the name of Manu. Manu means the father of the mankind. Vivasvān manave prāha, that means the, from sun planet the message of Bhagavad-gītā was handed down to the chief man of this planet, the father of the mankind, Manu. Just like in your scripture also it is said Adam and Eve, similarly Manu. So vivasvān manave prāha manur ikṣvākave 'bravit. And Manu handed over this knowledge to his son whose name is Ikṣvāku. This Ikṣvāku, he's also a great king.

General Lectures

Town Hall Lecture -- Auckland, April 14, 1972:

When God created this material world... I think in your Bible also it is said that the Adam and Eve, the forbidden apple... That means He made some rules and regulations, "Do this; do not this." And if you do this, what is not sanctioned, then you suffer. God forbade not to eat the apple—I do not know actually—but by the request of Eve, Adam ate it, and he became conditioned. Similarly—it may be story—but the fact is that God created this world. That's a fact. And He created the rules and regulation also. That is called Vedic knowledge.

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on St. Augustine:

Hayagrīva: Augustine believed that all men came from Adam, that is the first man or one man, and that this one man God created—this one man—and this one man is the root of all mankind. He writes, "God knew how good it would be for this community often to recall that the human race had its roots in one man, precisely to show how pleasing it is to God that men, though many, should be one."

Prabhupāda: They... It is, our Vedic conception is also like that, that the mankind has come from Manu. From Manu, human being, or manuṣya... The Sanskrit word is manuṣya, "coming from Manu." So Manu is also coming from Brahmā. In this way, as the conception of a first creature, Adam, similarly, a first living being is Lord Brahmā. Therefore our proposition is that a living being coming from the living being. Brahmā is living being, or Adam is living being. Then the living being does not come from matter. Brahmā is also coming from the Supreme Lord as raja-guṇa avatāra, incarnation of raja-guṇa. So all living being, they are coming from the Supreme Living Being. So Brahmā is also the first creature within this universe.

Philosophy Discussion on St. Augustine:

Prabhupāda: Sītā uṣṇa. That is perceived. An old man perceives very much cold, and a young child, he does not perceive—according to the body. An animal, naked body, he can walk on the street in severe cold, but a man cannot. So this body is the source of suffering and enjoying. So why not take it as punishment and reward?

Hayagrīva: Well, Augustine believes that each individual man, or each individual soul within man, is not necessarily condemned to earth due to his own personal desire or sin but due to the original sin of Adam, the first man. He writes, "When the first couple," that's Adam and Eve, "were punished by the judgment of God, the whole human race, which was to become Adam's posterity through the first woman, was present in the first man." So that was the origin of sin and death. So man's sin is not personal. The reason I'm in..., conditioned in this human body is not because I personally committed a mistake...

Prabhupāda: Your becoming conditioned is punishment. Why you should be conditioned?

Hayagrīva: For my..., as punishment for my own desire.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Philosophy Discussion on St. Augustine:

Prabhupāda: Every living entity has a mortal body. So to enter into the mortal body, that is a kind of punishment. And then there is evolutionary process from lower grade of body to higher grade of body. That is quite reasonable, that every living entity or soul is part and parcel of God, but on account of some sinful activities or disobedience to God, as they believe Adam on account of disobedience to God they lost Paradise and came to this material world, similarly, the soul belongs to the Paradise, or heaven, or Kṛṣṇa, but somehow or other he falls down within this material world, and he gets first a body like Adam. But again, on account of his further, low-grade activities, he goes down, sometimes as human being or sometimes as more than human being—the demigod—and sometimes as animal, trees, plants. In this way he goes down, degradation, or goes up by elevation. But he is always aloof from the material body, but according to his desires and activity he gets different body. This is quite reasonable and confirmed by the Vedic literature. But his actual life is when he is freed from this material contamination, getting different bodies life after life.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- June 12, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Yes. They're all demigods, these pictures?

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: Demi-animals.

Prabhupāda: This is, I think, Adam and Eve, in the midst, middle? There must be some sense in the picture.

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: Yes, there is.

Paramahaṁsa: People are believing that at the end of life, there's just death. So why worry about anything else? Therefore we should just enjoy right now.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- October 5, 1975, Mauritius:

Indian boy (2): No, but it is... (break) ...please tell us about the creation of the earth.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Indian boy (2): Creation, how... About the creation. I have read it from Bible too, about Adam and Eve. Do you think that it's true?

Prabhupāda: What is the idea of Adam?

Indian boy (2): God has created him.

Prabhupāda: So the same process is mentioned in Vedas. God created Brahmā, and he created this universe.

Morning Walk -- Durban, October 13, 1975 :

Prabhupāda: Yes, Brahmā, a first-class man.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Even before the plants. Even before the plants.

Prabhupāda: Yes, because man can create everything.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: That means Genesis in the Bible is wrong, because they say that first there were plants and then trees and then after man came.

Harikeśa: No, first they say that there was a man did that.

Prabhupāda: They say Adam and Eve.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: But they say first that the plants and the fish and the trees and the birds…

Prabhupāda: Then Adam, Eve.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Then, afterwards, that after creating so many things, the plants and the trees, God was still lonely.

Morning Walk -- Durban, October 13, 1975 :

Harikeśa: It is like Brahmā. And their heaven and hell is like the upper and lower planetary systems. It's all little bit of knowledge.

Prabhupāda: Little difference, maybe, but the basic…

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They say that Adam was created…

Prabhupāda: Then their God created. God created. So that is all right. We also say God created Brahmā.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Then they say that woman was created from a rib of Adam.

Prabhupāda: That is also correct. That is also possible. Created from God, so that is accepted. The description may be little different. That doesn’t matter. But God is the origin of all creation. If that is accepted, this is nice.