Dinosaur

Expressions researched:
"dinosaur" |"dinosaurs" |"dinosaurus"

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on Charles Darwin:

Prabhupāda: We explain that everything, the source, the original source of everything is Brahman, Absolute Truth, Kṛṣṇa.

Śyāmasundara: What we are discussing is this doctrine of natural selection, or survival of the fittest.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That natural selection, that law is made by Kṛṣṇa.

Śyāmasundara: So there is a law of...

Prabhupāda: Yes. Certainly. The scientists say that we do not know wherefrom it is coming. All of a sudden I see something and you say that invention. It is not invention. It is already there. You could not see before, and now you can see. That's all.

Śyāmasundara: Just like dinosaurs, these huge animals once existing in...

Prabhupāda: That is his imagination.

Śyāmasundara: Well, they found bones...

Prabhupāda: Bones, that's all right. There are many... We also say from the Vedic śāstra there is fish, timiṅgila, which can swallow up big, big whales, you see. That is also very big. And there is Varāha incarnation, He picked up the whole earth on the tusk. How much big the Varāha animal was to show that it can pick up the whole earth, earthly planet just like a ball. He cannot imagine such big animals.

Śyāmasundara: But my point is they excavated down into the ground and they found that gradually, through the years, animals are evolving towards more and more complex forms, from very simple forms in the water to land animals, plants, and these big dinosaurs, then they died out.

Prabhupāda: If they died out, that means there is no more existence of that animal. But how can you say that the animal is existing somewhere else? Now, according to his statement that from a certain basic principle, by gradual evolution, the human body is coming. Now his theory is that the human body is coming from the monkey.

Philosophy Discussion on Charles Darwin:

Prabhupāda: But evolution we accept. Evolution we accept but it is not that there was no existence of human being. That we do not accept. Evolution we accept. Just like my childhood manifestation is extinct but there are many other child. Same time. So our point is all the species of life, they are existing simultaneously. Evolution there is, we accept that but it is not that one is missing, one has gone away, and another is come, ten million, thirty millions there was no human being. This is all nonsense. He cannot find in the layer, that is not evidence.

Śyāmasundara: For instance, there's no dinosaurs existing now. They're extinct now but where are they gone? Some other planets then? Is there some...?

Prabhupāda: No. Not in this planet, he has no chance to see it.

Śyāmasundara: There's dinosaurs existing on this planet?

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes, he has no chance to see it, or it is imagination only.

Śyāmasundara: That's very hard to accept. What about the dodo? It was a giant bird...

Prabhupāda: Our proposition is that there is an evolutionary process from aquatics to birds here, plants life, then insect life, then bird's life, then animal life, then human life. So this is a evolutionary process, we accept but it is not that one is extinct, another is surviving. All of them are existing simultaneously.

Philosophy Discussion on Charles Darwin:

Prabhupāda: Our first proposition is that he says that there was no human beings some millions of years ago. That's not a fact. Because we see all different species of life existing along with human beings. Therefore it should be concluded this is always existing. Human life is always existing. That is our first charge against him. He cannot say there was no human life.

Śyāmasundara: But we don't see any dinosaurs existing.

Prabhupāda: You do not see—your power is very limited—but we have to conclude in this way, when we see at the present moment all the different species of life are existing. Therefore it is existing always.

Śyāmasundara: But I don't see all the...

Prabhupāda: You don't see because you have no power to see. Your senses are very limited. You don't see. And because you don't see, it is not to be accepted. So many people say, "I don't see God." That does not mean we shall accept, "Oh, so many people say—majority of people will say like that—'We don't see God.' " Then we are merely crazy fellow, we are after God?

Śyāmasundara: No. But dinosaurs...

Prabhupāda: But simply by dinosaur missing you cannot say that what about other all species of life, other.

Śyāmasundara: Many, many, many, many are extinct, according to...

Prabhupāda: I am accepting many are extinct, but the evolutionary process, it means one extinct, and another comes. But we see that the monkey, from monkey, man comes. The monkey is there and man is there. The monkey is not finished.

Philosophy Discussion on Charles Darwin:

Prabhupāda: This is the evidence. This is the evidence. You have to see through the evidence, because there are, in the evolution there are so many species of life, say 8,400,000, they are all existing now. They are all existing now. Therefore why should I conclude that millions of years they did not exist?

Śyāmasundara: You say they are all existing now, but I don't see the dinosaur. There are no dinosaurs on this planet.

Prabhupāda: That is not the denied. Dinosaur you may not have seen, it may be existing some other... Neither I have seen the 8,400,000 different species of, different forms of life. But my source of knowledge is different. Your source of knowledge is different. You are experimenter with imperfect senses. I am taking from the perfect who has seen, who knows things. Therefore my knowledge is perfect. Just the same example: I am receiving knowledge from my mother, "Here is your father," and you are trying to search out where is your father. You don't go to the mother, but you are searching out. So therefore, however you may search, your knowledge always will be imperfect.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk Conversation -- September 28, 1972, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Stone Age. What is that, Stone Age? And before that?

Jayatīrtha: Dinosaurs.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Jayatīrtha: Before that they had dinosaurs.

Devotee (2): Prehistoric.

Prabhupāda: Just see.

Jayatīrtha: Even from a commonsense point of view, it's easy to understand that there's been civilization longer than five thousand years (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: Our proposition is the first creature of this universe is Lord Brahmā, who has created the universe. First creature of this universe, the most intelligent person. How we can accept the nonsense that this has developed from stone? (Sanskrit) cakra bhagavān (Sanskrit). Do you know this story?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: No.

Prabhupāda: (Sanskrit) cakra bhagavān (Sanskrit). So there was a circle of friends. So all the friends conspired to make another friend bewildered. So they conspired that "As soon as you meet that gentleman you cry, 'Oh, here is a ghost! Here is a ghost! Here is a ghost!' " So all the friends, they come (indistinct), "Oh! You are dead, you are ghost, you are ghost!" So after ten times like that, he thought, "Have I become a ghost?" Then he became bewildered, "Whether really I have become ghost, I am dead?" He became puzzled. This is like that: "There was no human being, there was no human being," and all the rascals are now thinking whether this is right. This is cakra bhagavān (Sanskrit). If you make conspiracy, even the sane man will think himself that "I have become ghost."

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Dr. Christian Hauser, Psychiatrist -- September 10, 1973, Stockholm:

Dr. Hauser: Hmm. But there are the dinosaurs for example. The dinosaurs, yes. Which died and disappeared from the earth. And that is also a kind of evolution that has taken place.

Haṁsadūta: He says there are these prehistoric animals like dinosaurs, these big, gigantic animals, they are no longer existing now, but they existed at one time. So there, there was some evolution there.

Dr. Hauser: Yes.

Haṁsadūta: But the point is Vedic, Vedic conclusion is...

Prabhupāda: No, but, apart from Vedic conclusion, this example, that practically, when I go from this apartment to another apartment, so this apartment does not become another apartment. I go from this apartment to another apartment. He's missing that "I". Or "you". That is his nonsense.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 3, 1974, Los Angeles:

Prajāpati: Are the living entities on the comet, are they very demoniac or intelligent or...?

Prabhupāda: Not necessarily demoniac. Two classes of men are always there: intelligent and demon. (break)

Karandhara: ...comet. They just discovered it one or two years ago. They said that if it ever passed by the earth before, it was the time of the dinosaurs.

Prabhupāda: Dinosaur?

Karandhara: Yes. Over fifty thousand years ago.

Prabhupāda: (chuckles) He cannot say what happened yesterday, and he's speaking fifty thousand years. Is there a statement in any śāstra or his own statement?

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation with Devotees -- April 14, 1975, Hyderabad:

Devotee: Śrīla Prabhupāda, the other day we were talking about proving different assumptions through archeological findings.

Prabhupāda: That is also bogus. Archeological findings is bogus.

Brahmānanda: But it seems that big skeletons of all these big dinosaurs...

Prabhupāda: That we have already information. We have got timiṅgala. Just like big house. They can swallow up, what is called?

Devotee: Whale. Whale.

Prabhupāda: Whale (indistinct).

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No but these dinosaurs move on the land. They're not fish. And they're very big and we have information...

Prabhupāda: So what is to you? You are also a created being. He's also created being. That's the (indistinct). You are not creator of the (indistinct)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But you say that there was more intelligent life previously, whereas we see these dinosaurs were previously.

Prabhupāda: But you do not see, you simply imagine.

Conversation with Devotees -- April 14, 1975, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: According to our śāstra you are going to be pygmy men. That is, there is proof, because you are not as strong as your forefathers. That's a fact. You are becoming dwarfer, dwarfer. According to our śāstra you come to that pygmy, (indistinct) in due course of time. As it was before, so again the time is repeating, history repeating.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Then that means our pygmy men were from a previous Kali-yuga?

Prabhupāda: Yes. We say there was Kali-yuga. Four yugas are changing.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Dinosaurs also?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They're from Kali-yuga?

Prabhupāda: Kali-yuga, any yuga. The things are going on by nature's way, prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi... (BG 3.27). They're going on.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- June 8, 1976, Los Angeles:

Rāmeśvara: Śrīla Prabhupāda, I was once told by some devotees that you had said in some previous age of Kali, the dinosaurs, gigantic animals, were on the earth.

Prabhupāda: I said?

Rāmeśvara: They say that you said. (laughs)

Prabhupāda: (laughs) I never said. I never bother with these nonsense things.

Rāmeśvara: They have got so many bones in the museums showing these gigantic animals.

Prabhupāda: Not gigantic. There are bones. But that animal is still there, whalefish.

Morning Walk -- June 8, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: What other animals?

Rāmeśvara: Those gigantic, they called them...

Hṛdayānanda: Brontasaurus.

Rāmeśvara: Tyrannasaurus. Gigantic animals, they say are meat-eaters.

Hṛdayānanda: Dinosaurus.

Hari-śauri: Tetrasaurus.

Prabhupāda: Another imagination. These are actual facts.(?)

Hari-śauri: They just made up different compositions of bones and then drew some outlines on them.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They are imagination.

'Life Comes From Life' Slideshow Discussions -- July 3, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: No, nothing is extinct. Everything is going on.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: At that point, they are going to come up with the point that "How about dinosaurs?" They are going to ask like that.

Prabhupāda: That is imagination, where is dinosaur finding.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They say they have all the bones.

Prabhupāda: No, they are describing maybe another animal. That is existing. That is Timiṅgila, they can swallow up big, big whale fishes. That big, bones, they are living still. Nothing is extinct. They are already there.

Rūpānuga: Did these dinosaurs exist, or is it just their imagination?

Prabhupāda: The big animal exists. I call it dinosaur or finosaur, that is your choice. Big animals existing. Timiṅgila, I said the name, Timiṅgila, still exist.

Rūpānuga: Still exist.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. They are always existing. Water elephants. There are elephants in water. Everything.

Morning Walk -- July 12, 1976, New York:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This particular museum, we used to go when we were children, and fantastic exhibits, really realistic.

Rāmeśvara: Yes, dolls, dioramas...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yes, all dioramas.

Rāmeśvara: ...of dinosaurs.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, the whole thing is dioramas, the whole museum practically. I'll go with you also.

Rāmeśvara: They are convinced that dinosaurs, these gigantic animals, were living on this planet millions of years ago. They found some bones, and they have created the form of the animal body.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Is it true that there were big dinosaur bodies?

Prabhupāda: If they were, it is still now.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, wow.

Prabhupāda: We don't say it is extinct.

Garden Conversation -- October 14, 1976, Chandigarh:

Indian man (4): Those that have become extinct, dinosaurs and those...

Prabhupāda: That is rascals' theory. Nothing extinct.

Indian man (4): This is not correct.

Prabhupāda: No. Just like he says that man comes from monkey. Monkey is extinct? Where is the question of extinction? There is no question of extinction. There are different species of life, and according to your karma... Just like there are first-class, second-class, third-class compartments. If you pay for the first-class, you enter into first-class. You cannot say that third-class is extinct. According to your karma... Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa jantur dehopapattaye (SB 3.31.1). According to... As you pay. If you pay for third-class, you enter into third-class compartment. If you pay for first-class, you enter into first-class. So it is according to your karma you'll get a body. Why it should be extinct?

Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- December 26, 1976, Bombay:

Devotee (1): I have just come from America, and at the universities, lots of times there are many questions concerning evolution and I was curious about what our position is in terms of artifacts. Bones like dinosaur bones and things like that that the scientists say they found.

Prabhupāda: Scientists are rascals. Those who are following Darwin. What is their theory?

Devotee (1): They maintain that from the oceans came one-celled animals. Then from these one-celled animals, they developed into fish and then reptiles. And then these reptiles became very big dinosaurs, and they have put together many big museums. For instance, in Washington the Smithsonian Museum has many, many big bones put together and they date these millions of years ago.

Prabhupāda: So we have got also the same theory. Jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati. (break) ...within water. So where is the difference? We also admit the forms of life begins from the ocean. Then plants. As soon as the water is dried, there are plants, trees. Sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati. Sthāvara means "the life which cannot move." So the trees, plants, grass, they cannot move. Then insects, then reptiles, then birds, then beast, then human being. In this way the living entity is changing body. So what is the difficulty?