Sir Alistair Hardy: . . . through India, going out to the Far East. I've been out advising on the setting up of a fishery, biological research, at Hong Kong. But I never believe in going straight out, and I've always stopped in India, various places, very little, short time. (eating) I had a great friend, Professor Bower, who was professor of zoology at Lucknow. He then became the vice-chancellor of Patna. But he overworked very badly, and he had a breakdown, and then . . . but he was an awfully nice man, and I stayed with him in Lucknow.
Prabhupāda: This zoology is another subject matter, whether life began from matter or matter began from life.
Sir Alistair Hardy: That's a great problem in biology, how did life arise from the inorganic matter.
Revatīnandana: Quite a problem. We don't agree. (laughs) We think that it didn't.
Sir Alistair Hardy: No? I say, that's . . .
Prabhupāda: Life also came from life; matter also came from matter, er, life. That is explained in the Vedānta-sūtra: janmādyasya yataḥ. And it is explained in Bhagavad-gītā also: ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavaḥ (BG 10.8). So there is no difficulty.
Sir Alistair Hardy: But life may have arisen from the inorganic by the breathing in of the Divine into it. And there's no doubt that our bodies are material, but within our bodies is this divine, what I call the "divine flame" in one of my . . . (indistinct)
Prabhupāda: Why not the "Divine person"? Wherefrom flame comes?
Revatīnandana: He says, now how to find out the Divine Person from whom the flame comes? Just like you were talking about how God is a manifestation of power, in your statement. But the manifestation of power, we always find it in relation with a source of power. Just like the sunlight is a manifestation of the power, and this great power of the sunlight, they're tapping it for electricity and so many things now. But that sunlight is not an independent entity. It's dependent on the source.
Prabhupāda: And Veda also points out, yato vā imāni bhūtāni jāyante (Taittirīya Upaniṣad 3.1).