Modern scientists (Conversations)

Expressions researched:
"Modern astronomers & scientists" |"Modern materialistic scientist" |"Modern materialistic scientists" |"modern material scientist" |"modern material scientists" |"modern people, scientists" |"modern philosophers, scientists" |"modern psychologist, scientist" |"modern scientist" |"modern scientists" |"modern so-called scientist" |"modern so-called scientists" |"modern technologist, scientists" |"modern-day scientists"

Notes from the compiler: VedaBase query:"modern scientist*" or "modern * scientist*" or "modern * * scientist*"

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Prabhupāda: The hypothesis is always wrong.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: If the starting point is wrong, then there is nothing...

Prabhupāda: Then there cannot be any perfect knowledge. So the modern so-called scientists, philosophers, their starting point is wrong. Just like a great scientist... Darwin is a scientist?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: He's not a scientist. He's called a naturalist.

Prabhupāda: Naturalist. Anyway, you can call him a philosopher. So the basic point is wrong. Starting is wrong. Starting point is mistake and illusion. Therefore, the next point is cheating. If you start from wrong conception of life, then if you distribute knowledge, that means cheating. You do not know, still you are distributing knowledge. But this rascal Darwin, he has no clear idea. He is simply theorizing, speculating, and misleading people. Therefore, he is cheating. So if I cheat you and you cheat me, then how you can expect perfection of life? It is a society of cheating, and that is actually going on. Everyone is thinking, "How I have gorgeous way cheated you." That is politics, diplomacy. If you can cheat your friend very cleverly, then you are supposed to be very big man. Big lawyer means the law is there, but if he can cheat the law, then he is big lawyer.

Room Conversation -- October 25, 1972, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: They must prove by analysis, by chemical analysis. There is difference between the modern scientist and our process of understanding.

Gurudāsa: Dr. Kapoor has written an article about that, this question. The one that will be published.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Gurudāsa: The one that we will publish.

Prabhupāda: You have sent?

Gurudāsa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Our process: Kṛṣṇa says that He is the Supreme, we accept. Not blindly—because other ācāryas, they also accept. Now some rascal is taking advantage of that statement, "If Kṛṣṇa can say, 'I am the Supreme, I am God,' so I can also say." Māyāvādī philosophy. (break) Swamis could not do anything, he was (indistinct). There are so many. Vivekananda went in 1893, three years before my birth, and what he has done?

Indian man: He returned converted.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- February 25, 1973, Jakarta:

Prabhupāda: Ah. So you can understand English then. So (Sanskrit). Duṣkṛtinaḥ means... kṛtiḥ means meritorious, very meritorious. But duṣkṛtiḥ. Whatever merit he has got... Nowadays at the present moment the civilization is so mad that everyone as human being... Any human being he has got some merit because he is not cat and dog. He's a man. As a man he has got brain, better than the cats and dogs. That's a fact. And actually they're doing so many things. Just like this picture. It is a very meritorious workmanship. So everyone can do some meritorious workmanship. But when that workmanship is diverted to, for the use of sinful activities... Just like one man is very meritorious, he's planning to form a party how to plunder. This requires merit. Without merit you cannot form a party. But the merit is being used for plundering, for harassing, for so many other sinful activities. So that is called duṣkṛtinaḥ. Merit is there but the merit is being misused for sinful activities. Therefore duṣkṛtiḥ. Just like modern scientist. It is meritorious that they have discovered the atomic bomb. The merit is used for killing. If you just use your merit so that man may live; that they're dying. Everyone is dying. So you have discovered a bomb which will accelerate death.

Morning Walk -- May 5, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes. The body has changed. Therefore you have to accept that body has changed. Therefore next conclusion is when this body is lost he gets another body. Change of body. Seasonal changes. That one verse in the Bhagavad-gītā, tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati (BG 2.13). Dehāntara-prāptiḥ, acceptance of another body. Then these modern scientists, they do not know this. They sometimes explain medical science, that blood corpuscles are changing, do they not?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: There are sometimes white, they say, suppose when I am injured, my external something hurts. They say the white blood corpuscles are responsible to protect the body. But when the white blood corpuscles is not enough, then infection normally occurs.

Prabhupāda: Anyway there is change of corpuscles. And with the change of corpuscles there is change of body. That is scientific. Therefore body is changing every moment, so why not after death? Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13).

Room Conversation with Banker -- September 21, 1973, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Ah. Physical is my outward dress. Just like your coat, if it becomes old enough, there is no more possibility to use it. You have to throw it away. You have to take another coat. Similarly, physically, I am spirit soul. When my physical body is old enough, useless, then I will have to give it up. I will have to accept another new body. But the question is that I am eternal; why I am forced to accept a body which will be useless after some time? That is the problem. I am eternal, as spirit soul. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). I do not die after the annihilation of this body. But why I am forced to accept another body, which will be annihilated? This technology is unknown all over the world. And still they are proud of becoming very advanced in science. (Aside:) Open this. Let them come. Keep it open. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānu... (BG 13.9). Come forward. (break) ...technology, although it is a problem. But we can supply this technology, to solve this problem. Jarā-maraṇa-mokṣāya mām... Jarā-maraṇa-mokṣāya. (break) ...modern technologist, scientists, they do not know what is the perfection of life.

Morning Walk -- December 10, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Therefore the best education, scientific advancement, is to recognize God behind everything. That is perfection. We are canvassing, "Accept God, accept God." But if the modern scientist, philosopher, they present, "Yes, here is God," by calculation, then people will take it more seriously. "Oh, the scientist is saying." That is wanted. We are fighting with the scientists and others because they do not accept God. That is their fault. Otherwise, they are friends. They are giving more stress on the physical laws, nature, but they do not know under whose indication the physical laws are working, the nature is working. That they do not know. Yasyājñayā bhramati sambhṛta-kāla-cakraḥ. It is the... In Vedic literatures it is said, chāyeva yasya bhuvanāni vibharti durgā. The nature is working just like shadow, shadow of God. Just like master says, "Go there." Immediately the servant goes there. The servant is not independent. by the indication of the master, goes there. So that is nature. And because the arrangement is so perfect... Just like you said, "Out of season, the flowers came out." So they cannot explain. The arrangement is so perfect that God desired, "Now there, let be these flowers," and nature immediately produces. The arrangement is so perfect that these people, they cannot understand. They become amazed, "How it happened?"

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- April 4, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes, so that means there are innumerable universes and that was exhibited by Kṛṣṇa in His boyhood.

Girirāja: (continues synonyms) "adya-immediately;" (etc.)

Prabhupāda: What the modern scientists will say, that the..., all the universes were shown in the body of Kṛṣṇa. So what is the, I mean to say, what is called, action, reaction, reaction of the modern scientists?

Girirāja: They don't believe.

Dr. Patel: Even they are now trying to find out stars further and further with a bigger and bigger...

Prabhupāda: They cannot see even one universe, and here it is said that "All the universes, innumerable universes." So what these...?

Morning Walk -- May 9, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, no.

Dr. Patel: I don't think that is right statement.

Prabhupāda: No, no, there are many scientists like..., but generally they think in their way. Just like modern scientists, they are trying to prove: from chemicals, life.

Indian Man (2): Jagadish Candra Bose, he was a great scientist. (Hindi) He can answer how many wise (?) He can answer.

Dr. Patel: There is no question of... He cannot make even a grain of sand. Scientists, if they say that they are making, that is wrong. They are finding out what is already admitted.

Prabhupāda: No. Some of them say, "Now there is no need of God. Science is everything." Even Dr. Radhakrishnan was saying in a meeting.

Morning Walk at Marina del Rey -- July 12, 1974, Los Angeles:

Bali Mardana: No. Now they have just recently found a species of man three millions years ago, and it's similar to modern man. So scientists... So now they have concluded that there are more than one species, a lower species and a higher species existing at the same time.

Prabhupāda: This Darwin is a rascal. He cannot... He has taken some idea from this Padma Purāṇa, and he has developed in a befooling way. There are different types of human beings, four hundred thousand species. (pause) (break) ...is to conquer over the stringent laws of nature. Is it not?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes.

Prabhupāda: No? What is the purpose of scientific research?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes.

Prabhupāda: To conquer over the laws of nature.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Is it not? The laws of nature is already powerful. So you have not conquered over the laws of nature. Then how science is powerful?

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- February 23, 1975, Caracas:

Prabhupāda: ...of knowledge, not starvation of food.

Vīrabāhu: The modern scientists, they even admit that the body, a human body, is the most perfect machine. They admit this in college. But the same teacher, I heard him saying this, though he says this, he says, "There is no God. This is an invention of the necessity of man."

Prabhupāda: Then why do you die? Why do you die?

Hṛdayānanda: If it's a perfect machine?

Vīrabāhu: No, he says is the most perfect. No one can make something better.

Prabhupāda: Where is perfection? Why do you die? You don't like to die. Where is perfection? Nobody wants to die, but it is sure that he will die. Where is perfection?

Vīrabāhu: He says because of the fear of dying, one invents God.

Room Conversation with Jesuit -- May 19, 1975, Melbourne:

Jesuit: Oh, I say that is man's sin, if you like, is that he prides himself on his achievements.

Prabhupāda: That is false pride. The scientist, the modern scientists, they are taking false pride that there is no need of God, we are now creating...

Jesuit: Some of them are, not all...

Prabhupāda: Some of the fools, not all fools, but some of the fools declaring themselves as scientists, "There is no God." We can (indistinct).

Jesuit: Let me see if I can understand what you mean by God.

Prabhupāda: God means all-powerful, the great. You say also, "The great."

Jesuit: I'd say all-powerful, omnipotent, the great, yes.

Prabhupāda: That is God.

Jesuit: All-loving?

Prabhupāda: Yes, everything He's great. Nobody can surpass His love.

Jesuit: I mean God is all-loving?

Room Conversation with Bernard Manischewitz -- July 13, 1975, Philadelphia:

Prabhupāda: Yes, every intelligent man will understand this very simple thing, that so long as the body..., the soul is within the body, the body is changing. And as soon as this body... Just like you are old man, I am old man, the body is no more possible to be changed; somehow or other then I'll have to accept another body. That is called transmigration. The modern so-called scientists, philosophers, they do not understand this plain truth, and they are passing on as big scientists, big philosopher, misleading public.

Devotee (2): This is for my wife. She's getting second initiation.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Bernard Manischewitz: Thank you.

Prabhupāda: So give him some prasāda.

Brahmānanda: Yes.

Bernard Manischewitz: Thank you, yes, I have. (gives Śrīla Prabhupāda gift of a fruit basket)

Prabhupāda: Thank you very much. So many fruits.

Morning Walk -- November 7, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, no. That is another thing. That is another thing, that with their this sputnik, how they can go in four days fifteen millions miles?

Dr. Patel: You see, in the cosmos, the whole cosmos is as big... Modern scientists understand it by what we call the force of attraction and repulsion. When you go in between the two, there is no attraction, repulsion. Then you just have this and it goes on.

Prabhupāda: No, no. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Bhāgavata: So we should display the real planetary system...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bhāgavata: As it really exists.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- November 17, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Our śāstra says it is attack by Rahu. Rahu...

Dr. Patel: Rahu means...The other side of the earth's shadow is Rahu, as we say. The modern scientists, the Rahu means other side of the shadow. When the sun shines on the earth, the other side of the earth is, I mean, the night and the shadow of the earth is long, drawn up in the cosmos. And in the view of that shadow, if moon comes, then it is caught by the shadow.

Prabhupāda: No, in the... Rahu, Rahu... Rahu comes in front...

Dr. Patel: That is... The shadow is the Rahu. What else could be? That shadow of earth in the cosmos is the Rahu, most probably to me, because when the moon... Generally moon does not come so very often therein in the purview of that shadow. When it comes, it gets eclipsed.

Prabhupāda: No, no. They give that the earth comes in front of the sun or the moon, therefore the shadow.

Morning Walk -- November 18, 1975, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: But the real scientists don't say this, that they are karta. That is the difference in the modern scientists and the little, hundred years back scientists.

Prabhupāda: Here the scientists says, "There is no need of God."

Dr. Patel: That one man told you, and you have been, I mean, deriding all the scientists.

Prabhupāda: No, no, mostly they are speaking that way.

Dr. Patel: You are very harsh to the scientists.

Prabhupāda: But they have created havoc, godlessness, atheism, all over the world. That is our protest.

Dr. Patel: And we are taking the benefit of that science by flying by the plane, by going by train...

Prabhupāda: It has become a difficult task.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 12, 1976, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: You know it better. Why ask me? Modern science is especially to give chemistry and biology. They have learned so much. I mean, practically they have really reached that position which the vaiśeṣika śāstra reached in past. Vaiśeṣika is one of the six darśanas. They also tried to prove the existence of God and God creation by that method, because they also believed in Vedas. We are also trying to do the same thing by our own way. And real modern scientists have found out that nothing can happen without God. But you.... In your time, when you were a student, scientists were atheists. Now scientists are not atheists, sir. So I beseech you to remove that idea from you.

Prabhupāda: (break) Well, impersonal philosophers are more dangerous than the atheist.

Dr. Patel: That you think.

Prabhupāda: No, Caitanya Mahāprabhu says. Caitanya Mahāprabhu says.

Dr. Patel: Let's not discuss about this, not go into it.

Morning Walk -- April 15, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Very nicely he has written, very, very nicely, from all scientific... He has challenged the scientists. He has clearly declared, "Darwin is wrong, and scientists, they do not know."

Dr. Patel: Now the modern scientists from Russia, they say that there is life on other stars, in other planets.

Prabhupāda: Not only that, they are interested in reading our books. We have received letter. We are sending representative.

Dr. Patel: That communism is lost now.

Prabhupāda: No, communism is lost not. We do not say that you stop anything, but you make the center Kṛṣṇa. Otherwise it is zero. Zero, if you increase the number of zero, it is always zero. But put Kṛṣṇa or one by the side of zero, it becomes ten, hundred, thousand, lakhs.

Dr. Patel: Millions.

Prabhupāda: So we... Our propaganda is bring Kṛṣṇa; then your zeros will be valued. Otherwise you are zeros.

Dr. Patel: Sir, they were saying that religion is an opium.

Morning Walk -- April 16, 1976, Bombay:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Even the modern scientists do not learn everything by laboratory. They take knowledge from their predecessor.

Dr. Patel: But intuition does come. The topmost scientists.... The intuition, then they work on that way.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They don't become ignorant by themselves. They have lots of help.

Dr. Patel: What is ignorance and what is knowledge is very difficult to say. It is a relative terminology.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Jñānaṁ jñeyaṁ jñāna-gamyam.

Dr. Patel: That's right so far as the spiritual knowledge is concerned, but in the relative knowledge, after all...

Prabhupāda: Relative knowledge is also...

Dr. Patel: Aparā-vidyā, what is real knowledge, we don't know.

Prabhupāda: No? Why not?

Dr. Patel: Because every time we change our opinion...

Prabhupāda: We know from Kṛṣṇa.

Morning Walk -- April 16, 1976, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: That is Albert Einstein, and that was the grandfather of the modern scientists. So I say the scientists are not as atheist as people think.

Abhirāma(?): When Albert Einstein suggested that there must be a supreme universe, then the other scientists began to say that he was crazy. They said, "He has become too old."

Dr. Patel: Yes, yes, yes.

Abhirāma: Actually they did not believe his theory.

Dr. Patel: You are right. I mean, all intelligent men in past used to...

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya. (break) ...scientist. Tad viddhi praṇipātena (BG 4.34).

Dr. Patel: But he did not the paripraśnena sevayā. I do it.

Prabhupāda: No, he thinks not yet fit to make paripraśna.

Dr. Patel: I do it

Room Conversation with Reporter -- June 4, 1976, Los Angeles:

Rāmeśvara: I said to Prabhupāda that the modern man believes that the moon is closer, but Prabhupāda said, "But our ancient literatures teach that the moon is further away." So since we have that information, how can we accept the version of the modern scientists?

Reporter: Hm hm.

Rāmeśvara: We've got...

Prabhupāda: Not only that. Why this arrangement that Monday and, Sunday first, Monday second?

Reporter: Well, that doesn't necessarily speak of distance.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Reporter: It doesn't necessarily speak of distance.

Prabhupāda: That.... Distance may not be, but you have to accept the sun planet first, moon planet next.

Reporter: Er...

Prabhupāda: Distance is not the question.

Room Conversation -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: Svarūpa Dāmodara must be the best candidate. Others, what they'll know about it? All other Ph.D.s, they are simply rubber stamped. Actually they have no knowledge. Svarūpa Dāmodara has solid knowledge. He has learned from us. Therefore he's writing all these books. He has rejected his so-called scientific knowledge. He has completely understood that so-called scientific knowledge is bogus, it has no solid background. Now he's writing books on this. Now this morning, last night also, I got hint from Bhāgavatam, I told you in the morning? The sun planet is first. And nobody can reply this, that "Why Sunday first?" Nobody has replied this point. Sunday, Monday.... First of all Sunday, then Monday. Why not Monday, Sunday? That is according to the planetary arrangement. The Saturn is the last planet. That is admitted in the Bhāgavatam. So sun is first, then moon, then Mars, then Jupiter, like that, last, Saturn. That is everywhere. So why the modern scientists changing it? The Monday first or moon first, sun second. Hmm? What is your reply. You sometimes support them.

Satsvarūpa: Just for argument because (laughter) I'm always getting arguments, so I want to know how to give the right answer.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. What is your argument in this connection?

Interview with Professors O'Connell, Motilal and Shivaram -- June 18, 1976, Toronto:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes. This breakneck civilization. Just like dog, they're very, very busy. If you watch a dog, sometimes you'll see he's running here, running there, running here, running there. But no credit. Similarly, the modern scientists, they're running, running, running, very busy, but simply patchwork. They have no conclusion.

Prabhupāda: I was talking of these cars. The dog is running on legs, and they are running on cars. So, (laughs) actually what is the difference? This is advancement of civilization, that the dog is running for nothing, here and there on legs, and human being is running on nice car. Does it mean there is advance in civilization? If we keep the human being like cats and dogs, without any advancement of knowledge, the cats and dogs, they cannot accept any advanced knowledge. That is not possible. Similarly, if human society is kept in darkness without any advanced knowledge, without any knowledge of the aim of life and without any knowledge what is the meaning of human life, they'll remain as cats and dogs. So as cats and dogs, if they are practiced to run here and there, either on legs or on cars, is that advancement of civilization?

Morning Walk -- June 18, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: No, we want to, what is called, reject that society. We cannot become sympathetic with everyone. That is not our policy. Asat-saṅga-tyāga vaiṣṇava ācāra. Caitanya Mahāprabhu, when He was asked what is the general behavior of a Vaiṣṇava, He said that the first thing is that you should give up bad company. So these are bad company. We cannot have any sympathy. We cannot make any compromise with everyone. That is not possible. The modern scientists, they have made quarantine? Quarantine? What is that?

Hari-śauri: Separation.

Prabhupāda: Hah.

Hari-śauri: If someone has a disease, they separate.

Prabhupāda: Those who are infected, they should be separated. You cannot make any compromise.

Satsvarūpa: His point was that even amongst ourselves, even amongst the devotees, he says, there is not enough expression of love, because we don't allow...

Prabhupāda: Well, then.... Trying to be perfect.

Room Conversation -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: What is that verse? Icchā dveṣaḥ samutthena sarge yānti.

Rūpānuga: There have been some..., modern scientists have done some experiments showing that in the soil there are organisms, micro-organisms and earthworms that can produce chemicals, increasing just simply by their presence.

Prabhupāda: Yes. I have given that example, already he has mentioned.

Rūpānuga: Pasteur?

Prabhupāda: No, no, this lemon.

Rūpānuga: A lemon tree.

Prabhupāda: A lemon tree is producing chemicals.

Sadāpūta: Some people would say the lemon tree was simply taking food and rearranging it.

Prabhupāda: Yes. But the tree is the source, but everything is there in the earth. But God's creation is so nice that through the tree the chemical is coming. The chemical is there in the earth, but the seed of the lemon tree, when it grows, it extracts the particular type of chemical.

Evening Darsana -- July 7, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: Acintyāḥ khalu ye bhāvā na tāṁs tarkeṇa yojayet. Things which are inconceivable, do not try to understand by argument. Acintyāḥ khalu ye bhāvā na tāṁs tarkeṇa yojayet. So our process, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, is to take knowledge from the authority. Unless we take knowledge from the authority, however we may go on arguing, we cannot come to the conclusion. The modern scientists, philosophers, they are arguing, but they do not come to the conclusion. If you want to take conclusion... Just like two lawyers are arguing in the court, but the conclusion is given by the authority, the judge. That one has to accept. So we take authority, the Bhagavad-gītā or Kṛṣṇa. He is accepted authority by all the ācāryas, Rāmānujācārya, Madhvācārya, Viṣṇu Svāmī, Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and in the śāstra also, Vyāsadeva, Nārada, Devala, Asita. So our authority is confirmed. So if we take conclusion from the authority, then we benefit. Otherwise, with our limited knowledge, if we go on arguing, then we cannot understand the conclusion. That is not possible. Tarko 'pratiṣṭhaḥ śrutayo vibhinnā. By argument we cannot come to the conclusion. I can argue, and you can argue, but you may argue more than me. Another person can argue more than you. In this way, you do not come to the conclusion. And śrutayo vibhinnā. So far scriptures are concerned, there are also different scriptures. Nāsāv ṛṣir yasya mataṁ na bhinnam.

Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Yes, I say prohibited.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Muslim religion, it seems to me, is closer to Vedic culture than Christian. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...given to the modern scientist one proposal, egg proposal. You explain.

Hari-śauri: That if the scientist are so expert then they should be able to back up their claim of life coming from chemicals. Then why can't they produce an egg which will give life? They can take some chemicals and make the white, and take some little coloring to make it yellow inside, and wrap it up in some modern synthetic casing, and then put it in an incubator and let it produce life.

Prabhupāda: What is the difficulty? These rascals, it is proposed that life comes from chemicals. So take a small egg and analyze, find out the chemicals, same chemicals combine together, and bring life. Why? What is the answer? He's for the modern scientists. (laughter) He represents them.

Morning Walk -- August 11, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: No, I mean to say the modern scientists.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Modern scientists. One theory is the evolutionary process.

Prabhupāda: So wherefrom evolution begins?

Ātreya Ṛṣi: They don't know how it began. Some say it came from water. How does life begin? Nobody really knows.

Hari-śauri: They say there has to be certain combination of gases, ammonia, water, some hydrogen.

Prabhupāda: They cannot make this gas and combine?

Hari-śauri: This is the way they are testing for life on Mars. This is one of the tests.

Prabhupāda: No, why Mars? In their laboratory they can make gas and mix.

Hari-śauri: Well they say that they've made amino acids.

Prabhupāda: They cannot make?

Hari-śauri: They've made that, they say.

Prabhupāda: But they cannot produce life.

Room Conversation -- November 15, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: (chuckles) So my reason is alright?

Hari-śauri: Oh yeah.

Prabhupāda: Modern scientists (Hindi—about challenge)

Guest: (Hindi conversation)

Prabhupāda: Whatever Mars going? Finished.

Hari-śauri: Yes. They don't put anything about it now.

Guest: (Hindi conversation)

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) Grapes are sour. Full of sand. (Hindi conversation) (break)

Devotee: ...thirty-six thousand students so it's in a very, very nice area, just for the type of people we'd like to reach, you know, intelligent. And also it's a... Actually what it is, it's a motel that's had its, you know, it has no business there. It's surrounded by other more expensive...

Prabhupāda: So there is one building within the land?

Devotee: No, it's like...

Prabhupāda: What is this?

Evening Darsana -- December 3, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: The modern scientists, their first business is to deny that Supreme. That is modern. It is a curse for the scientist if they talk of God. Amongst the scientists this is an etiquette, not to talk of God. Everything science. Means everything nonsense, passing on as scientist. Do you believe this?

Devotee: Pardon me?

Prabhupāda: The scientists' position denying God, do you think?

Mahāṁśa: It's always changing. They simply...

Vāsughoṣa: They feel great anxiety to talk about God. Once, about three years ago, I had met one big scientist from University of Chicago. Just a chance there was one... My father had invited me back home for something. The scientist was there. We got in a big discussion with him and his daughter. They were just saying, "We don't see God. There is no evidence of God." Even logically we could show them. They still didn't want to accept. It was so obvious to them. Ultimately they couldn't say anything.

Prabhupāda: What is their logic to deny God?

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

Dr. Patel: Modern scientists don't say that we can make the soul. Soul is permanent in every man.

Prabhupāda: No, the rascals say, "We can create." So that rascal, number of that rascal is more. They are saying, bluffing, that "Now we shall create chemicals. We are trying." This is going on. Just this morning he was saying.

Dr. Patel: It is the theory of these people I think that...

Guest (4): Communists.

Dr. Patel: Communists.

Prabhupāda: That means rascalism. Not a single soul has been created till now and these rascals are claiming that they are going... And they are scientists. We have to accept them as scientists. Just see. This is... Not only now. One gentleman, one big doctor, chemist, he has got Nobel Prize, he came to California and our Dr. Svarūpa Dāmodara, he was in the also in the university, he's also doctor and chemist. So he was speaking on the chemical evolution. So he's my student, he challenged him, that, "If I give you chemicals, can you prepare life?" "That I cannot say."

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 27, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: No. Our religion is not faith. It is science. That is the fault. Fanaticism of Christianism, Muhammadanism, has created this godlessness. But Vedic knowledge is not that. It is really knowledge.

Satsvarūpa: And in the beginning, when science began, modern science, the scientists would say something against the Bible that was different than the Bible. Then they would torture him. The church would torture him, this Galileo, big scien... So they point these things out, that the church is not tolerant.

Prabhupāda: That is not our point. We want to understand God through philosophy. "Through philosophy" means logic. Blind faith is not our business. (break) "...such date I have posted. You have got the literature. If you permit me, then I can show some of the books." Then our local representatives advise, "You go and see this gentleman." In this way contact him and leave some book with him, that "You first of all see. Then decide." Very honest business.

Satsvarūpa: Gargamuni suggests that I start with Indians. There are Indians all over the world. (end)

Morning Conversation -- April 11, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Monopoly. They are called jñāna-khala. But real jñānī means if you have got some knowledge, you should daily distribute it.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanam.

Prabhupāda: No, any knowledge. Just like modern scientists, they do. When they discover something, they give it. Go from university to university. Whatever... They may be wrong. They want to give it. That is the way. In India such vast knowledge, it is kept for professional Bhāgavata readers. How much harm they have done! Some professional Bhāgavata readers, it is their profession. And they will gather some woman and talk of rāsa-līlā and Bhāgavata reading. Some lady, old men, some woman, they will gather and sit down with their grammar,(?) karma-kāṇḍa. So that his material position will be better off. And the reciter will gather so many dozens of (indistinct) and umbrella and cloth, and take it away and sell it in the market, and employ it for his son's marriage, daughter's marriage. And this is called Bhāgavata. This is going on.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Is there some verse in the Bhāgavatam which states that the Bhāgavatam reciter must be a very qualified person?

Conversation with Vedic Astronomer -- April 30, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Indian Astronomer: Whether Westerners or modern scientists accept or not, that is not worthwhile.

Prabhupāda: No, we want do it according to Bhāgavatam.

Indian Astronomer: That is what I mean.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So when you'll do it?

Indian Astronomer: When the order is, I will start.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Indian Astronomer: On your order, holy order, I will start on work immediately.

Prabhupāda: No, my order... It is for this purpose I sent him, so you can begin immediately or...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Surabhī has an office with all things ready, drawing board...

Prabhupāda: You can go to his office, can give him instruction how the planetary system is hanging. The polestar, dhruva-tārā, is the center, and it is moving. That at night you can see. It is moving.

Evening Darsana -- May 12, 1977, Hrishikesh:

Prabhupāda: Paropakāra. India is meant for paropakāra. India is not meant for exploiting others. But unfortunately the knowledge is... Sarasvatī jñāna-khale yathā satī. We have got the store of knowledge, but we have kept it locked up, not distributed to the world. They are called jñāna-khala. One who has knowledge but he does not want to distribute it, that is, they are termed as jñāna-khala. So we should not be jñāna-khala. In India there is storehouse of spiritual knowledge, and every one of us should make our life successful by assimilating this knowledge and distribute all over the world. There is customer; there is appreciation. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. (Hindi) Why you should be jñāna-khala? Na sādhu manye. Jñāna should be distributed. The modern scientists also, they have... If they have discovered something new, they go and distribute for the benefit of the whole human society. Unfortunately we are distorting the knowledge in Bhagavad-gītā, interpreting in a different way according to my whims, and spoiling my life and others'. This process should be stopped. Present Bhagavad-gītā as it is. You'll be benefited; others... Don't distort. That is our duty.

Indian man (3): Sir, do you not consider it advisable to get the judgment that the Americans have translated into Indian so we can look?

Room Conversation with Mr. Myer -- July 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That can be done very easily. It can be done very easily, provided government wants. And we can help. We have to follow simply the Bhagavad-gītā. That's all. They are reading Bhagavad-gītā, but they do not follow. They manufacture their own interpretation. That is the difficulty. Otherwise the Bhagavad-gītā is the preliminary study of happy life and entrance, matriculation, and then Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, graduate, and then Caitanya-caritāmṛta, postgraduate. We are therefore presenting three books. So if we follow, our life is successful. But you don't follow. Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14). Māyā is so strong that untruthful things, we take it as truthful. Just like the modern scientists. These rascals, he could not, they cannot, they will never be able to produce life. Still, they are busy: "Yes, we will do. We shall do." The whole world is full of rascals. What they cannot do, what they could not do, what they'll never be able to do... Still, they will persist. This is the difficulty. They have never gone to moon planet, their aeroplane. They cannot go anywhere. You have got plane. They are conditioned. And they are thinking, "We are free." Just like an animal is bound up in a place, and he's going round, here and here. He's thinking the world is round.

Room Conversation -- October 11, 1977, Vrndavana:

Dr. Kapoor: (laughing) That can be a subject for discussion by itself. All the modern scientists are taking to philosophy, because there comes a stage in scientific investigation, you see, where you cannot but philosophize. You see?

Mādhava: Yes. But the philosophers cannot continue in their own speculations.

Dr. Kapoor: What is philosophy? Philosophy is not thinking in that form. Philosophy is systematic thinking. It is systematic thinking. The scientists must be systematic.

Prabhupāda: The scientists... Without systematic, how it is science?

Dr. Kapoor: Yes. And the science is basically unsystematic in the fact that it starts with certain assumptions which by itself is unscientific. Why should you start with certain assumptions? Philosophy does not commit that. Philosophy... I don't raise the questions. You see? Why do you believe that matter is ultimate? Why do you believe that spirit and time are ultimate? Science believes in assumptions. Philosophy has not taken that for granted. Very systematic thinking. Therefore I say you'll not go to the root of the matter. It will be just superficial thing.

Mādhava: We are trying to apply both.