Pradyumna: (leads chanting, etc.)
- bījaṁ māṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ
- viddhi pārtha sanātanam
- buddhir buddhimatām asmi
- tejas tejasvinām aham
- (BG 7.10)
Translation: "I am the original fragrance of the earth, and I am the heat in fire. I am the life of all that lives, and I am the penances of all ascetics. O son of Pṛthā, know that I am the original seed of all existences, the intelligence of the intelligent and the prowess of all powerful men."
Prabhupāda:
- puṇyo gandhaḥ pṛthivyāṁ ca
- tejaś cāsmi vibhāvasau
- jīvanaṁ sarva-bhūteṣu
- tapaś cāsmi tapasviṣu
- (BG 7.9)
Puṇyo gandhaḥ, it may be original. Also the fragrant... Just like there are some flowers like rose, the fragrance is very nice. Of course, all fragrance is varieties, but pṛthivyāṁ ca: the fragrance is coming from the earth. It is not synthetic fragrance. So the same earth, the same watering, the same, what is called, sāra? For growing the trees, you...
Devotee: Manure.
Prabhupāda: Manure. The same manure, same water, the same gardener, but according to different flowers, the fragrance is different. How this is done? Can any scientist answer? How it is coming differently? And why there are differences? If it is nature, and the ingredients are the same, why nature is not producing the same quality or the same kind of flower or trees or fruits? Why? Therefore it is answered in the Bhagavad-gītā that nature is not all in all. Nature cannot work independently. Nature is the material world, material elements.
So it is answered there in the Bhagavad-gītā: mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram (BG 9.10). There is superintendence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa. He, He likes that "This kind of bīja, or the seed, will produce this kind of flower and this kind of flavor." The superintendence is there of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. We fools, we say, we cannot explain. We say "Nature." What is this nature? There must be brain behind the nature. Otherwise, how a rose, so nicely it is coming? Even from artistic point of view, if you want to paint one flower, you have to take so much labor, so many colors, reflection, and so many instruments, then hardly you can paint one nice rose flower. Still, it is not as good. And not at all good in comparison to the original flower. So if this third-class flower, you have to apply so much brain, and this first-class flower has no brain behind it? Is that very good logic? What is this logic? There must be brain. And that is stated here: puṇyo gandhaḥ pṛthivyāṁ ca tejaś cāsmi vibhāvasau, aham. "It is My, under My superintendence."
So Kṛṣṇa is giving us intelligence that "If you do not go to the temple or do not hear to the ācārya, you can at least try to understand My presence when you see a flower or smell a flower." Is that very difficult job? Kṛṣṇa consciousness is so nice. Even drinking water, even by seeing the sunshine, even by seeing the moonshine, or, if you are a Vedic scholar, by chanting om, praṇavaḥ sarva-vedeṣu, or even by hearing the sound vibration, or by seeing a flower, or smelling a flower, something brilliant... Just like the sun is brilliant, the moon is brilliant. Tejaś cāsmi. So wherefrom this brilliance comes? The brilliance is imitation, reflection of the bodily brilliance of Kṛṣṇa. That is stated in the Brahma-sūtra, Brahma-saṁhitā: yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi (Bs. 5.40). Then why we should disbelieve? We can see eye-to-eye that the sun is so brilliant. It is a material product only. But wherefrom the sun has come, so brilliant? Yac cakṣur eṣa savitā sakala-grahāṇāṁ rājā samasta-mūrti, samasta-sura-mūrtir aśeṣa-tejāḥ. The brilliance and the temperature is unlimited. So wherefrom the brilliance comes? You can calculate yourself, that "The sun is composition of these chemicals, this material...," but why don't you produce? Why don't you produce an imitation sun so that you'll save so much money for electricity? At night you can get one sun in Bombay city. (laughs) (laughter)
So the rascals will give all description, but they'll never be prepared to prepare it, to manufacture it. Recently... It is a practical... In California one learned chemical scholar,... He has got Nobel Prize. So he was describing that "From matter, life has come." So there was one student, he's my disciple, Svarūpa Dāmodara. He questioned, "Sir, if I give you all these chemicals, can you produce life?" Then he said, "That I cannot say." But if you know that these chemicals composes life, so when I give you the chemicals, why don't you produce? So simply theorizing. Simply theorizing. Panthās tu koṭi-śata-vatsara-sampragamyaḥ (Bs. 5.34).
So we cannot decide by theorizing. But if we take shelter of Kṛṣṇa, here is the perfect knowledge, that aham, "I am the background." Otherwise, how we can explain? Svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca. Just like if you have to paint one flower or if you have to create some scent, you have to mix so many chemicals. But He's so powerful, His energies are so perfect, that svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca, simply by His willing, immediately, everything is there. Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport). That is the appreciation of the energy of God. If you are not appreciating, that is your fault, but there is brain, there is work. But the energy is so perfect... Just like nowadays, electric, electronic energy. You simply push on one button and so many things happens immediately. It is still, still, hundred thousand times subtler. Simply by His willing, everything has come out. This is understanding. But because we have no such brain, neither we can think, we evade the issue. Therefore if we want to understand how this flower has come in, how this fragrance is there, you try to understand that it is due to Kṛṣṇa. And appreciate. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. You appreciate: "Oh, my Lord is so..."
There is a story, I shall... It is not story. Or take it as story, that sometimes Nārada Muni was passing, and one very learned scholar, brāhmaṇa, he saw Nārada Muni, and he asked Nārada Muni, "Sir, where you are going?" He said, "I am going to Vṛndāvana, yes, Vaikuṇṭha, to see my Lord." "Oh, you are going there?" Nārada Muni has got free passage to everyone. So, "Will you ask Nārāyaṇa when my liberation will come?" "All right, I shall ask." Then he met another cobbler. He was sewing shoes. So he also asked, "Sir, where you are going?" "Now I am going to Vaikuṇṭha to see my Lord." So, "Will you ask when I shall get salvation?" So Nārada Muni noted, "All right, I shall ask." So when Nārada Muni met Nārāyaṇa, he, after finishing his business, he asked the two men's question, that "These two men, one very learned scholar, brāhmaṇa, he also asked me this question, and the cobbler also asked me." So Nārāyaṇa said "This cobbler will get his salvation after finishing this life, and this brāhmaṇa will have to take, wait for many, many births."
So Nārada Muni became very much inquisitive, "How is that?" So when he came back, first of all he met the brāhmaṇa. He inquired, "Did you inquire, sir, about me?" "Yes, yes. He said that you have to wait many, many births." No, He did not say many, many births, Kṛṣṇa said, Nārāyaṇa said that "When you meet them again, you say that, if they inquire 'What my Lord was doing at that time?' you say that 'He was pulling one elephant from the hole of a nail,' " what is called?
Devotees: Needle.
Prabhupāda: Needle. So when he met the brāhmaṇa he said... And he inquired, "What Nārāyaṇa was doing when you met Him?" "I saw that He was pulling one elephant through the hole of a needle." So he immediately said, "All right, sir, namaskāra. Your, all these big, big stories we cannot believe, that an elephant is being drawn through the hole of a needle." And the same question was raised by the cobbler, and he, Nārada Muni replied in the same way. And he began to cry, "Oh, my Lord is so powerful. He can do anything." So Nārada Muni inquired that "How do you believe that the elephant is being drawn through the hole of a needle?" "Now, why not? I am seeing daily. I am sitting under this banyan tree and there is fig, banyan fruit, and there are thousands of seeds, and I know that each seed's containing a big tree like this."
That's a fact. Everyone knows. Bījo 'haṁ sarva-bhūtānām. (Bg 7.10) Here Kṛṣṇa says, bījo 'haṁ sarva-bhūtānām. Is there any chemist? Just get one small seed like the fig seed. It is very small, but it contains that big tree. Where is that chemistry? Where is that physics? So here is the answer, Kṛṣṇa says, bījaṁ māṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ viddhi. Big, even this big, gigantic universe, that is also bījaṁ māṁ sarva-bhūtānām. It is stated in the Vedic literature. Yasyaika-niśvasita-kālam athāvalambya jīvanti loma-vilajā jagad-aṇḍa-nāthāḥ (Bs. 5.48). There are so many things. Everyone is inquisitive, "Where is the beginning of this thing?" The beginning is the Supreme Lord. That is the Vedānta-sūtra, janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). Beginning is there. So you cannot say that life has come from matter. That is not possible. Because here it is said, Kṛṣṇa says, that bījaṁ māṁ sarva-bhūtānām. Anything which has come into existence, the original source is Kṛṣṇa. So Kṛṣṇa is life. He's not dead stone. Therefore the conclusion is: from life, life has come and matter has come. Not that matter has come from life. Oh, what is that? Life has come from matter. That is not the conclusion. That is wrong conclusion.
So if you actually require perfect knowledge, then we have to accept knowledge this, like this way. It is called avaroha-panthā. Avaroha-panthā means a descendence or deductive process. So our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, we claim that we have got perfect knowledge of everything because we are taking knowledge from the perfect person—Kṛṣṇa.