Prabhupada 0723 - Chemicals Come From Life; Life Does Not Come From Chemical
Lecture on BG 7.4 -- Bombay, February 19, 1974
Prabhupāda: So there is soul and there is the gross material body and there is the subtle material body. The soul is the basic principle, but to get a body, as I have already explained, the secretion discharged by the father and the mother, they mix up, they are emulsified and forms in the body of a pea. And the soul comes through the semina of the father and he's situated there. Then the body develops. Now, just try to understand. Because the spirit soul is there, therefore matter is developing. If the soul is not there, if the child is dead, no more development. No more development. No dead child develops a body. Everyone knows. Therefore these material elements come from the spirit soul, not that spirit soul comes from the material elements. This is not. This is wrong theory. If it comes from the material combination, then why you cannot produce a living entity in the laboratory? In the laboratory, no, that is not... A material... Because... Material creation is there because I wanted a, such a circumstances, atmosphere, and anumantā, the Supreme Lord, He's the supreme sanction giver—He gives me opportunity to enter into a certain type of mother's body, and the material grows.
So the actual fact is from spirit soul, the energy, material energy comes out. Take for example... That I was giving, that chemicals. Now, take one lemon tree. It is a living entity, and it is producing at least hundreds of pounds of citric acid, lemons. Everyone knows. You take fifty lemons today, again take fifty lemons, and if you extract the lemons, you'll find extensive quantity of citric acid. So wherefrom the citric acid chemical comes? Because the living entity's there in the tree. Therefore the conclusion should be the chemicals come from life; life does not come from chemical. If life comes from chemical, then you produce. I give you the chemical, whatever chemicals you want. So chemical is produced. Just like you have got experience when there is perspiration. You taste the perspiration; there is salt. Wherefrom the salt comes? Salt is... what is the chemical name? Sodium carbonate, no?
Devotee: Chloride.
Prabhupāda: Sodium chloride. Sodium chloride. So sodium chloride, wherefrom it comes? It comes from your body, and body comes from the soul. Therefore the original cause of sodium chloride is the soul. So as you can analyze a little quantity of chemicals from your body, from tree's body, from any body, so you just imagine the unlimited body, gigantic body of Kṛṣṇa, virāṭ-puruṣa, how much chemical it can produce. Therefore, don't take it that this is all imagination. Kṛṣṇa says,
- bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ
- khaṁ mano buddhir eva ca
- ahaṅkāra itīyaṁ me
- bhinnā prakṛtir aṣṭadhā
- (BG 7.4)
"These eight kinds of materials, gross and subtle, they are My energy." It is coming from Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is not talking any nonsense. He's not bluffing you. At least those who are advanced, why you are reading Bhagavad-gītā? Because it is authoritative; Kṛṣṇa is speaking. That is fact. The most exalted authority. We have to take knowledge from the authority; we cannot manufacture knowledge. That is not... That is imperfect knowledge, because our senses are imperfect.