Why don't you prepare a chemical egg and give it to the incubator and let life come?
Our scientists came at noon for a final meeting with Srila Prabhupada as he took his massage. Svarupa Damodara informed him of their plan to go to a science conference in Tokyo later this year. It is held every four years by the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life.
When Rupanuga asked what the conference topics would be, Svarupa Damodara replied, "Oh, some will, you know, 'I have done this experiment, and this looks very possible that about four billion years ago there was some chemical that, ah, get life.'"
Rupanuga laughed. "So if we go there, there will be a big fight."
Svarupa Damodara chuckled. "It will be very interesting if we can throw some mathematics."
Srila Prabhupada sat listening, cross-legged on the straw mat while I slicked his body with oil. "No," he told them seriously, "you can challenge them with this, that 'Why don't you prepare a chemical egg and give it to the incubator and let life come? If you cannot do that, then don't talk nonsense.' This is simple thing. Take a sparrow's egg, small, analyze what chemicals there are, and combine in the same way. Why they do not do that?"
"It's too hard," Sadaputa said.
"Then why do they talk nonsense? You stress on this point. If they say, 'Yes, we shall do after millions of years,' then he should be challenged that 'You give up your title "Doctor," let the sparrow take it, he's doing. You give up, nonsense, your title. Don't talk nonsense. The sparrow, without taking any doctorate title, he's doing that. So what is the value of your doctorate title?' Challenge him. Seriously challenge. This point you present, they cannot do it, it is certain. It is not possible to be done like that. Spirit soul is different, complete, from the matter. They have to acknowledge it. Just like this house, a combination of matter. But I am within this room, that does not mean I am this matter. Similarly, I am within this body, but that does not mean I am this body. This chemical composition is suitable arrangement, like this house is made with bricks, with lime, with stone, with wood. But as a living being, I am not identified with all those. Similarly, the body, it may be combination of chemicals, but the life is different."
Sadaputa said, "So even if they could put the chemicals together, a spirit soul would still have to enter in order for it to become animated."
Prabhupada agreed, and Svarupa Damodara said, "My feelings is that even if they make these chemicals, the spirit is never going to come in that medium."
Prabhupada confirmed his thinking. "No, because it comes by superior order, not by your order. Daiva-netrena."
Svarupa Damodara said he thought that by the turn of the century the scientists hope they will able to understand the meaning of life from the chemical concept. "But when they see that that's not possible," he said, "then they have to come around that what they thought was completely illusion. In that case, our case will be strong. Then everybody will accept."
Srila Prabhupada liked his optimism. "You can challenge that 'You cannot do it.'"
Sadaputa made an interesting comment about the current state of affairs in education. "These theories of theirs are taught in high schools and colleges as fact, practically. Like a student in Gainesville was telling us that he was taking zoology, and they were teaching evolution, and they were saying that it wasn't a theory any more, but it was a proven fact, and that he was quite dissatisfied with that."
"Proven fact?" Prabhupada asked.
"Yes," Sadaputa continued. "That's how they are teaching it. They don't even teach evolution as a theory any more, but they say it's been proven as a fact."
"So how it is fact?" Prabhupada said. "You cannot do. So what is the fact?"
"They are cheating," Svarupa Damodara said. "There is also a big man in Bombay who is working on this line. He's a member of this International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life. In fact, they use a Sanskrit word for this life coming from chemicals, they call it jivana particles of life. So they are also catching this idea that life is nothing but molecules."
Going off the topic of science for a moment, Rupanuga and Svarupa Damodara sought clarification on some matters pertaining to our spiritual practices. When the pujari blows the conch to announce the beginning of arati, should it be done behind the closed curtain, or in front, they wanted to know. As it is now, the pujari comes out of the Deity room in front of the curtains and unhooks the chain that separates the Deity and temple rooms. "But this disturbs something to the whole scene," Svarupa Damodara said, "because he has to remove the chain and cross it and then."
"No, no," Prabhupada said. "Why? There is no need of crossing the chain."
"But it can be done inside then?" Svarupa Damodara asked.
"Why not?" Prabhupada said. "It can be done."
Rupanuga's concern was about the way the devotees dance in the temple. He felt it was not proper. "Especially during mangala-arati. Is it not that the devotees should not turn their back while dancing to the Deity?"
Prabhupada agreed with him. "No, no."
"And that they should not bump each other or dance with each other personally, distracting the attention from the Deity? Shouldn't all the dancing be focused toward the Deity?"
"Sometimes dancing is done here in peculiar method," Prabhupada said wryly. He was smiling, but his point was serious. "That is not desirable. The dancing, Caitanya Mahaprabhu is showing."
"You have shown us the changing of the feet with arms upraised, not with the back to the Deity," Rupanuga said.
"They do it out of sentiment," Prabhupada said, "but that is not very good."
"Also they bump one another with the drum or with each other's bodies. That is not bona fide is it?" Rupanuga asked. "It is very popular in our movement now."
"They are inventing," Prabhupada said resignedly. "What can I do? If you invent your own way. ... "
Reference: Transcendental Diary Volume 3 by Hari Sauri Dasa
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