Following is an excerpt from a room conversation with His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada at Bhubaneswar, January 30, 1977
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada at Bhubaneswar, January 30, 1977
Prabhupada: Make Manipur a big nice center of Vaisnava. You are descendants of Babhruvahana. There is no doubt about it. Vaisnava raja. Make Manipur a strong center of Krsna, and it will be easily done, strong Vaisnava center, ksatriya. I would like to see this. Manipur is already … For the last five thousand years at least, their name is in the Bhagavatam, Manipur And still they are Vaisnavas. They have got temples in Navadvipa, in Vrndavana. The governor of Punjab is Manipuri. He's so kind, he came to see me with his full staff. That governor is so respectful to me. So Manipuri people are very nice. So why not organize? Rejuvenate them. So you are the Manipur's son. Now you are perfect Vaisnava. Now let us make Manipur a Vaisnava ksatriya center, very nice. Then make relation with Nepal. Nepal, they are ksatriyas also ….. .
Svarupa Damodara: (I was) .. .in Washington with Rupanuga Prabhu and the other scientists in our group for the Institute.
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Prabhupada: Yes. We have started one institute, Bhaktivedanta Institute?
Svarupa Damodara: Yes. And I want to show several aspects of our journal, Sa-vijinanam. We have almost completed the first volume.
Prabhupada: They are publishing one paper, Sa-vijnanam. How do you like this name? Sa-vijnanam. This is picked up from Bhagavad-gita. jnanam te 'ham sa-vijnanam idam vaksyamy asesatah. Sa-vijnanam [Bg. 7.2]. Sa-vijnanam means according to science. So did you see … We are challenging scientists that "Life cannot be produced by chemicals only. Life comes from life."
Svarupa Damodara: I brought some samples.
Pradyumna: (looking at the joumal) This is like Scientific American.
Svarupa Damodara: Oh, that is designed by Sadaputa.
Prabhupada: This will be a revolution – science and Bhagavad-gita.
Svarupa Damodara: I gave a lecture, seminar, just before I came here at the university, about the nature of the Absolute Truth in terms of science and in terms of Bhagavad-gita, a comparative study of the concept of the Absolute Truth. And there were many professors from physics, chemistry, mathematics, from philosophy, from biology, and from sociology. It was quite interesting. And there was a slide show.
Prabhupada: So what these big, big scientists said?
Svarupa Damodara: The chairman gave me a nice letter saying that this is the first type of seminar that he has ever heard in his life. (Prabhupada chuckles) We made the presentation sound very scientific . We had the slide projection on one side, and this overhead projection on the other side. So it made a good presentation so that people can be attracted. It was quite effective. In fact, it was the most effective so far we have seen, because it was very colourful, the pictures, and we were comparing the fundamental concept of the Absolute Truth as it is understood by modern science and the defects of it, and then what is the alternative view. We call it the other alternative scientific view. We speak about the Second Chapter of Bhagavad-gita, about the nature of life, about the nature of the self. We've taken that its nonchemical and nonphysical. Then we try to explain it in terms of scientific terminologies and scientific language.
Prabhupada: The, that verse, that "It does not burn, it does not .. ,"
Svarupa Damodara: Yes. Nainam … Yes.
Prabhupada: Nainam chindanti … Tha t is the nonphysical.
Hari-sauri: Like a comparative study chart.
Prabhupada: We are presenting fastric version in modern scientific symbolic representative. So the chairman said that he never. .. ?
Svarupa Damodara: Yes. Here's the letter with me. We do not call Bhagavad-gita directly, but we say "the alternative view," so that they do not immediately be offended. We call "alternative scientific view." They are fascinated with this concept, but they cannot explain. They are failing in those aspects.
Prabhupada: So you are attacking them like this. Choke. (laughter) That is good ….
Svarupa Damodara: (pointing in the journal) That's Darwin again. We are quoting his words, and we' re going to use it as illustrations in the book as well as in the journal.
Prabhupada (reading): "I remember well the time when the thought of the eye made The sight of a feather in a peacock's tail, whenever I. .. "
Svarupa Damodara: "Make me sick."
Prabhupada: "Make me sick." What does he mean by this?
Svarupa Damodara: He says … See, his theory of evolution cannot explain how these eyes are evolved, our eyes. So he felt very uncomfortable just seeing in the beginning these eyes, our eyes. But he says that stage he has overcome to some extent. But still, one particular phenomenon is bothering him very much. That is the eye in the peacock's tail. It is the delicate, nice design with is colourful structure.
Prabhupada: How it evolved.
Svarupa Damodara: Yeah, how it evolved. He cannot explain by his theory. So he said when ever he gazed at it that makes him sick.
Pradyumna: It's the opposite of the devotee.
Prabhupada: (chuckles) Rascal. Artificially how long you'll stand?
Svarupa Damodara: Actually he has remarked many important things for us also, especially in his autobiography. We are quoting some of his words saying that when he was young, in his childhood, he was very fascinated by works of art like reading literature, like works of Shakespeare and poets like Byron, Keats, and Shelley. He said he was very fascinated in his childhood.
Prabhupada: No , he was a thoughtful man, undoubtedly.
Svarupa Damodara: But when he finished his book, The Theory of Evolution, in his old age, he said he lost all the taste. He said when ever he starts to remember his youthful days, he said, he's almost at the point of nauseating, almost vomitting. Whenever he remembers Shakespeare, Byron , and all these things, he says he begins to vomit.
Prabhupada: He became too much prosaic. He became prosaic. He could not appreciate poetic.
Svarupa Damodara: He said he lost all taste in life. He said it's … , no meaning. He said life be comes no meaning, has no meaning and no purpose. He said he lost all his taste.
Prabhupada: He regrets.
Svarupa Damodara: So actually that is the result of that theory, because the theory says that we are just combination of some molecules . We come from molecules, and when we finish, we will also go to molecules. So that very philosophy, that very concept, makes people think that way.
Prabhupada: So you keep this. Later on, do the needful.