“Fools deride Me when I descend in the human form. They do not know My transcendental nature and My supreme dominion over all that be.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 9.11)

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अवजानन्ति मां मूढा
मानुषीं तनुम् आश्रितम्
परं भावम् अजानन्तो
मम भूत-महेश्वरम्

avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā
mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam
paraṁ bhāvam ajānanto
mama bhūta-maheśvaram

The premise for the following hypothetical situation is a government or community which has a stated objective of removing religious affiliation and allegiance from the society at large. It can take several generations to see the change manifest on a grand scale, and so the party in control decides to start with the school system. Within the standardized education curriculum, children will be hopefully convinced out of their belief in God. They likely inherited this belief from their parents; at least that is the assumption.

One of the simpler methods is to make an experiment. Provide two identical seeds. Give one seed to the child and another to the teacher. The child will be instructed to plant the seed within dirt and then do nothing. Simply pray. Ask for God to intervene, to bring about a plant which then produces fruit.

The teacher will take an identical seed, place it within dirt, and then provide sufficient sunlight and water. No mention of God. This dedication represents the state taking care of the population. The other seed obviously will not grow. The student is left disappointed. The reason given is that God does not exist. If He does, He is not listening to the pleas of the student. The prayers fell on deaf ears. Meanwhile, the state is a smashing success. In the manner that their seed turned into a plant, the state will take care of everyone much better than an imaginary figure living supposedly above the clouds.

Of course, the sophistry can be easily dispelled by a person with a little intelligence. The state is doing nothing of its own. It has not produced water and neither is it responsible for the placement of the sun. It is trying its best to mask the eternal truth that the living being is not the doer, that ultimately they must rely on the cooperation of nature for any result to manifest.

प्रकृतेः क्रियमाणानि
गुणैः कर्माणि सर्वशः
अहङ्कार-विमूढात्मा
कर्ताहम् इति मन्यते

prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni
guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ
ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā
kartāham iti manyate

“The bewildered spirit soul, under the influence of the three modes of material nature, thinks himself to be the doer of activities, which are in actuality carried out by nature.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 3.27)

If the state is so powerful, if they do not rely on a heavenly figure they consider to be imaginary or a product of mythology, then why cannot they repeat the same with any kind of seed? Take the pit of an avocado, plant it within the earth, and have it produce tomatoes. Follow the same process of giving water and exposing to sufficient sunlight. No praying to God. No hoping for a desired outcome. The same work that produces the other fruit, apply that and see what happens.

Of course, the intended result will never manifest. Though the seeds of different fruits do not look much different from one another, they are configured exactly to prior specification. There is no way around that configuration and there is no insight into how exactly that configuration took place. The world merely takes it for granted that the large pit within the avocado has the potential to extract just the right combination of material elements to produce an abundance of avocadoes, fresh and new.

His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada asks the rhetorical question about a typewriter machine tree. Can we drop a seed in the ground and expect to receive a typewriter? Can the same be done for an automobile? If the person on the other side considers such requests to be outlandish and preposterous, then why can the same be accomplished with an egg or a plant seed?

सर्व-योनिषु कौन्तेय
मूर्तयः सम्भवन्ति याः
तासां ब्रह्म महद् योनिर्
अहं बीज-प्रदः पिता

sarva-yoniṣu kaunteya
mūrtayaḥ sambhavanti yāḥ
tāsāṁ brahma mahad yonir
ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā

“It should be understood that all species of life, O son of Kunti, are made possible by birth in this material nature, and that I am the seed-giving father.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 14.4)

If the scientific community antagonistic to the pursuit of self-realization were to produce even a single seed that could replicate the ability already found within nature, then there would be justification for interest. Otherwise, every so-called advancement requires so much effort, in the perfect extraction from already existing elements, coordinated by an intelligent being. A sane person extrapolates to reach the entire collective, with both a source and the sum total of substance. It stands to reason that the entire universe must have the most intelligent being overseeing everything. Only the madman or the foolish man would disagree.

एक-देश-स्थितस्याग्नेर्
ज्योत्स्ना विस्तारिणी यथा
परस्य ब्रह्मणः शक्तिस्
तथेदम् अखिलं जगत्

eka-deśa-sthitasyāgner
jyotsnā vistāriṇī yathā
parasya brahmaṇaḥ śaktis
tathedam akhilaṁ jagat

“Everything that is manifested within this cosmic world is but the energy of the Supreme Lord. As fire emanating from one place diffuses its illumination and heat all around, so the Lord, although situated in one place in the spiritual world, manifests His different energies everywhere. Indeed, the whole cosmic creation is composed of different manifestations of His energy.” (Vishnu Purana, 1.22.52)

In Closing:

Proud of experiment indeed,
That absent prayer the seed.

From water and sunlight to proceed,
A blossoming plant ready to feed.

But why not the same of different kind?
Like from avocado a tomato to find.

Exact configuration at start required,
This way knowledge of Krishna inspired.

Categories: science

Tags: dailyprompt, hare krishna, poem, poems, poetry, religion, science, technology