Even Your Lifeless Content Comes From Life

“The Hari-bhakti-vilasa confirms that difficult things become easy to understand if one remembers Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and easy things become very difficult to understand if one forgets Him. We actually see that even those who are very great scientists in the eyes of the general public cannot understand the very simple idea that life comes from life, because they do not have the mercy of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. They defend the false understanding that life comes from matter, although they cannot prove that this is a fact. Modern civilization, therefore, progressing on the basis of this false scientific theory, is simply creating problems to be solved by the so-called scientists.” (Shrila Prabhupada, Chaitanya Charitamrita, Adi 14.1 Purport)

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This is it. We have finally reached the end. This is what everyone has been waiting for. No more reliance on creativity, artistry, hard work, perseverance, and other pesky attributes of the human being which are too costly and cumbersome to search after. Nope, everything can be produced through a chatbot. Enter the appropriate set of prompts and the large language model will magically create a book, a slide presentation, an image, or even an animated full feature film for your enjoyment. Life as we know it is no longer necessary. Upon casual hearing, the astute observer immediately detects the fraud to the proposal. Inadvertently, the proponents are highlighting one of the key teachings of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada: Life comes from life.

They have different names to describe the phenomenon, but you have likely noticed the trend yourself. The “Dead Internet Theory”. The AI takeover. The vast majority of content you find in the online space is now produced by machines instead of human beings. There is hardly a living person left to speak to. The comments section will be flooded with bots. The narrative pushers can spin off loads of fake profiles to repeat the same message, to amplify support for a long and well-established fraud. It might be in the medical field. It might be for a political cause. It might be a lobbying campaign to get certain legislation passed.

The highly capable generative AI can now do so many things that previously required thinking, capable, rational, and most importantly, living human beings. Even a large spiritual institution considers taking the vast compendium of recorded instruction from their founder-acharya and inputting the data into an AI model, to produce supposedly new content on a recurring basis. Why bother with the concept of parampara, which that same acharya so kindly described? Why worry about new people entering the disciplic succession and utilizing their intelligence to showcase works of art, such as stories, essays, lectures, and books? Let a machine handle everything.

एवं परम्परा-प्राप्तम्
इमं राजर्षयो विदुः
स कालेनेह महता
योगो नष्टः परन्तप

evaṁ paramparā-prāptam
imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ
sa kāleneha mahatā
yogo naṣṭaḥ parantapa

“This supreme science was thus received through the chain of disciplic succession, and the saintly kings understood it in that way. But in course of time the succession was broken, and therefore the science as it is appears to be lost.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 4.2)

The truth is that even the supposedly lifeless content produced is based on life. It is not like the machine can create anything on its own. They must rely on an existing database, one that was produced by real human beings. If the existing published space is insufficient or difficult to understand, the machine fails. In that case, where is the advancement? Shri Krishna already explains that this entire universe represents but a spark of His splendor.

यद्यद्विभूतिमत्सत्त्वं श्रीमदूर्जितमेव वा
तत्तदेवावगच्छ त्वं मम तेजोऽशसम्भवम्

yad yad vibhūtimat sattvaṁ
śrīmad ūrjitam eva vā
tat tad evāvagaccha tvaṁ
mama tejo-’ṁśa-sambhavam

“Know that all beautiful, glorious, and mighty creations spring from but a spark of My splendor.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 10.41)

A spark is tiny by comparison to the whole. The whole is everything. The whole has full capability. If something incredible is equivalent to the spark, then how amazing must the source of that spark be? That complete picture is actually impossible to comprehend. If considering from the angle of vision of artwork, of viewing an exhibit in an art gallery, then the exponentially less capable human being requires assistance. The bow-warrior named Arjuna had to receive a special set of eyes in order to witness the virat-rupa, to fully appreciate what was before him.

न तु मां शक्यसे द्रष्टुमनेनैव स्वचक्षुषा
दिव्यं ददामि ते चक्षु: पश्य मे योगमैश्वरम्

na tu māṁ śakyase draṣṭum
anenaiva sva-cakṣuṣā
divyaṁ dadāmi te cakṣuḥ
paśya me yogam aiśvaram

“But you cannot see Me with your present eyes. Therefore I give to you divine eyes by which you can behold My mystic opulence.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 11.8)

Others can be proud of the lifeless content they have produced, published to the world in rapid succession, like items released from an assembly line in a factory. Others can think they have finally put an end to human civilization, in reducing the need for humans down to the bare minimum. They may think they have solved the issues of stress, in the pressure to produce, but the real problem of an existence has not been addressed. The living being must still act. They are still alive. They are still seated as if on a machine, as described by the teacher of Arjuna.

ईश्वरः सर्व-भूतानां
हृद्-देशे ऽर्जुन तिष्ठति
भ्रामयन् सर्व-भूतानि
यन्त्रारूढानि मायया

īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ
hṛd-deśe ‘rjuna tiṣṭhati
bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni
yantrārūḍhāni māyayā

“The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone’s heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 18.61)

The best use of that machine is devotional service. If we are seated on the machine, we might as well use it. Better to output our own products, based on internal expression, than to sit on the sidelines and pass away the life experience in sleep and laziness. Better to view that machine as a blessing from above, to serve as a vehicle to transport us into the liberated state, in full vibrancy, in the way that Arjuna rose up and fought valiantly on the battlefield of Kurukshetra.

In Closing:

From Chaitanya’s mercy coming,
Active in mission becoming.

That not only on machine to sit,
Passive, lazy, and everything to quit.

Where the computers everything to do,
Routine work and artistry too.

Instead seriously the mission to take,
Devotion only profound success to make.