The following conversation between His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and some of his disciples took place in July 1975 on an early-morning walk in Chicago.
Srila Prabhupada: Where does Darwin begin?
Disciple: He begins in the ocean. He says that some fishlike animal climbed out of the ocean and began to breathe the air.
Srila Prabhupada: Then where did the ocean come from?
Disciple: He doesn’t say.
Srila Prabhupada: Then his theory is not perfect.
Disciple: Scientists say there was great turbulence on this planet in the beginning. The oceans were stirring, and then some lightning charges occurred.
Srila Prabhupada: From where did the lightning come? And from where did the ocean come? Where is his philosophy? It is a speculation.
Disciple: They say it all began from a primeval explosion.
Srila Prabhupada: Then I ask the same question: Wherefrom did the explosion come?
Disciple: They say that the explosion took place at time zero.
Srila Prabhupada: Time zero?
Disciple: Time began then, at time zero. And they say that the question “What was before that?” is not a logical, sensible question.
Srila Prabhupada: Why?
Disciple: They say it’s a question that should not even be asked.
Srila Prabhupada: No, then they are rascals. They are beginning from zero. How can you begin from zero?
Disciple: Everything comes from nothing then.
Srila Prabhupada: That is not philosophy.
Disciple: They say it all originates from a giant mass of primordial matter.
Srila Prabhupada: Then the same question arises: From where did the matter come?
Disciple: They say it’s an accident.
Srila Prabhupada: So that is rascaldom. Where is the accident? Nothing is accidental. Everything happens by cause and effect. The Bible says that in the beginning there was God, or the word of God. So God was there. That is the beginning. In our philosophy, too, that is the beginning. The Srimad- Bhagavatam gives evidence: janmady asya yatah [1.1.1] . . . aham evasam evagre [2.9.33]. And the Bhagavad-gita: aham sarvasya prabhavo mattah sarvam pravartate [10.8]. This is our philosophy. Everything begins from God. Now you can ask, “From where did God come?” But that is God. God is existing. He is not caused by any other cause. He is the original cause. Anadir adir: He has no beginning, but He is the beginning of everything. This is the conception of God given in the statements of Brahma: anadir adir govindah [Brahma-samhita 5.1]. That adi is the original person, Govinda, Krishna. We find this in the Vedic history. Brahma is there in the beginning. He is a deva, one of the demigods the first demigod. Now Krishna says, aham adir hi devanam [Gita 10.2]: He is the cause of the demigods. He is the cause of Brahma also. So this is our philosophy. We don’t begin from zero or from an accident.
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