“Real Cause is Krishna”

Prabhupada, Bombay, January 17, 1975: […] Rasa, taste, is one, but it becomes varieties by different combination of bhautikanam, material elements. This is chemistry. Chemistry means mixing of different chemicals and produce another element. Just like soap. Soap is mixture of fat and soda. So fat, oil, is something else, and soda is another thing, but if you carefully mix them together, it becomes soap. So the whole world is the mixture of these five elements: ksitir ap… Fire, water… Tejo-vari-mrd- vinimayah. The Sanskrit word is tejo-vari-mrd-vinimayah. Mrd means this earth, and tejas means fire, and vari means water. You take earth mixed with water and put it into the fire; it becomes brick. Then you take another mixture; that becomes cement. And take the help of cement and take the help of brick; then construct a house.

So whole material world is nothing but tejo-vari-mrd-vinimayah, exchange of, elementary, this earth, water, and fire. The same principle here also: taste. Just like we cook the same oil, ghee, and salt and turmeric, but we prepare different preparations, hundred, two hundred preparation, simply by the process of mixing earth. So that is going on. Now, by Krishna’s energy… Parasya saktir vividhaiva sruyate. His energy is working in such subtle way, mysterious way. Therefore Krishna is known as Yogesvara. The same earth, same water, but the seed different. So one tree is coming to produce chili, another tree is coming out to produce tomato, another tree is coming out to produce mango. Different taste. Mango is sweet, tomato is sour, chili is pungent. But these things are required, varieties. Although the source is one. Source is one—the earth—but the earth contains all other five elements. Ksitir ap tejo vari mrd vyoma. Everything is there in the earth. Everything is there, and by the expert handling of the prakrti and behind the prakrti, Krishna, varieties of things are coming. This is Krishna consciousness, how things are coming by the handling, expert handling of Krishna. Mayadhyaksena prakrtih suyate sa-caracaram [Bg. 9.10].

The blunt scientists, they are seeing, simply prakrti is the cause of these varieties. But that is not the fact. The fact is it is the Krishna’s manipulation, mixture, mixing of the elements, and different varieties are coming out. Parasya saktir vividhaiva sruyate. Sruyate. You cannot see how Krishna is handling, but sruyate, you can understand from the sruti, by the Vedic literature, as it is said here.

kasayo madhuras tiktah katv amla iti naikadha bhautikanam vikarena raso eko vibhidyate

Bhautikanam vikarena. Just like earth, water, fire, air, they are bhautika. But they are not mixing together. The original, I mean to say, manipulator is Krishna. Just like we have got experience, I have given just now experience, that oil is there. Suppose oil is acid, and soda is called alkali. The acid is there, alkali is there, but when a person comes, mix it proportionately, it becomes another product: soap. Similarly, everything is being manufactured like that, but how it is done? That is the expert handling of the Supreme Lord. Parasya saktir vividhaiva sruyate. He has got multi-energies, subtle laws, and He is working. But still, He has nothing to do Himself. That is God. Na tasya karyam karanam ca vidyate. Although He is handling… He is doing everything. Otherwise how it is possible? We have got experience. There is oil, and there is alkali, or soda, but they are not mixing together. For mixing together, you require another, living energy. Otherwise, automatically, there cannot be soap. The soap factory is there, but the manufacturer is also there.

So we have to understand in that way, that so many varieties, natural varieties, are coming out not automatically. The blind scientists, they say they are coming automatically. That is not very good sense. Nothing can come automatically. Matter cannot come together automatically. There is some machine or handling. Parasya saktir vividhaiva. He is doing that, and still, He is doing nothing. That is… Just like if I have to make soap, I have to do it or I can ask my servant to do it. I can give instruction to my assistant, servant, that “Do like this.” So anyway, the background is myself. The background is neither the servant nor the ingredients. There is another example: the potter’s wheel. Potter’s wheel is producing earthen pots. So what is the cause? Somebody will say that “The dirt, earth, is the cause of this pot because it is made of earth.” Another will say, “No, the cause is the wheel. Because the wheel is going around, therefore it is coming out.” But these two causes, prakrti and pradhana, ingredients and the instrument, they are not causes. The cause is the potter. Cause is the potter. The potter is giving force going around. You have seen it. With the rod it moves like that. When the wheel is in motion, then the earth is brought into a shape of different shape of pots. Therefore material cause, remote cause, efficient cause—they are not cause. Real cause is Krishna, sarva-karana-karanam [Bs. 5.1].