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Naughty Krishna holding a piece of candy
T
he other afternoon I wanted to make an offering to Lord Krishna. So I cut up some vegetables into tiny pieces for vegetable soup.
After damn near slicing off a fingertip, I picked up the cutting board and scraped the pieces of carrot, celery, green beans, and whatever into a pot of boiling water. I reached for the wooden spoon to stir the mixture, but…Wait… I couldn’t find the spoon. It wasn’t in its place.
But the water was boiling, and the soup wasn’t going to stir itself. I had to find the spoon, and fast. I jerked open and slammed shut one drawer after another, but no spoon. Finally my roommate told me to look in an upper cabinet, and I found the spoon and stirred the soup.
Then I began to wonder, Why can’t the soup stir itself? Didn’t this gigantic universe put itself together from the flying debris of an explosion? Then why can’t a little pot of vegetables and water stir itself?
Then another thought struck me and made me shudder. Could it be that the universe didn’t really put itself together?
Oh no! Was I suggesting the Big Bang Theory could be flawed? Krishna help me! I’ll be tried for heresy, maybe burned at the stake or crushed to death with heavy stones.
What next? Run into the next room and hide in the dust under the bed? I laughed. Then I walked over to the bookshelf and took out my Srimad Bhagavatam. I opened it to the Third Canto, chapter 3. The esteemed sage Maitreya is describing the creation of the universe. Here’s a part of it:
Thereafter the extremely powerful air, interacting with the sky, generated the form of sense perception, and the perception of form transformed into electricity, the light to see the world.
When electricity was surcharged in the air and was glanced over by the Supreme , at that time, by a mixture of eternal time and external energy, there occurred the creation of water and taste.
Thereafter the water produced from electricity was glanced over by the Supreme Personality of Godhead and mixed with eternal time and external energy.
Thus it was transformed into the earth, which is qualified primarily by smell.
O gentle one, of all the physical elements, beginning from the sky down to the earth, all the inferior and superior qualities are due only to the final touch of the glance of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
I looked over the whole thing, but the sage forgot to mention the explosion. Or did he really forget?
Could it be that the Big Bang never happened? (Now I’m really, really in trouble. They’re gonna come and drag me off to heresy court. Oh Krishna! Help!)
Then I wondered, Why does the sage Maitreya’s explanation make more sense to me than the Big Bang?
Of course! For the same reason that I had to stir my vegetable soup. Yes. Matter cannot move on its own. It has to be moved by a conscious living being.
Do bricks jump on top of each other to make a house? Does a pen jump on top of the paper to write a novel? Could my vegetable soup stir itself?
No you need a bricklayer, an author, a cook like me—conscious beings.
Srila Prabhupada elaborates:
If an apple drops from a tree, the apple is obeying the law of gravity. The apple does not know the law of gravity; therefore that law is being enforced by some superior entity.
In our dealings in society, people know laws. Still, they don’t obey them. They have to be forced to obey the laws, and still, people disobey the law. But the laws of nature are so perfectly enforced that nobody can disobey. (Janmastami, Montreal, 1968)
And now the sage Maitreya tells us that the universe is created not by an explosion but in stages, and each stage is activated by a conscious being, in this case by the supreme being, Lord Krishna.
And what about explosions? Most of us have never seen an explosion We read about them in the news. And when was the last time the news reported an explosion creating a universe? Or creating anything at all?
The most famous explosion in modern history is the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Did it create a universe? Or did it simply destroy a city and kill thousands of people?
That’s what explosions do. They do not create. They destroy.
Granted, we have seen in the news that an explosion called the Big Bang created the universe. But who saw it? Where are the photos? The eyewitness reports?
Sorry to break it to you, but the Big Bang is really the big bedtime story, a figment of someone’s imagination. It defies logic. It defies observation of the laws of the universe.
Srila Prabhupada sums it up:
The conclusion is that the physical elements may work very wonderfully to the laymen’s eyes, but their workings actually take place under the supervision of the Lord.
Those who can mark only the changes of the physical elements and cannot perceive the hidden hands of the Lord behind them are certainly less intelligent persons, although they may be advertised as great material scientists. (Srimad Bhagavatam 3.5.37)
Uh-oh. I hear a noise outside. They’re coming to get me. I gotta run. Hare Krishna! Bye-bye.
⁓Umapati Swami, July 7, 2024
Eternally touching my head to the floor at the lotus feet of my spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada, for showing me this.
Notes:
The Hare Krishna Mantra: Haré Krishna, Haré Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Haré Haré / Haré Rama, Haré Rama, Rama Rama, Haré Haré.
See also my post Who Carved the Grand Canyon?
The opinions expressed in this article are my own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of any organization or any other person.
Scriptural passages © Bhaktivedanta Book Trust
Photo top: Naughty Krishna holding a piece of candy (Jishnu Das)
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ove it? Hate it? Got a question? Write to me: hoswami@yahoo.com
© Umapati Swami 2024
Srila Prabhupada
His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada is the teacher who brought Krishna Consciousness from India to the West and then to the rest of the world. He is the founder of the worldwide Hare Krishna Movement as well as the author and compiler of many works of Vedic knowledge. He left this world in 1977.
Umapati Swami
One of the first American devotees of the Hare Krishna Movement, he became Srila Prabhupada’s disciple in 1966. Since then, he has preached Krishna Consciousness in many countries and is the author of “My Days with Prabhupada,” available from Amazon. Now 87 years old, he maintains this blog to share what he has learned.
Umapati Swami's Blog 