The Remote Cause and the Immediate Cause

Srila Prabhupada: Inferior energy has no power unless superior energy is involved.

This sea [indicating the Pacific Ocean] is calm and quiet.

But when the superior force, air, pushes it, it manifests high waves.

The ocean has no power to move without the superior force of the air.

Similarly, there is another force superior to the air, and another and another, until ultimately we arrive at Krsna.

This is real research.

Krsna controls nature just as an engineer controls a train.

The engineer controls the locomotive, which pulls one car, and that car in turn pulls another, which pulls another, and so the whole train is moving.

Similarly, with the creation, Krsna gives the first push, and then, by means of successive pushes, the entire cosmic manifestation comes into being and is maintained.

This is explained in Bhagavad-gita (9.10).

Mayadhyaksena prakrtih suyate sacaracaram: "This material nature is working under My direction and is producing all moving and unmoving beings." And in the Fourteenth Chapter (14.4) Krsna says: sarva-yonisu kaunteya murtayah sambhavanti yah tasam brahma mahad yonir aham bija-pradah pita "All species of life are made possible by birth in this material nature, O son of Kunti, and I am the seed-giving father." For example, if we sow a banyan seed, a huge tree eventually comes up and, along with it, millions of new seeds.

Each of these seeds can in turn produce another tree with millions of new seeds, and so on.

This is how Krsna, the original seed-giving father, is the primary cause of everything we see.

Unfortunately, the scientists observe only the immediate cause; they cannot perceive the remote cause.

Krsna is described in the Vedas as sarva-karana-karanam, the cause of all causes.

If one understands the cause of all causes, then he understands everything.

Yasmin vijnate sarvam evam vijnatam bhavati: "If one knows the original cause, the subordinate causes are automatically known." Although the scientists are searching after the original cause, when the Vedas, perfect knowledge, declare the original cause to be the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the scientists won't accept it.

They keep to their partial, imperfect knowledge.

This is their disease.