There’s More to Nothing Than We Knew
New York Times – DENNIS OVERBYE – Feb 20, 2012
…The question of why there was a Big Bang or any quantum particles at all was presumed to lie safely out of scientific bounds, in the realms of philosophy or religion.
Now even that assumption is no longer safe, as exemplified by a new book by the cosmologist Lawrence M. Krauss. In it he joins a chorus of physicists and cosmologists who have been pushing into sacred ground, proclaiming more and more loudly in the last few years that science can explain how something — namely our star-spangled cosmos — could be born from, if not nothing, something very close to it. God, they argue, is not part of the equation. The book, “A Universe From Nothing,” is a best seller and follows recent popular tomes like “God Is Not Great,” by the late Christopher Hitchens; “The God Delusion,” by Richard Dawkins; and “The Grand Design,” by the British cosmologist Stephen Hawking (with Leonard Mlodinow), which generated headlines two years ago with its assertion that physicists do not need God to account for the universe. Go to story
excerpt from lecture at art gallery, Auckland, April 16, 1972:
GUEST: Is it possible for us to know the source of Krishna?
PRABHUPADA: Source of Krishna? Well, Krishna is the origin. Sarva-karana-karanam [Brahma-samhita 5.1]. We are trying to understand the source of Krishna because we have no other experience. We have got only experience that everything has got a source. You go on searching out. Just like you are caused by your father. Your father is caused by his father. His father is cause of… In this way go on researching, researching, then you come to Brahma, the original person in this universe. Then Brahma is also caused by Garbhodakashayi Vishnu. The Garbhodakashayi Vishnu is caused by Karanodakashayi Vishnu. The Karanodakashayi Vishnu is caused by Sankarshana. Sankarshana is caused by Narayana. Narayana caused by Baladeva. Baladeva is caused by Krishna. Therefore Krishna is the origin, cause, of everyone. He has no cause. He has no source. He is the original source of everything. Aham sarvasya prabhavah: [Bhagavad-gita 10.8] “I am the source of everything.” And Brahma-samhita, sarva-karana-karanam: [Bs. 5.1] “The cause of all causes.” So Supreme Lord is the cause of all causes, but He is not caused by anyone. That is His supremacy. He is not caused by everyone. He is svarat. He is described in the Vedic, svarat, “self-evident.” That is God.
excerpt from morning walk, Mayapur, April 3, 1975:
PRABHUPADA: No, it is… That is the meaning of God. Everything comes from Him, but He’s self-sufficient. That is God.
BRAHMANANDA: But they say that the chunk was always there.
PRABHUPADA: Eh?
BRAHMANANDA: They say the chunk was always there.
PRABHUPADA: No, chunk was not always there. Just like the earth was not always there. It was covered by water. A chunk is nothing but an earth, a piece of earth. So… So there was no chunk. Everything was covered with water. Wherefrom the chunk came? Wherefrom the water came? Then wherefrom the fire came? There are so many things.
PUSTA KRSNA: They think that we are limiting God by saying that He’s a person, or that He has form.
PRABHUPADA: That is their foolishness. That is their foolishness. They are thinking God a person like me, like himself. That is foolishness. They cannot conceive that a person can become so powerful than myself. That is the defect. A person has achintya-shakti, achintya-shakti, inconceivable power. Now, just like you are person. You cut your hair. It is growing. Do you know how it is growing?
HANSADUTTA: No.
PRABHUPADA: Then? Even it is beyond your conception, what to speak of others. But it is growing. It is… If there is any scar or if the nail is broken some way or other, it will come out. But… You cannot manufacture it by conceiving. But it is coming out. That means within you there is an inconceivable power. So if you have got, an ordinary human being, so much inconceivable power, how much God has got inconceivable power. That is God.
HANSADUTTA: In Los Angeles, you called it mystic power, that every living creature has some mystic power.
PRABHUPADA: Yes. Every living creature.
TRIVIKRAMA: You gave the example of a lemon tree.
PRABHUPADA: Yes. The mystic power producing tons of citric acid.
TRIVIKRAMA: Citric acid.
PRABHUPADA: Yes, lemon juice. Achintya-shakti, inconceivable power. The cow, eating grass, producing milk—this is inconceivable power. Can you produce milk from the grass? But how the cow is producing? Hmm? Answer this. You eat grass and produce milk. Give your wife grass and let her produce milk.
[break] Your question is answered? Eh?
SATSVARUPA: Well, it’s answered, but they would say that our saying that… You said… I said, “Where did God come from?” You say that is the definition of God.
PRABHUPADA: Yes.
SATSVARUPA: But then they can say…
PRABHUPADA: Everything comes from God, but He’s self-sufficient. That is God. That is the searching out God, that you search… You… Wherefrom you came? From your father. Then your father comes from his father, from his father. Go on, go on. When you reach one person—he does not come from any father; he is self-sufficient—then He’s God. That is the definition of… If God also comes like you, from a father, then how He is God? He’s like you. That is the difference.
SATSVARUPA: But they say that’s not logically proved.
PRABHUPADA: That is logical… Means you have no brain to understand. That’s all. That is the distinction between God and ourself. We are caused, but He is cause of all causes. That is God. Otherwise, how you’ll distinguish between you and God? You are caused, but He is not caused. He’s causeless. If He becomes caused, then He becomes like you. Then how He becomes God? That is the distinction between God and ourself. In the Srimad-Bhagavatam, in the beginning it is said, svarat.
SATSVARUPA: Independent.
PRABHUPADA: Yes. Janmady asya yatah: [SB 1.1.1] “This Absolute Truth is that from which, who is the origin of everything, but He’s svarat.” This is the first line of Bhagavata. Janmady asya yatah anvayat itaratash cha artheshu abhijñah svarat [SB 1.1.1].
SATSVARUPA: They don’t like it because God doesn’t come under their jurisdiction, then.
PRABHUPADA: Eh?
SATSVARUPA: They want… They want God to be under their jurisdiction. So…
PRABHUPADA: That is their foolishness. You shall be under the jurisdiction of God. God is not under your jurisdiction. Then how He is God?
