No one—Not Even Darwin—Can Be Independent

Is your intellect helpful in knowing God? The animals have no intellect for understanding God, but human beings has got that intellect. That is the distinction between animals and human beings.

But the human being has a special intellect, more developed than the animals. He can understand what he is, what God is, what this cosmic manifestation is, and what the aim of life is— how we should conduct our lives. This is the prerogative of the human being. The animals have no such prerogative.

Now, if we do not utilize these special intellectual facilities, then we remain animals; we do not make any spiritual advancement. At the present moment. we are simply trying to improve our access to the material necessities of life—eating, sleeping, mating, and defending. We are thinking, “The dog is eating on the floor. If we can eat at a table, using chairs and nice dishes, that is the advancement of civilization.”

We are thinking like that. The dog is sleeping outdoors, but if we sleep in a very nice apartment, lavishly decorated, that is the advancement of civilization. The dog is having sexual intercourse on the street, without shame—and we are also coming to that point—but for the time being, if we have sexual intercourse in an apartment, in the name of love and so on, that is advancement. The dog is defending with his jaws and nails, and we are defending with nuclear bombs; therefore, we are advanced.

But we have forgotten that the human being has got this special intellect to understand God. That understanding we are not pursuing.

The whole Darwinian theory is false. It has no sound basis. Darwin himself admits that it is just a theory. The theory is not science. I can propose some theory—” It is like that.” But that is not science. Science means observation plus experimental proof. That is science.

You observe how the rules are working, and when you practically bring them to bear in your experiment, then it is science. If you simply theorize, that is not science. It is mental speculation. There is no benefit.

You can speculate, constructing a castle in the air. That is not a very good thing. You should present something which will benefit the people, something practical. That is science.

So if you simply live in illusion, then where is your education? If you remain in darkness, then where is your education? Illusion means darkness. So if you are in darkness, now, where is your education? And where is your philosophy?

One must be spiritually inclined to understand real human life and should not live in an ignorant life.

(Morning walk speech by Swami Prabhupada)