Prabhupāda: Yes. Was active, He is active, but you, you rascal, you cannot see. You cannot say, "Once He was active. Now He is no more active. He has finished His activity." That you cannot say. Dormant? What do you mean by dormant? Huh? Dormant means potential. He can act. And He is acting. That acting, you have to learn how He is acting. He appears to be not acting, but He is acting. That is knowledge. Just like aeroplane is running. A intelligent man knows that "The pilot is there. He is acting. Therefore it is running." And a foolish man will say, "The aeroplane is going automatically." That is the question of observation. A foolish boy... I have given this example many times, that I was thinking that in the fan there is a ghost. But the idea is, there must be somebody. Although I was a child... I could not explain how the fan is running in my childhood. I was thinking there must be some ghost. And in the gramophone box I was thinking there must be one man within this box. So this is foolish thinking, but I was convinced that without somebody, it cannot sing or it cannot run. Even one is very innocent child, he can think like that. So whole thing is going on, prakṛti, the activities of material nature... Just like there was cloud and rain. Now it is not raining. So there is activity already. It is being managed. So you cannot say that God is dormant. He is acting because His creation is acting, and God says that mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram (BG 9.10): "Under My direction the nature is working." How you can say He is dormant? The nature is working.
Harikeśa: Well, just like a man may make a chemical reaction in the beginning by mixing two or three chemicals, but then the reaction takes place by itself. It doesn't need the man once he started it.
Prabhupāda: No, doesn't need the man... He is needed for another reaction. That will not take automatically.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So another theory is, why you have to say that there is a cause? It was always there. There was no cause. It was always there...
Prabhupāda: No, it is caused. Why do you say "God created"?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, we say there is no God, and the creation was always there. There's no question of it not being there.
Prabhupāda: Hmm?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There was always there. There was always...
Harikeśa: It's eternal.
Jagadīśa: Conservation of energy.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's eternal. There's no question of any creator being required. It is there.
Prabhupāda: No. Then why do you say, "God created and He became...?"
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We don't say.
Prabhupāda: He said.
Hṛdayānanda: He's another rascal. (laughter)
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He has... He is some sentimentalist, a fanatic, religious fanatic.
Prabhupāda: Then you talk. He said, "God created." You say not. Then you talk. Now you decide. Now he has accused you that you are a nonsense.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He's a religious fanatic. I told him, he's a religious fanatic.
Prabhupāda: Not fanatic. (aside:) Hare Kṛṣṇa.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You have no explanation, so you're simply giving it the name "God."
Prabhupāda: No, why not explanation? Why not explanation, that "Nature is working"? He said that "God is dormant. God created," and he accepted. And "God is dormant. He is not doing anything." But no, that's not the fact. The nature's work is going on.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Nature is going on.
Prabhupāda: So the nature is directed by God.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No.
Prabhupāda: Why not?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's not. It's moving of its own accord.
Prabhupāda: Then he is another rascal. Nature cannot work automatically. Just like mother, nature mother. The mother cannot produce child without father.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Right. Father and mother required.
Prabhupāda: Yes. So how do you say, "The mother is producing child without any father"? That you cannot say.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, but why are you comparing nature to a father and mother?
Prabhupāda: This is also nature. Everything is nature. Are you outside nature? That is another nonsense. Your body is nature; your activities are nature; everything is nature. How you can say you are out of nature? Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi (BG 3.27). He has got some intelligence, I have got some intelligence, but the intelligence is coming from nature. Otherwise how you are intelligent? Somebody is intelligent; somebody is dull. Unless there is some background, how do you find the difference? Here you see some flower is red, some flower white. How it is being done? You cannot say "automatically."
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, we say... We agree, everything came originally from some elements.
Prabhupāda: That "some" He has explained. He is God.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, we don't... We say that those elements were always there. There is no need of any creator of those elements. They were always there.
Prabhupāda: No, no.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They are the basic elements.
Prabhupāda: Yes, "always there," but there must have been creation of these elements. Just like in the laboratory, you..., soda bicarb. Carbonate mixed with soda makes soda bicarb. Sulfuric acid. You take sulphur and turn into acid by mixing with something else. That is going on.