Invention means

Expressions researched:
"invention means"

Philosophy Discussions

My predecessors, they might have felt that chair, they invented. But at the present moment, my predecessor is also gone, the chair is also gone. So invention means the things which I create that was not in existence.

Philosophy Discussion on The Evolutionists Thomas Huxley, Henri Bergson, and Samuel Alexander:

Śyāmasundara: Yet many philosophers would say that this is the reason that religion has come about, that man feels a necessity for God, so he invents God.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Not invents. He knows God. This is natural. Just like if a sane man is there, so who is the original father? Huh? Just like I have got a father. Everyone knows. My father has a father. His father's father's father... Then who is the original father?

Śyāmasundara: So he can invent his original father.

Prabhupāda: No. He can simply know by this philosophical research who is the original father. And the Vedānta-sūtra also says, "God is He who is the original father of everything." Janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1).

Śyāmasundara: In a sense, the man is not really inventing a chair either. There is already an idea of chair previously existing. He's just discovering it, something which already exists. Is that correct?

Prabhupāda: Yes, in that sense, that I am feeling the necessity of armchair. My predecessors, they might have felt that chair, they invented. But at the present moment, my predecessor is also gone, the chair is also gone. So invention means the things which I create that was not in existence. That is called invention?

Śyāmasundara: Hm.

Prabhupāda: And discovery: The thing is already there; I simply find it out. So invention and discovery practically convey the same idea.

Śyāmasundara: Yes. Because actually nothing is new. If I...

Prabhupāda: That is discovery.

Śyāmasundara: If I invent something...

Prabhupāda: Similarly, in case of God, it is discovery. It is not invention. It is discovery.

Śyāmasundara: Yes. Just like the idea of a chair is already there in nature. Nature provides a chair.

Prabhupāda: Nature provides a sitting place. Just like when there is a slab of stone anywhere, I wish to sit down on it. Psychology. Then the next proposal is, "Why not invent something at my home? It is here in a... I cannot take it." You can say the idea was there already, to sit down on a high place comfortably. So I come home and make a chair according to that idea.