Taṇḍula means rice, and vṛścika means scorpion. The scorpion coming out of the heaps of rice, so therefore rice is producing scorpion. This logic is wrong.
Devotee: They were arguing that rice can bring forth scorpions. He said that could happen.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: That . . . Prabhupāda said that rice can give scorpions? Something like that, scorpion comes out of rice.
Prabhupāda: Yes, taṇḍula-vṛścika-nyāya. Taṇḍula-vṛścika-nyāya.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Where is this, Śrīla Prabhupāda? Is it in . . .?
Prabhupāda: In the Nyāya-śāstra, it is there. Taṇḍula-vṛścika-nyāya. Taṇḍula means rice, and vṛścika means scorpion. The scorpion coming out of the heaps of rice, so therefore rice is producing scorpion. This logic is wrong.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, so, but people even believed like that. So Pasteur, actually he believed strongly in God, and he wanted to disprove that theory, and in fact he got prize for doing this experiment from a French academy, and during that year . . . this flask contains sugar solution, and with some yeast to ferment at the beginning. But now the experiment was to completely kill any germs inside the flask by heating, in the beginning, and then cool it down automatically and to keep for some time, about two or three days . . .
Prabhupāda: Sterilization.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, sterilization. And then see whether there is any life developed within that broth. Now in the first flask, where the neck is still attached to the flask, now Pasteur found that there was no micro-organisms fermenting the flask, in the solution inside the flask. But after some time he cut the neck of the flask, that is in the second flask, then as soon as the neck is cut, then micro-organisms from the air, surrounding air, atmosphere, entered into the flask, and then the solution is fermented. So that was actually the proof that without presence of the micro-organisms from outside, from the atmosphere, then life cannot grow into that matter.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is Vedic theory. That is explained in the Bhāgavatam.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: And here he has a nice quote, Pasteur. Somebody can read that?
Hari-śauri: Says: "Posterity will one day laugh at the foolishness of the modern materialistic philosophers. The more I study nature, the more I stand amazed at the works of the creator."
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: So he believed actually completely in the divine concept, divine personality. But unfortunately, this experiment has been misinterpreted by these demoniac scientists.