“Oh, biology,” Prabhupada said. “Hmm, poor frogs.” Everyone in the lounge-except the biologist-burst into laughter.

“No, no,” the biologist protested, embarrassed. “Why “poor frogs’?”

“Because you are killing,” Prabhupada said.

“But it is for the advancement of knowledge,” said the biologist. “So it is worthwhile. It is for the advancement of knowledge.”

“All right,” said Prabhupada, “if I ask you now, will you give your body for the advancement of knowledge?” Everyone in the room began to laugh.

“Yes! Yes, I would!” the man replied. But the more he protested, repeating, “Yes, I would!” the more ridiculous he seemed, and the harder everyone laughed.

Transcript:

Susan McConnell Ph.D. (Stanford University):

“Billions of brain cells are not dumb forging links with billions of other brain cells. Eventually there will be trillions and trillions of connections between cells charged with electrical pulses rippling like lightning storms across the hills and the valleys of the brain’s tissue. Every cell in its place, every link between cells carefully organized, nothing random, nothing arbitrary.

What we would really love to understand is how the brain during development generates millions and millions neurons, sends them to the right position in the brain, and then somehow instructs each of those individual nerve cells to form very, very specific connections with one another. You can think about the brain development like a play, a play that follows a script that is written down by the generic code, but it has no director and has no producer, and it has a bunch of actors that have never spoken their lines before. Despite all this you pull the play off. To me that’s a miracle.”

My COMMENT:

Ms. Susan calls it a miracle. In other words the brain is so highly organized that it is beyond any possibility of it happening by chance, unattended by an intelligent supervisor. In the Vedas that “intelligent supervisor” is called paramatma (parama atma). Parama=transcendental, beyond, supreme. Atma=soul or entity. The paramatma directs wondering of all living organisms such as humans, animals, insects, and also including neurons and electrons.

Here is the mantra:

isvarah sarva-bhutanam
hrd-dese ‘rjuna tisthati
bhramayan sarva-bhutani
yantrarudhani mayaya

(The word hrt-dese indicates the paramatma, the object of yogi’s meditation, positioned in the hearts of all living entities.)

Complete translation:

“The paramatma is situated in everyone’s heart and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy.”