528
Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta
produces different kinds of trees, and enters different kinds of flowers and fruits with different flavors and tastes. Therefore, they say, matter produces varieties of material things on its own. In reply to this argument, the same proposition of the  Bṛhad-āraṇyaka Upaniṣad —that different kinds of living creatures are put into different kinds of bodies by the management of a superior power—is repeated. Under superior superintendence, various souls, according to their past activities, are given the chance to take a particular type of body, such as that of a tree, animal, bird or beast, and thus their different tendencies develop under these circumstances.  Bhagavad-gītā  also further affirms:
puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu
'The living entity in material nature follows the ways of life, enjoying the three modes of nature. This is due to his association with that material nature. Thus he meets with good and evil among various species.' (Bg. 13.22) The soul is given different types of bodies. For example, were souls not given varieties of tree bodies, the different varieties of fruits and flowers could not be produced. Each class of trees produce a particular kind of fruit and flower, it is not that there is no distinction between the different classes. An individual tree does not produce flowers of different colors, nor fruits of different tastes. There are demarcated classes, as we find them among humans, animals, birds and other species. There are innumerable living entities, and their activities, performed in the material world according to the different qualities of the material modes of nature, give them the chance to have different kinds of life. Thus one should understand that  pradhāna , matter, cannot act unless impelled by a living creature. The materialistic theory that matter independently acts cannot, therefore, be accepted. Matter is called  prakṛti , which refers to female energy. A woman is  prakṛti , a female. A female cannot produce a child without the association of a  puruṣa , a man. The  puruṣa  causes the birth of a child because the man injects the soul, which is sheltered in the semina, into the womb of the woman. The woman, as the material cause, supplies the body of the soul, and as the efficient cause she gives birth to the child. But although the woman appears to be the material and efficient cause of the birth of a child, originally the  puruṣa , the male, is the cause of the child. Similarly, this material world gives rise to varieties of manifestations due to the entrance of Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu within the universe. He is present not only within the universe but within the bodies of all living creatures, as well as within the atom. We understand from the  Brahma-saṁhitā  that the Supersoul is present within the universe, within the atom and within the heart of every living creature. Therefore the theory that matter is the cause of the entire cosmic manifestation cannot be accepted by any man with sufficient knowledge of matter and spirit.
"Materialists sometimes give the argument that as straw eaten by a cow produces milk automatically, so material nature, under different circumstances, produces