528 Sri Caitanya-caritamrta

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
Brhad-aranyaka Upanisad—that different kinds of living creatures are put into dif-
ferent 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.
Bhagavaa-gitd also further affirms:

purusah prakrti-stho hi
bhunhkte prakrti-jan gunan

karanarh guna-sango ’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 dif-
ferent 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 dis-
tinction 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 pradhdna, matter, cannot
act unless impelled by a living creature. The materialistic theory that matter inde-
pendently acts cannot, therefore, be accepted. Matter is called prakrti, which refers
to female energy. A woman is prakrti, a female. A female cannot produce a child
without the association of a purusa, a man. The purusa 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 ap-
pears to be the material and efficient cause of the birth of a child, originally the
purusa, the male, is the cause of the child. Similarly, this material world gives rise to
varieties of manifestations due to the entrance of Garbhodakasayi Visnu 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-
samhitd 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
