Jyotirmayi: I wanted to know if they should learn biology. Srila Prabhupada: What is the use? Jyotirmayi: Just to have some general knowledge. Srila Prabhupada: Simply a waste of time. Jyotirmayi: To learn the basics? Srila Prabhupada: What are the basics? What will they benefit by that? Biology is going on, whether you study it or not. You are eating. The food is transforming into blood. Everyone knows it. How is it transforming into blood? What is the use of knowing? Jyotirmayi: You said that they should learn geography and history just to have some general knowledge. Srila Prabhupada: That is because you have to go from America to India. You have to calculate two plus two equal to four; therefore, a little mathematics. But this biology or that -logy are useless. There is no necessity. What will they gain by understanding biology? Even one who knows biology, the medical man, gives a tablet, saying, “Perhaps it may help you.” “Perhaps.” He’s not sure. So what is the use? First he’ll take one ounce of blood from you; then there’s this test, that test; then he makes a chart. Then he’ll give a tablet, “Perhaps this may help you.” This is going on. Jyotirmayi: I was teaching them how to recognize the different plants. Is that useful? Srila Prabhupada: That is botanical study. That also has no utilization, but you can teach them that since the plant is coming from earth, the earth is the mother of the plant. Convince them. The grain is coming. The man is eating food grains. So, originally the earth is the mother, feeding everyone. Convince them. All living entities are children. Mother earth is mother. Where is the father? The mother is there; the children are there; there must be a father. You can know it from your mother-from Veda-mata. You have to know from the Vedas. Sarva-yonisu kaunteya murtayah sambhavanti yah / tasam brahma mahad yonir aham bija-pradah pita. Just as the father gives the seed, similarly Krsna gives the seed. When the seed is pushed into the womb of mother earth and properly nourished, a rose plant comes out. The father injects the seed within the womb of the mother, and the child comes out. Similarly, for whatever is coming out from the earth, the seed-giving father is Krsna. What is the necessity of understanding more than this? How the child is growing is not under your control. Prakrteh kriyamanani gunaih karmani. It is in the hands of nature. Even if you study, you cannot understand. The intestine is joined to the navel of the child, and the food is supplied. Can anyone do? Can anyone understand? Even if you study, you cannot understand. The best thing is to understand that it is being done by nature under the instruction of the Supreme Lord. Let us chant Hare Krsna instead of studying this. There are many students, many botanists. Bravely they’ll study, and they have no understanding of Krsna. Rather they deny the father. This is their knowledge. Instead of becoming such a fool and rascal, it is better not to study.

(Conversation in New Mayapur, France, July 31, 1976)