Prabhupada's lecture - Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.7.12 - Vṛndāvana, September 11, 1976


We use this word "omnipotency," but we do not know actually what is that omnipotency. Omnipotency means He has got diverse energies. That is omnipotency. And we do not know by which energy He's acting in a particular case. But this is a fact, that His energy is working. And He says also in the Bhagavad-gītā directly, mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram [Bg. 9.10]. Mayādhyakṣeṇa, "Under My supervision prakṛti is acting." So how prakṛti is directed, how Kṛṣṇa is directing prakṛti to make a nice flower... Just like here, they're painting flower on the wall. It takes so much time, so much arrangement. Still, it is not as good as a natural flower. Here you have painted one rose flower, and here are roses.

There is art also, and here is art also. Without art, without artistic sense, how this nice thing, beautiful thing, can come in? You'll find a beautiful flower bloom in a plant, you appreciate it. And don't think, as the rascal says, "By nature it has come automatically." No. The same energy as you are taking, you are applying your energy to paint a flower on the wall with your paints and brushes... But Kṛṣṇa is also doing that, but His energy is so inconceivable that we cannot see how He's working. But He's working. Otherwise why Kṛṣṇa says, mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ: [Bg. 9.10] "Prakṛti is working under My direction"? Is it a bluff? No. Actually prakṛti is acting under His direction.