“Trees are also intelligent because it is Life”

Prabhupada, June 20, 1974, Germany: […] Trees are also intelligent because it is life. There is intelligence. You will see one tree is growing. If there is wall, it will grow like this. Have you seen it?

Hamsaduta: Yes.

Prabhupada: That is intelligence. And it is proved by science. Dr. Jagadisha Candra Bose, in Calcutta, he has got institute. A machine records how a tree feeling. You cut one tree. How it is feeling pain, that is recorded in the machine.

Hamsaduta: Plants also hear sound. They made some experiment that when they grow plants with music, they grow more.

Prabhupada: Oh, just see.

Hamsaduta: In greenhouses. They play music. Then they become more healthy.

Prabhupada: Just see. Their sensation is very covered. Just like you cut the nails. There is no sensation. And does it mean there is no sensation—therefore there is no life? Unless there is life, how it is growing? It is growing; therefore you cut. But when you cut, there is no sensation. But there is life. Otherwise, how it is growing? The same nail, when you cut, you throw it on the ground. It will not grow. These are practical example. Just like little child. Their sensation is less. I know. My eldest daughter, when she was six months old, there was some boil. So the doctor operated. She simply, “Uh, uh,” no cried. I have seen it. She was not crying. But the same boil, when a fully developed man, he will feel more sensation. So according to the body, the sensations are different. The same things, means mind, intelligence and ego, according to the body, they act differently. But the mind, intelligence and ego are there. The dog is coming, and if I say, “Hut!”, unless it has got intelligence, how it goes away the other way? There is intelligence. There is no language, but because he has got intelligence, he can immediately understand I don’t want him to come here. So how you can say there is no intelligence? The rascals say, “The animals have no intelligence; therefore they have no soul.” If one has no intelligence, there is no soul. That is admitted. But here is intelligence. How can you deny, “There is no soul”? The animals, the cows, when they are taken to the slaughterhouse, why they cry? Because he has intelligence that “Now I am going to be killed.” And these rascals say there is no soul. And still, they are religious priests. Such fools and rascals are made religious fools, priests. No common sense. [….] Full Conversation