“To think of material nature as all in all, not knowing the original cause, is ignorance”

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Adi-lila 5.52 — “The Glories Of Lord Nityananda Balarama”: […] When a potter manufactures a pot from clay, the potter’s wheel, his tools and the clay are the immediate causes of the pot, but the potter is the chief cause.

Similarly, Narayana is the chief cause of all material creations, and the material energy supplies the ingredients of matter. Therefore without Narayana, all other causes are useless, just as the potter’s wheel and tools are useless without the potter himself.

Since materialistic scientists ignore the Personality of Godhead, it is as if they were concerned with the potter’s wheel and its rotation, the potter’s tools and the ingredients for the pots, but had no knowledge of the potter himself. Full Purport