The Evolution of Consciousness
Dr.Singh: Srila Prabhupada, I came across a statement in the Bhagavad-gita to the effect that all 8,400,000 species of living entities are created simultaneously.
Is that correct? Srila Prabhupada: Yes.
Dr.Singh: Does that mean that there are some living entities who come directly to the human species without undergoing the evolutionary process? Srila Prabhupada: Yes.
Living beings move from one bodily form to another.
The forms already exist.
The living entity simply transfers himself, just as a man transfers himself from one apartment to another.
One apartment is first class, another is second class and another is third class.
Suppose a person comes from a lower-class apartment to a first-class apartment.
The person is the same, but now, according to his capacity for payment, or karma,[13] he is able to occupy a higher-class apartment.
Real evolution does not mean physical development, but development of consciousness.
Do you follow? Dr.Singh: I think so.
Do you mean that if one falls to one of the lower stages of life, he must evolve step by step up to the higher stages? Srila Prabhupada: Yes.
As you get more money you can move to a better apartment.
The apartment already exists, however.
It is not that the lower-class apartment becomes the higher-class apartment.
That is Darwin's nonsensical theory.
He would say that the apartment has become high class.
Modern scientists think that life has come from matter.
They say that millions and millions of years ago there was simply matter, but no life.
We do not accept that.
Of the two energies--life and matter--life, or spirit, is the original, superior energy, and matter is the resultant inferior energy.
Dr.Singh: Do they exist simultaneously? Srila Prabhupada: Yes, but spirit is independent, and matter is dependent.
For example, I can live even without my hands or legs.
If they were amputated, I could survive.
Therefore I am not dependent on my hands and legs; my hands and legs are dependent on me, the spirit soul within my body.