Author: JayaSri Devi Dasi

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.10.27 & 28:

• Even in the matter of evacuating stool, the refuse is controlled, so how can the living entity claim to be independent?
• The prāṇa-vāyu continues the life, and the apāna-vāyu stops the living force. Both the vibrations are generated from the abdominal hole, the navel.
• This navel is the joint from one body to the other. Lord Brahmā was born of the abdominal hole of Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu as a separate body, and the same principle is followed even in the birth of any ordinary body. 
• The body of the child develops from the body of the mother, and when the child is separated from the body of the mother, it is separated by cutting the navel joint. And that is the way the Supreme Lord manifested Himself as separated many. 
• The living entities are therefore separated parts, and thus they have no independence.
• The forms are already there from the beginning of creation. There is evolution, however, but Darwin thinks that this is an evolution of the body. That is incorrect. The body never evolves, but the soul within the body evolves and transmigrates from one body to another. The soul is within the body, and as he desires, he evolves.
• Whatever is taking place in material nature is being directed by the Supreme Lord, who maintains everything in order. When one species becomes overly dominant, nature arranges to curb it. According to the theory of Malthus, whenever there is overpopulation, there must be some war, epidemic, or earthquake. These natural activities do not take place by chance but are planned. If Darwin says it is a matter of chance, his knowledge is insufficient. 
• Srila Prabhupada:  We accept evolution, but we also accept the fact that the species are all existing simultaneously now. If they are not existing on this planet, they are existing on some other. Of course, Darwin had no chance to study that. We accept the proposition that there is an evolutionary process from aquatics to insects to birds to animals and to humans, but we do not accept Darwin’s theory that one species becomes extinct as another survives. All are existing simultaneously. 
• Syamasundara dasa: But there are many forms that are extinct on this planet. 
• Srila Prabhupada: But has Darwin seen all the planets and all the universes? Has he the power to see everything? Since our powers are limited, we cannot conclude that a particular species is extinct. Of course, the scientists do not accept the fact that our senses, by which we are gathering information, are limited. But they are. It is not possible to excavate the entire earth. We can only take samples. Our first charge against Darwin is that human life was always existing. He cannot prove that at a certain time there was no human life. It is not that the bodies of the species are changing. These bodies are already there. Rather, the soul is changing bodies, transmigrating from one body to another, and this is actual evolution. It is the evolution or progress of the soul from one body to another. 
• If you see a plan or design, you must ask, “Whose design?” As soon as you admit that there is a design, you must admit a designer. Behind the great machine of nature there is a brain that has set it in order. We explain the original source of everything as Brahman, the Absolute Truth, Krsna.
• Scientists admit that they do not know where things are coming from, but when they see them, they suddenly claim to have invented them. But that is not invention. These things are already there. 
• Syamasundara dasa: When the Padma Purana says that there are 400,000 species of human life, what does it mean?
• Srila Prabhupada: There are differences in culture and in body types. Scientists will say that human beings are all of one species, but when they speak of species, they mean something different. The Vedas, for instance, would consider the Negroes and Aryans to belong to different species. As far as Krsna consciousness is concerned, bodies may differ; it doesn’t matter. Our classification is on the basis of the soul. The soul is equal despite different types of bodies. The soul is one and does not change.

SB 2.10.27 – 3/2/22

Thereafter, when He desired to evacuate the refuse of eatables, the evacuating hole, anus, and the sensory organ thereof developed along with the controlling deity Mitra. The sensory organ and the evacuating substance are both under the shelter of the controlling deity.

Even in the matter of evacuating stool, the refuse is controlled, so how can the living entity claim to be independent?

SB 2.10.28 – 3/2/22

​​Thereafter, when He desired to move from one body to another, the navel and the air of departure and death were combinedly created. The navel is the shelter for both, namely death and the separating force.

The prāṇa-vāyu continues the life, and the apāna-vāyu stops the living force. Both the vibrations are generated from the abdominal hole, the navel. This navel is the joint from one body to the other. Lord Brahmā was born of the abdominal hole of Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu as a separate body, and the same principle is followed even in the birth of any ordinary body. The body of the child develops from the body of the mother, and when the child is separated from the body of the mother, it is separated by cutting the navel joint. And that is the way the Supreme Lord manifested Himself as separated many. The living entities are therefore separated parts, and thus they have no independence.

Step by step creation of the body. Every part of the body is under the control of devas who are under the control of Krsna. The matter of birth, construction of body and death is all controlled by Krsna.  

SB tells us who God is where He lives, what he eats, all the information, if we do not take advantage of this then we are stuck in this material world birth after birth.. No absolute guarantee what the next body will be it depends on our desires. To be able to focus on the Lord and purify our desires Lord Caitanya gave the method of chanting Hare Krsna and going out on sankirtan.. Prayer is one way of connecting to God, Mahamantra is more than a prayer it is not asking for anything material. It is only asking Krsna to protect us so we can always engage in the service of the Lord. 

Human body is meant for – 

• To cultivate the culture of KC- Sleeping early, waking up early, taking bath, chanting in brahma muhurta.. 
• To get knowledge of Krsna. 

Vedas base species on Culture and knowledge of Krsna 

Darwin base species on body types. 

Dialectic Spiritulism – Page 300

Hayagriva dasa: Darwin’s conception of evolution rests on the premise that there is a real genetic change from generation to generation. In other words, he rejects the Platonic eidos (idea, type, or essence) for a species. Whereas Knn)a says that He is the generating seed of all existences, Darwin would reject the existence of a particular seed for a particular type. There are no fixed species, but shifting, evolving, physical forms, sonstantly changing. 

Srila Prabhupada: No. The forms are already there from the beginning of creation. There is evolution, however, but Darwin thinks that this is an evolution of the body. That is incorrect. The body never evolves, but the soul within the body evolves and transmigrates from one body to another. The soul is within the body, and as he desires, he evolves. A man may desire to change apartments, and he may move from one apartment to another, but it is the man who is doing the changing, not the apartment. According to the Vedic conception, the soul evolves, not the body. 

Syamasundara dasa: Darwin originated the doctrine of natural selection and survival of the fittest. An animal, he maintains, will develop in a way that is best suited for survival in his environment, and he will pass on his superior qualities to his offspring. Some species survive, and others, not so suitable to the environment, die out. 

Srila Prabhupada: A snake gives birth to many hundreds of snakes at a time, and if so many snakes are allowed to exist, there will be a disturbance. Therefore, according to nature’s law, the big snakes eat up the small snakes. Nature’s law is not blind, because behind it there is a brain, and that brain is God. mayiidhyak�erJa prakr:til} suyate sa-cariicaram hetuniinena kaunteya jagad viparivartate “This material nature is working under My direction, 0 son of Kuntl, and it is producing all moving and unmoving beings. By its rule this manifestation is created and annihilated again and again. ” (Bg. 9.10) Whatever is taking place in material nature is being directed by the Supreme Lord, who maintains everything in order. When one species becomes overly dominant, nature arranges to curb it. According to the theory of Malthus, whenever there is overpopulation, there must be some war, epidemic, or earthquake. These natural activities do not take place by chance but are planned. If Darwin says it is a matter of chance, his knowledge is insufficient. 

Syamasundara dasa: Darwin also sees a plan or design in nature. 

Srila Prabhupada: If you see a plan or design, you must ask, “Whose design?” As soon as you admit that there is a design, you must admit a designer. It is nonsense to say that nature is simply working mechanically. If so, there must be some mechanic to set it in motion. The sun rises exactly to the minute, to the second, and the seasons also come according to plan. Behind the great machine of nature there is a brain that has set it in order. We explain the original source of everything as Brahman, the Absolute Truth, Krsna. Scientists admit that they do not know where things are coming from, but when they see them, they suddenly claim to have invented them. But that is not invention. These things are already there. 

Syamasundara dasa: From scientific research, it is concluded that through the years, animals have evolved toward more and more complex forms, from very simple forms found in the sea to more complex forms, such as dinosaurs and so on. These forms eventually died out, and other forms evolved from them. 

Srila Prabhupada: When you say they died out, you mean that those animals no longer exist on this earth. But how can you say that they are not existing somewhere else? Now, according to Darwin’s theory of evolution, the human body evolved from the simians. 

Syamasundara dasa: He claims that they are related, that they come from the same ancestor. 

Srila Prabhupada: That is another thing. Everything is related. But he claims that the ape’s body or monkey’s body developed into a human body. If that is the case, why haven’t the simians ceased to exist? We can see that apes, monkeys, and human beings are existing simultaneously. Scientists cannot prove that no human being existed aeons ago. If man evolved from the ape, the ape should no longer exist. Karyakarana. When the effect is there, the cause is finished. 

Syamasundara dasa: It is not that the monkey caused the man to exist; rather, they came from a common ancestor. 

Srila Prabhupada: We say that we all come from God, the same ancestor, the same father. The original father is Krsna. sarva-yoni!ju kaunteya milrtayal], sambhavanti yal], tiisiim brahma mahad yonir aham bfja-pradal], pita “It should be understood that all species oflife, 0 son of Kuntl, are made possible by birth in this material nature, and that I am the seed-giving father. ” (Bg. 14.4) 

Syamasundara dasa: Any any rate, according to Darwin’s theory, there is an evolution from simpler forms to more complex forms, from small one-celled animals to more complex animals like man. 

Srila Prabhupada: But at the present moment, the simple forms are existing along with the complex. It is not that the simplest developed into the most complex. My present body has developed from my childhood body, but that childhood body is no longer existing. Presently, the species are simultaneously existing. 

Syamasundara dasa: But they find no evidence that all these complex forms existed in earlier times. Srila Prabhupada: Earlier times or modern times are not in question. When I see all the 8,400,000 species still existing, where is the question of development? You may not know or have evidence that these forms existed long ago, but that is due to your imperfect knowledge. These species are all existing now, and they were existing millions of years ago. You may not have evidence of this, but that is a different thing. We accept evolution, but we also accept the fact that the species are all existing simultaneously now. If they are not existing on this planet, they are existing on some other. Of course, Darwin had no chance to study that. We accept the proposition that there is an evolutionary process from aquatics to insects to birds to animals and to humans, but we do not accept Darwin’s theory that one species becomes extinct as another survives. All are existing simultaneously. 

Syamasundara dasa: But there are many forms that are extinct on this planet. 

Srila Prabhupada: But has Darwin seen all the planets and all the universes? Has he the power to see everything? Since our powers are limited, we cannot conclude that a particular species is extinct. Of course, the scientists do not accept the fact that our senses, by which we are gathering information, are limited. But they are. It is not possible to excavate the entire earth. We can only take samples. Our first charge against Darwin is that human life was always existing. He cannot prove that at a certain time there was no human life. It is not that the bodies of the species are changing. These bodies are already there. Rather, the soul is changing bodies, transmigrating from one body to another, and this is actual evolution. It is the evolution or progress of the soul from one body to another. 

Hayagriva dasa: Concerning the soul, Darwin writes: “A few persons feel anxiety from the impossibility of determining at what precise period in the development of the individual, from the first trace of a minute germinal vesicle, man becomes an immortal being, and there is no greater cause for anxiety because the period cannot possibly be determined in the gradually ascending organic scale.” That is, it is i_mpossible t9 know at what point the immortal soul inhabits these species. 

Srila Prabhupada: The soul is the most important factor, and in order to understand the soul, education is required. It is the soul that moves the body, whether that body be that of an ant, bacteria, a human being, animal, or whatever. Nothing can move without the presence of the soul, and each and every individual soul is immortal. 

Syamasundara dasa: As mentioned, Darwin doesn’t accept the fact that there are a fixed number of species. Rather, he maintains that the species may vary at different times according to natural selection. There are new s ecies always evolving. 

Srila Prabhupada: But what does he know of all the species? Does he have a complete list of all the species in the universe? From Padma Puriil}a, we learn that there are 8,400,000 species. First of all, we must understand what all these species are. You may walk through a market and see many different types of people. As you walk, you continue to see different types of people, but you cannot say that a particular type no longer exists because you do not see it anymore. The point is that you can neither see nor comprehend the beginning or the end. 

Syamasundara dasa: Well, they claim that everything started with a one-celled animal. $rila Prabhupada: But where did that animal come from? Syamasundara dasa: From chemical combinations. 

Srila Prabhupada: Then who supplied the chemicals?

Syamasundara dasa: Scientists are not so concerned with who, but with the existing phenomena. 

Srila Prabhupada: Mere study of phenomena is childish. Real science means finding the original cause. Darwin may have studied this island or that island, or he may have dug holes in this desert or that desert, but he has not seen the other millions of planets that are existing in the universe. He has not excavated and dug into the depths of all the other planets. How, then, can he conclude that this is all? He speaks of natural selection, but he has not perfectly studied nature. He has only studied nature functioning in a particular place, and a very small place at that. When we speak of nature, we refer to prakr;ti. We refer to the universe. There are millions of universes, and Darwin has not studied them, yet he is drawing all these conclusions. There is certainly natural selection, but Darwin does not know how it is working. Darwin’s defect is that he has no information of the soul.

Syamasundara dasa: The fact remains that excavations throughout the world prove the existence of species that no longer exist on this planet. 

Srila Prabhupada: But nature is not confined to this one planet. When you speak of material nature, you must include all the planets in the umverse. 

Syamasundara dasa: But the scientists have no evidence that all the species have been existing from time immemorial. 

Srila Prabhupada: You cannot give evidence that the sun existed millions of years ago; still, we conclude that it did. The sun was not just created this morning. Within the sun, everything is existing, and if the sun is existing, other things must be existing also. Darwin draws conclusions about nature from a limited study of this one planet. This is not full knowledge. If your knowledge is not perfect, why should we accept your theories? Whether complex life-forms were existing on this planet millions of years ago is not really the point. All these forms are existing in nature. According to the Vedas, the species in nature are fixed at 8,400,000: These may or may not be existing in your neighborhood, but that is not important. The number is fixed, and they are simultaneously existing. There may be an evolution from simpler forms to more complex, but it is not that a species becomes extinct. Real evolution is the evolution of the soul through the existing species. Now, we admit that with the changes of seasons, or with extreme heat or cold, differences may arise, but it is not that the species are new. If there is a great flood, and all the men on earth are drowned, the human species is not extinct. Man may or may not survive certain catastrophes; this does not affect the species. We cannot say that the human species is extinct, but that under these circumstances man has survived or not survived. Whatever the case, human beings are existing somewhere else.

Syamasundara dasa: When the Padma Purana says that there are 400,000 species of human life, what does it mean?

 Srila Prabhupada: There are differences in culture and in body types. Scientists will say that human beings are all of one species, but when they speak of species, they mean something different. The Vedas, for instance, would consider the Negroes and Aryans to belong to different species. As far as Krsna consciousness is concerned, bodies may differ; it doesn’t matter. Our classification is on the basis of the soul. The soul is equal despite different types of bodies. The soul is one and does not change.

Syamasundara dasa: Darwin would claim that all living things on earth are evolving from lower to higher. 

Srila Prabhupada: Generally, that may be accepted because at certain periods people may be constructing certain types of apartments, but the apartments themselves are not evolving. Evolution takes place within the apartment according to the desire of the jiva , the living entity. Darwin thinks that it is the apartment that is changing, but actually it is the desire of the ji:va. According to our mentality at the time of death, we get a certain type of apartment. In any case, the apartment is already there. It is not that I have to create it. The types of apartments are fixed at 8,400,000, and we can enter into any of them. You cannot conceive of a type of apartment beyond this number. A hotel keeper knows that different customers want different types of facilities; therefore he makes arrangements to receive all kinds of customers. Similarly, this is God’s creation, and God knows how many different ways a living entity can think and desire; therefore God has created all these species.