Prabhupāda: (leads devotees' recitation)
- aśraddadhānāḥ puruṣā
- dharmasyāsya parantapa
- aprāpya māṁ nivartante
- mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmani
- (BG 9.3)
So aśraddadhānāḥ, those who are faithless. So those who are faithless... Faithless means, anyone can understand, those who do not believe in the words of God. They are faithless. Just like a child. By nature, he has to believe his parents, his superiors, his teacher, but if he does not believe in the words of the superior, then where is the possibility of education? There is no possibility. This is the first qualification. If you go to a teacher to learn ABCD the teacher says, "My dear child, you begin from the left side, in this way." Then, if the student says, "Why shall I begin in this way? I shall begin this way," then he's faithless. He cannot make any progress. It is not possible. The first qualification is śraddadhānāḥ, faithful. If you go to a teacher you must be faithful; otherwise there is no need of going to a teacher. If you cannot believe in the words of somebody whom you are going to appoint as your teacher, if you have no faith in his words, then what is the use of going to such teacher? There is no use. Don't waste your time and don't waste his time. Therefore those who are going to learn to become a disciple or teacher, he must believe in the words of teacher. Or if you are doubtful, you should not go to such teacher. This is first qualification. If you do not believe somebody, then you find out someone else upon whom you can put your faith. "Yes, here is the right man who can teach me." Otherwise there is no use of going to a teacher. This is the Vedic principle.
The Vedic principle is... People are... Everyone is in ignorance because the evolution is coming from the lower species of life, and in Western countries the Darwin's theory of evolution is very prominent, and they believe that man is coming from monkey. Of course, the Vedic śāstra also says the birth of human being are from three sources: one from the cow, the other from the lion, and the other from the monkey. The "monkey" word is there. Those who are coming in the sattva-guṇa, modes of goodness, their last birth is as cow. And those who are coming through the rajo-guṇa, their last birth is lion. And those who are coming through the tamo-guṇa, their last birth is monkey. Then there are. We have explained many times. The lower animals, less than the human being, they're eight million forms.
- jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi
- sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati
- kṛmayo rudra-saṅkhyakāḥ
- pakṣiṇāṁ daśa-lakṣaṇam
- triṁśal-lakṣāṇi paśavaḥ
- catur-lakṣāṇi mānuṣāḥ
This is the list of evolution. Darwin has taken, but he has explained in a different way, misguiding way. But anyway, the evolution theory. It is not theory; it is fact. That is acceptable by the Vedic scholar also. It is explained in the Padma Purāṇa, aśītiṁ caturaś caiva lakṣāṁs tāñ jīva-jātiṣu. This is the statement in the Padma Purāṇa, that the aśītiṁ caturaś caiva, 8,400,000. They say in the Vedic language, forty-eight hundred thousands..., eight-four hundred thousand. Anyway, the evolution is there, and in the lower species of life there are eight millions. Human forms of life, only 400,000 out of which more than 300,000 forms of life are uncivilized men. They do not know what is the aim of life.
The best form of human life, the Aryans... Aryans. Aryans means those who are advanced. So the Aryan family, the history of Aryan family... From Central Asia, Caucasian ranges, they divided, the Indo-Aryans, Indo-Europeans. This is the history of mankind. So the Europeans, they belong to the Indo-Europeans, and some of the Europeans, not the uncivilized, the civilized, they came from that side, eastern side, when there was a threatening by Paraśurāma to kill the kṣatriyas. So most of the kṣatriyas, they came to Europe, and some of them settled in the middle, the border of Europe and Asia, Turkey, Greece. There is a big history, Mahābhārata. Mahābhārata means the greater history of India. So on the whole, the conclusion is that the Aryans spread in Europe also, and the Americans, they also spread from Europe. So the intelligent class of human being, they belong to the Aryans, Aryan family. Just like Hitler claimed that he belonged to the Aryan family. Of course, they belonged to the Aryan families.
So there is gradual process of evolution, and the human form of life is the greatest evolution. Here is a junction. Now you can go, elevate yourself to further, higher status of living condition. That is called devatā, or demigods. Ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthāḥ. If you develop the quality of goodness, then you are promoted to the higher planetary system. Ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthā madhye tiṣṭhanti rājasāḥ (BG 14.18). If you do not develop further, if you remain whatever quality you have got, just now you remain within this world. And adho gacchanti tāmasāḥ. And if you do not develop goodness or remain in the same quality but you degrade yourself, then again go to the cycle of birth in the animal kingdom. This is the law of nature.
- ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthā
- madhye tiṣṭhanti rājasāḥ
- jaghanya-guṇa-vṛtti-sthā
- adho gacchanti tāmasāḥ
- (BG 14.18)
Jaghanya-guṇa-vṛtti-sthāḥ. Jaghanya means abominable, abominable, without any distinction. "Whatever I like, I shall do." No. You cannot do that. You have got now super consciousness. You must decide whether you want to stop this evolutionary process, cycle of birth and death, and go back to home, back to Godhead, or if you want to continue again the cycle of birth and death. That is up to you to decide. This is the human form of life. Therefore how you can promote yourself to the higher status of life or how you can degrade yourself to the lower status of life, that is to be decided. In the Bhagavad-gītā you'll find,
- yānti deva-vratā devān
- pitṟn yānti pitṛ-vratāḥ
- bhūtāni yānti bhūtejyā
- yānti mad-yājino 'pi mām
- (BG 9.25)
There are four ways suggested. If you want to go to the higher planetary system, not by force you can go to the moon planet. That is not possible. That is simply childish. You cannot go. You must have to be qualified how to go there. Just like if somebody comes to your country, Australia, he has to take the visa, permit, passport, so many things. Then you allow. So how you can be allowed to enter into the moon planet, which is the residential place of demigods? That is a very controversial point. They say that they have gone to moon planet and there is no life. This is simply nonsense. Every planet is full of living entities. But if they say they could not find any living entities, then it is to be understood they haven't gone to the moon planet. There are many other points also, we do not wish to discuss. But moon planet is the higher planetary system, sun planet is the higher planetary system, and there are many others. If you like to go there, you can go. Yānti deva-vratā devān (BG 9.25). You have to make, prepare yourself for going there. Similarly, there are Pitṛlokas. You can see so many, many thousands and millions of planets. Every planet is residential quarter. Just like this planet is residential quarter, every planet is resident. Innumerable lives there are according to the position.