We are wandering throughout the whole universe. That we do not know. We think that after finishing this body, everything is finished. But that is not the fact. Otherwise, why there are so many varieties of life? The varieties of life are because there are varieties of sinful activities. Because there are varieties of sinful activity, therefore we have got varieties of karma. Otherwise, if there would have been one class of activity, why there are different varieties of body? This is common sense. Who is giving us these different...? My body is different from your body, your body, so now we are sitting here, say fifty or hundred men—everyone's body is different from another body, you'll find. Then you go to other species of life, that is also different from other and other. So why this difference? Because we are differently situated according to our karma. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa jantur deha upapattaye (SB 3.31.1). Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa. We do, we act according to our whims, but that whims is judged by daiva-netreṇa, by a higher, superior authority, just like Yamarāja. Then we get another body. This is the process. Yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran lokam tyajaty ante kalevaram (BG 8.6). Bhagavad-gītā also says. We should be very, very careful. We should be very much cautious to utilize this human body perfectly. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. We are simply teaching people how to utilize this human form of body properly, so that you can be saved from future danger.
Why are there so many varieties of life?
Expressions researched:
"why there are so many varieties of life"
|"why there are varieties of life"
|"why you have got varieties of life"
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
Ask anybody. They'll say, "God created this universe or this cosmic manifestation." That's a fact. But why He created? That why question is answered in the Bhagavad-gītā. Everyone wants to enjoy this material world according to his whims and purpose. Kṛṣṇa gives facility to everyone. So that facility is given according to his desire, a particular type of body. One who wants to eat anything nonsense, no discrimination, so he's allowed to get a body of a hog. Because a hog can eat even stool. He has no distinction. Here is halavā, here is stool. But he'll like to eat stool. That is hog life.
Similarly those who are very much fond of eating meat and blood, they're given the body of tiger, hogs, dogs, This is nature's law. But they do not know. They do not know. They think that: "Now I am enjoying, according to my..." That is not enjoyment. Is that very nice food? But he's thinking, a flesh-eater, a meat-eater is thinking, he cannot eat meat a one. He mixes with some vegetable. Then he can eat. Is it not? If you say all these meat-eaters: "Don't eat vegetables or grains. Simply eat meat." That they cannot do. They cannot do. Ninety percent, ninety percent, he'll eat other things, grains and vegetables. And maybe ten percent or twenty percent, meat. Although we are not meat-eater, I have seen. A little piece of meat... (break)
Where the tiger is coming? That he has no brain to understand. Why there are so many varieties of life? Because according to... Just like your... In a, in a city, there are many varieties of apartment. As you are able to pay for it, or in a shop, in a store, there are many varieties of articles. But you have to purchase according to the price you can pay. Similarly all these varieties of bodies are there according to my desire.
Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, tat kṣetraṁ yac ca yādṛk ca. Why we find so many varieties of life? How it has come into being? It is... Everything will be explained by Kṛṣṇa. He says, tat samāsena me śṛṇu: "From Me you hear." Everyone is inquisitive, "Why there are varieties of life?" I do not know what the modern scientist says, but they do not understand that there is soul in these different types of body. That we have already discussed, that idaṁ śarīraṁ kṣetram ity abhidhīyate. Every different particular living entity... Not particular. We are all living entities, part and parcel of God. But we have entered into different types of bodies according to our desire. That's it. According to... We have got desires, different types of desires. The eight million four hundred thousand bodies means, at least, we have got eight million four hundred thousand different types of desires. That we have to learn from authorities like Kṛṣṇa.
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa jantur deha upapatti (SB 3.31.1). By karma everyone is working, but even (everyone) is working in three modes of nature. This material world, there are three modes of nature: sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa. So if you are working in tamo-guṇa, then you are preparing a body of tamo-guṇa. If you are working rajo-guṇa, then you are preparing a body for rajo-guṇa. Similarly, sattva-guṇa. Everything is described in the Bhagavad-gītā. What is the different result? Ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthāḥ. Those who are working in sattva-guṇa, they will go to the higher planetary systems. There are Janaloka, Maharloka, Tapoloka, Brahmaloka, Satyaloka, Siddhaloka. You'll go there. Ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthā madhye tiṣṭhanti rājasāḥ (BG 14.18). And if you want to remain in the middle planetary system, then that is rajo-guṇa. And jaghanya-guṇa-vṛtti-sthā adho gacchanti tāmasāḥ. And those who are working in tamo-guṇa, jaghanya, most abominable behavior, they will go to the animal kingdom or the lower planetary system. This is the process. As you are contaminating, kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). Sat and asat-janma. Why there are so many varieties of life? Cats, dogs, trees, aquatics, birds, beasts, human beings, demigods, civilized, uncivilized, so many. Why there are so many varieties? kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya. As he is associating with different types of qualities, he is getting a different types of body. This is going on.
So the statement of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that tal labhyate duḥkhavad anyataḥ sukham. You don't try for so-called economic development. You cannot have more than what you are destined to get. It is already settled up. This, this living entity... You see different grades of standard of living condition. So they're according to the past karma, daivena, daiva-netreṇa, karmaṇā. So you cannot change that. That nature's law, you cannot change. Why you have got varieties of life, varieties of position, varieties of de...? It is destined. Viṣayaḥ khalu sarvataḥ syāt. Viṣaya, these material enjoyment—means eating, sleeping, mating and defending—these... Only standard is different. I am eating something, you are eating something. Maybe, in my calculation, you are eating not very good. In your calculation I am not eating very good. But the eating is same. You are eating. I am eating.
If you become implicated in sinful life, how you can be happy? There must be nature's punishment. Just like if you infect some disease, nature must punish you. You must suffer from the disease. You cannot get out. It is not possible. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). Why there are so many varieties of life? Why not one class of men, all President Nixon? (laughter) Why not? Why there is bum in the Bowery Street? In your country I am saying. Why there are arrangement of first-class, second-class, third-class, fourth-class, fifth-class men? Or animals, or trees? Everything is there. Why?
That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya. As you have infected yourself with a particular type of modes of nature, you will get a body. That's all. If you have infected to get the body of a dog, you must be infected. People who are keeping dog, that means he is being infected by the germs of dog. Next life he will become a dog. He is infected. What he will think at the time of death? If he has got a beloved dog, he will think of... Somebody... In your country, they bequeath great, I mean to say, wealth, for the dog. That means at the time of death, at the time of death he is thinking of his beloved dog. So he must be a dog. So all his wealth goes to the dog and he goes to become a dog. This science is unknown to the rascals. Yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ tyajaty ante kalevaram (BG 8.6). At the time of death, your position of the mind will create the next body. This is the science. So if you create your the position of the mind, Kṛṣṇa conscious, then you will get a body like Kṛṣṇa, sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha (Bs. 5.1). This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, that "Why you shall love dog and cats? Love God, Kṛṣṇa, and you get the next body like Kṛṣṇa."
This janma-lābhaḥ paraḥ. Janma-lābhaḥ. Janma-lābhaḥ means getting a type of births. So there are different types of birth. The so-called scientists, physicists, they do not know why there are so many varieties of life. Why not only human being? Why there is cat, there is dog, there is rat, there is fly, and there is serpent, there is tree, there is creeper, there is fish, there is so many, 8,400,000 species of life? So they are also taking their birth by father and mother. The insect or the cats and dog or human being, the process of birth is the same, father and mother, anywhere you go. Therefore one Vaiṣṇava poet has sung, janame janame sabe pitā mātā pāya, kṛṣṇa guru nahi mile bhaja hari ei. Everywhere, either you take birth as man or cat or dog or insect, there is father, mother. Father, mother you will get in any type of birth, but not guru and Kṛṣṇa. Therefore this birth is meant for achieving guru and Kṛṣṇa. Father, mother you will get, anyone. Even you become a serpent there is father and mother. That is the way of birth.
Jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi. In the aquatics, there are 900,000 species of life. Now, if you have got your science, now go and see. This is Vedic knowledge. Perfect, without any doubt. Sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati. And the plants and trees, they are 2,000,000 species of life. So, ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite (CC Madhya 19.151). We are transmigrating from one species of life, one species of life, another, another, another, another... They cannot explain why there are so many varieties of life. The varieties of life is there because we have desire, kāma. "I want this." "All right, take this." Kṛṣṇa is immediately prepared. Ye yathā māṁ prapadyante (BG 4.11). "If you want, you can take it." But Kṛṣṇa says, ultimately, that "You'll never be happy in this way. Therefore you give up this business. Simply surrender unto Me." Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇam (BG 18.66). So that is called akāma. So here it is said that akāmaḥ yajet puruṣaṁ param. If you want to be akāma, devoid of all material desires, then surrender to Kṛṣṇa.
Don't be proud of this rascal civilization. There is no meaning of this civilization. And big professor, he says, "Swamiji, there is no life after death." Just see. And he is a professor. He's teacher. This is the position. Fools, rascals, they are leaders, professors, and scientists and philosophers, and pushing us towards hell. That's all. Because they do not know what is the value of life. They do not know that there is life after death. Otherwise, why there are so many varieties of life? They concoct their own conclusion. They do not refer to the authorities, what is the actual position. They make, they manufacture their own way of life.
It is very dangerous civilization. Because ... Dangerous in this sense, that this life, human form of life, is especially meant for God realization, but in that subject matter they are blind. There is no educational system, there is no university, nothing of the sort. Simply animalistic way of life, "How we can increase our eating capacity, our sexual capacity," and this ... This is going on. So Bhāgavata is pointing out, "My dear sir, by these things you cannot be very much proud."
So when there is facility, you can go to this kingdom of God. Why don't you...? Just like a student studies very faithfully, taking so much pains. Why? He expects that "Somehow or other, if I can pass this examination, I will get a very nice job, good salary, and live very happily." Everyone hopes like that. A businessman works so hard day and night with the hope that "At the end of my life, if I get a good balance, bank balance, then I shall live peacefully without any botheration." So everyone hopes like that for future. But what is this civilization? They have no future hope. The rascal professors, they say..., he is saying that "After death everything is finished." After death everything finished—why? Why there are so many varieties of life? After death there is life. But you do not know what is that life. That is your ignorance. Here is a chance, Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, that you get next life very good life. If you complete, you go to Vaikuṇṭha and get life like this. If you don't complete, if you are so unfortunate that you cannot complete one life, that is unfortunate. Why you... So then you get chance to get your birth as a human being in very rich family, in very pious family. That chance is again given so that you can revive your, again, Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
You should know that "Why there are so many varieties of life." That is explained here. The varieties of life is na sādhu manye yata ātmano 'yam asann api kleśada āsa dehaḥ (SB 5.5.4). Here, and anyone who has got this material body Material body means kleśada, different degrees of kleśada. Somebody is millionaire—but don't think that his body is not kleśada. His body is also kleśada, giving some pain. Nobody is free from kleśa. There was a very big rich man in Calcutta. So he could not eat. His appetite, there was no appetite. So he's rich man. So he was given sufficient foodstuff, and simply show, he could not eat. But a big rich man. And one poor man was passing on the street, taking a fish and chanting very Not chanting; singing very jubilantly. So this gentleman saw. He said that "I have become so rich man, but I have no appetite inspite of so many nice foodstuff before me. And that poor man is carrying one fish. He's thinking that he'll go and cook it and eat it very nicely. He is so jubilant. So if I would have become a poor man like him I could have enjoyed some food." He was wishing that. Because real business is sense gratification. So in spite of his becoming so rich he could not gratify his senses. But he was
So this is the position. Everyone has got a certain type of body on account of different types of sense gratification. Otherwise why there are so many varieties? Why one is human being? Why one is a pig? Why one is a demigod? Why one is a tree? Why one is a fish? Why...? So many—8,400,000. This is all due to our desire for sense gratification. These varieties. Otherwise, one variety would have been there, existing. Why there are so many varieties? And that is not my creation. Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā that īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). Īśvara, the Supreme Lord, Paramātmā, is situated in everyone's heart. And we are always praying. Even we do not pray, we are... "If I would have been like this, if I would have got this opportunity, then I would have eaten like this, I would have done like this." This is going on continually. Continually.
So pravṛtti-mārga means if I do things according to my whims, that is called pravṛtti-mārga. Then the next life is waiting for my suffering. That is fact. Just like if you irresponsibly live and there is epidemic and you contact some disease, infection, then you must suffer from it. There is no excuse. So we are acting in this life, in this material world as it is stated here, traiguṇya-viṣayo mune Pravṛtti-lakṣaṇaś caiva traiguṇya-viṣayo mune. Our desires According to the modes of material nature, we are associating. Just like in the temple, in this temple. Here everything is on the modes of goodness. So if you associate with this temple atmosphere, your behavior, your mode of life, will be different. And if you associate with the atmosphere of a brothel, a slaughterhouse, then your atmosphere will be different. That means infection. Association means infection. If we infect tamo-guṇa, then your life is different. And if you infect the rajo-guṇa, then your life is different. Therefore there are varieties of life. Why there are varieties of life? Because we have infected different varieties of infection. There are three kinds of infection originally: sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa, just like originally there are three colors: red, yellow, and blue. Now, you mix up these three colors. Three into three, it becomes nine, and nine into nine, it becomes eighty-one. So those who are expert color mixer, they make varieties of color originally from these three color. Similarly, originally there are three kinds of material modes of nature: goodness, passion, and ignorance. Now mix it. It become nine, and again nine into nine, Therefore there are 8,400,000 forms of life on account of this mixture.
So everyone should be very serious to accept this process of Kṛṣṇa consciousness not only personally, but teach others, statewise, familywise, communitywise, so that we may not be envious to our dependent. We should be liberal. So give them the proper chance to understand Kṛṣṇa consciousness so that they make their life happy and attain the stage of eternity. We are eternal. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). Simply we are changing body. It is a great science. But unfortunately there is no teaching in the school, college and university. Simply we are in darkness. If we keep people in darkness and advertise that we are advancing, it is another type of cheating. So people should understand the value of life, the science of life, that tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ: (BG 2.13) we are changing this body. And the samples of body, 8,400,000 forms of life... Just like the trees are standing in our compound. They cannot move an inch. Is that very good life? So if I am asked to stand at a place for five minutes, it becomes troublesome. And they are standing for five thousand years. Just see the punishment. So there are so many forms of life. There is no science to understand why there are varieties of life, why this tree standing in front of me in miserable condition and I am sitting in this room very comfortably. It is also a life; I am also a life. Why? Who is arranging for this different status of life? These are to be understood. And everything is there, clear, in the Bhagavad-gītā. If you take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, study Bhagavad-gītā, and then after studying we study Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, then our life is successful. So every father, every state, every guardian, every guru, every, everyone, relative, should educate his dependent in Kṛṣṇa consciousness to give them chance to be liberated from this bondage of miserable condition of material life.
So it is very difficult to convince the people of the modern days how they are wasting their time, how they are risking their life by this way of irresponsible life of material existence. They are thinking that "The more I enjoy sex, the more I enjoy sleeping, that is perfect. That is my profit." And to convince them, "No, it is simply loss, you are simply risking your life," it is very difficult. But this is the fact. This is the fact, in this way, because in this duration of life, human, if I do not make my life perfect, stop the materialistic miserable condition, namely janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi (BG 13.9)—birth, death, old age and disease—then I am missing the opportunity. Next life will be given by the laws of nature. Just like you are in the forest, you see so many trees are standing. You do not know how many years they will stand. Yes. It is possible. If I have acted just like a tree, nonsense, no-sense... Just like tree has no sense. If you cut it, he does not reply. Because practically it has lost the senses. There is some senses, consciousness, but it is not developed. It is not developed. The animal, little more developed. The human, fully developed. This is with all the consciousness, stages of different consciousness. And when we come to the stage of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, this is perfect. Otherwise, in the lower grade. So if we neglect in this life, human form of life, to develop our Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then there is chance to become an animal, to become a tree.
So people do not know this, how this science is working, but this is the fact. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). So we have to read all these things very carefully. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ, there is dehāntara, another body. So we must be very careful what kind of body I'm going to get. Now, this life I have got very nice, beautiful body and everything is all right, but if we act irresponsibly, the nature will give me a suitable body. Otherwise, why there are so many varieties of life, 8,400,000? So we should be very, very careful not to waste the duration of life even by a second.
Nectar of Devotion Lectures
So for our past karma, we have created this body and we are suffering. Therefore our mission should be not to create another body. And finish all suffering in this body and do not create another material body—that is actually our duty. But we have no education. We have no information. Our leaders are blind, foolish. They are leading us to misuse this valuable life of human form. This is our position. They are misleading us. Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke (SB 10.84.13). They are impressing in us that "You are this body. You are born in this country. So your country, your nation is worshipable. Why you are after Kṛṣṇa? This is all bogus." This is our position. "Don't be after Kṛṣṇa. Just try to satisfy the senses of your body to the best capacity. Eat, drink, be merry and enjoy life. And next life? Oh, next life... That... Don't care." The atheist philosopher, Cārvāka Muni says, bhasmī-bhūtasya dehasya kuto punar āgamano bhavet: "Don't care for next life." This is going on now: atheism. Big, big professors, educationists, they're also in this opinion. I have traveled all over the world. One Russian professor said, "Swamijī, after this life, there is no... Everything is finished." But that's not the fact. That is the defect of modern education. There is life. There is life. Otherwise why there are so many varieties of life? We should consider that.
Conversations and Morning Walks
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Civilized life means athāto brahma jijñāsā. When one is advanced so much so that he inquires about the spirit soul. But there is no such inquiry. Like the cats and dogs, they cannot inquire what is spirit soul. So Vedic life means to become free as much as possible from the bodily disturbances. Therefore, the first education is to become brahmacārī, celibacy. You see? Now, at the present moment, they are trying to make the abortion as law. But these rascals cannot check their sex life. You see? Their philosophy is that you shall go on with sex life unrestrictedly and when there is pregnancy, kill the child.
David Lawrence: Yes.
Prabhupāda: This is their rascal's philosophy. They have no idea that by training one can forget sex life. So if you forget sex life, where is the question of abortion? Where is the question of abortion? But they cannot do that. Therefore, it is said adānta-gobhir viśatāṁ tamisram (SB 7.5.30). By nonrestricted sense enjoyment they are gradually going to the animal, lower grade of life. They cannot explain why there are so many varieties of life. They cannot explain. So this killer of baby within the womb, so the result will be that this man who is, I mean to say, indulging in abortion, he'll be put into the womb, and somebody will kill him. And as many wombs or babies he has killed, he'll have to take so many lives and being killed. So much so that it will be rather impossible for him for hundreds of years not to see the light. He'll remain in the womb and being killed. Does not know the nature's law. One cannot violate the nature's law. You can violate the state law. Suppose you kill somebody, you can escape by trick. But you cannot escape nature's law. As many times you have killed, so many times you have to be killed within the womb. This is nature's law.
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: ...if there is government laws, if you do not know it and you act independently, then you are making your life risky. So this is the case of the government law, and what to speak of God's law, nature's law, how strict it is. You can avoid government's law, but you cannot avoid nature's law. That is not possible. So that is the defect of the modern civilization: they do not know how nature is working, and they are keeping themself in ignorance, and they are suffering, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13), one body after another. And if he becomes a tree, stand up for five thousand years. And we have to pass through all these stages. He has come to the human form of body. Still he neglects. He continues suffering. They are mad after sense enjoyment; and accepting different material bodies, that means suffering. As soon as you accept a material body, this is suffering. But the suffering of the trees is more suffering. In a forlorn place he stand up for five thousand years and tolerate all the blast, wind, scorching heat, water.
He doesn't know that "I may become a tree like this." Then he must be... Why there are varieties of life? This is different type of punishment for different kinds of sinful activities. And he doesn't care for sinful activities. He got the human form of body, he doesn't care. Saintly persons, they are coming as Caitanya Mahāprabhu or Buddha or Christ. They are warning, "You do not do this." No, they will do it. So who is responsible for his sufferings? He is responsible. And so long he has got this short duration of life, fifty or sixty years or utmost hundred years, he is thinking, "I am free. Whatever I want, I can do," and making life risky. Ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā. He is not independent. He knows that. Still, he will declare independence and suffer. This is the position.
Prabhupāda: In Western countries there are many places. "Don't care for anything, what is sinful life, what is going to happen. Let us enjoy, that's all." This is their philosophy. "Let us enjoy, that's all." Materialistic point of view is like that. They do not know that we are eternal and we are responsible for our activities. That is knowledge. But they have no knowledge. They simply want to enjoy. They do not care for death also. Simply sense gratification. That's all. This is called dānava, dānava life. The scientist explain for so many varieties. They accept there are varieties. Why there are so many varieties of life?
Hari-śauri: They were simply approximating. They said from recent discoveries and examination of fossils and like this...
Prabhupāda: That's all right.
Hari-śauri: ...they made their calculation.
Prabhupāda: Why there are varieties?
Amogha: They say originally there was just a cell, and by adaptation in some circumstances, one kind would live and another would die. So all these varieties adapted to different conditions.
Prabhupāda: Who adapted this? Who managed?
Amogha: Well they just... accidentally.
Prabhupāda: Ah, that is nonsense. Nothing happens accidentally. That is nonsense. There must be some arrangement. What is happening accidentally? Why you are taking care of these trees? So many things. Nothing is done accidentally. You do not see the cause. If accidentally one can become rich, why you are struggling so hard to become rich? Why their motorcars are flying whole day and night, here and there? Why you are trying? Let accidentally money come, and sit down. Why do they not do that? "If accident is there, let accident come and I will become rich man." Why they try? Why they go to the college? Let accidentally you become M.A., Ph D. This is all rascaldom, simply poor thought. Poor thought. If things happen accidentally, why you are trying? What is the answer?
Amogha: Well, we try, but—we have to try—but we can't tell what's going to happen. So it's happening accidentally when we try. Just like in school we have to try, but maybe we will become promoted.
Prabhupāda: No, if you believe in accident, then you should not endeavor for anything. Nothing happens accidentally.
Hari-śauri: Well, then could not we say that by man's activity, then, things are happening? I had one letter from a person I used to know and...
Prabhupāda: Activity plus sanction of God, two things. There are five causes. The activity, the place, the proportion of energy, and ultimately, sanction by God. Then things happen. Otherwise there is no question of accident. Accident can happen by the will of God. That is also... Behind that accident, there is will of God.
Hari-śauri: So if God is forgotten, then we are simply struggling because...
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Hari-śauri: ...we are thinking that we are the controller.
Prabhupāda: We are wrongly directed.
Dr. Gerson: That's what psychology's been trying to teach people: to do whatever they want to do because they have the power.
Prabhupāda: That's... But can he do anything as he likes?
Dr. Gerson: That's right.
Prabhupāda: If he... As he likes, if he infects some disease, he must suffer from the disease. Where is his independence? If you infect some disease, infectious disease, then you must suffer from the disease. That is nature's law. So where is your independence? Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). It is all described. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu. Why there are so many varieties of life? Because he has associated with a particular type of modes of nature and he has got the body. Without any human sense he has learned to eat anything and everything, without any discrimination. Therefore nature will give the body of a pig. "All right, you eat anything up to stool. Up to stool you can eat." So how can you stop it? And because nature has given this body, he is relishing very good taste from stool. But this body, you cannot relish what is enjoyment in the stool. But because he has no discrimination of food, nature has given him, "All right, you can eat up to stool." Human life is meant for civilization, and they are trying to be naked. So next life will be: "All right, you remain naked standing as tree for five thousand years." How can you stop it? Wherefrom these varieties of life are coming? Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). This is kāraṇam, that he is associating with different modes of material nature and he is getting a suitable body. So where is that science to understand this subtle work of nature? Where is that science? Where is that education in the universities? You are not free. You cannot say "that I shall live life like this." You can live, but take the risk of next life. Therefore they avoid this question: "There is no next life." That is very horrible. But that does not mean... Just like the, what is that animal? Closes the eyes?
Jayatīrtha: Ostrich.
Prabhupāda: Ostrich. When there is danger, it closes eyes: "No danger." But that does not mean no danger. The danger is there. You may close your eyes. This is going on. The whole education system is foolish. Because they are thinking independent.
Jayatīrtha: So the wars and the crime are a direct result of the cow slaughter.
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Oh, yes. It is a wholesale reaction. All these crises are taking place. They are killing their own child. Own child means that child is criminal; therefore it is being killed within the womb. Nature will take action. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). You are not independent. So if you work independently, then you will have to suffer. The law of nature is there. You cannot avoid it. If you infect some disease, you must suffer from the disease. You cannot avoid it. This is the law of nature. Law of nature is working in such a way that as you are infecting... Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgaḥ asya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu. Find out this verse. Why there are varieties of life. One is tree, one is cat, one is dog, one is human being, one is blind, one is lame, one is educated, one is foolish—why? Why the difference, varieties? And that is answered in the Bhagavad-gītā, kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya: "As you are infecting the modes of material nature, you are getting your birth." Otherwise, how you can explain by nature there are so many varieties of life, 8,400,000 species of life?
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Sometimes people ask, Prabhupāda, that if one falls down into lower species of life like plants or animals, how then do they come again to the human form of life?
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is nature's way. Give them again chance to develop. From trees they become flies. That is the beginning of movement. Then from flies to birds, birds to beast, and beast to animal, er, human being. This is great chastisement. You cannot move even. Suffer torrents of rain, cyclone, scorching heat, pinching cold. Stand up for hundreds and thousands of years. Then, when the punishment is finished, then he becomes moving. If there is scorching heat he can move to some shelter. But he cannot move. They do not study all this science, why there are so many varieties of life, of different grades. Wherefrom they are coming?
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The living entity, then, in the tree is actually conscious of its condition of life.
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The living entity inside the tree is actually conscious of its condition of life.
Prabhupāda: Not advanced consciousness, but he is conscious. He feels. He feels.
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: (recites verse)
- puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi
- bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān
- kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya
- sad-asad-yoni-janmasu
- (BG 13.22)
"The living entity in material nature thus follows the ways of life, enjoying the three modes of nature. This is due to his association with that material nature. Thus he meets with good and evil amongst various species."
Prabhupāda: We are practically seeing it, that material nature... Some infection, this is also material nature, and if you are infected with some contaminous disease, you must suffer. They practically see it. The nature will work. Puruṣaḥ prakṛti-sthaḥ. As soon as we are in this material world... I am living entity, spirit soul, and because I am in this material world, I have accepted this material body under the regulation of the material laws. Otherwise why there are so many varieties of life? Here is a tree. It is standing here. We are human beings; we are also here. But when there is cold blast, scorching heat, we can go into the room, but he has to be standing here for thousands of years. Why this distinction? It cannot move even an inch. It is also living entity. Why he is punished in that way? And when there will be snowfall, pinching cold, he cannot go. But a small ant, it can go from here to there. Moving and not moving, the two kinds of living entities... Some of them can move; some of them cannot move, sthāvara. Just like grass. We are trampling over with our legs. It cannot protest. Why these differences of grades of life? This is described here. Puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi bhuṅkte (BG 13.22).
Guest: Virus. (Bengali) Now we know even the inanimate is animate, but by biology only it is changing. All the unanimate subject is slowly being transformed into animate. We are all convinced the whole process is the same. It's a terrific science now, biology. Latest, we have discovered. I am also working on biology quite a bit for all the virus disease and all. And we can eliminate them by only vacuum. My whole cure, they call it miracle and all is nonsense, it is only creating a vacuum which automatically takes away.
Prabhupāda: This biology will be complete...
Guest: When we accept this.
Prabhupāda: ...when you accept this.
Guest: I know. (laughs) And I have accepted long ago. Because I felt, as a sincere worker, medicine doesn't interest me. What interests me is the cure. My profession is to cure, not to study the medicines. That is the cure.
Prabhupāda: Here it is very clearly stated that kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). The biology, infection. Kāraṇam, that is the kāraṇam. Kāraṇam guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu. Why there are varieties of life? One is very intelligent...
Prabhupāda: Everything is being done by superior arrangement. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa (SB 3.31.1). People should learn all these things by practical example instead of becoming irresponsible and without any obedience to the superior law. They should learn it, but they have no intelligence. They think, "We are all free." Wherefrom the monkey is coming, why there are so many varieties of life, how it is...? What do they know? Nothing. All bluff, vague explanation and that is going on in the name of science. This is the position. All rascals. Fortunately we have got this Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and Bhagavad-gītā. All knowledge. First-class knowledge.
| Page Title: | Why are there so many varieties of life? |
| Compiler: | Labangalatika, Mayapur |
| Created: | 20 of Jul, 2011 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=15, Con=9, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 24 |