Volume 7 - Prabhupada

Text 139]The Lord Instructs Srila Rupa Gosvami319trimsal-lakaQi pasavaf:rcatur-lakaQi manuaf:r"There are 900,000 species living in the water. There are also 2,000,000 nonmovingliving entities (sthavara) such as trees and plants. There are also 1,100,000species of insects and reptiles, and there are 1,000,000 species of birds. As far asquadrupeds are concerned there are 3,000,000 varieties, and there are 400,000human species." Some of these species may exist on one planet and not onanother, but in any case within all the planets of the universe-and even in thesun-there are living entities. This is the verdict of Vedic literatures. As Bhagavadgita(2.20) confirms:na jayate mriyate va kadacinnayam bhotva bhavita va na bhoya/:rajo nityaf:r sasvato 'yam puraf)Ona hanyate hanyamane sarire"For the soul there is never birth nor death. Nor, having once been, does he evercease to be. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing, undying and primeval. He is notslain when the body is slain."Since the living entities are never annihilated, they simply transmigrate fromone life form to another. Thus there is an evolution of forms according to thedegree of developed consciousness. One experiences different degrees of consciousnessin different forms. A dog's consciousness is different from a man's. Evenwithin a species we find that a father's consciousness is different from his son'sand that a child's consciousness is different from a youth's. just as we find differentforms, we find different states of consciousness. When we see differentstates of consciousness, we may take it for granted that the bodies are different.In other words, different types of bodies depend on different states of consciousness.This is also confirmed in Bhagavad-gita (8.6): yam yam vapi smaran bhavam.One's consciousness at the time of death determines a,type of body of the livingentity. This is the process of transmigration of the soul. A variety of bodies isalready there; we change from one body to another in terms of our consciousness.TEXT 139-ttc!t··'et i{= -r-r m 1- 1f , '111!1'fi' G"tfit II IIkesagra-sateka-bhaga puna/:r satamsa karitara sama sukma jivera 'svarupa' vicari