Contrary to popular belief, Charles Darwin was not the first one to talk about the theory of evolution. Actually, the theory has been extant in the Vedic scriptures for almost 5000 years. The details are given by His Divine Grace Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in the below conversation.
Prabhupada: Marine biologist. How many forms of fishes are there within the ocean? I know. I know. (laughter)
Martin: That is why I'm here.
Prabhupada: Nine hundred thousands of different forms of aquatics. Nine hundred thousands. Jalaja nava-laksani (Padma Purana). Jalaja means species of living beings born in the water. They are nine hundred thousand. How many you have got experience in your biology?
Martin: I studied one.
Prabhupada: Huh?
Martin: I studied one.
Prabhupada: One only?
Martin: One. (laughs) I, I concentrated on one. I learned of some of the . . . (indistinct) . . . (sound of thunder), maybe a thousand.
Prabhupada: Nine hundred thousand. Exact number.
(aside) Bring that socket.
Pradyumna: Oh, this?
Syamasundara: That two-way. It's on top of the desk.
Prabhupada: Jalaja nava-laksani sthavara laksa-vimsati. And two millions of trees and plants, botany, botanical. Jalaja nava-laksani sthavara laksa-vimsati, krmayo rudra-sankhyaka. Insects, there are eleven hundred thousands forms. Krmayo rudra-sankhyaka. Then, paksinam dasa-laksanam. From insect, they become flies and birds. Paksinam dasa-laksanam, one million. Then from birds, the beasts come, four-legged, trimsal-laksani: three million species of beasts.
Then from beasts, the human form comes—either from monkey or from lion or from cows. Out of these three . . . sattva-guna, rajo-guna, tamo-guna. Those who are coming through rajo-guna, their last birth before human form of birth is lion. And those who are coming in the form ignorance, Darwin's father-in-law, (laughs) monkey, and ignorance. And those who are coming in goodness, their last form of birth is cow.
So this is our scientific information from the Vedas. We haven't got to make a research. Everything is there. That is Vedic knowledge. They have got already everything written there. The astronomy, everything is written there, simply you have to calculate. Astrology, we say simply mathematical calculation: if the moon is in this position and the other stars is in this position, then the effect will be like this and the result will be like this. Like that. So you haven't got to make search or research. It is already there. Similarly, this Darwin's theory is there in two lines:
asitim caturams caivalaksams tas jiva-jatisubhramadbhih purusair praptammanusam janma-paryayat (Padma Purana)
Asati, asati means eighty; catura means four. Eighty and four laksani, lakhs, 100,000. Eighty-four hundred thousand, that means 8,400,000. Asitim caturams caiva laksams tas jiva-jatisu. Jiva means living entity; jati means species. Jiva-jatisu. Brahmadbhih: the living entity is wandering, or transmigrating, from aquatics to trees, plants, then insect, then birds, then beasts. In this way, the last is human form of life. Brahmadbhih. Brahmadbhih, wandering. Purusair praptam, last he is getting manusam jiva . . . janma-paryayat, by the evolution of birth.
Now this form is for understanding Govinda, God. The other forms, they cannot. So if in this form the living entity does not contact Govinda . . . contacting Govinda means surrendering unto Govinda. As Krsna says: "Surrender unto Me." Bahunam janmanam ante jsanavan mam prapadyate (BG 7.19). So after many, many, many millions of births, when one is actually in full knowledge, he surrenders to Krsna. That is perfection. Then he goes back to home, back to Godhead. That is our program, Krsna consciousness.
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