124 THE SCIENCE OF SELF-REALIZATION

Student: Srila Prabhupada, Christianity’s sanction of meat eating is
based on the view that lower species of life do not have a soul like the
human being’s.

Srila Prabhupada: That is foolishness. First of all, we have to under-
stand the evidence of the soul’s presence within the body. Then we can
see whether the human being has a soul and the cow does not. What are
the different characteristics of the cow and the man? If we find a dif-
ference in characteristics, then we can say that in the animal there is no
soul. But if we see that the animal and the human being have the same
characteristics, then how can you say that the animal has no soul? The
general symptoms are that the animal eats, you eat; the animal sleeps,
you sleep; the animal mates, you mate; the animal defends, and you de-
fend. Where is the difference?

Cardinal Daniélou: We admit that in the animal there may be the same
type of biological existence as in men, but there is no soul. We believe
that the soul is a human soul.

Srila Prabhupada: Our Bhagavad-gitd says sarva-yonisu, ‘‘In all species
of life the soul exists.’’ The body is like a suit of clothes. You have black
clothes; I am dressed in saffron clothes. But within the dress you are a
human being, and I am also a human being. Similarly, the bodies of the
different species are just like different types of dress. There are 8,400,000
species, or dresses, but within each one is a spirit soul, a part and parcel
of God. Suppose a man has two sons, not equally meritorious. One may
be a Supreme Court judge and the other may be a common laborer, but
the father claims both as his sons. He does not make the distinction that
the son who is a judge is very important, and the worker-son is not impor-
tant. And if the judge-son says, ‘‘My dear father, your other son is use-
less; let me cut him up and eat him,”’ will the father allow this?
Cardinal Daniélou: Certainly not, but the idea that all life is part of the
life of God is difficult for us to admit. There is a great difference between
human life and animal life. .
Srila Prabhupada: That difference is due to the development of con-
sciousness. In the human body there is developed consciousness. Even a
tree has a soul, but a tree’s consciousness is not very developed. If you
cut a tree it does not resist. Actually, it does resist, but only to a very
small degree. There is a scientist named Jagadish Chandra Bose who has
made a machine which shows that trees and plants are able to feel pain
when they are cut. And we can see directly that when someone comes to
kill an animal, it resists, it cries, it makes a horrible sound. So it is a mat-
