Text 139] The Lord Instructs Srila Rapa Gosvami 319

trimsal-laksani pasavah
catur-laksani manusah

“There are 900,000 species living in the water. There are also 2,000,000 nonmov-
ing living entities (sthavara) such as trees and plants. There are also 1,100,000
species of insects and reptiles, and there are 1,000,000 species of birds. As far as
quadrupeds are concerned there are 3,000,000 varieties, and there are 400,000
human species.” Some of these species may exist on one planet and not on
another, but in any case within all the planets of the universe—and even in the
sun—there are living entities. This is the verdict of Vedic literatures. As Bhagavad-
gita (2.20) confirms:

na jayate mriyate va kadacin

nayam bhdatva bhavita va na bhayah
ajo nityah sasvato ‘yarn purano

na hanyate hanyaméane sarire

“For the soul there is never birth nor death. Nor, having once been, does he ever
cease to be. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing, undying and primeval. He is not
slain when the body is slain.”

Since the living entities are never annihilated, they simply transmigrate from
one life form to another. Thus there is an evolution of forms according to the
degree of developed consciousness. One experiences different degrees of con-
sciousness in different forms. A dog’s consciousness is different from a man's, Even
within a species we find that a father’s consciousness is different from his son's
and that a child’s consciousness is different from a youth's. Just as we find dif-
ferent forms, we find different states of consciousness. When we see different
states 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 conscious-
ness. 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 living
entity. This is the process of transmigration of the soul. A variety of bodies is
already there; we change from one body to another in terms of our conscious-
ness.

TEXT 139

CFA Al-MITSS-SlT Aas Steet BF
Sit Ay BM A caA “aH” faptfH u sen I

kesagra-sateka-bhdga punah satamsa kari
tara sama stksma jivera ‘svartipa’ vicari
