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  • Dear Ashwani Prabhuji,

    Hare Krishna !

    Eighty-four lakh species is at the start of Satayuga. As the Yuga chakra moves on, certain species gradually start getting extinct. In the Mahabharatam, it is mentioned that in the Kali-yuga, the inhabited regions of the earth will be afflicted with death and famine. Goats, sheep, cows will be extinct. Same will be the fate of human beings. Men will again be created and distributed into the four orders beginning with Brahmanas. 

    Hence, the number of 84 lakhs is not fixed but variable.

  • Hare Krishna!
    Please accept my humble obeisance. All glories to Srila Prabhupada,

    But HOW did Prabhupada say, there are 4 lakhs species of Human Being?

    I have no knowledge on this, I want to know, The Human Being is Human Being and it is 1 (ONE). so only 1 species of human being can exist, HOW it is 4 lakhs?

    Thank you!

    • Dear Rajdip Prabhuji,

      Hare Krishna !

      Of the 84 lakhs species  :

      9,00,000 species are aquatics;

      20,00,000 species are plants and trees;

      11,00,000 species are insects;

      10,00,000 species are birds;

      30,00,000 species are beasts, and

      4,00,000 'species' are human beings. (The meaning of 'species' is explained in the Padma Purana)

      As per Padma Purana, the meaning of "species" understood by biologists is different from the meaning implied here. The meaning used by biologists applies to the gross physical appearance or the gross morphological feature of the living material bodies. The Vedic meaning, however, which is derived after thorough and careful analysis, is based on the level of consciousness of the living being. For example, biologists say that all human beings belong to one species, whereas the Vedic literatures list 400,000 species. In other words, there are 400,000 grades of human beings on different levels of consciousness. Thus, here, species should be understood as grade.

  • Volunteer

    Svarupa Damodara: Do we know that in detail, Srila Prabhupada? What type of species are extinct? Not all the species extinct. As it is during Brahma's day, that partial annihilation, devastation, now some species are extinct?
    Prabhupada: No species extinct. What you are reading? This is garbage.(?)
    Svarupa Damodara: The physical forms.
    Prabhupada: No, nothing is extinct. Everything is going on.
    Svarupa Damodara: At that point, they are going to come up with the point that "How about dinosaurs?" They are going to ask like that.
    Prabhupada: That is imagination, where is dinosaur finding.
    Svarupa Damodara: They say they have all the bones.
    Prabhupada: No, they are describing maybe another animal. That is existing. That is Timingila, they can swallow up big, big whale fishes. That big, bones, they are living still. Nothing is extinct. They are already there.
    Rupanuga: Did these dinosaurs exist, or is it just their imagination?
    Prabhupada: The big animal exists. I call it dinosaur or finosaur, that is your choice. Big animals existing. Timingila, I said the name, Timingila, still exist.
    Rupanuga: Still exist.
    Prabhupada: Oh, yes. They are always existing. Water elephants. There are elephants in water. Everything.
    Rupanuga: So there is no such thing as extinction.
    Prabhupada: No extinction, there is no question of extinction.
    Rupanuga: If these animals were on this planet some millions of years ago, they are still here, is that correct?
    Prabhupada: Yes. What do you know what are there within the water? You can take information from the sastras. It is not possible for you to see and go into the water, how big, big animals are there.
    Hari-sauri: But it's possible that an animal may disappear from one planet, but still be on another planet, though, like that.
    Prabhupada: No.
    Hari-sauri: Because they claim that even within recorded history...
    Prabhupada: They claim everything. That is... There is no question. Svarupa Damodara: (indistinct) fossil, they are called fossil record. Prabhupada: That is another thing. You can get a dead animal's body, but what is that?
    Svarupa Damodara: They claim that many species are extinct.
    Prabhupada: How they are extinct?
    Hari-sauri: Well, like, they say that within modern history,
    Prabhupada: First thing is they are all imperfect speculators. So what is the value of their sport? We don't take any value of it.
    Rupanuga: They don't know where these animals are, that's all.
    Prabhupada: They, simply like child, they are speculating. If he's
    imperfect, then what is the value of his speculation? There is no value. 
    Svarupa Damodara: But then what happens at the time of partial devastation? At the end of Manu, the partial devastation, what happens to the species?
    Prabhupada: Happens means these different ways become destroyed, but again, during creation, they come in.

  • Volunteer

    Hare Krishna.prabhu!! Here is a nice article . Hope this will help--

    Q: Srila Prabhupada doubted that dinosaurs ever existed, whereas much evidence is available to at least support the view that dinosaurs did once exist on this planet. He also stated that there was no such thing as 'extinction' of species. Please elucidate.

    A: 

    First, Prabhupada didn't deny the existence of dinosaurs. He mentioned that the existence of big forms of animals is recorded in the Vedas (super-eagles - Srimad Bhagavatam 5.23.3, timingila super-whales - SB 8.7.18, 8.10.10-12, 10.1.5-7). SB 8.10.10-12 mentions "big lizards" (whatever they are). In SB 10.64.2-5 cowherd boys found a lizard 'resembling a hill' fallen into an old well and they couldn't lift it out.

    The Vedas also mention that with the progression of time the life forms become smaller.

    In general he didn't consider the matter of their existence or nonexistence very important. He repeatedly stressed that our sense perception is imperfect and that there are many life forms which we don't know about.

    This is very true. Humans actually know quite a small portion of the land on this Earth, what to speak of the sea. Every year there are many "new" organisms discovered and some of them are quite big (reptiles, fish, birds, mammals). Just in this century there have been discovered many big animals like a species of jungle hog from Vietnam, a species of cat from Ryu-kyu archipelago, a big species of shark from the Hawaii islands, the onza (an animal from Mexico resembling the puma), the giant octopus from the ocean abysses around Bahamas, giant species of calmars etc.

    Srila Prabhupada also said that no species of life becomes extinct.

    It is important to remember that the Vedic definition of species is different from the modern one. The Vedas mention 8,400,000 species of life and all of them are repeatedly created after every partial or total cosmic devastation.

    Regarding the survival of the "living fossils" there is an example of the Latimeria fish which exactly resembles the rock imprints of the fossil Devonian species etc.

    To study the possibility of existence of such animals a group of scientists (mostly biologists) formed a new scientific discipline called a cryptozoology. They have their regular meetings, they organize expeditions to the remote corners of the world and they publish the Journal of Cryptozoology in which they discuss the existence of unknown (mainly big) life forms from all over the world whose existence is supported by ancient writings, local lore and both native and non-native witnesses (soldiers, tourists, scientists etc.) There are also websites dedicated to this field of study.

    On their "wanted" list there are several species of hominids from all over the world (known locally as yetti, almas, sasquatch, big foot etc.), great dangerous cats of an above-lion size from the jungles of equatorial Africa (some of them with huge fangs), great species of reptiles or dinosaurs from the oceans and lakes (e.g. Loch Ness in Scotland, Lake Champlain in Canada, etc.) and the jungles (Africa, South America), flying dinosaurs resembling Pteranodon and other types (Zaire, Southwest USA), and many other.

    Because this type of research, if successful, can seriously damage the accepted paradigms of Darwinian evolution of species, the establishment science views it with incredulity and suspicion. Therefore the cryptozoology is a "marginal" science.

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