Vedic evolution

[Guest guest]

Dear devotees,

 

One point about evolution: It seems to subtly diminish the importance of the

idea of human duty. If the history of the earth is compared to a 12 hour

clock, then i believe, the human being appeared at the end of the 11th hour

59th minute. This suggests that human duty has not been necessary in the

overall plan for so many billions of years.

 

On the other hand Sri Krishna says that human duty (dharma) has been around

since the beginning: "In the beginning, the Lord of all created beings,

having created the creatures along with sacrifices, said 'By this

(sacrifice), may you prosper: be this your cow of plenty for (your) desires.'

Gita 3.10 (Sampatkumaran tr.)

 

It may be argued that there were not any souls fit to be human beings until

this 11th hour, therefore God only created human beings (through evolution)

only a few cosmic seconds ago. However, the commentary of Sri Ramanuja seems

to say otherwise:

 

"In the beginning, at the time of creation, He the Lord, the Lord of all

created beings, beheld all things, helpless on account of contact proceeding

from time imemorial with non-intelligent matter excluded from the

distinctions of name and form, dissolved within Himself, unfit to realize the

objects of human pursuit and almost inanimate." Gita 3.10 comm

 

This seems to indicate that there are souls ready for the human form prior to

the act of creation. Ramanuja's commentary to 10.2 also indicates that souls

are ready even for godly forms at the time of creation. (They are "unfit"

because of being disembodied, not because they are not qualified to be human

etc.) Out of His mercy He places them in human form (and other appropriate

forms) along with sacrifices:

 

"He, the supremely merciful, through a desire to redeem them, placed them in

the state of creation (lit. created them) along with sacrifices."

 

The translator Sri Sampatkumaran then notes that Sri Vedanta desika's

Tatparyachandrika, "cites texts from the Purusa-sukta (RV X.90) to show that

the creatures are created along with sacrifices. This may be taken to

indicate the idea that religion is as old as man."

 

On the other hand, the idea of evolution says that religion is only a recent

introduction in the history of the universe.

 

The human duty present at "the beginning" is elaborated: "By this, propitiate

the gods, and may those gods nourish you in return. Thus, supporting each

other, may you obtain the highest good." Gita 3.11

 

Thus an important aspect of this world is the god-man dharmic symbiosis. It

does not make sense that it was only started recently from this context.

 

Sri Krishna further explains how the people of the world came to be:

 

"The seven great rishis of yore and similarly the four Manus, who were all

caused to be born from the mind, whose descendents these people in the world

are, have their mental states from Me."

 

Sri Ramanujacharya repeats this: "..*those *four *Manus, the Savarnikas, who

were established for carrying on perpetual maintenance--in this world

*composed *of *whose *descendents *all *these *people *are *born, and who

become begetters and protectors of children every moment from the time of

pralaya...."

 

Thus the residents of the earth 5,000 years ago, and therefore us as well,

were clearly descendents of the Manus etc. This may also be seen as

evolution: everything comes from Lord Brahma and the prajapatis, Lord Brahma

of course originating from Lord Vishnu.

 

Sri Krishna explains the benefit of this Vedic theory of "evolution":

 

"Whoever knows truly this sovereign power and association (with auspicious

qualities) which characterize Me, he becomes united with the unshakeable

discipline (of bhakti).

 

Sri Ramanuja explains that "soverieign power" means Lord Krishna's wonderful

arrangement of everything having its origin, maintenance and activity

dependent on Him, which was just explained in Gita 10.1- 10.6, of which the

immediate prior sloka 10.6 describes real evolution.

 

Almost as if to answer the doubt about the importance of Vedic evolution in

a devotee's life as well as the importance of other previously stated ideas,

Sri Krishna adds:

 

"(There need be) no doubt about this."

 

This seems to conclusively refute the need to doubt Vedic evolution as far as

the devotees of Krishna are concerned.

 

Some may argue, that all this goes against pratyaksa-pramana. However, the

idea of inverse evolution can be seen any time in a lab: When certain complex

cells are deprived of basic nutrients, they become a substantially simpler

form in order to survive. However in the past 100+ years of scientific

inquiry, no one has ever shown a simpler form convert into a complex form.

 

Thus Vedic evolution stands the test of shabda-pramana and can be

extrapolated from events within our perception, while modern evolution does

neither. Most important of all, Vedic evolutionary theory, according to Lord

Krishna, strengthens our dharma, and bhakti. And modern evolution certainly

cannot come anywhere near to making that claim.

 

Gerald Surya