Human devolution

May 17, 2007

Author of book: Michael Cremo.

Anyone read it?

What are your thoughts, shortly what is it about.

May 17, 2007

Hari Bol,

I own a copy of the book and have gone through it. Whilst I appreciate Michael Cremo's efforts to try to get people to open their minds to ideas and concepts beyond what modern academia teaches, since as a truth seeker, I try as much as possible to grab valuable information from whatever source I can find, I was rather disappointed by this particular work. It is supposed to be a Vedic alternative to Darwinism, but contains hardly ten pages mentioning what India's classical Sanskrit writings have to say about the origins of life. For me, that can only mean that Cremo relied exclusively on Srila Prabhupada's works to formulate his thesis, which is absurd, since most of His Divine Grace's writings concern Krsna consciousness, not the Vedic view of the creation of the universe and of life. This can only demonstrate a questionable level of commitment to his work, since either he lacks the Sanskrit knowledge to carry out his own research or else he did not bother exploring a sufficiently large number of available translations of different texts, which would have provided him with more insight and material to use.

There are some very good points made and interesting questions raised in Human Devolution, but to be frank, on the whole, I found it a very insipid and boring read. Entire chapters are devoted to comparing cosmological systems (those of Native Americans, Africans and Polynesians amongst others) and as one reaches the final part of the book, which incidentally includes the ten or so pages devoted to the Hindu version of Genesis, if I may use this colourful phrase, one is left panting after having had to endure such a tedious ordeal. In short, a well-intended but unsuccessful attempt to deconstruct prevailing paradigms and inspire more respect for the Vedic scriptures.

The works of the late Sripada Bhaktisvarupa Damodara Maharaja (T.D. Singh) and his team in consciousness studies and that of Sadaputa Prabhu (Richard L. Thompson) in Bhagavata cosmology and the relation between the known laws of physics and the Vedic conception of mystic siddhis, etc are far more convincing and scholarly. Not all of their propositions need to be accepted in toto but their efforts are for sure thought-provoking. If you wish to get acquainted with scientific presentations of how some Vedic ideas can be made sense of in light of a scientific understanding of nature, I suggest you read Thompson's books like MAYA: The World As Virtual Reality or God and Science: Divine Causation and the Laws of Nature.

One final word on this - in the ultimate issue, it matters not how the human form of life came about, or which of creation or evolution is the more empirically veridical. As Vaisnavas, we are agreeable to the principle that living entities are first and foremost spiritual sparks or souls, and that is what motivates our pursuit. The wisest thing to do is to take helpful knowledge, whether emanating from religion or science, and use it in the best way we can in order to become balanced, well-rounded persons and acquire the qualities which are favourable to progress on the path of sadhana-bhakti. Always bear that in mind.

My greetings to you.