Number of animals decreasing, humans increasing, Inquiries Into the Absolute, Digest 404
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May 21, 2013, 7:43:42 PM5/21/13
to Inquiries Into the Absolute
Digest 404, May 18th, 2013. Answers by His Holiness Romapada Swami
Maharaja
You are invited to send your questions to His Holiness Romapada Swami
at ma...@iita.info with the word "Question" included in the subject
line or submit your question at http://www.romapadaswami.com/?q=feedback/Question.
Number of animals decreasing, humans increasing
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787) One of my Muslim friends asked me a question regarding birth
rebirth cycle of every soul. He said "As far as i have read soul takes
a lower form life if it involves in bad karma, like an aquatic or an
animal, and then it climbs up the order again to reach human form. Aso
if a soul in human form does good karma it either liberated or again
takes as a human. My question is: As we know at present situation
sins are increasing so souls should have taken birth more as animals
whereas we find animals are decreasing day by day and humans are
increasing day by day. So does it not challenging the theory of
karma?" Please shed some light on this.
Ans: Thank you for sharing your Muslim friend's question! Inquiries
like these are typically based on a key unstated assumption: souls
exist only on the earthly realm. According to the Vedic texts such as
the Bhagavad-Gita, this assumption is not true.
Souls that inhabit the human form in this life based on their
predominant psychological state (goodness, passion or ignorance) and
quality of their actions - bad, good, mediocre or spiritual karma can
go down, go up, stay put or become liberated, respectively (please
refer Ch. 14 of the Gita). When souls relocate to the spiritual,
celestial or subterranean realms, they become invisible to us and thus
don't lend themselves to population census. There is life everywhere
in the material and spiritual universes and what happens here is only
a miniscule part of the big picture. Therefore, I would suggest
exercising caution in interpreting data or information based on our
imperfect senses and instruments.
Assuming that the human population explosion and animal population
reduction are indeed true phenomena, a combination of these following
possibilities (not an exhaustive list by any means) could explain
these developments:
1) It is possible that more human beings today are engaged in mediocre
(a mix of bad and good) karma that makes them come back to the human
level. Furthermore, there is an on-going flux of souls from subhuman
forms that gradually rise by the process of evolution to the human
form. Added together, if these two groups of souls exceed the number
of souls that are descending to animal species or lower regions, one
can expect to see human population growth and animal population
reduction.
2) The human population explosion could be part of the cosmic plan to
award strong punishment for irresponsible human actions that have led
to the massive destruction of nature and its other non-human
inhabitants that are critical for bio-diversity and a healthy
ecosystem. The simultaneous withdrawal of natural resources,
unsustainable increase in human population and reduction of non-human
forms are probably Mother Nature's way of tough love for human beings
- correct your ways or face scarcity, choking and destruction!
3) As noted above, bad karma or sins can take a soul from the human
form to lower destinations - either animal forms on this planet or
forms in the hellish or subterranean regions - if the latter happens
more than the former, with time, we can expect to see fewer animals on
this planet.
4) It is also possible, thanks to an upward trend in consciousness,
that more souls are going up - to heavenly or spiritual realms -
compared to those going downward, and that more souls in animal forms
are evolving to human forms. This would also contribute to the
aforementioned twin phenomena. However, given the current human
behavioral trends, this seems very unlikely.
*************************
Previous questions and answers are available with subject
classification at http://www.romapadaswami.com/inquiries
Digests 1-242 are included as a PDF file at:
http://www.romapadaswami.com/Inquiries/IITA_full.pdf
Lectures: http://www.romapadaswami.com/audio
Brief biography of His Holiness Romapada Swami:
http://www.romapadaswami.com/HHRPS_bio
**************************
To (un)subscribe please email ma...@iita.info with the word (un)
subscribe in the subject.
Maharaja
You are invited to send your questions to His Holiness Romapada Swami
at ma...@iita.info with the word "Question" included in the subject
line or submit your question at http://www.romapadaswami.com/?q=feedback/Question.
Number of animals decreasing, humans increasing
```````````````````````````````````````````````
787) One of my Muslim friends asked me a question regarding birth
rebirth cycle of every soul. He said "As far as i have read soul takes
a lower form life if it involves in bad karma, like an aquatic or an
animal, and then it climbs up the order again to reach human form. Aso
if a soul in human form does good karma it either liberated or again
takes as a human. My question is: As we know at present situation
sins are increasing so souls should have taken birth more as animals
whereas we find animals are decreasing day by day and humans are
increasing day by day. So does it not challenging the theory of
karma?" Please shed some light on this.
Ans: Thank you for sharing your Muslim friend's question! Inquiries
like these are typically based on a key unstated assumption: souls
exist only on the earthly realm. According to the Vedic texts such as
the Bhagavad-Gita, this assumption is not true.
Souls that inhabit the human form in this life based on their
predominant psychological state (goodness, passion or ignorance) and
quality of their actions - bad, good, mediocre or spiritual karma can
go down, go up, stay put or become liberated, respectively (please
refer Ch. 14 of the Gita). When souls relocate to the spiritual,
celestial or subterranean realms, they become invisible to us and thus
don't lend themselves to population census. There is life everywhere
in the material and spiritual universes and what happens here is only
a miniscule part of the big picture. Therefore, I would suggest
exercising caution in interpreting data or information based on our
imperfect senses and instruments.
Assuming that the human population explosion and animal population
reduction are indeed true phenomena, a combination of these following
possibilities (not an exhaustive list by any means) could explain
these developments:
1) It is possible that more human beings today are engaged in mediocre
(a mix of bad and good) karma that makes them come back to the human
level. Furthermore, there is an on-going flux of souls from subhuman
forms that gradually rise by the process of evolution to the human
form. Added together, if these two groups of souls exceed the number
of souls that are descending to animal species or lower regions, one
can expect to see human population growth and animal population
reduction.
2) The human population explosion could be part of the cosmic plan to
award strong punishment for irresponsible human actions that have led
to the massive destruction of nature and its other non-human
inhabitants that are critical for bio-diversity and a healthy
ecosystem. The simultaneous withdrawal of natural resources,
unsustainable increase in human population and reduction of non-human
forms are probably Mother Nature's way of tough love for human beings
- correct your ways or face scarcity, choking and destruction!
3) As noted above, bad karma or sins can take a soul from the human
form to lower destinations - either animal forms on this planet or
forms in the hellish or subterranean regions - if the latter happens
more than the former, with time, we can expect to see fewer animals on
this planet.
4) It is also possible, thanks to an upward trend in consciousness,
that more souls are going up - to heavenly or spiritual realms -
compared to those going downward, and that more souls in animal forms
are evolving to human forms. This would also contribute to the
aforementioned twin phenomena. However, given the current human
behavioral trends, this seems very unlikely.
*************************
Previous questions and answers are available with subject
classification at http://www.romapadaswami.com/inquiries
Digests 1-242 are included as a PDF file at:
http://www.romapadaswami.com/Inquiries/IITA_full.pdf
Lectures: http://www.romapadaswami.com/audio
Brief biography of His Holiness Romapada Swami:
http://www.romapadaswami.com/HHRPS_bio
**************************
To (un)subscribe please email ma...@iita.info with the word (un)
subscribe in the subject.
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