Transmigration of the soul through 8,400,000 different forms

 

If you think you’re in this world for the first time and that God gives you just one lifetime ‘away’ from Him, I’ve got some very bad news for you… Take courage, keep on reading and know your sad destiny…

 

What is the ‘regular’ destiny of each and every individual soul who left God? The destiny is – Transmigration of the soul through 8,400,000 different forms (species) through countless time and space continuums. And that’s not all. We probably have more than one such cycle behind us! There is even more: we don’t remember anything from those cycles; barely one can remember something from his/her past lives, but none us can ever remember all our past lives. That is impossible for ‘ordinary’ soul who is in the cycle of transmigration. This is the subject of special mercy of God, and such mercy can’t get one who don’t give a damn about God, who is Person, not some impersonal energy or concept in our head.

 

So one may think about this fact in the following way: “I’ve passed through millions and millions of life-forms before I was given a chance to obtain human body again and I still don’t know nor understand WHY I’m in this world, HOW I got here, and WHERE will I go after my body drops dead… And I still do what I always did, still chasing rainbows and happiness in this world, from these people, from this or that… I pass my days just like everybody does….”

 

Sincerely, I don’t understand how can one go to sleep without finding out the answers to those basic existential questions posed above? How can one go to sleep without knowing the Truth, the Absolute Truth, that which is eternal and all-pervading?

Moreover, if in this human body one is given the extremely rare chance to get to know the Lord through Vedas and/or from those who personally know Him…. -> how can one throw one more life again? That’s scary… way too scary.

 

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“Having gone through all the miserable, hellish conditions and having passed in a regular order through the lowest forms of animal life prior to human birth, and having thus been purged of his sins, one is reborn again as a human being on this earth.” Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.30.34 

“In this universe there are limitless living entities in 8,400,000 species, and all are wandering within this universe.” Sri Caitanya Caritamrita Madhya 19.138

PURPORT

This is a challenge to so-called scientists and philosophers who presume that there are living entities on this planet only. So-called scientists are going to the moon, and they say that there is no life there. This does not tally with Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu‘s version. He says that everywhere within the universe there are unlimited numbers of living entities in 8,400,000 different forms. In the Bhagavad-gita (2.24) we find that the living entities are sarva-gata, which means that they can go anywhere. This indicates that there are living entities everywhere. They exist on land, in water, in air, in fire and in ether. Thus there are living entities in all types of material elements. Since the entire material universe is composed of five elements — earth, water, fire, air and ether — why should there be living entities on one planet and not others? Such a foolish version can never be accepted by Vedic students.

From the Vedic literatures we understand that there are living entities on each and every planet, regardless of whether the planet is composed of earth, water, fire or air. These living entities may not have the same forms that are found on this planet earth, but they have different forms composed of different elements. Even on this earth we can see that the forms of land animals are different from the forms of aquatics. According to the circumstance, living conditions differ, but undoubtedly there are living entities everywhere. Why should we deny the existence of living entities on this or that planet? Those who have claimed to have gone to the moon have not gone there, or else with their imperfect vision they cannot actually perceive the particular type of living entities there.

The living entities are described as ananta, or unlimited; nonetheless, they are said to belong to 8,400,000 species. As stated in the Vishnu Purana:

jala-ja nava-lakshani sthavara laksha-vimsati

krimayo rudra-sankhyakah pakshinam dasa-lakshanam

trimsal-lakshani pasavah catur-lakshani manushah

 

“There are 900,000 species living in the water. There are also 2,000,000 nonmoving 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 the Vedic literatures. As theBhagavad-gita (2.20) confirms:

na jayate mriyate va kadacin

nayam bhutva bhavita va na bhuyah

ajo nityah sasvato ‘yam purano

na hanyate hanyamane sarire

 

“For the soul there is neither birth nor death at any time. He has not come into being, does not come into being, and will not come into being. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing 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 consciousness 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 different 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 consciousness. This is also confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita (8.6):

yam yam vapi smaran bhavam tyajanty ante kalevaram

tam tam evaiti kaunteya sada tad bhava-bhavitah

 

“One’s consciousness at the time of death determines one’s type of body in the next life.” 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 consciousness.