[Advaita-l] Species, Evolution and Advaita Vedanta

[Shrinivas Gadkari]

Friends,
I apologise once again if I raise a question already well chewed over in the
lists :
How do the sages here regard the concepts of the origin of species, and
evolution ?
For most of the rest of the world, the idea of nature driven only by sex and
hunger, and life 'evolving' from primitive forms to homo-sometimes-sapiens,
:
:
 I myself am moved by the vision of this 'wider picture' of 'evolution'. But
I seldom if ever read much that inspires me about this issue. It seldom even
gets to the point of 'hmmm, worth thinking about...' !
Michael

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Namaste,
 
I had written a small essay related to this topic few years ago and posted it on internet.
I am unable to locate original message sent to this list. Following reply from Jaldhar
however contains the original message. 
http://www.advaita-vedanta.org/archives/advaita-l/2002-July/024201.html
 
The link in geocities is also not functional. However, I have an early draft of the
essay (later version is lost, unless some list members saved a copy - in that case
please email me the saved copy- thanks).
 
I am copying this draft below. See if you find it useful. 
(My understanding, especially of sAMkhya has changed since then. Also, I now feel the 
deity actively involved in early creation was not hiranyagarbha, but some very
high manifestation of para brahma . But these issues do not dramatically 
change the validity of core ideas in the essay.)
 
Regards,
Shrinivas
 
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An Interview with Hiranyagarbha
BACKGROUND
Some time in distant future, there is a researcher studying
medieval civilizations. He decides to dig into the sciences of
20th century. Goes to the central library of historic documents
and heads towards the section devoted to 20th century. He finds
numerous books on physical sciences and starts reading them with
interest. In them he learns about big bang, theories about the origin 
of the solar system, formation of earth, evolution of life, ....
He spends a long time trying to understand the world-view of
the 20th century. Finally he starts forming a clear picture of
how the people of those times saw the world. He cannot but 
notice that this world-view (henceforth called Physical WV)
is dramatically different from  the mainstream Vedic world-view 
(Vedic WV) that is generally accepted. He becomes curious about
how do we reconcile Physical WV and the Vedic WV. Unable to do
it himself, he decides to have a dialogue with Hiranyagarbha. He
boards his pushpak vimana and starts flying towards Brahma-Loka
to meet Hiranyagrabha.
INTERVIEW EXCERPETS
The researcher has explained to Hiranyagarbha the issues that
are bothering him. To resolve his doubts Hiranyagarbha narrates an
account of creation.
Hiranyagarbha: I mastered yoga long time ago. As you know I
am the founder of the yoga school, and this is the oldest 
school and not Samkhya as many people seem to think. By my
yoga sadhana I purified my mind to such an extent that
I only have to think of something and it happens. 
Creation of the world has been a very lengthy task. You may feel with
Creative powers like the ones I have, I should have been able to create
the universe as we see it in a short time. Many people hold this view, but
this is quite far from the truth. What people fail to realize is the fact that
I am limited by my ability to conceive an idea. And I can manifest only 
that what I can conceive.
Thus for a long time  there was only a desire to create and I had no concept of
what to create. The first concept that I conceived was that of
space. Yes space was a concept that I conceived. I conceived 
of a very small amount of space, I was happy at this concept. 
I then I conceived the concept of an amount of space larger than 
what I had conceived earlier. Then I conceived an even larger
space ... Thus the first creation was that of an ever expanding
space. And in this space was filled with my creative potency,
let us call it Prana. For a very long period of time this is
all that there was, expanding space and Prana. The Prana was
immensely dynamic, however. It was not at all homogenous and 
had all sorts of activity with it. Through my tapas I kept
shaping the Prana in a way that I felt was appropriate for
me to proceed with my creation. I kept shaping the Prana for
a very long period of time. 
Researcher: Do you mean you were shaping Prana in physical entities
like stars and planets and galaxies ?
Hiranyagarbha: No and Yes. You have to realize that at that point in
Time I had not yet developed the concept of physical shapes. In fact
I had no concept of a physical existence at all. I was shaping Prana in
an abstract sense, just feeling the arrangement of Prana by mind. In fact
I don’t think I can explain this any better. It was a very abstract process
that I had engaged myself in. So one answer to your question is No, I
was not intentionally creating physical entities like stars and galaxies 
out of Prana. However later when I manifested in a physical body as I
will explain later, and looked around I realized that the abstract arrangement
of Prana that I had done earlier had manifested now as stars, planets, the
Sun, the Moon, the earth, and so on. The concept of expanding space that
I initially conceived of, appears to give impression of big-bang when the
observed physical universe is extrapolated back in time. Note that in 
the physical universe there never was an event like big bang. It was an 
event with in my mind that appears as big-bang when history of the 
physical universe is traced back. 
Continuing my story, I was manipulated Prana in an expanding abstract
space for a long duration of time. Finally I was happy with the state of 
Prana and Space and decided
to move on with creation . This is where I took a big leap. Then I conceived the concept of Five sense objects:
sound, touch, taste, smell and form. This was accompanied my me conceiving the
concept of physical existence, yes, Physical existence was also a concept
that I developed. As I developed these concepts
I found myself encased in a physical "body". It was a very simple, uni-cellular
body, floating on water, part of my body in water and part of it
"feeling" the air. Sound gave me a feeling of space, air the feeling
of touch, water feeling of taste, something in the air feeling of
smell, and sun shinning in the sky the feeling of form. 
I hope I have not confused you. The Prana and space were already
Organized by me. By conceiving the notion of physical existence I
not only encased myself in a (simple) physical body, but also started to view
the organized Prana and space via the body and the same Prana now
was “seen” as the physical universe. Even now there really is no 
Physical universe, only Prana exists. Only when you choose to “look” through
the senses, for a physical universe, the Prana appears to you as the
Physical universe. Understand this point carefully, for this is an important,
and elusive point to grasp in the quest to reconcile Physical-WV and Vedic-WV.
Researcher: Would like to know more about the first body that you
assumed. You mentioned that this first body had five senses, I find
it very difficult to believe that the simple body that you first
manifested had five full blown sense organs. 
Hiranyagarbha: I never said that then I had five full blown sense
organs. All that I am saying is my body then could "feel" the
following: 
Vibrations - this ability to feel vibrations was a primitive form of ear.
Taste - my body could feel some taste changes in water, this was the 
primitive form of organ of taste.
Touch - I could feel the difference in touch between water and air,
this was the primitive oragn of touch.
Smell - I could sense some odour changes carried in the air, this was
primitive sense of smell.
Energy - I could sense intense energy be radiated from some object
up there (Sun) this was the primitive sense of sight.
Researcher: Now I see what you are saying. What happened next ?
Hiranyagarbha: I had two principal tasks - 
I. To create other beings with same body as mine.
II. To refine my body - this is what you people call evolution.
What I was actually doing conceiving of higher and higher form of
body. Where in I  could find more fulfillment. For example I
felt the need to have some control over movement - before that
I was completely dependent on movement of water. Thus primitive
organ of motion was born. Similarly I developed other organs of
action. 
Researcher: Clearly you were using your powers of mind for evolution
and not some "natural selection among mutations". Why then did it take 
you so long to evolve into say a human being.
Hiranyagarbha: You are again forgetting the important point. I had not
yet conceived the concept of higher life forms. If I had then evolution
would have been instantaneous. I was gradually arriving at the concept of
higher and more capable life forms. The evolution of species more or
less reflects my evolution. 
Reseacher: Were other life forms that you were creating along the line
not capable of evolving themselves ?
Hiranyagarbha: Every single life form is capable of evolving. But depending
on the progress in yoga some are more capable than others. Along the life
I created some beings who were very good at yoga and hence capable of 
assisting in evolution. One such being is Shri Rudra. I created Rudra 
when I was a in an animal body, he too had a animal body. Shri Rudra
evolved into fierce and gigantic bodies creating the age of dinosaurs.
Later I asked him to withdraw himself from active creation and engage in
tapas. Then we brought about an end to these fierce life forms so that
evolution of milder yet more capable life forms could proceed. 
My process of evolution culminated when I assumed the human body. I was 
so content with this body that I felt no need to evolve any more. In this body
I found that all organs of sense and action were super refined and
capable of reaching ultimate perfection. Then I decided to retire
from active creation and watch the play with minimum intervention.