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Do Animals Have Souls? BY HDG B.S. TIRTHA MAHARAJ In birds with vocal learning abilities songbirds, parrots and humming birds the brain structures for singing and learning to sing are embedded in areas controlling movement. Researchers at Duke University Medical Centre, New York, have found that in all three groups of birds with vocal learning abilities songbirds, parrots and humming-birds the brain structures for singing and learning to sing are embedded in areas controlling movement. According to researchers, the areas controlling movement share many functional similarities with areas in the brain used for singing, which suggests that: ‘the brain pathways used for vocal learning evolved out of the brain pathways used for motor control'. ‘The connection between movement and vocal learning also extends to humans. The human brain structures for speech also lie adjacent to, and even within, areas that control movements. We can make a plausible argument that in humans, our spoken language areas also evolved out of pre-existing motor pathways,' said the PLOS medical journal. A donkey, who decided to end his miserable life, ran towards the Nile…plunged into the river that swept it to a watery grave. Two cases of donkeys ‘taking their own lives’ have been cited in a UN report filed by the Indian Army recently. In the first incident, according to the report, an overworked donkey preferred to be beaten to death by his master rather than continue pulling a heavily loaded cart through the market. In the other case, a donkey jumped into the river Nile, along with his load of a water barrel. ‘A donkey, who decided to end his miserable and wretched life, ran towards the Nile. As he approached the banks, he plunged into the river and moved towards the current and the strong current of the mighty river swept it to a watery grave.' Cancer link between humans and canines A team of researchers at the University of Minnesota and North Carolina State University has carried out a study and discovered the genetic cancer link between humans and canines. Since we know now that dogs and humans seem to share a common pathogenetic basis for some cancers, we believe that studying dog cancers may allow us to identify cancer-associated genes more easily in the dog populations than in human populations. Lobsters and prawns, often boiled alive by chefs, may be able to feel pain. The shellfish react to their feelings in much the same way we do, scientists say. Their research goes against traditional thinking, which says that the edible crustaceans do not sense physical suffering. Nip cruelty in the bud: Crabs have feelings too… The Vedic View When the preachers of Krishna Consciousness spiritedly promote vegetarianism and urge people to stop eating the meat of animals, birds and fish, they usually face angry retorts, impassioned rebukes and aggressive arguments. These persuasive preaching efforts sometimes result in unpleasant encounters. They cannot understand how the love of God cannot manifest in the heart of such a so-called religious person who lacks any compassion towards helpless beings. These contradictions exist today due to a lack of perfect knowledge of God and the true concept of religion. In the seventh chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna, the Supreme Lord of gods, explains that He possesses two categories of energy; namely, material and spiritual. All beings, both moving and stationary, are a combination of these two as kshetra (the body), the field of action, and kshetrajna (the soul), and the knower of the field of action. In other words, all the species of this world, which include humans, beasts, birds, fish and trees, possess a material body and a spirit soul. In the thirteenth chapter, the Supreme Lord asserts kshetra kshetrajnayor jnanam yat tat jnanam matam mama, the knowledge of the field and its knower is the actual knowledge. The one who understands the clear difference between the two is the truly knowledgeable person. According to Darwin’s theory of evolution, we are told that the physical body evolves over time. Often, the example cited is that man evolved from monkey. If that is the case, why do many monkeys still exist? This is an incorrect understanding. The fact is, it is not the body, but the consciousness that evolves. The body is made of material elements. The matter is insentient but the spirit soul is conscious. Based on the type of driving licence a person possesses, he or she can ride a two-wheeler, drive a car or pilot a ship or an aircraft. It is not that a scooter becomes a motorcar or for that matter, a ship becomes an aircraft. Similarly, depending on the type of karma one performs, he or she is awarded an animal’s body or a bird’s body. Sometimes, one acquires a tree’s body or the body of a heavenly being like the sun or the moon. It is the soul that changes the body. Therefore, it is the consciousness that evolves and not the material body. When we kill an animal, we are actually impeding the spiritual progress of the embodied living entity because it is once again required to take birth in the same type of body to complete the duration of life originally allotted to it. Thus, killing an animal is sinful. Here some may argue and ask, why killing of animals was permitted during Vedic times. The Vedas do prescribe ritual sacrificial performances where killing animals is sometimes permitted. During the ancient times, such sacrifices were performed on (tithes) specific dates and were restricted to very few occasions. Such rituals were governed by rigorous, obligatory rules and such yajnas were rarely performed. What is more, in those days the power of the mantras chanted was so potent that as soon as an animal was sacrificed, it instantly acquired a heavenly body and was immediately promoted to a higher planet of demigods, svarga (heaven) or pitri loka (planet of forefathers). Hence, the sacrificial killing of animals for their elevation and butchering animals in the slaughterhouse is not the same. The unimpeachable character of Brahmin priests who performed these yagnas and their meticulousness, as well as the complexity of details elaborately described in Vedic literature makes it virtually impossible for conducting genuine Vedic sacrifice today in conformity with original scriptural prescriptions. Further, Vedic literature declares that not only animals, but even birds, plants and trees possess souls. There are a total of 8,400,000 species of living beings rotating in the fourteen planetary systems of this Universe. They are: Jalaja nava lakshani According to Vedic information, ahara, nidra, bhaya maithunamcha samanam etad pashubhih naranam (eating, sleeping, fearing, consequently defending and mating are the major bodily functions common to both humans and animals). Performing these common functions, if human beings can be considered to possess spirit souls, then what stops us from extending the same considerations regarding beasts and birds? Apart from this, these news reports show that there are other similarities. For research scientists and scholars, their findings may be either interesting or enigmatic. For us, the transcendentalists, these are million-year-old news items. For example, it is not difficult for us to accept the donkey’s suicidal tendency and its jumping into the river Nile. In the Shrimad Bhagavatam, a classic Vedic literature authored by Veda Vyasa, there is a description of a deer who consciously gave up its body in the river Gandaki near Pulaha Ashrama... Of course, this is not suicide. After death, the deer gained a human form. The deer was actually the Emperor Bharat after whom India came to be known as Bharat. The deer, by the mercy of Lord Krishna, retained its memory of having been the emperor Bharat in the previous life and that he had made a mistake in developing an attachment to a deer at the time of death. This resulted in him getting the body of a deer. In order to avoid the mistake of getting into material entanglements, he left his deer parents and consciously gave up his deer body to make progress in the spiritual life of Krishna Consciousness. In the weekly magazine, ‘New Scientist’ of 24 May 2008, Christine Kenneally writes, ‘We humans are not as special as we might like to think. Over the past decade, hard scientific fact has steadily chipped away our supposedly unique qualities, revealing many of them to be just more sophisticated versions of traits found elsewhere in the animal world. The line dividing us from the rest of nature has steadily shifted. Now, the last stronghold of human uniqueness, the ability to communicate through language, has fallen.' What has further come to light is that animals also feel emotions, empathise with others, and communicate with others effectively through gestures. They do mind reading and use tools as well. Animals and birds have their own languages but the apparent deficiency is that they lack a human grammatical ability and the athletic ability of the human vocal tract. But, they certainly possess the ability to convey meanings through gestures just as we do. It is common knowledge that birds, like parrots, can exactly imitate humans in pronouncing some words, if trained. In ancient India, birds like pigeons even acted like postmen, carrying letters from one individual to another. Given these findings, one may wonder, what then sets humans apart? Vedic literature proclaims, dharmam tu tesham adhikam vishesham (it is religiousness or God-consciousness that constitutes the distinguishing characteristic). Human beings, bereft of God-consciousness, are nothing but another species of animals. Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita (7/10), bijam mam sarva bhutanam viddhi Partha sanatanam (O Partha; Know me to be the primeval seed of all beings). This means that the first seed in both man and monkey is Krishna. The Lord further asserts through Verse 4 Chapter 14: It should be understood that all species of life, Oh Son of Kunti, are made possible by birth in this material nature, and that I am the seed-giving father. This exposes the impropriety of Darwin’s theory of evolution. Both the scriptural evidence as well as the results of scientific research, as reported above, establishes beyond any doubt the fact that animals do possess spirit souls. |
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