Alians 4. - Evolution

 

"Guest (5): You say that we have eternal relationships with the Supreme?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Guest (5): Does that mean that at one time we had this relationship, and now we still have it, and then we will still have it later?

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. Not once you have; still. Without God's grace, you cannot live. You are still, but you have forgotten. Just like a prisoner. A prisoner is put into prison house. That does not mean he has lost his relationship with the state. Before coming to the prison house he was a state citizen, and in the prison also, he is also a state citizen.

And the government has concern both ways: when he was free, and when he is in prison. So our relationship with God is not broken, or it cannot be separated. It is there always, but at the present moment we are covered. We are thinking there is no God. That is our ignorance. Therefore you are suffering.

Guest (6): What is evolution, according to the Veda? What is this evolution that is talked about by the scientists?

Prabhupāda: Evolution means changing of different bodies. The spirit soul is changing from one body to another, and finally he's coming in the human form of body. This is a chance to know the actual position. And if he takes this chance, he can go back home to . . . back to Godhead. Otherwise, he is again put into the cycle of birth and death in different species of life."

 

(From lecture on SB 1.2.1 -- New Vrindaban, September 1, 1972)