Perfect Plan

The apparent lack of God's mercy in nature caused Darwin to disbelieve in a creator. He lamented, "I can see no evidence of beneficent design." Actually, the miseries that all creatures are heir to in this world are, in one sense, a blessing, for they prompt the living entity, when he reaches the human form of life, to inquire into the means of escape from this painful condition. Suffering exists as long as we try to exploit nature and remain in ignorance of our true spiritual position. Evolution is the means by which the Supreme Lord gradually brings the living entity to full consciousness, and the varieties of life are the various prisons the soul must pass through on his sojourn within matter. The culmination of the soul's evolution is the human form of life, where one may at long last end the cycle of birth and death and re-enter the spiritual realm. If, however, one misuses human life by neglecting spiritual culture, he must again descend into the animal species and once more be subject to the process of evolution. The Brahma-vaivarta Purana states that: "One attains the human form of life after transmigration through 8,400,000 species of life by the process of gradual evolution. The human form of life is spoiled for those conceited fools who do not take shelter of the lotus feet of Govinda [God]."

The fate of those who misuse human life is further described in the Bhagavad-gita: "Those who are envious and mischievous, who are the lowest among men, are cast by Me into the ocean of material existence into various demoniac species of life. Attaining repeated births among the species of demoniac life, such persons can never approach Me. Gradually they sink down to the most abominable type of existence." (Bg. 16.20)

The Vedas emphatically declare that having now achieved the extremely rare human form, we should use the opportunity to inquire about God, the origin of everything. The most complete and authoritative information on God and His creation is to be found in the Vedas themselves, and the essence of the Vedic wisdom is contained in the Srimad-Bhagavatam and the Bhagavad-gita. This literature, presented in English for the first time without adulteration by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, provides the seriously inquisitive seeker with a totally theistic and scientific explanation of the creation of the universe and the origin of species, and explicit instructions on how he can complete the evolutionary process by becoming God conscious in the human form of life.