Chanting the Song Sung by Lord Śiva

Verse 73 (SB 4.24.73)

SB 4.24.72

SB 4.24.74

SB 4.24.73 • मूल श्लोक

ते वयं नोदिता: सर्वे प्रजासर्गे प्रजेश्वरा: । अनेन ध्वस्ततमस: सिसृक्ष्मो विविधा: प्रजा: ॥ ७३ ॥

Transliteration

te vayaṁ noditāḥ sarve prajā-sarge prajeśvarāḥ anena dhvasta-tamasaḥ sisṛkṣmo vividhāḥ prajāḥ

Synonyms (Word-for-Word)

te — by him; vayam — all of us; noditāḥ — ordered; sarve — all; prajā-sarge — at the time of creating population; prajā-īśvarāḥ — the controllers of all living entities; anena — by this; dhvasta-tamasaḥ — being freed from all kinds of ignorance; sisṛkṣmaḥ — we created; vividhāḥ — various kinds of; prajāḥ — living entities.

Translation

“When all the Prajāpatis were ordered to create by Lord Brahmā, we chanted these prayers in praise of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and became completely free from all ignorance. Thus we were able to create different types of living entities.”

Bhaktivedanta Purport

By Śrīla Prabhupāda

In this verse we can understand that the various types of living entities were created simultaneously at the very beginning of the creation. The nonsensical Darwinian theory of evolution is not applicable here. It is not that intelligent human beings did not exist millions of years ago. On the contrary, it is understood that the most intelligent creature, Lord Brahmā, was first created. Then Lord Brahmā created other saintly sages like Marīci, Bhṛgu, Ātreya, Vasiṣṭha and Lord Śiva. They in their turn created different types of bodies according to karma. In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Lord Kapiladeva told His mother that the living entity gets a particular type of body in accordance with his work and that this body is decided upon by higher authorities. The higher authorities, as appointed by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, are Lord Brahmā and all other Prajāpatis and Manus. Thus from the beginning of creation it can be seen that the first creature is the most intelligent. It is not that so-called modern intelligence has developed by the gradual process of evolution. As stated in Brahma-vaivarta Purāṇa, there is a gradual evolutionary process, but it is not the body that is evolving. All the bodily forms are already there. It is the spiritual entity, or spiritual spark within the body, that is being promoted by the laws of nature under the supervision of superior authority. We can understand from this verse that from the very beginning of creation different varieties of living entities were existing. It is not that some of them have become extinct. Everything is there; it is due to our lack of knowledge that we cannot see things in their proper perspective. In this verse the word dhvasta-tamasaḥ is very important, for without being free of ignorance one cannot control the creation of different types of living entities. As stated in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (3.31.1), daiva-netreṇa: bodies are awarded under the supervision of superior powers. How can these superior powers control the evolutionary process of the living entity if they are not free from all imperfection? The followers of the Vedic instructions cannot accept the Darwinian theory of evolution, for it is marred by imperfect knowledge.