View source for How do you know that animals have no souls? Animals and children are of the same nature. Does this mean that the children of human society also have no souls?

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{{terms|"How do you know that animals have no souls? Animals and children are of the same nature. Does this mean that the children of human society also have no souls"|"The rascal says that the animals have no soul. Why? Then the child has no soul? What is the difference between the child's behavior and an animal's behavior"|"they have no consciousness? Then children? They treat like animals. They have no soul"|"why the animals have no soul? Their consciousness is not developed, but soul is there. If the animal has no soul, then the child has also no soul because the child behaves like an animal"}}
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{{compiler|Labangalatika}}
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[[Category:How Does]]
[[Category:Know That]]
[[Category:Animals and the Soul]]
[[Category:Have No]]
[[Category:Children]]
[[Category:Same]]
[[Category:Nature Of]]
[[Category:This Means...]]
[[Category:Human Society]]
[[Category:Also]]
[[Category:Souls]]
[[Category:Questions Posed by Srila Prabhupada]]
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<div id="Sri_Caitanya-caritamrta" class="section" sec_index="2" parent="compilation" text="Sri Caitanya-caritamrta"><h2>Sri Caitanya-caritamrta</h2>
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<div id="CC_Adi-lila" class="sub_section" sec_index="1" parent="Sri_Caitanya-caritamrta" text="CC Adi-lila"><h3>CC Adi-lila</h3>
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<div id="CCAdi17169_0" class="quote" parent="CC_Adi-lila" book="CC" index="2106" link="CC Adi 17.169" link_text="CC Adi 17.169">
<div class="heading">Sometimes Christian priests come to us inquiring, "Why are our followers neglecting our scriptures and accepting yours?" But when we ask them, "Your Bible says, 'Do not kill.' Why then are you killing so many animals daily?" they cannot answer. Some of them imperfectly answer that the animals have no souls. But then we ask them, "How do you know that animals have no souls? Animals and children are of the same nature. Does this mean that the children of human society also have no souls?"
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:CC Adi 17.169|CC Adi 17.169, Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="purport text"><p style="display: inline;">The śāstras of the yavanas, or meat-eaters, are not eternal scriptures. They have been fashioned recently, and sometimes they contradict one another. The scriptures of the yavanas are three: the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Koran. Their compilation has a history; they are not eternal like the Vedic knowledge. Therefore although they have their arguments and reasonings, they are not very sound and transcendental. As such, modern people advanced in science and philosophy deem these scriptures unacceptable.</p>
<p>Sometimes Christian priests come to us inquiring, "Why are our followers neglecting our scriptures and accepting yours?" But when we ask them, "Your Bible says, 'Do not kill.' Why then are you killing so many animals daily?" they cannot answer. Some of them imperfectly answer that the animals have no souls. But then we ask them, "How do you know that animals have no souls? Animals and children are of the same nature. Does this mean that the children of human society also have no souls?" According to the Vedic scriptures, within the body is the owner of the body, the soul. In the Bhagavad-gītā (2.13) it is said:</p>
:dehino ’smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā
:tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati
<p>"As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. The self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change."</p>
<p>Because the soul is within the body, the body changes through so many forms. There is a soul within the body of every living creature, whether animal, tree, bird or human being, and the soul is transmigrating from one type of body to another. When the scriptures of the yavanas—namely the Old Testament, New Testament and Koran—cannot properly answer inquisitive followers, naturally those advanced in scientific knowledge and philosophy lose faith in such scriptures. The Kazi admitted this while talking with Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. The Kazi was a very intelligent person. He had full knowledge of his position, as stated in the following verse.</p>
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<div id="Lectures" class="section" sec_index="4" parent="compilation" text="Lectures"><h2>Lectures</h2>
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<div id="Srimad-Bhagavatam_Lectures" class="sub_section" sec_index="1" parent="Lectures" text="Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures"><h3>Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures</h3>
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<div id="LectureonSB11542LosAngelesDecember201973_0" class="quote" parent="Srimad-Bhagavatam_Lectures" book="Lec" index="310" link="Lecture on SB 1.15.42 -- Los Angeles, December 20, 1973" link_text="Lecture on SB 1.15.42 -- Los Angeles, December 20, 1973">
<div class="heading">The rascal says that the animals have no soul. Why? Then the child has no soul? What is the difference between the child's behavior and an animal's behavior?
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Lecture on SB 1.15.42 -- Los Angeles, December 20, 1973|Lecture on SB 1.15.42 -- Los Angeles, December 20, 1973]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">First of all you have to believe that the soul transmigrates. That's a fact. That we are doing every day, every minute... Simply it requires little brain. Dhīra. Dhīras tatra na muhyati. Tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati ([[Vanisource:BG 2.13|BG 2.13]]). Dhīra means sober. What is the difficulty to understand? I was a child, you were a child. Just like these children, talking without any meaning. But they are children, they are excused. But the same child will become a young man, old man. The body has changed. Just like I was also child, you were also child. In childhood we have done so many nonsense things. But in this body I am not doing anything. I have to consider.</p>
<p>So that means the body is different. According to the body... The rascal says that the animals have no soul. Why? Then the child has no soul? What is the difference between the child's behavior and an animal's behavior? Anyone who has got a dog in the family, the dog is also one of the children. He also behaves... The children also behave like the dog. And the children do not find any difference, that a dog is different, he is different. Simple. So if the dog has no soul and if the behavior are the same, as of the dog of the child, so does it mean the child has no soul? How foolish they are. Just see. And they say the animal has no soul. Why? You can say, "The intelligence is not developed." As the child's intelligence is not developed, it will develop with the chance of the body, similarly, the dog also will have developed sense when he will change his dog's body to human body. That is called evolution. He will get the chance. Nature will give the chance.</p>
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<div id="LectureonSB11622HawaiiJanuary181974_2" class="quote" parent="Srimad-Bhagavatam_Lectures" book="Lec" index="338" link="Lecture on SB 1.16.22 -- Hawaii, January 18, 1974" link_text="Lecture on SB 1.16.22 -- Hawaii, January 18, 1974">
<div class="heading">Just like some rascal says, "The animals, they have no soul." So why the animals have no soul? Their consciousness is not developed, but soul is there. If the animal has no soul, then the child has also no soul because the child behaves like an animal.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Lecture on SB 1.16.22 -- Hawaii, January 18, 1974|Lecture on SB 1.16.22 -- Hawaii, January 18, 1974]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">Yayā sammohito jīva ātmānaṁ tri-guṇātmakam ([[Vanisource:SB 1.7.5|SB 1.7.5]]). Ātmānam means the soul. Soul, they're thinking that it is a product of this matter, by evolution, or so on. So many nonsense theories they have, all rascaldom. There is no evolution. Evolution is there in the matter of consciousness. Just like a child. His consciousness is not developed. A child goes to capture a fire because his consciousness is not developed. But that does not mean the child has no consciousness or the child has no soul. Just like some rascal says, "The animals, they have no soul." So why the animals have no soul? Their consciousness is not developed, but soul is there. If the animal has no soul, then the child has also no soul because the child behaves like an animal. In the family, a small child and a dog, they're behaving similarly, and therefore dog is also considered as one of the family members, children, because his consciousness is not developed.</p>
<p>So the evolution means developed consciousness, and according to the developed consciousness, one gets a particular type of body. This is nature's law. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ, ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā kartāham... ([[Vanisource:BG 3.27|BG 3.27]]). The evolution means evolution of consciousness.</p>
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<div id="Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" class="section" sec_index="5" parent="compilation" text="Conversations and Morning Walks"><h2>Conversations and Morning Walks</h2>
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<div id="1973_Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" class="sub_section" sec_index="6" parent="Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" text="1973 Conversations and Morning Walks"><h3>1973 Conversations and Morning Walks</h3>
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<div id="MorningWalkDecember181973LosAngeles_1" class="quote" parent="1973_Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" book="Con" index="104" link="Morning Walk -- December 18, 1973, Los Angeles" link_text="Morning Walk -- December 18, 1973, Los Angeles">
<div class="heading">So the cows have no consciousness? Then children? They treat like animals. They have no soul? Then better send all the children to the slaughterhouse. Their, children's flesh is very sweet and palatable.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Morning Walk -- December 18, 1973, Los Angeles|Morning Walk -- December 18, 1973, Los Angeles]]: </span><div class="text"><p style="display: inline;">Prabhupāda: If somebody says, "My religion is to cut throat of others, to pickpocket others. That is my religion." Would it be accepted? Why sometimes you are arrested. You say, "My religion is to chant." They will say, "No, you cannot do this. It is disturbance." So "Because it is my religion, it will be accepted," that is not a fact. You must come to philosophy and reasoning: "Why don't you cut throat your... Why don't you send your... You say complain, over-population. Why don't you send the over-population to the slaughterhouse? Why? Why?"</p>
<p>Girirāja: Well, it would be inhuman.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Inhuman. And then cutting throat of the cows, that is not human. Is that very good reasoning?</p>
<p>Devotee: They don't think that the cows have souls, many of them.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: That is their rascaldom. Rascals. Why no soul? What is the symptom of having soul?</p>
<p>Devotee: Consciousness.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes. So they have no consciousness? Then children? They treat like animals. They have no soul? Then better send all the children to the slaughterhouse. Their, children's flesh is very sweet and palatable.</p>
<p>Devotee: They made a movie like that, Śrīla Prabhupāda, about people... They give up their lives and they are sent to this place where they are mashed up and made into meat, and the people eat them.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes. They do that in many hotels. They, it was in India done. The childcatcher? What is called?</p>
<p>Girirāja: Kidnapper.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Kidnappers. They kidnap and they slaughter, and mix with other meat. It becomes very tasteful. In hotel, one body found a finger of a child. In Kanpur.</p>
<p>Devotee: Some social scientists were saying that in twenty years cannibalism will be as acceptable among the society as illicit sex is now.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes. They will do that. Because people are degrading. They are not advancing.</p>
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