Since the very dawn of human civilization there has been a continuous process of metamorphosis, not only in individual or collective human psychology, but also in the biological structure of human beings. You know that human beings emerged in this earth not very long ago. Before that period giant animals had evolved and vanished. Gradually simple biological structures evolved into complicated structures and really giant animals appeared on the earth. But lack of intellectuality made them extinct. Gradually the frame grew smaller and the intellect grew bigger. The lesson that this age is not for giant animals or for small states, weak states – this I also said elsewhere. This age is not for big animals or for small states. Big animals will not be able to get food – they will have to leave this earth, vacate the planet. There is nothing today to maintain an elephant. Similarly, a small state cannot protect itself, and it will have to merge with a bigger state. So the saying has been born out as far as biological structures are concerned, and is also being born out in social life.

Human beings were born onto this earth about one million years ago. In those times, human beings were primitive. The people of today are very different from those primitive personalities - there is a great difference between them. How did this difference occur? Due to constant changes in structure a metamorphosis took place. An evolved psychic structure emerged and a corresponding change occurred in the physical structure to facilitate a proper physical medium for that evolved psychic structure. Human beings started thinking about certain subjects and remained in that state of contemplation for a long period. Human beings could not make their undeveloped nerves and nerve cells serve as the correct medium for their evolved psychic structure, so a change in the nerve cells had to be brought about. And so a change in the nerve cells and nerve fibres occurred. As a result the human face has also changed. The humans of one million years ago had a very small cranium. These so-called humans had a very small number of nerve cells. Their brains were small and their bodies were relatively big.

Humans of those days could not think as the people of today can in the psychic and spiritual spheres. They did not have the capacity to think that much so they cannot be blamed for not doing so. Humans went on evolving, but in those days they had only one work to perform – to collect food and fight among themselves. Fighting was limited to the physical stratum and did not occur in the psychic or spiritual stratum. It was similar to the fighting amongst insects and animals for food. But humans also had to develop their intellects for such conflicts and even small, violent struggles increased their intellects.

Human beings, are not carnivorous but graminivorous by birth. With increased intellect, they began to fight using the intellectual sphere more than the physical. People could not fight a lion or a tiger with their physical bodies, their hands and feet. They had to invent weapons. Some undeveloped animals possess certain weapons. It is not that they have no weapons. But of course their weapons are less effective than those of human beings.

So humanity continued progressing in the intellectual spheres and grew weaker in the physical sphere. Naturally, the cranium grew, while the remaining portion of the body became weaker. Humans at that time moved like their monkey ancestors. While the ancestors of today’s human beings jumped like monkeys, today’s humans do not behave like that. There has been a change in the lymphatic system. Today humans cannot jump like a monkey can, but humans and monkeys belong to the same gotra.

That’s why I often say that the caste system is hypocritical – unreal. If you analyse the caste of human beings you will find that the ancestors of all human beings were monkeys. So everybody’s gotra is the monkey gotra. The hypocritical caste system must be given up. Were the ancestors of Brahman human beings Brahman monkeys and Rajput human beings Rajput monkeys? No, since there are no Brahman and Rajput monkeys.

Biological changes resulted in changes in the lymphatic glands and the hairs on the body vanished. Not only psychic changes but also biological changes occurred. But some of the old habits still continue. Humans today fight among themselves in the same manner as monkeys do. While fighting a person cries, “Um, um” – this is a monkeys’ habit. Sometimes people not only cry like this but bite with their teeth. This is also an old habit of monkeys.

Monkeys live in trees so in Saḿskrta monkeys are called “Shákha Mrga”. (“Mrga” means “wild animal”, not “deer”. The wild animal that lives on the branch of a tree is Shákhá Mrga.) While fighting on the branch of a tree monkeys have to catch hold of the branch strongly with their hands, so that they do not fall down and die. Human beings fight in a similar manner. They also grin and grimace. This is an old habit of monkeys.

With intellectual development, human beings started penetrating more deeply into the intellectual level. They started realizing that physical strength is not really strength – physical strength is defeated by psychic strength. So humans had to develop their intellect.

Buddhiryasya balaḿ tasya;
Nirbuddhestu kuto balaḿ.

People started understanding that in the human world it is not physical power that wins but intellectual power. Suppose there are some large elephants. The physical strength of the elephants is very great, but small elephant drivers goad them with their intellectual powers. This happens in every field in this world. So when humans entered the inner world they found that their real wealth lay in increasing their psychic strength and gradually, as their psychic strength increased, it came in contact with spirituality. People discovered that behind psychic power there is another power working and it is this power which provides psychic strength. Human beings then invented Dharma Sádhaná.

There is one more thing in this field. When humans were at the physical level, that is when they were just like animals, nature was everything for them. They were happy to see the sunrise, since the night was full of danger because wild animals would attack them. They preferred the day. So people started worshiping Úśá, the dawn, since with the emergence of Úśá they felt that they were safe at least for the day. Thus they became nature worshipers. In whatever little scriptures you find from this period you see that people were nature worshippers. Although human beings worshipped nature, they did not have the intellect to ask where nature came from. They didn’t have the capacity to think about it. Vajra, became a god, lightning became a god, the storm became a god – everything became a god for human beings, Because the intellect was undeveloped, people surrendered before everything. Since they were unable to establish themselves in struggle they surrendered before nature.

When human beings entered the second phase of evolution and their intellect developed they understood that whatever psychic power they possessed had a spiritual force behind it. Spiritual power comes from Parama Puruśa alone. The force of nature cannot dominate spiritual power. Nature’s work is one of subordinated cooperation – not even coordinated cooperation. When two equally powerful entities work together we call it coordinated cooperation. But when one entity is primary and another is secondary, the work of the secondary entity in relation to the primary entity as based on subordinated cooperation. Then humans understood that the Great is everything and that Prakrti is “Shaktih Sá Shivasya Shaktih.”

In the second phase people started understanding what the goal of life should be and that they should achieve this goal. The thought occurred in the human mind. As my intellect comes from Parama Puruśa He must possess so much more intellect than me. So I have to think about Him. Ideation on Him will increase my intellect. This thought enabled human beings to evolve on the psychic level. Then Paramátmá became the object of human ideation – Paramátmá hovered in the human mind as humanity moved away from animality. Gradually primitive people became human beings and they started ideating upon God – Paramátmá. They realized that nature worship was not a good thing after all since the mind becomes the entity of worship. They understood that if they worship soil they become soil.

Human beings take form according to the characteristics of their object of ideation. Those who have an ambition for money and always speak of money may attain temporary liberation if they are virtuous, but they cannot get permanent liberation or Mokśa. In temporary liberation a person’s physical body will not contain solid and liquid factors, but luminous, aerial and ethereal factors will remain. The enjoyment of Svarga or heaven, is like this. Human beings will have to be reborn after the exhaustion of their past karma. Those having an ambition for money reach this stratum of Devayoni; they are called Yakśa.

These Devayonis are of seven kinds. A Yakśa has a luminous body. Those who have an ambition for power, who always aspire for power, are called Rakśa. Suppose a man has grown old but still has an ambition for power. He thinks he should become this, he should become that, he should attain this political status of that political status. After death what shall this person become? he shall become Rakśa – that is Rakśaśa. Those who want to become beautiful, who wish to appear beautiful, become Kinnara after death. “Kinnarah asti ityarthe Kinnara.” Those who want to acquire a lot of virtues and desire that people call them virtuous, they also have a greed – greed for money is not the only greed. Those who aspire for good qualities are called Vidyádhara. Those who desire a melodious voice so that people may praise them and say, “what a great musician!” – what will they become after death? They shall be Gandharvas. It is because of this that the art of music is called “Gandharva Vidya” in Saḿskrta. Those who want to sing the praise of Paramátmá do not fall into this category because they do not want anything for themselves. Thus these different stages of Devayoni come into being.

Those who worship nature or crude things like stone, brick, metal – what shall they become after death? They will become crude. Their state after death shall be worse than the Yakśa, Rakśa, Kinnara, etc. They will remain in the form of stone or iron. Gradually erosion shall occur because of the impact of air and water and the stone will be changed into soil, then after gradual metamorphosis over millions of years they shall get a human body. Because of this, nature worship is very dangerous.

Among the Devayonis, the Siddhas are the best. Siddhas are those who do meditation and bhajana and have no other ambition. However, they want people to call them high-class Sádhakas. “I want to be able to show some occult power – to change soil into gold – sand into rasagollá”. They have a greed for occult power. such persons are good people, they are not bad. They have no greed for anything else. The Siddhas also belong to the seven types of Devayoni.

Siddhas also take human form after the exhaustion of their karma or reactive momenta and will get elevated after practicing sádhaná. The work of siddhas is to help Sádhakas in Sádhaná. At times when you are sitting alone you may see a luminous body - some light. These Siddhas inspire a feeling of Dharma, righteous ideation, in the mind of a devotee. Suppose someone is thinking, “I will sit for Sádhaná in half and hour”. Then a feeling emerges, “I will sit right now, why wait half an hour?” This inspiration is given by a Siddha. Thus there are seven stages of Devayoni.

Human beings progress ahead and different types of expressions occur. Eventually humans realized that even after attaining this Devayoni state, or these Bhúh-Bhuvah-Svah Lokas, they come down. “So what is the advantage? Once I evolve but after the exhaustion of my karma or reactive momenta I have to come back.” Finally people thought, “Why not adopt a path through which one need not come back?” Then human beings invented Brahma Vijiṋána, intuitional knowledge, and human existence started proceeding towards the ultimate reality.

Finally, seven thousand years ago, a day dawned when Lord Shiva was born. What did Lord Shiva do? What is occult power? A power that you acquire by dint of your ideation, your cult – this is occult power. Lord Shiva formulated the whole process of ideation, and human beings started evolving with great speed.

Today the progress of humanity shall occur at a still greater speed. The people of today shall proceed ahead with greater speed than the people of 5000 years ago. This is because knowledge of material science has produced psychic changes. A psychic or mental change has occurred, so people will progress more easily and proceed ahead towards spirituality. People in the future shall proceed ahead with greater speed, with more accelerated speed. Therefore, the future of humans is bright. You should not be unnerved. It is also true that this world shall never face thermal death. So you must not get unnerved. Along with spiritual discussions, people should discuss psychic subjects and science as well. With more development of science a biological change shall occur, and with this biological change progress in Sádhaná shall be faster. So you should always encourage science and never discourage it.