Are mountains conscious? To which species do they belong?

From: Archit Bansal

If the mountains are living species,then out of 84 lakhs species…..in which type or category of species do they fall?

Is its consciousness less than plants or more?

Question from Arjun Pansal Prabhu, if the mountains are living species then out of the 84 lakh species in which type or category of species do they fall? Are there consciousness less than plants or more? Answer it is not that all mountains are conscious the Padma Purana describes the 8.4 million species and those are broadly classified into two categories Thavara and Jangama, Thavara refers to those which do not move and Jangama refers to those which move generally Thavara includes the trees but it also sometimes includes the mountains the important point is that some mountains like Himalayas and Govardhan they are not at all ordinary mountains Govardhan is actually a manifestation of what is originally and eternally present in the spiritual world as the part of the spiritual abode of the Lord which is a part that is actually non-different from the Lord and the Himalayas also have their celestial counterparts in the higher realms where there is the abode of Lord Shiva Kailash now there are other mountains in this world which are not necessarily conscious and they are actually made of just matter and it is unconscious so now when mountains are conscious what do we actually mean actually if we leave aside the spiritual abode of the Lord wherever any species is conscious actually it is not the mountain that is conscious it is the soul within the mountain that is conscious so just like trees are are the trees conscious the souls within the trees are conscious not exactly the trees are conscious just like in our case also we are conscious through the body through the human body so now what level of consciousness will the mountains have that will depend on the level of consciousness of the soul so as the mountains are not directly included in the 8.4 million species Stavar, Chaljan and Lakshani that sequence which is given in the Padma Purana so therefore this classification is broadly representative of the various categories of consciousness it is not an exhaustive catalog of all the species with their consciousness so if we are considering Himalayas the Himalayas if we are considering that to be a conscious mountain then that is actually having a soul which is very special and evolved which is quite an advanced soul aware of Dharma with a level of advancement which can be even more than that of humans so in general stones and mountains are not conscious there are some mountains which because of some special correspondence with some higher levels of existence the higher planets of the spiritual realm may have consciousness then depending on the kind of person that is involved over there the consciousness is accordingly kind of person means kind of soul that is animating that mountain the consciousness will vary accordingly and then lastly there are the entirely transcendental mountains or hills like Govardhan which are entirely spiritual which are actually Gridhasavarya the consciousness is so greatly evolved that they are pure devotees the greatest among the devotees of the lord thank you