Difference between humans and animals – Christian, scientific and Bhagavatam understandings

Today morning we are discussing about the Vishnu Bhagavatam where the creation is its unfolding is described till the point of the development of the universe. In the Bhagavatam in the 11th canto also a similar narration is given and there a very interesting point is made. It is said that the Supreme Lord Ajay created all the living beings but He was not satisfied.

But when He created the human beings, then He was very satisfied with the creation of the beings. So why is that? Because of the human form that one has the capacity our look is to see Brahman is spiritual reality. So in the human form one has the capacity for spiritual perception.

And that is what makes the human form special. So the Lord felt that now with the human form being manifested, the purpose of creation will be fulfilled. So I will take this class in three parts.

First is I will talk from the scientific perspective what is the difference between humans and animals or what is thought of as the difference. Then I will talk from the perspective of the Abrahamic religions. And then I will talk from the Vedic perspective specifically what is the difference.

And how that difference can make a big difference in our lives when we understand it. So now in the world of science itself came about in the 18th century. We consider Newton as a great scientist but Newton never called himself a scientist.

He was an absolute philosopher. That's what he called himself. So in whether Eastern thought or Western thought it was understood that there is some significant difference between humans and animals.

And that humans are more intelligent. That is one aspect of it. But what exactly was the basis or reason for this difference that was never exactly pointed out.

Yes there is the concept of the soul and we will discuss what that concept was in the Abrahamic religions later on. But when Darwin proposed his theory of evolution, one of the results of that was he said we humans have got a very big ego. We think that we are special.

That we are the centre of the universe. And this view was actually a reaction to the Christian view. So to actually understand what was shaken by the Darwinian evolution, we will have to understand the Judeo-Christian view of the world.

The idea is that Jesus is the saviour. And he has come to save the earth. In fact there are many Christians who consider the prospect of any extraterrestrial life, life on any other planets, as a threat to their world.

Because Jesus is the saviour and Jesus has come on earth. So if there are other planets where there are people, who is going to save them? And there is no saviour apart from Jesus. This is the only way.

So one Christian visionary said that if there is a Christian scholar, he said that actually the discovery of extraterrestrial life would be devastating for the Christian world. Because it is Jesus taught principles which are timeless. But subsequent Christians have reduced him to the role of the only saviour.

And that is the problem. But anyway in Jesus, if you look at his teaching in the Bible, the Old Testament is primarily an account of God's people. Jews, how they were delivered from Egypt and how they eventually came to Jerusalem.

So there is not much direct knowledge about God. And Bible, the New Testament, that is Jesus' parables. And there he gives moral stories.

Parables he gives. But again there is no direct knowledge about God. So both in the Old Testament and the New Testament there is not much philosophy.

There are moral instructions and there are travel narratives where God keeps intervening. So now we know in Jerusalem, in the Middle East, Christianity evolved. And at that time Greece was the centre of learning.

So when some of the Christian evangelicals Paul and others went to Greece, they found that Greek people have much more philosophy than what we have. So they tried to, Augustine was the primary person, who tried to integrate Christian theology with Greek philosophy. And later on, in the 11th century mediaeval ages, another pioneer philosopher was Thomas Aquinas who tried to integrate Christian theology with Greek philosophy.

But Augustine primarily studied Socrates and Plato. Whereas Aquinas studied Aristotle. And basically what is called as Christian philosophy today is descended from these two main sources.

Aquinas and Plato or Augustine and Plato. Now either way, Augustine was very influential in the early times. But after Aquinas came and postulated this, he was a very powerful logician in his own way.

So his ideas gained a lot of prominence. Now one of the ideas that came from him, so in the Bible if we see, there is an understanding that the last creation that God made was man. God was satisfied with the creation.

He looked at the creation and he said it was good. So Thomas Aquinas, he came up with the idea that souls are present only in ruins. Normally there are some Christians who have the idea that souls are only in men.

Women also don't have souls. But the idea was that souls are restricted to humans. Now the question comes up, what about other living beings who have life? So obviously the life is consciousness.

Where does it come from? So then Aquinas proposed that there are three kinds of souls. So there are vegetative souls, there are sentient souls, and there are eternal souls. Plants have beautiful souls.

And animals have some other kind of souls which experience emotions. But only humans have the soul which can be illumined with the light of God's knowledge. So that rough understanding was there, that spiritual knowledge, knowledge about God can be understood only by humans.

But what he did was he classified in such a way that humans stood separate from the rest of the universe, rest of the world. And their idea is that the souls of all except humans are temporary. So when an animal dies, soul also dies.

Only human souls have the potential to be eternal. So corresponding with this was also the idea that the earth is at the centre of the universe. So the earth is the centre of the universe and humans are the centre of all those species.

So the Copernican revolution as it is called in science, when Copernicus says that the world doesn't go around the earth, the universe doesn't go around the earth, it goes around the sun. That itself was a great challenge to Christian philosophy. But now none of this is actually in the Bible.

It was what was adopted by Christians from the pre-existing Greek philosophy. So when Darwin proposed the theory of evolution, one of the most devastating consequences for Christianity was that if humans have evolved from monkeys upwards, then there is no scope for a special soul in humans. So what happens is by that subsequent to Darwin, Darwin proposed the theory of evolution.

Now what is prevailing in academia is called as the evolutionary synthesis. So he and other theorists have proposed various things together. So the result of the evolutionary synthesis was that all of creation became de-spiritualised.

The Christian worldview had already de-spiritualised nature and de-spiritualised the non-human species because the idea that there is no soul in them. And what Darwin said is that actually if humans have evolved from monkeys, then humans also don't have a soul. So the whole of creation became de-spiritualised.

And he said it is only our human ego which makes us think that we are special. We are just more sophisticated animals. And we should have the humility to admit that.

That's how he tried to market his idea. So now, because there is such a big barrier in the Christian worldview between the non-humans and the humans. So some Christians who have accepted the theory of evolution, they say that by evolution animals came.

And at the time of when animals were going to evolve to human beings, God intervened and he put a soul there. So it seems quite preposterous. God can do anything.

But you have to make God do things to accommodate the needs which have come from Satyam. So… So the problem is that there was already a de-spiritualization of most of creation. And that had already happened because of Christianity.

And further, when Darwin came along, the whole of creation, including humans, became de-spiritualised. Now definitely there is a difference between humans and animals. And even scientists know that.

But they say that difference is simply biological. Our brains are more developed. So what exactly is the difference? Now, within science, there are hard sciences and there are soft sciences.

Physics, chemistry, biology, there are hard sciences. Psychology, sociology, economics, they are considered soft sciences. Because they cannot operate on the same hard evidence that the hard sciences operate on.

Now in psychology, there are many different theories. And psychologists say that there are primarily if you want to define what is the difference between humans and animals. Many psychologists accept evolution.

But they say by evolution this sort of difference has come about between humans and animals. So the difference that they say is primarily four things. They say one is self-awareness.

Self-awareness means we can look at, they are not talking about self in terms of Atman. But self-awareness means, say if I am sitting here I can visualise if I were somewhere up over there, if I were in the audience and I am looking at myself. I can visualise, how will I look? Is my tilak straight or twisted? You know, how do I look? How do I appear? So we can, as a mental exercise, put ourselves out of our body and look at ourselves.

That means we can look at our own thoughts. This self-awareness is not present in animals. This capacity, they survive.

And they do whatever is required for protecting themselves. But they don't have this capacity for self-awareness. To be aware of one's own thoughts, to be aware of one's desires and to look at them from a distance perspective.

So, after self-awareness, the next thing that can come is self-evaluation. Self-consciousness. That means, okay, this is how I am.

Am I doing the right thing? The concept of right and wrong is not there in animals. They act largely by instincts. So, it is not that if a cat sees a rat, the cat will think, today they are Kanishk.

I have to pass. So, it does not have that capacity to evaluate in terms of right or wrong. It's right or wrong is determined largely by the survival instinct.

People may say dogs are very faithful to their masters and dogs may lay down their life for their master also. But that faithfulness is not a consciously chosen quality. It is a genetic instinct that is there in them.

So, self-observation then self-evaluation. Then, the third capacity that psychologists say that we have is self-visualisation. Self-visualisation means I can visualise how I should be.

So, for example, if I get angry, then I can think at myself and think that I should not get angry. So, self-observation is I am getting unnecessarily angry. Self-evaluation is I need not be so short-tempered.

Self-visualisation is imagining, oh, I can be a very calm person. Somebody shouts at me, I can respond calmly. That's self-visualisation.

And the last is self-correction. That I have the willpower by which I can change myself. So, these are all connected with the self.

Now, the concept of self is not Atma. It is just who I am, as many materials have thought about. So, observing ourselves, evaluating ourselves, envisioning a better me and becoming a better me.

These are the faculties which are there in human beings which are not there in animals. This is what psychologists also know. And the whole idea of psychology or at least of some religions of psychology is that people can become better people because we have this capacity for improving ourselves.

So, now what is it? Now, coming to our Vedic world. In principle, we know that the Mahabharata says and Dhopanishad also says that आहार्विद्राभ्यमेतिनंजः सामान्यमेति पशुदिनराः धर्मोधितेशामधिको विशेषो धर्मेणिना पशुदिसमान That anything sleeping, mating, defending humans and non-humans are all identical. But what differentiates humans from animals is dharma.

So, now here the word dharma is in Sanskrit notoriously multivalent. Multivalent means it has many meanings. And here when we use the word dharma it does not simply mean religious activity.

Now, that way parrots can also be taken to chant Krishna's names. But the parrot is not exactly practising dharma. So, the word dharma when it is used, धर्मोधितेशामधिको विशेषो it essentially refers to the metaphysical pursuit of the meaning of life.

In dharma, yes there are certain activities which we do in dharma. So, in different religions there may be different rituals that are done. Those may be considered as religious.

But there is a purpose. The purpose is to understand the higher dimension of life. So, what differentiates humans from animals is not just the capacity to do some religious rituals.

It is the capacity to enquire about the ultimate purpose of life and the capacity to pursue that ultimate purpose. So, धर्मोधितेशामधिको This is what essentially differentiates. Now again, this is something which scientists don't agree.

They say there are so many differences between humans and animals. You know, humans have languages. Humans have languages.

Humans have civilisation. We have science and technology. We have art.

We have literature. There are so many differences. So, why should you say that religious activities alone differentiate humans from animals? So, if we equate dharma with religion, then we will run into this problem.

So, again we have to understand that when the Mahabharata is differentiating between dharma and आहार्विद्रावने This differentiation is not just in terms of forms. It is in terms of purposes. Humans may have developed television.

Humans may have developed internet. Animals may not have internet. But if we look in terms of ultimate purposes, what is internet used for? It is used for eating, sleeping, mating, defending.

One of the biggest uses of internet is for pornography. If you look at television, what do people watch on television? Soap operas, which is about mating. So eating, sleeping, mating, defending, in terms of ultimate purposes, that is what science and technology has been enormously developed.

But if we look at the fuels, the primary fuels for the development of science and technology, there are two, the consumer industry and the defence industry. At the time of war, first world war and especially second world war, defence expenditure boosted up, defence research boosted up. And in general, the scientific science is used for creating products that will facilitate people's eating, sleeping, mating and defending.

So science in form may be substantially different from what animals do. But its purpose, science is used primarily for eating, sleeping, mating. Now there are some scientists who are also thinkers.

They want to understand what is the answer to the ultimate questions. And if science is used to seek answers to ultimate questions, then that searching for ultimate questions is what dharma is. So then that scientific search, it has also taken many scientists towards spirituality, towards God.

I think it was Pascal. I think Pascal said a little of science takes man away from God, but emerging in science brings one back to God. So the point is the differentiation between animals and humans, when we look at what the scriptures talk about, it is not just in terms of forms of activities, it is in terms of perquisites.

So now this is with respect to the principle of dharma. But now if you look at the body, whether it is humans or whether it is animals, we all have a gross body, we have a subtle body. And the gross bodies and subtle bodies of humans and animals are made of the same components, earth, water, fire, air, ether, intelligence, mind, mind, intelligence and ego.

So then where is the difference between humans and subhumans? If the body is made of the same ingredients, then what is it that makes the human body special? Actually, it is not something about the human body that makes the human species special. It is that the soul itself has chitta, has an innate spiritual capacity. And the human body offers the least scouring to the spiritual capacity of the soul.

In the Bhagavad Gita in 3.38, Krishna describes how lust covers all living beings. And three metaphors are given here. So just as fire is covered by smoke, just as the mirror is covered by dust, or just as embryo is covered by the womb, similarly, lust covers all living beings.

So the Acharyas describes, Bhaktivinoda Thakura describes in his Vidhva Tranjali that the covering of fire by smoke is thin and can be removed. So that refers to the human species. The covering of a mirror with dust, that is often, it can be so thick that you may not even know that there is a mirror behind it.

Just see the dust over there. So that cleaning will take more time. It is a thicker covering.

That refers to the animal species. And the child is in the womb. The child just cannot come out till the time the pregnancy leads to delivery.

So that refers to the covering by lust when it is compared to an embryo covered by womb. That refers to the plant species. Where the covering is so much that till the soul evolves, we can't even very vividly perceive consciousness in the plants.

So the point of this, quoting this example, this verse is, that in human form, the covering on the soul is the least. And because of that, there is the capacity for spiritual perception. Now correspondingly, of course, it is true that the human brain is more developed than animals.

In terms not just of size, but also of the networking within. The neural connections are much, much more than the monkeys. But that would, those neural connections, the sophistication of the brain, that will lead primarily to greater information processing capacity.

That itself will not change the purpose, the capacity for enquiring about the ultimate purpose of life. That does not come just because our brain has greater information processing capacity. That is, that capacity for enquiring about the ultimate purpose of life, that is an entirely different faculty.

And that comes because the soul is less covered in the human form as compared to the non-human forms. So that means, when we talk about covering, it's not literally a physical covering. It's not like say, I put a scarf around my head.

It is a covering in terms of the capacity for perception. So the soul in animal species cannot think much beyond immediate needs. Now somebody may say, no, animals also think of long term.

Now for example, say, some animals, bees store honey in beehives. Or some animals, they may make plants for winter by burrowing underneath and going. So they also think long term.

But yes, they do. But in animals, this is largely instinct. It is not a matter of conscious planning and intentional decision making from them.

It's just that they are biologically triggered to do that. So the same God who has created all living beings, that God has given different living beings different capacities for survival. So the animals, when they seem to exhibit intelligence, that intelligence is, first of all, it is not about the ultimate purpose of life.

And even if it seems to be sometimes long term, that is biologically triggered. That is simply genetically triggered. In humans, we have the capacity to deliberate and decide.

So, now going back to the Christian world. So see, what the Vedic worldview says is, what the Gita and the Bhagavatam tell us is that, there is the same soul which is there in all species. Or similar nature of the soul.

The soul in animals, the soul in plants and the soul in humans. Essentially, the soul is of the same quality. What is different is the level of becoming.

So the Bhagavatam worldview shows us how all of creation is spiritual. Potentially. Why? Because all of creation has soul in it.

So now, the Bhagavatam and the Christian worldview, they agree that humans alone have the capacity for spiritual perception. But the cause is attributed differently. So what the Bhagavatam explains us to be a progression in development, in humans, the development is at such a level that we can perceive spiritual substance.

Whereas in animals, the development is not there. So what is considered as a progression in the Bhagavatam's worldview, the Christian worldview sees as a rupture. There is an irreversible rupture between man and the rest of the creation.

So they say that, the speciality of human beings for what I feel is called as the light of reason, to learn from the light of reason, that comes because of a special kind of soul. Now this is something which is unfounded. And that's why many even Hindu thinkers who were influenced by Christian thought, they rejected the idea that there is soul in animals.

Or some of them even if they accepted it, their idea was they accepted reincarnation. So there are many thinkers, if you look at the survey of reincarnation, number of people accepting reincarnation is increasing. But a large number of people who accept reincarnation, they think humans reincarnate only as humans.

They don't accept the reincarnation going downwards. And even among those who accept it going downwards, they only want to accept that animals have souls. Many prominent Hindu thinkers, they say that reincarnation is only progress, it is not regress.

They say souls can evolve from animals to humans, but once you come to humans, you never go back to animals. Why? Because they are also sort of influenced by this huge distance which they perceive between humans and animals. So science, it said that this is simply the human ego, that we think we are superior to the rest of the animals.

And that's why they criticise the Christian world. So in one sense, in principle, the Vedic world agrees to that. It's not that we are above all of creation and the rest of the creation is meant for our consumption and our exploitation.

No, the animals are also souls like us. And that's why there is a universality in the Vedic world. But the direction of the universality is different in evolutionary science and in Bhagavatam.

Bhagavatam universalises all species by spiritualising everyone. By saying that everyone is spiritual. Whereas in evolutionary science, it universalises everything by de-spiritualising everyone.

By saying no one is spiritual, everybody is material. So the aspiration that yes, nowadays there is what is called animal rights movement. And they say why should humans be considered special? Animals should also be considered special.

So just a few days ago, the New Zealand government recognised that. Animals also are essential beings and they also have rights. So this is a step in the right direction.

And nowadays in modern times, there is egalitarian sentiment. You know, everybody is equal. So that sentiment is good.

But that does not require the acceptance of materialism. It does not require de-spiritualization. Rather it will come best by de-spiritualization of the whole creation.

So all life is sacred. Not just because all life is a creation of God. That is true.

But all life is sacred because all life comes from souls just like us. So now, in this way, the egalitarian spirit which the modern post-modern times aspire for that is actually fulfilled and in fact perfected in the Bhagavad Gita's worldview that all living beings are potentially spiritual. Now Sri Prabhupada's purport makes an interesting point.

He says that humans suffer more than animals. And he gives the example here that animals have regulated times for sexual intercourse. Whereas humans do it independently.

So now, why is this? Well, the thinker he said that humans are the only species who eat when they are not hungry, mate when it is not the season, sleep when they are not tired, and fight when there is no reason. So, why is it that if we humans are among the only intelligent species, why is it that we seem to be unintelligent even in eating sleep we make a difference? There is an important reason for this. That our existence is bi-dimensional.

Bi-dimensional means we are spiritual beings in material bodies. Now, in the human form, the consciousness is developed enough to want more than what the body can offer. The consciousness is developed enough so that we want more than what the body can offer.

In the animal species, the consciousness is so locked into the body that the person, that the living being is just a slave of the body. It is more or less like they are governed by instincts. So, whatever the body urges come, they do that.

Now, we also have bodily urges, but we want more than what the body can offer. That's why I talk about how this manifests in material life and then how it can manifest it and actualise in spiritual life. That's why we will see that in eating, sleeping, mating, defending, we will try to improve things.

A cow will eat the same grass throughout its life. Humans will not want to eat the same food. They want to cook food.

They want to increase its taste. And they want to try out new cuisines. A bird will stay in the same nest throughout its life.

Now, we want new house, better house, bigger house, flashier house. So, with respect to eating, sleeping, mating, defending, we try to improve things. Why? Because of our developed consciousness, we want more than what the body can naturally offer.

We want more than what the body can naturally offer. But the body's capacity to offer pleasure is limited. And when we try to extract from the body more pleasure than what it can naturally give, then that attempt to seek more pleasure rebounds on us as more busy.

That means, animals eat when they are hungry. There are some ferocious carnivorous animals like tigers and lions. If a tiger or lion has eaten its food, even if an animal of prey goes by, the tiger will not attack.

Even if humans go by, the tiger is not hungry, firstly. And secondly, the tiger doesn't feel that humans are a threat to it. Tiger will not attack.

Sometimes, of course, if the tigers have seen humans threatening them, then they will attack even when there is no hunger over there. But in general, animals are driven. They eat when they are hungry.

We humans, because of our consciousness, this is developed. Now, when I say consciousness is developed, what does that imply? The Atma has the capacity for Sat, Chit and Ananda. So, because of this capacity for Sat, Chit and Ananda, Ananda is an innate characteristic of the soul.

The soul is by nature blissful. And the more the consciousness of the soul is developed, the more the soul seeks bliss. Now, consider a grass.

Its only conception of growth is just one direction, vertical. I will become taller than others. There is no other goal in its life.

The consciousness is so restricted over there. But we humans, we want to grow in various ways. And so, the soul's nature of being filled with happiness, being blissful, when that soul identifies with the body, the soul tries to seek bliss at the level of the body.

And because the body offers a limited level of bliss, so the soul tries to increase that capacity. So, what we do is, as that thinker has quoted, we eat even when we are not hungry. Because we eat not only for food, we eat for pleasure.

And that's why among the various species, humans are practically the only species which gets so many digestible inputs. We overeat and then we get digestive inputs. And similarly, if we see, a large variety of sexually transmitted diseases, they come because sex is a biological drive.

Now, there is pleasure in it. And along with the pleasure, the primary function for which it is done is procreation. Sex is the meal by which nature has arranged for procreation.

And when you are doing the procreation, pleasure is also there. But because we want pleasure, as souls, we need pleasure. It is our nature to be pleasure-seeking.

And, sex is an intensely pleasure-giving activity. Momentary, for the last couple of minutes, it is an intensely pleasure-giving activity for those few moments. Madhu-Lavai, Paramahamsa says, there is a drop of nectar, Madhu, but it is not even a drop, it is a fraction of a drop.

But because that pleasure is there, we want more and more pleasure. And so, what we humans try to do is, so that, we want the pleasure from sex, but the pleasure is tied with procreation. So, we separate the pleasure and the procreation.

So, some people say, sex is natural. Now, why do you artificially, unnaturally restrain, restrict those activities? Well, sex is natural. That is true.

But then, this natural also is the result of sex. That is procreation. Now, why do we stop that artificially? Now, contraception, birth control, none of these happen naturally.

No. We do this artificially in various ways. So, if we really wanted to do naturally, then, we should take the full natural package.

Natural package is, yes, there is pleasure, but along with that pleasure, there is procreation. But, we want to avoid the procreation, and we want only the pleasure. And we try to devise means for that, in various, using science and other things like that.

So, the point which I am making is, we humans, seek from the body, more pleasure, than what the body naturally gives. And this rebounds on us, as more we seek. Because the body's capacity to give pleasure is limited.

There is certain amount of food that I can eat. If I try to eat more than that, then the body doesn't have enough pleasure to digest it. That leads to problems.

Similarly, there is certain sexual pleasure that is there, that we can have as human beings. But when we want more and more of that, then that creates not only sexually transmitted diseases, that leads to so many relationship problems. That leads to so many wars that we fought, because of the unrestrained sexual drive.

So, overall, we human beings, end up, more visible than animals. One of the most graphic ways, we could understand this is, that, the animals live with much greater anxiety than us. Prabhupada says in Ishopinath Purport, that, he is a little sarcastic there, he says that, the, the, economic needs, of the animals, are as important to them, as are our needs to us.

Now, they may not think in terms of currency, but it is in economic detail, the needs for eating, sleeping, mating, defending. But he says, they are fulfilled, under nasty and unpleasant conditions. What does that mean? You know, if a mosquito is biting me, essentially, what is the mosquito doing? No, it is just eating.

And I will come and, I just crush it. Imagine, or if I am, not cruel, so cruel, if I don't crush it, I just knock it off. Imagine, we are sitting down for Prasad, and somebody knocks off the plate away from us.

We are feeling horrified. Or somebody just knocks us around, and we feel worse. So, for the animals, there is a great insecurity, in all the activities that they do.

Eating, sleeping, mating, defending. That's what Prabhupada says, for the animals, their basic needs are fulfilled, under nasty and unpleasant conditions. In human society, there is an order, by which, our bodily needs can be fulfilled, in a more orderly way.

But, the humans, when we, seek, more pleasure from the body, than what it naturally gives. Then, as I said that, the animals, have more reason to be anxious. Bird is, say, looking for some grapes, and some predator may come, and a cat may come and pound on that bird.

They have a risk of life, at every moment. We humans, don't have that level of risk. And yet, you know, we humans, although we do not live, under that level of danger, as the animals, we suffer from more anxiety, than animals.

There are so many varieties, of anxiety disorders. The day before yesterday, I gave a talk on the anxiety epidemic. How there is so much anxiety, in the world today.

Scientists are calling it an epidemic. And, animals have to work, so hard, for their needs. Animals never get depressed.

No, no. Animals go to psychiatrists, to take antidepressant pills. No animal, gets addicted to anything undesirable.

You know, a fish may be caught by a bait. A mouse may be caught by cheese in a mousetrap. But they have excuses.

The bait, looks like food. The cheese looks like food for us. And, they don't know in advance, etc.

A cigarette, does not look like food, very well. And, who doesn't know, that cigarette smoking is injurious to health. But still, we humans smoke.

So, what is happening here is, animals never suffer from addiction. And, most graphically, animals never commit suicide. Animals, may pine away.

You know, if a very faithful dog is there, and the master dies, then the animal may, the animal may also, you know, feel great, great, there is love over there. The capacity for love is there. And, because of that, loss of that love, the animal may pine away and may die.

Or sometimes, a sheep, one sheep walks off a mountain cliff, other sheep will also walk on the mountain. But that is more of a herd mentality. That is, that is just because of lack of intelligence.

That, sheep, jumping, going off a mountain cliff, it is not caused by, by frustration with life, because of which they want to end life. Now, animals in slaughterhouses, they live in such terrible conditions, horrible. Sometimes, if there are hens, there are thousands of hens, packed in a small place, and all the hens peck each other.

So, they live in great torture, in torturous conditions. But even then, no animal ends its life on its own. But, we humans, have the dubious distinction, of being the only species, that, commits suicide.

And not only it commits suicide, but, it is in phenomenal numbers. Alarming. You know, called WHO statistics.

One million people commit suicide, every year. That is, one suicide every 40 seconds. That means, since we started this class, almost 70-80 people have committed suicide.

It's horrible. So, why is this? So, again, it brings us back to the same point. That, we humans, because our consciousness is developed, we have the capacity, to experience, more pleasure, than what the body can offer.

And because of this, developed consciousness, it works both ways. We can experience more pleasure, and, we can experience more pain. So, when we become frustrated, it is not just, say, if a boy and a girl have an affair, and then, they break things.

It is not just, that breakage, is not just, a frustration, of the biological trying to meet. It is a frustration, of the human heart, longing for love. And, that causes, enormous pain.

So, we humans, because of our developed consciousness, have the capacity, to experience greater pleasure. And, that capacity, is meant to be directed, towards raising, our spiritual consciousness. By which, we will experience, eternal happiness, by connecting with Krishna.

By becoming self-realised, and then becoming God-realised. But if we don't do that, then, we seek pleasure, at the material level. And then, we experience, more suffering, than what the animals experience.

And that's why, we end up committing suicide. You know, animals also, can have, frustration, and validation. You know, there is a dog, and that dog has a she-dog.

And then, some bigger dog comes, and grabs that she-dog. This dog will be frustrated. But the dog doesn't commit suicide, because of that.

We humans do that, because, we seek, more from the body, and from the world, than what the body, and the world can give. We seek more pleasure, and as we open ourselves, to more bliss. So, but when we, redirect this, towards spiritual connection, then, we can experience, far greater happiness, than what anyone else gets, any other species can experience.

Now, I'll conclude with, I talked about, what psychologists say, the four differences, between humans and animals. Isn't it? Self, self-observation, self-evaluation, self-visualisation, and self-connection. And these, these faculties are there, and they can be applied, in material life also.

But, these, these abilities that we have, they are best applied, in spiritual life. Self-observation means, we try to understand, who I really am. At one level, I understand I am a soul.

At another level, I also observe, how am I living? How am I living? Am I living spiritually, or am I living materialistically? So, that's self-observation. And then, we can have self-connection. Scripture says, I should be living like this, I am living like this.

I self-evaluate. There's a difference. I need to change myself.

And then self-visualisation. I can, I can become a more, serious devotee. I can become more purely devoted to Krishna.

And we can have role models, from whom we take inspiration. That's self-visualisation. And then there is, there is ultimately, self-correction.

We can actually, rise to the spiritual level of consciousness. And there, our longing for happiness, will be fulfilled. Eternally, completely, and perfectly fulfilled.

And that, is the purpose for which, the whole creation is made. And the Supreme Lord, after He came to the human being, was satisfied because, now through the human form, He had provided the souls, the opportunity to attain eternal happiness. And we all had an opportunity, by Krishna's mercy, by Krishna Prabhupada's mercy, by the Vaishnava's mercy, to practise, Krishna consciousness, and attain the complete fulfilment, of our own longing for happiness, and, fulfil the purpose for which, existence manifested by the Supreme Lord, as is being described in these verses.

So I'll summarise. I started, by talking about, the difference between, the God, the difference between humans and animals, as is understood by science, as is understood by Abrahamic worldview, the Christian worldview broadly, and, as is understood in the Bhagavatam world. So in the, Christian worldview, it was actually the Greco-Christian worldview, because Christianity itself did not have much philosophy.

So that was, the idea was that, humans have a special kind of soul. And the scientific worldview, rejected this as just human ego. And it sort of brought equality in all the species, by de-spiritualising all the species.

Whereas the Bhagavatam, brings about equality in all the species by, re-spiritualising all the species. By revealing that, the same kind of soul is there in all bodies. And, the difference between the human and the non-humans, is Dharma.

But that Dharma is not just some, doing some religious rituals. It is, the metaphysical search for the ultimate purpose of life. What is that beyond? And if you assign humans, with their advanced intelligence, can do various activities which animals can't do.

But the purposes remain the same. The purpose is the same and, it exists in making them friendly. We discussed how science is largely motivated, by the technology especially.

And then, we discussed about how, psychology says that, there is some difference between humans and animals. Self-observation, self-evaluation, self-visualisation, self-correction. But they said that, these are just because our brain has, more information processing capacity.

So the Bhagavatam explains that, the souls covering, is the least in the human form. Although the same souls are there in all species. The souls covering is the least.

And that's how the soul can, fulfil its natural longing for happiness, by perceiving spiritual reality, and then by attaining the supreme spiritual realisation. So we humans suffer more than the animals in many ways, because, our consciousness is so developed, that we can't be satisfied, with the happiness that the body offers. And when we try to seek more from the body, than what the body gives, then we end up getting very poor.

So, that suffering can be both in terms of eating, sleeping, making the family itself to suffer, but also our overall life. You know, we suffer from depression, we suffer from anxiety, we suffer from addictions, we suffer from suicidal urges. All this is because, we have the capacity for greater pleasure.

And, because of that, developed consciousness, we also have the capacity for experiencing later pain. And so the human form, is the longing for happiness, and the capacity for seeking higher happiness, is the human form that can be fulfilled, when we, pursue the spiritual path, and, realise ourselves, and realise our relationship with Krishna. Thank you very much.

Hare Krishna.