Do unicellular organisms have souls? Which species do they belong to?

From: Sudha Mehta, Bosnia and Herzegovina

How are unicellular organisms classified in Padma Purana? Do they have soul? Padma purana categorizes species into six categories -plants, animals, insects and reptiles, aquatics, and human. So where these organisms fit?

Question from Sudha Mehta How are unicellul organisms classified in Padma Puran? Do they have soul? Padma Puran categorizes species into six categories plants, animals, insects and reptiles, aquatics and humans so where do these organisms fit? Answer Yes, unicellul organisms also have souls the characteristic of the presence of the soul in a body or in a particular matter, material form is that that particular material form undergoes six transformations there is creation then there is growth there is maintenance, there is reproduction then there is deterioration and eventually destruction so un-en-souled matter that means matter which does not have a soul within it which is not acting as a body for the soul that undergoes only three phases basically, there is creation there is deterioration and there is destruction there is no growth, there is no maintenance per se and there is no reproduction, so the table in front of me it just comes into existence it does not grow if I cut it, it does not clot itself and obviously that table does not reproduce into baby tables but whereas even when we see trees if the trees are cut, they also have their own healing mechanism, if my hand is cut, my hand has a clotting and other healing mechanism so my body it has a mechanism by which as long as a person is living, it can reproduce and naturally we eat and grow by that and that growth is not just growth in size, like say the sometimes during any season wood may get bloated up but that is a systematic growth which happens by cell reproduction and a sophisticated process of overall metabolic growth so growth, reproduction and self-preservation or maintenance within the bounds of its allocated lifespan, these three are the characteristics of matter which is acting as a body for the soul, for some soul and matter which does not have any soul present matter which is not serving as a body for the soul does not undergo these changes so now if you look at unicellular organisms they do undergo these changes and therefore that is the way we can infer that they have these souls now among the six broad categories of the species the unicellular organisms fall under Krimayaha in the word Krimayaha literally means insects the same word Krimayaha in the third canto is also used for worms and it is used in a broad sense to refer to a wide variety of living beings so these six categories are very broad classifications and just as the dindis the 400,000 human species include even the devas within them because even the gods have human like bodies and they have human like consciousness in the sense that they also have the capacity for spiritual enquiry and spiritual growth so at a at one level this will refer to only human beings that is also one way the word is used but in the broader sense the word manava chitulakshani manava refers to even the higher living beings who have the capacity for human consciousness and the devas certainly have capacity for human consciousness and they also have more evolved consciousness so they are also included within the human species so Krimayaha indicates that these are all varieties of species which are with that kind of consciousness and the specific words that are used for microscopic organisms include Indragopa that is mentioned in the Brahma Samhita so Indragopa is a microscopic organism and there are others also mentioned in various literature and broadly speaking in the Uddhav Gita in the 11th canto Krishna describes that there can be different systems of classification which the great sages can come up with to analyze material nature specifically there Krishna is referring to the Sankhya system and there he says how Sankhya scholars may classify the material nature into 24 elements or 20 elements or 15 elements depending on the frame of reference that they are using so the same principle can apply to the classification of species also and the Padma Purana is giving us a broad system of classification and here the purpose of this classification is not to give an exhaustive analysis of all the species within material nature it is a overall flow of thought which ultimately culminates in recognizing the rarity and the value of the human form of life and the necessity to utilize the developed consciousness that is there in the human form for its most valuable purpose that is achieving self-realization and love of God so broadly speaking Krimaya includes the microscopic world also.