Does the soul in an animal body learn anything spiritual?

Yes.

I have a question on memory. Is it that in the animal form, there is some learning that happens for the soul? Generally, the animal forms are more for exhaustion of karma and for gratification of desires. That means, if Prabhupada gives an example, if somebody in the human form likes to eat too much meat, the human body is not suited for that.

Then they may get a body with fangs, a lion's body, a tiger's body, a wolf's body, whatever. So, that is a facility for them to fulfill the particular desire that they have. Along with that, there is some exhaustion of karma.

Say, if we have done, karma cannot be mathematically calculated, but just as a concept. If we have done, say, 100 units of karma, then some 30 units of it may be exhausted in the non-human body. Some 30 units may be in lower planets, some remaining 40 units may be in a future human body.

So, even in an animal body, different animals live differently. There can be a street dog who is exhausting a lot of bad karma. And there can be a pet dog who is actually exhausting good karma.

Living in comfort. So, the animal body is also exhausting karma. And the animal body is also a facility for fulfilling desires.

Now, as far as learning is concerned, in general, learning is possible when there is the capacity to choose in a significant way. In general, if you see the graph of various species, versus their behavior. So, in the animal species, most of their behavior is based on their inherited characteristics.

An ant can construct an ant hive. An ant can construct an anthill much much better than what an ordinary human being can construct a house. But human beings can construct many different kinds of houses.

They can innovate and learn. But ants more or less keep constructing the same kind of houses. Cows eat grass.

We human beings create hundreds of quizzes. So, the point which I am making over here is that any animal species the inherited characteristics are much much more. Their behavior is based largely on what they have learned through inheritance, through their genes.

Their acquired learning, their inherited knowledge and acquired knowledge. The acquired knowledge is relatively speaking very little. And, say, learning spiritual lessons is primarily acquired through experience.

The soul has a normal spiritual inclination. But that is covered by the conditions. So, that capacity to learn spiritual lessons is not much present in animal bodies.

However, there is an exception. If a soul who has been in a human body and has practiced bhakti in a human body then descends to an animal body. Let's say it happened to Bharat Maharaj who became a deer.

Then some learning is possible even in those bodies. But normally animal bodies are more for exhausting karma and fulfilling desires. Not so much for learning spiritual lessons.