When hens produce more eggs than in the past then where do the extra souls come from? Do all eggs contain souls?

Transcript

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Yes.
Question from Panchakonda Prabhu. Nowadays we see that hens often produce far more eggs than what was earlier. So, where do all these eggs come from? And are there souls in all these eggs? So, where do those souls come from? Answer, there is the need of souls to acquire bodies constantly.
There are innumerable souls in the material existence. Innumerable not since they are infinite. But there are so many that we can’t count them.
And these souls are constantly seeking bodies. So, wherever there is suitable biological medium for the sake of expression through the body, for the sake of acquiring a body and expressing consciousness through the body, then the soul takes up that body immediately. So, now, in the normal process of reproduction through nature, then at a particular frequency, the body undergoes metabolic changes and then eggs are produced in those organisms which are producing eggs.
So, we human beings in the cosmic hierarchy, that is Jeeva, Jagat and Jagadish. In the soul, there is matter and there is Supreme Lord. So, the Jeeva is, in some ways, Jeeva functionally actually, in terms of consciousness is higher than Prakriti.
Because Prakriti is unconscious, Jeeva is conscious. So, of course, when the soul becomes attached to Prakriti, the soul gets bound by Prakriti. But still, the soul has some capacity to control Prakriti and to manipulate Prakriti.
So, at a very simplistic level, when the body has a normal process of excretion from it, but if a person drinks excessive water, then excessive water will be passed out. If a person eats improperly, then excessive excretion can happen. So, like that, we, by in some way, deviating from the normal way of handling the body, can disrupt some of the bodily functions.
Similarly, in the case of reproduction, there is a normal biological cycle by which at a particular frequency and particular quantity, different animals will produce different kinds of, different numbers of eggs. But when certain chemicals are given, and by certain means, the whole process of reproduction is accelerated, then in that case, the eggs, the hens may produce eggs faster. And this does happen.
When man tries to intervene with nature, because man, this soul, who is above nature, to some extent, he can play around with nature. And that’s how by artificial insemination, by artificial chemicals, the whole process of reproduction can be accelerated. Of course, generally whenever we interfere with nature, and try to do better than what nature has done, often we create problems.
many of these eggs, hens, who give more eggs than what is natural, they become malnourished. Many of their hens, their own body doesn’t grow properly because it is producing so many eggs. Often these chemicals which are produced, they also lead to, they also lead to some way, the eggs becoming toxic.
Because those chemicals which are given to the hens, also go into the eggs, and they come to human food. When we eat the eggs, they come into the human body. So there are consequences for the hens, there are consequences for human beings, even at a this worldly biochemical level, not to speak of a karmic level.
But the point is, there are two aspects. One is, the soul is constantly looking for suitable biochemical mediums for manifesting its consciousness at the material level. And whenever that suitable biochemical medium is provided, the soul manifests its consciousness.
So normally it is done by a process of nature. But if human beings replicate those conditions biochemically, then the souls which need those bodies can occupy those bodies also. By biochemical medium, which will eventually become the body.
And also, at a biochemical level, at a physical level, the soul has the capacity to control and manipulate consciousness, matter, to some extent. And that’s why by interfering with the normal process of reproduction by inserting chemicals, then we can have the rate of reproduction increase, but that will also have consequences in terms of depleted nutritional growth of the hens, depleted nutritional value of the eggs, and additional presence of chemicals and other associated diseases that result from it. But we do have capacity to, as souls, to control matter to some extent.
That’s why in principle the soul can do some things like this, by which the normal course of nature seems to have been changed. But what has been changed is simply the human understanding of what is the best way to interact with nature. And in the long run, human beings recognize that when they try to adjust with nature, they try to change nature for the better, actually it created more problems than benefits for them.
Thank you. So now the question may come up, does every egg have a soul? So there are eggs which are produced, which are often called as non-vegetarian eggs, in the sense that there is no way that those eggs will not reproduce. So there are various ways in which this is done, but in some cases it is just by using the hen’s body as a means for manipulating the natural processes in the hens, and using the hen’s body as a basically egg production machine.
So in that case, certain chemicals may be ingested, by which the hens, the eggs that are produced, will not hatch. So often these hens are produced of substances that often are actually, they contribute to the waste substances that are produced by the hen’s body. So when the hens are chemically changed, so that the eggs that are produced will not have the capacity to contribute to the reproductive process, then at that time, that is an unnatural intervention in a natural production, the production cycle of new eggs.
So where the biochemical medium is not suitable, then the souls are not present. So is it that every egg contains a soul? As I said, it is not necessary that every single egg has to have a soul, but wherever there is a suitable biochemical medium, souls occupy the biochemical medium so that they can get hens. So that means we know that every hen, even every small chicken, has a soul in it, distinct soul in it.
So where does that come from? That actually comes from the egg, because the whole body has developed from the egg. So that means those eggs which have the capacity to reproduce, and when you go through the reproductive cycle, then we understand the soul is present over there. And those souls which, those eggs which do not have the reproductive capacity, that means it is not that the soul is not necessarily present over there.
The soul, as the Bhagavata says, is sarva-gataha, so that the capacity is present everywhere. But generally soul occupies a biological medium which it can eventually use as a body. So an egg that is not eventually going to become a body, the soul will not reside in that particular medium.
It is not that the soul is conscious of where I should go and where I should not go. All this happens in the So it happens under the divine supervision. So in that sense, all this is actually happening by the arrangement of the Lord.
So it is not that every soul, every egg contains a soul. But wherever an egg grows and eventually becomes a chicken in a living form, at least in those eggs, we understand that souls are present. And where the egg is not suitable for a biological medium, the souls are not present for a long time.
Souls may be present for some time or souls may not be present at all. But generally, wherever the biochemical medium is suitable for the manifestation of consciousness and eventually consciousness does manifest over there, that means souls are present over there.