Evolution and creation are interesting subjects, and in order to understand one needs to study modern science and Samkhya philosophy.
Scientists believe that the physical body is divided into two sections. One part of the body is responsible for the motor or physical actions which are controlled by the motor nerves. The other part is responsible for sensation and sensorial knowledge and represents awareness.
The same view is held by yoga, tantra and Vedanta. They say that karmendriyas are those physical organs which do actions like walking, digesting, breathing, and evacuating. They are the instruments of action or activity. The other area of the body is called jnanendriyas, the tools of knowledge, which are centralized in the brain.
The evolution of karmendriyas has come to a stand still; there is no further development. Maybe there could be regression. The endocrine glands in the body have come to a final stage of evolution, but maybe due to the artificial and unnatural way of living in big cities some of the glands may become defunct. The pancreas and the pancreatic glands, for example, are becoming defunct as a result of the modern lifestyle and many people suffer from diabetes.
In the same way, the pineal gland is becoming less active, because people have lost their innocence, their simplicity of thinking and become too gross and engrossed in objective perceptions. Therefore, the karmendriyas responsible for action have completed their evolution.
However, the jnanendriyas have the possibility for evolution. Jnanendriyas control the eyes, nose, tongue, ears and touch. The centre is in the brain. Science says that one ninth of the brain is evolved, and nine parts of the brain are not yet active.
What about those nine tenths which remain to be manifested? The future evolution relates to these nine parts of the brain known as 'sleeping areas'. There are millions and trillions of supersonic and ultrasonic centres in the brain which are not yet connected to one’s daily life. This evolution will occur by necessity, but when it takes place according to the laws of nature, it is going to take millions of years. It is not going to happen in the next fifty or one hundred or two hundred years. Besides the evolution of this higher faculty, the evolution of the total brain is not going to take place in all people at one time.
Yoga philosophy has envisaged one idea. Through the practices of yoga the speed of evolution can be accelerated. Therefore, evolution on the mental plane will take place and evolution on the physical plane is over. If one practises hatha yoga and yoga related to the body, then one can arrest the process of decay and degeneration which is taking place these days.
Some people have thick fingers, some have small fingers, but this does not mean that one is more evolved than the other. Maybe five to ten million years ago nature was very fertile. It could produce big bodies, but now nature is not fertile, it can only produce mosquitoes and flies. Maybe ten million years or fifteen million years ago nature could produce big elephants and dinosaurs, or maybe the first human being.
There is a twofold process; one is called creation, the other evolution. Creation and evolution go on side by side. Creation is the inherent capacity of nature or matter, and evolution is the dynamic quality of nature. Therefore, the 8.4 million species are interrelated with each other. In fact, the whole of life is one.
Electricity is one but there are many lights. Each light is not different, only the globe or the light bulb is different, but every light is part of the same electricity.
In the same way, all of you are different, but life is one. The same circuit, the same energy that is flowing in me, is flowing in you, and the same energy also flows through a dog or an elephant. Only the bodies are different. Your life and my life are the same.
3 June 1984, Nîmes, France