Darwin proposed that man evolved from the lower species to the highest, but the living entities fall from the higher, degrading to the lower.

Evolution in Reverse

Progression of Kali-yuga means devolution of Homo sapiens

HANSADUTTA: Kali-yuga means the Age of Darkness. It's the age of dissension and irreligion. As we have four season in a year — spring, summer, fall and winter — so in the cosmic creation there are four seasons, or yugas, which rotate, just as the yearly seasons come and go. These are: Satya-yuga, Treta-yuga, Dvapara-yuga and Kali-yuga.

We are in the Kali-yuga at the present moment, and it began 5,000 years ago with the disappearance of Krishna.

Kali-yuga is characterized by irreligion. In previous ages, like Satya-yuga, for example, there was a perfect arrangement in society for observing the religious principles — cleanliness, mercifulness, truthfulness and austerity. In this age, however, truthfulness is the last remaining principle, and it is rapidly diminishing. The other three principles are already gone. No more mercy, no more cleanliness, no more austerity. There's just a touch of truthfulness, and hardly that.

It is explained in Srimad-Bhagavatam, "The resultant action of human civilization in the age of Kali is dissatisfaction, so everyone is anxious to get peace of mind." This peace of mind was complete in the first age, Satya-yuga, in which human beings lived to an average of 100,000 years. With the passing of every age, the lifespan is reduced by ten percent. So in the next age, Treta-yuga, a human being lived up to 10,000 years, and in the last age, Dvapara-yuga, a human being lived up to 1,000 years. Now, in Kali-yuga, the maximum lifespan is 100 years, and that is already reduced to an average of about 60 years. And Srimad-Bhagavatam predicts that in the future, as the age of Kali progresses, if a human being lives to be twenty years old, he will be considered to be a grand old man. Just as today, if we meet a centurian, we think, "This man is very old," so in the future, when a person lives twenty years, we will think, "Oh, he's a very old man." Not only that, but another symptom of this age is that the stature of the human being is reducing more and more. Even in Biblical times we find that people like Moses were very big men, and they still lived for a few hundred years. At the time when Krishna spoke Bhagavad-gita to Arjuna, He and Arjuna were 125 years old, yet they appeared just as youths of sixteen years.

So as the age of Kali progresses, the age of a human being is reduced, as well as his memory, intelligence, health and stature. Towards the end of the age, a human being will be no more than twelve inches high. Of course this sounds unbelievable, but the fact is that we already see this happening. In my travels I've seen that in some countries the people are very small. In Sri Lanka, because they don't get proper food, I've met children who were sixteen or seventeen years old, but mistook them for just ten years old. Not getting proper food is another symptom of the age of Kali. Food will be in scarcity. Why? Because there will not be any rain. And why will there not be any rain? Because people do not follow the Vedic principles. Therefore Nature will supply not enough rain in some places, and too much rain in others. Now we are experiencing earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, typhoons... These are all signs of Kali-yuga, accentuated by sinful activities of the human population, and we will see more and more of that. When the population of the world becomes extremely sinful, especially in the matter of animal killing and indulgence in illicit sex, leading to abortion, then there will be increase of such natural calamities.

And there will be world war, which we will experience for the third time. At any moment we are about to be enveloped by a world war. There's practically no place on the face of the earth where there is no fighting. It just hasn't reached us yet. Just as before total fever overtakes the body, he gets different symptoms here and there, but when it reaches the acute stage, the body breaks out into fever. Similarly, we're seeing spot symptoms here and there, but at any moment we're about to be completely enveloped by a global war. And this time, with the advancement of atomic weaponry due to misdirected human intelligence, it will be catastrophic.

People like to see the brighter side, but this is another example of the law of karma. You create, then you destroy. We've created this bombastic, technologically advanced civilization, and now it will destroy. Everything which is created goes through its eventual destruction by its own making. That is the unique feature of the material nature.

In Kali-yuga, it is said, there will be huge wars over a small misunderstanding. No one can remember why we had the first world war, the second world war, the Vietnam war. What were we doing there? Why were we fighting? So many people lost their lives. As far as using atomic weapons, America has already deployed them at Hiroshima and Nagasaki — the world will not forget that. And that karma will be brought back on us manyfold, because not only have se used the atomic bomb, but we've also developed it to such an extent and since handed it to so many of our so-called allies, who at any moment could become our enemies. The person who is your friend today eventually becomes your enemy. That is another law of nature.

Therefore it's imperative to understand that the business of human life is not to tarry or loiter in this wolrd and partake of the trivial things which may appear very wonderful. The sun setting over the ocean may be very spectacular within the purview of our limited sense perception, but if we allow our consciousness to be expanded into the unlimited Absolute Truth, to that which is eternal, then this material creation is revealed to be an insignificant affair — and this life of fifty or sixty years becomes a spot in eternity. On a movie reel, one little frame is a fleeting fraction of a second. Millions of such little frames make up the picture. So in our journey back to Godhead, this lifetime is just one spot. If we become overly attached to this spot of material enjoyment, we'll miss the real purpose.

DEBBIE: Is there an end to the age of Kali? Or is it nonending?

HANSADUTTA: No, every age has a fixed time. Kali-yuga runs for 427,000 years, of which 5,000 years have passed.

DEBBIE: Are all these ages happening on this earth?

HANSADUTTA: Yes, they take place here. They take place on other planets also, not only on this planet.

DEBBIE: But I mean, the one you said... the 427,000 years...?

HANSADUTTA: That age, Kali-yuga, has just begun.

JAN: But there were ages before that?

HANSADUTTA: Oh yes, and the ages rotate like seasons.

JAN: The people who lived for 10,000 years... that was a very long time ago.

HANSADUTTA: Yes.

JAN: Where does the Neanderthal man come into this? I mean, were there a lot of transitional bodies happening before that? That resembled us?

HANSADUTTA: Now, here's another point. Sometimes we see fossils of prehistoric creatures that are no longer visible on earth, because the souls who inhabited those bodies have graduated or transmigrated. When there's no longer necessity for that type of body, then they disappear. Your parents wore knickers, right? That style is not outmoded. Because people's consciousness has changed, we don't see people wearing knickers any more, or other old-fashioned styles of clothing. Similarly, the body is a kind of dress, and it is inherited according to the consciousness we are in at a particular time. When the consicousness changes, then the body changes. It is the living force which gives rise to change in matter. Matter, in and of itself, cannot do anything.

JAN: Well, what did the people who lived ten thousand years ago look like? Were they like us? Or did they look like cavemen?

HANSADUTTA: Neither. They were highly sophisticated and refined. In other words, modern man has degraded, so we're at the other end of the spectrum. We're actually the Neanderthal-type creatures!

JAN: Are you saying the Neanderthal was...

HANSADUTTA: That is just another species of life. Darwin proposed that man evolved from the lower species to the highest, but the living entities fall from the higher, degrading to the lower.

JAN: But don't you believe in reincarnation, that a lot of people were animals or insects at first and then they evolved?

HANSADUTTA: Yes, but you can go down also. You can go both directions.

JAN: A man can become a dog or cat or something like that?

HANSADUTTA: Yes. The soul can be put into any species of life. The body is after all just a dress. Just as you can wear this dress or another dress, so sometimes we are in this human form of life, sometimes we may be in an animal form, sometimes in a plant form or an aquatic form or even in a demigod form. According to Vedic literature, there are 8 million 400 thousand varieties or forms of life. It's just like you go to the department store and find so many styles of dress. There are 8 million 400 thousand styles of body.

JAN: But are you saying that we were more conscious as one-celled creatures?

HANSADUTTA: No, the consciousness is less in species lower than human.

JAN: But where are the remains of the other people?

HANSADUTTA: Remains?

JAN: The fossils and bones of the people who lived five thousand or ten thousand or 25 thousand or even millions of years ago. Where are they? Why haven't they been discovered?

HANSADUTTA: In the Vedic age human beings cremated their dead. They didn't bury them.

JAN: So then nothing carries over from one age to the next?

HANSADUTTA: Hardly. You're talking in terms of millions and millions of years.

JAN: Yes, but if it's the same planet, and the same people are happening on it...

HANSADUTTA: Millions and millions of years...

JAN: Okay, everyone was burned. What about the next age?

HANSADUTTA: Well, burying people is something that Easterners don't do. In India, they still don't bury them. They burn the dead. As for records of the past, we have books, but scientists are so stubborn that they want information from bones. Why not take it from books?

JAN: But there are so many books that say things that don't agree.

HANSADUTTA: Therefore you have to consult the original books of knowledge, the original books of mankind. Here they are: the Vedas.

JAN: But how do you know?

HANSADUTTA: How do you know? How do you know that your mother is your mother? She told you, right? But how do you know that it's a fact? You don't know, right? You have to accept some authority on faith, and then by exercising your faith, you get some experience of its validity or invalidity. Similarly, Vedic literatures themselves proclaim their authenticity. Now, if we take them on their own word and apply the knowledge they contain, then we'll find out whether they are valid of invalid. When your father says, "This woman is your mother," you have then to accept his word and act on that, relate to your mother and father as their child and see what happens. By direct experience, experiment or speculation you cannot come to a conclusive answer. You have to accept it on faith. Similarly, if we want to know what is beyond the range of our limited senses, what is beyond this cosmic manifestation in which we are now situated, we have to accept some higher authority. So according to the Vedic literature, the Vedas are the highest authority, coming from the spiritual world. We can't do anything but accept them and try to follow them. We take a chance. You either follow the scriptures, or you follow something else, someone else — Darwin or Freud or Carl Yung or Elvis Presley or Mao Tse Tung. Everyone is following somebody.

JAN: But don't Christians feel sure that they have accepted the word of God on faith and it works for them?

HANSADUTTA: Well, what do you think?

JAN: I mean, that's how it appears to me. How can they all be right?

HANSADUTTA: The Bible says, "Thou shalt not kill," yet Christians kill animals and eat them. Although people may officially rubberstamp themselves as members of a particular doctrine or community, they don't in fact follow the principles set down in their own scriptures. It doesn't matter of you follow Christ, Mohammed or Krishna, but you have to actually follow, not just rubberstamp. This is the problem. People are rubberstamping themselves, but that won't pass.