FolioCorpusBhagavad-gītā

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.24.73

తే వయం నోదితా: సర్వే ప్రజాసర్గే ప్రజేశ్వరా: । అనేన ధ్వస్తతమస: సిసృక్ష్మో వివిధా: ప్రజా: ॥ ౭౩ ॥
te vayaṁ noditāḥ sarve
[te vayam noditaah sarve]
prajā-sarge prajeśvarāḥ
[prajaa-sarge prajeshvaraah]
anena dhvasta-tamasaḥ
[anena dhvasta-tamasah]
sisṛkṣmo vividhāḥ prajāḥ
[sisrikshmo vividhaah prajaah]
te — by him vayam — all of us noditāḥ — ordered sarve — all prajā-sarge — at the time of creating population prajā-īśvarāḥ — the controllers of all living entities anena — by this dhvasta-tamasaḥ — being freed from all kinds of ignorance sisṛkṣmaḥ — we created vividhāḥ — various kinds of prajāḥ — living entities.
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
te vayaṁ noditāḥ sarve
te
by him
vayam
all of us
noditāḥ
ordered
sarve
all
prajā-sarge prajeśvarāḥ
prajā-sarge
at the time of creating population
prajā-īśvarāḥ
the controllers of all living entities
anena dhvasta-tamasaḥ
anena
by this
dhvasta-tamasaḥ
being freed from all kinds of ignorance
sisṛkṣmo vividhāḥ prajāḥ
sisṛkṣmaḥ
we created
vividhāḥ
various kinds of
prajāḥ
living entities.
When all the Prajāpatis were ordered to create by Lord Brahmā, we chanted these prayers in praise of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and became completely free from all ignorance. Thus we were able to create different types of living entities.

In this verse we can understand that the various types of living entities were created simultaneously at the very beginning of the creation. The nonsensical Darwinian theory of evolution is not applicable here. It is not that intelligent human beings did not exist millions of years ago. On the contrary, it is understood that the most intelligent creature, Lord Brahmā, was first created. Then Lord Brahmā created other saintly sages like Marīci, Bhṛgu, Ātreya, Vasiṣṭha and Lord Śiva. They in their turn created different types of bodies according to karma. In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Lord Kapiladeva told His mother that the living entity gets a particular type of body in accordance with his work and that this body is decided upon by higher authorities. The higher authorities, as appointed by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, are Lord Brahmā and all other Prajāpatis and Manus. Thus from the beginning of creation it can be seen that the first creature is the most intelligent. It is not that so-called modern intelligence has developed by the gradual process of evolution. As stated in Brahma-vaivarta Purāṇa, there is a gradual evolutionary process, but it is not the body that is evolving. All the bodily forms are already there. It is the spiritual entity, or spiritual spark within the body, that is being promoted by the laws of nature under the supervision of superior authority. We can understand from this verse that from the very beginning of creation different varieties of living entities were existing. It is not that some of them have become extinct. Everything is there; it is due to our lack of knowledge that we cannot see things in their proper perspective.

In this verse the word dhvasta-tamasaḥ is very important, for without being free of ignorance one cannot control the creation of different types of living entities. As stated in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (3.31.1) , daiva-netreṇa: bodies are awarded under the supervision of superior powers. How can these superior powers control the evolutionary process of the living entity if they are not free from all imperfection? The followers of the Vedic instructions cannot accept the Darwinian theory of evolution, for it is marred by imperfect knowledge.

— A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda
Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura Gauḍīya
Translation
Ordered by Brahmā, as controllers of the progeny, we all destroyed ignorance by this prayer and created a variety of progeny at the time of secondary creation.
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