Ape

Expressions researched:
"ape" |"apelike" |"apes"

SB Cantos 10.14 to 12 (Translations Only)

SB 10.67.2, Translation:

Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: There was an ape named Dvivida who was a friend of Narakāsura's. This powerful Dvivida, the brother of Mainda, had been instructed by King Sugrīva.

SB 10.67.3, Translation:

To avenge the death of his friend (Naraka), the ape Dvivida ravaged the land, setting fires that burned cities, villages, mines and cowherd dwellings.

SB 10.67.6, Translation:

The wicked ape tore down the trees in the hermitages of exalted sages and contaminated their sacrificial fires with his feces and urine.

SB 10.67.11, Translation:

The mischievous ape climbed a tree branch and then revealed his presence by shaking the trees and making the sound kilakilā.

SB 10.67.14-15, Translation:

Angered, Lord Balarāma, the best of fighters, hurled a rock at him, but the cunning ape dodged the rock and grabbed the Lord's pot of liquor. Further infuriating Lord Balarāma by laughing and by ridiculing Him, wicked Dvivida then broke the pot and offended the Lord even more by pulling at the girls' clothing. Thus the powerful ape, puffed up with false pride, continued to insult Śrī Balarāma.

SB 10.67.23, Translation:

The angry ape then released a rain of stones upon Lord Balarāma, but the wielder of the club easily pulverized them all.

SB 10.67.24, Translation:

Dvivida, the most powerful of apes, now clenched his fists at the end of his palm-tree-sized arms, came before Lord Balarāma and beat his fists against the Lord's body.

SB 10.67.25, Translation:

The furious Lord of the Yādavas then threw aside His club and plow and with His bare hands hammered a blow upon Dvivida's collarbone. The ape collapsed, vomiting blood.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 2.9.13 -- Melbourne, April 12, 1972:

So there also there are many big, big aeroplanes running on.

Now, how this information received. When Bhāgavata was compiled five thousand years ago, there was no existence of aeroplane. But how in the Bhāgavata the information of the aeroplane is there? If men were less intelligent five thousand years ago, and now they have advanced, then how persons five thousand years ago... Not five thousand years. Many, many millions of years ago the information was there. But from historical point of view, at least five thousand years ago. So how they give this information of airplane? So how you can say that some forty thousand years ago... What is the Darwin's theory? There was no brain?

Lecture on SB 2.9.13 -- Melbourne, April 12, 1972:

Śyāmasundara: Apelike creatures.

Prabhupāda: So how this nonsense theory can be accepted? According to our Vedic information, from the very beginning the one person, one living creature, was Brahmā, the most intelligent person. Not that he developed from monkey. This nonsense theory killed the human civilization. The intelligence is coming from the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And the most intelligent person is receiving that, Brahmā. And then he is distributing this knowledge. So knowledge has not developed with the development of the brain of the living entities. That is a wrong theory. Knowledge is already there. And the most intelligent person received it, and it is being distributed still. Therefore Vedic knowledge is considered to be the perfect. And if we take knowledge from the Vedas, then our knowledge is perfect. Now here is the knowledge. What is the purport?

Nectar of Devotion Lectures

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, October 23, 1972:

He's not imitating, or he's speaking falsely. He feels like that. A mahā-bhāgavata feels like that, that "I am the lowest." Just like Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has sung, āmāra jīvana sada pāpe rata nāhika puṇyera leśa (?). He says like that, that "My life is always engaged in sinful activities. I've not a trace of pious activity." Āmāra jīvana sada ape rata nāhika puṇyera leśa. "I have given so much distress to all other living entities." He's representing common man. But he's feeling like that. It is not that artificially speaking. He's feeling like that. Just like Rādhārāṇī. She thinks always Herself as the lowest of the devotees. She thinks always. She sees always that the gopīs, other gopīs, they are better qualified to serve Kṛṣṇa. And She is not qualified, so much qualified. Therefore in Vṛndāvana, you'll find, the devotees approach Rādhārāṇī. "Jaya Rādhe." Because if Rādhārāṇī advocates for him to Kṛṣṇa, it is very easily accepted.

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on Charles Darwin:

Prabhupāda: Related? Everything is related. That is another thing. But if the monkey's body is developing into human body...

Śyāmasundara: Yes. Apelike man.

Prabhupāda: Then after development of human body, why is the monkey species does not cease? Why not it does not cease?

Śyāmasundara: They are like branches of the same tree, he calls them.

Prabhupāda: Branches of the tree, just like we see now the monkey is existing and human being is also existing. Similarly, we say what he sees the beginning of life, at that time also there was human being.

Philosophy Discussion on Charles Darwin:

Prabhupāda: But they cannot prove that there was no human being wherefrom they are starting their study. They cannot prove.

Śyāmasundara: It appears from the evidence that there are apelike men in certain layers of...

Prabhupāda: The apelike man or manlike ape is already existing. If you say development, just like from this, it has developed this, then there should be no existence of this. Kārya-kāraṇam. That's all. Now when I see still both are existing...

Śyāmasundara: The former doesn't exist any more.

Prabhupāda: No, no, no. If from monkey, man is coming, so then when monkey develops into man, the monkey should not exist.

Philosophy Discussion on Charles Darwin:

Prabhupāda: Nature is working, but he cannot explain how nature is working.

Śyāmasundara: At one time he says the one ape developed an opposing thumb so he was able to use tools, grasp things, so he became superior and passed that quality on to his offspring and that developed into man. Simply by...

Prabhupāda: Then when there is offspring, then the same question comes: "Why the monkey does not produce offspring—a man?" What is this nonsense?

Karandhara: Scientists often take the shelter of this premise, that it's not..., we don't..., we're not trying to find out. Whenever they're asked what is the original source, they say, "We're not concerned with that. We're concerned with just examining the phenomenon of that source."

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is childish. That is childish. Just like I have seen the phenomena, without man there cannot be singing. In the box there must be one man there. This is childish calculation, that's all. Phenomenal study means childish. A fan, in our childhood we will think that a fan is running, there must be some ghost who is running it. So this sort of phenomenal study is not scientific study. It is not scientific. (If) we don't find the original cause, that is not scientific.

Philosophy Discussion on Charles Darwin:

Prabhupāda: That we accept. That we accept. Just like we are now in human form of life. Now we can go, can make our position better. Either we go in so many higher planetary systems or we go to Vaikuṇṭha.

Śyāmasundara: In terms of species actually living on this planet, he thinks that we have come up from apes, now we may go up to higher forms of men or species.

Prabhupāda: That is already... The apes are already there. You are also there.

Karandhara: Their idea is that if they can sufficiently understand this process of evolution and know its principles then they can control it, they can manipulate it to their own ends.

Prabhupāda: There is information.

Philosophy Discussion on Charles Darwin:

Śyāmasundara: There's a corollary to his theory of evolution that our standards of morality have also evolved from primitive stages. For instance, in a group, within a group of apelike creatures who were normally fighting with each other for dominance, one may develop the quality of sympathy for someone else. So by that sympathy he cooperates with the other person and together they survive when the others die. So that evolution of sympathy, morality, love, compassion—the good qualities of the human being—have evolved due to necessity, evolution, survival of the fittest.

Karandhara: The thing is this whole perspective of evolution... There doesn't have to be a sequence, that one came before the other. They all were there.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Philosophy Discussion on Charles Darwin:

Prabhupāda: Why he was arrested?

Hayagrīva: For teaching Darwinism. For teaching that man descended from the apes.

Prabhupāda: So he was teaching, and the government arrested him?

Hayagrīva: The government, the American government, arrested, yes. The Tennessee legislature arrested him. He was arrested and defended by Clarence Darrow, famous trial lawyer, and the prosecutor was William Jennings Bryan, who was a thrice defeated Presidential candidate. So they discussed evolution and religion and how they could co-exist, and Scopes, who was teaching Darwinian evolution, claimed, "All men have a natural and indefeasible right to worship almighty God according to the dictates of his own conscience. No human authority can in any case whatever control or interfere with the rights of conscience, and that no preference should ever be given by law to any religious establishment or mode of worship."

Prabhupāda: This is, this worship and the concept of worship, if actually one believes or knows, so the real worship is that which pleases God. If you manufacture... Just like I want a glass of water, and if my servant gives me a glass of hot milk, is that worship? Worship means what I want, if you give me, then I am satisfied.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation with Devotees -- April 14, 1975, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: That you say. But I don't believe it. I have not seen.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, they have skeletons in the museum.

Brahmānanda: Very thick skulls and very small brains.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Almost like a ape.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. There was a big animal. So what is the difference? They are animals, big or small. You have seen a skeleton of pygmy man also. So where is that man now? You have seen pygmy man, you don't require archeological. So where is that man?

Conversation with Devotees -- April 14, 1975, Hyderabad:

Haṁsadūta: The more advanced scientists, the more up-to-date ones, they reject this whole Darwin thing. But it's become so ingraded in the minds of the people that they have published, this Life, Time Magazine, they publish millions of books and sell it. People read about ape man, the man came from the ape and so on. It's become such a popular, it's like a fairy tale.

Prabhupāda: Propaganda, it is propaganda. That's all. Propaganda, you can do any false thing (indistinct) say. This is called, propaganda is called in Bengali dāsa cakre bhagavān butha (?). Dāsa cakre bhagavān butha. Bhagavān, one gentleman's name was Bhagavān and he spread, conspired that let us, make us some joke that she has become ghost. So wherever he was going, the friend: "Oh, oh, a ghost, ghost, ghost, ghost!" (everyone laughs) "No, no, I am not..." (indistinct) ...this man has become crazy, why he (indistinct)

Morning Walk -- May 20, 1975, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: They have given separate account or only on the total?

Hari-śauri: Only approximation.

Śrutakīrti:: An estimate. (break)

Hari-śauri: ...a drawing of the so-called missing link between the evolution from ape to man. They have given one drawing of a species looking like a man but hunched like an ape. And they're claiming this is...

Prabhupāda: Where they have got it?

Hari-śauri: ...that this type of personality was existing millions of years ago. (break)

Amogha: Of the 400,000 human species, what is the distinguishing characteristic that makes one different from another? How could we recognize them, or could we?

Prabhupāda: You have not seen varieties of men?

Morning Walk -- July 28, 1975, San Diego:

Prabhupāda: ...explain; therefore they bring this theory of chance. But we don't find any such chance in practical life. "There was a fool and he became high-court judge." Is there any? "There was a fool. He became a high-court judge." Is there any evidence like that? "There was ape. It became human, human being." I am simply surprised how this kind of argument is accepted by other fools.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And if you don't accept it, then they fail you in the examination.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: If you don't accept and repeat it, then you become failed in the examination. Then you can't get a diploma. Then you cannot get a good job. So they force you to repeat it. (break)

Prabhupāda: Field. All of a sudden it became by chance a garden and beautiful, everything.

Morning Walk -- Durban, October 13, 1975 :

Prabhupāda: Therefore his civilization—so much, that's all. His standard of civilization, this much. (break) … no tree, even a small tree is considered big tree. (break) Man came from ape, so why man is not coming now from ape? Hm?

Harikeśa: It only happened once, and that was enough to start the whole thing.

Prabhupāda: Only once.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: It had to happen at least twice.

Prabhupāda: That is another rascaldom. We see the flowers and fruits are coming every season. Why once? This dogmatic, we have to accept? Our experience is that by nature's way we find the same flower is coming again in the same season.

Room Conversation -- October 14, 1975, Johannesburg:

Prabhupāda: There is karma, cause, but I cannot ascertain. To me the cause is invisible. Therefore, we take adṛṣṭa. But there is cause.

Harikeśa: They always reason that because somebody is born like that, that sometimes somebody could be born from an ape like a man.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Harikeśa: Over a very long period of time... Let's say in one ape somebody was born without hair, and then after a long period of time in the same line from that person who was born without hair...

Prabhupāda: But why the ape does not give birth now?

Harikeśa: But we have not seen all the apes.

Prabhupāda: But how do you suggest?

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- February 5, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: And what was before forty thousand years?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Apes.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And wherefrom the apes came?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Lesser..., lesser-mentality beings. Everything originated...

Prabhupāda: So anything is a development. That is, therefore, called Darwin's theory of evolution. But where the evolution begins? That is the question.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It begins from these primordial elements.

Prabhupāda: So where that elements came?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They were always there. They are eternal.

Prabhupāda: Then? Then why you say, "From this time it begun"? Everything is eternal. There is no question of beginning.

Morning Walk -- July 20, 1976, New York:

Rāmeśvara: They have this one display trying to prove that..., the Darwin theory of evolution. They have these bones, and they say this proves how man was formerly like an ape or a monkey. Now he has become more civilized.

Prabhupāda: So where is Darwin's bones?

Rāmeśvara: Then they have one display showing...

Prabhupāda: No, no, Darwin got all this knowledge. His bones should be studied first, how he got so much knowledge. And from which monkey he came. By studying the bones, discover it.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- February 1, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: According to this logical positivism, you can say that it is convenient to say that man has arisen from apes, but that is not the truth.

Prabhupāda: There is no experiment.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: There's no experiment, but it is convenient to assume according to this logic, but that's not a fact.

Prabhupāda: But why the modern ape is not producing any human being?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They say that's a long time ago...

Prabhupāda: Long time.

Morning Walk -- February 1, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Long time.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Millions of years ago.

Prabhupāda: But why man is producing man? Not the ape? Just see how they lunatic they are.

Bhāgavata: Why does the process of evolution stop?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: It's convenient to assume that way, but that's not a fact.

Gurukṛpā: Convenient means for your sense gratification.

Prabhupāda: So we have to discuss so many things, immense field. Go out... (break) At least you have to accept that "I am blind." So how you can show others the path? You are blind.

Room Conversations -- February 20, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: What is that civilization? Do they think that civilization is correct?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They say that they are the most advanced civilization ever. This is the topmost yet. Man is becoming more and more evolved, from the ape until now. This is the pinnacle so far.

Prabhupāda: And what you have gained? Criminals, fire brigade, always "dungdungdungdungdungdung," in every big city. And criminality increasing. Do you think it is civilization? Always anxious, and covering yourself by drinking, intoxicated. In New York street you would go out ordinary-hell! Two sides hell.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And it has become worse in the last ten years. It is much worse.

Prabhupāda: It must become worse.

Morning Talk -- June 19, 1977, Vrndavana:

Upendra: They... The karmīs, they made one movie where the whole world was monkeys, "Planet of the Apes," and one human being came...

Prabhupāda: Rascal, they were monkeys. Now they have become human being, that change of position.

Upendra: They wouldn't...

Prabhupāda: You have to accept a change of body. Change of bodies you have to accept from your argument. You were monkeys; now you are human being. This is change of body.