Śyāmasundara: To go back to this survival of the fittest theory, supposing we are all here and the water comes, like you said. Supposing one of these persons in Los Angeles has the ability to breathe in water, somehow or other he can breathe under water...
Prabhupāda: So we have no objection.
Śyāmasundara: So he survives; everyone else...
Prabhupāda: He survives means... He survives means that even if he's dead, that does not mean that the species is dead. There is another human being in another part of the world.
Śyāmasundara: I accept that, but I mean I want to...
Prabhupāda: So you say that because he does not survive, the whole species is extinct.
Śyāmasundara: No. But he survives..., one man survives because he is able to breathe in the water.
Karandhara: But how is he able to breathe in the water?
Śyāmasundara: Because he's adapted, he's mutated somehow.
Karandhara: But what has been that selective principle that he's adapted?
Śyāmasundara: According to you, you say it's his desire.
Karandhara: But the selective, active principle...
Prabhupāda: But the fact is that you do not find anyone that one can breathe within the water.
Śyāmasundara: No. That's only an example.
Prabhupāda: But you should give example which is proper.
Śyāmasundara: All right. There is a fish called a lungfish, which... Most fish have gills, they breathe underwater with their gills, they extract oxygen from water. But there's one fish in Africa that has developed lungs, so that, because it lives in an area where the water sometimes goes away, so it must be able to breathe oxygen from the air. So they say out of millions of fish in that water, one happened to have a pair of lungs, so he survived.
Prabhupāda: So we say that means he was already existing. We say there are 900,000 of species of fishes. He may be one of them, that's all.
Śyāmasundara: So the selective principle is there, but all species are already there.
Prabhupāda: Already there, existing.
Karandhara: The selection will simply be dictated by... The so-called observance of selection is just the circumstance. The water's going away, so...
Prabhupāda: The selection of the species of life. I can select. From fish, I can become man; from man I can become fish.
Śyāmasundara: So that fish desired to survive in that condition.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Śyāmasundara: I see.
Prabhupāda: Therefore there is a greater law. Just like the hotel people, he has got experience. The customers come and they want this sort of facilities. So he has made all the facilities here to receive all kinds of customers. Similarly, this is God's creation. He knows how much a living entity can think of, so He has made all these species. If he thinks like this, "Come on, here," nature will, "Yes." Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi (BG 3.27). Nature is offering facility, "Yes, come on." God, Kṛṣṇa as Paramātmā within the heart, He knows, He wants this. He wants this, immediately nature, "Give him this apartment," and nature offers, "Yes. Come on. Here is apartment." This is real explanation.