Some of the modern scientists who hold the monistic position have
found out the same truth which was discovered long ago by the Vedantic
philosophers in India. J. Arthur Thomson, an eminent English scientist
of the present day, in his book on "The Study of Animal Life," says:
"The world is one, not two-fold-, the spiritual influx is the primal
reality and there is nothing in the end which was not also in the
beginning." But the evolutionists do not accept this truth. Let us
understand it clearly. It means that that which existed potentially at
the time of the beginning of evolution has gradually manifested in the
various stages and grades of evolution. If we admit that a unicellular
germ of life or a bioplasm, after passing through various stages of
evolution, has ultimately manifested in the form of a highly developed
human being, then we shall have to admit the potentiality of all the
manifested powers in that germ or bioplasm, because the law is "that
which exists in the end existed also in the beginning." The animal
nature, higher nature, mind, intellect, spirit, all these exist
potentially in the germ of life. If we do not admit this law then the
problem will arise: How can non-existence become existent? How can
something come out of nothing? How can that come into existence which
did not exist before? Each germ of life, according to Vedanta,
possesses infinite potentialities and infinite possibilities. The
powers that remain latent have the natural tendency to manifest
perfectly and to become actual. In their attempt they vary according
to the surrounding environments, selecting suitable conditions or
remaining latent as long as circumstances do not favor them. Therefore
variation, according to Vedanta, is caused by this attempt of the
potential powers to become actual. When life and mind began to evolve,
the possibilities of action and reaction hitherto latent in the germ
of life became real and all things became, in a sense, new. Nobody can
imagine the amount of latent power which a minute germ of life
possesses until it expresses in gross form on the physical plane. By
seeing the seed of a Banyan tree, one who has never seen the tree
cannot imagine what powers lie dormant in it. When a baby is born we
cannot tell whether he will be a great saint, or a wonderful artist,
or a philosopher, or an idiot, or a villain of the worst type. Parents
know nothing about his future. Along with his growth certain latent
powers gradually begin to manifest. Those which are the strongest and
most powerful will overcome others and check their course for some
time; but when the powers that remain subdued by stronger ones get
favorable conditions they will appear in manifested forms. As, for
instance, chemical forces may slumber in matter for a thousand years,
but when the contact with the re-agents sets them free, they appear
again and produce certain results. For thousands of years galvanism
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