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strength of the particles forming mineral matter, which by its action
becomes flexible and so receptive of outside influences.
Cells by division and death become capable of the life process in
themselves. Vegetables grow by the rejection of cells, which neces-
sitates a number of physiological processes. Death brings on life,
waste, repair.
If animals exist in one and the same body, progress will be
limited, further evolution will be impossible. It is by death that we
evolve.
Bhagavati works out the evolution of life in different king-
doms till the stage of humanity is reached.
At this point Aryaman, one of the Adityas, comes to the help of
humanity. Through his influence the sons of humanity become
endowed with the power of reasoning, the faculty of discrimi-
nation.
The sons of Aryaman are called Charshanis. The word Charshani
literally means a cultivator. Its secondary sense given in the Vedic
lexicon is one endowed with the discriminative faculty. The word
Charshani is used in the Vedas for man. It is the equivalent of
Arya or Aryan, the ploughman. But it is not as ploughmen or culti-
vators, that the Aryans had their high place in humanity, but as men
endowed with the power of discrimination. And this we owe to
Aryaman. This is why, though an Aditya, he is called the chief of
Pitris by Sri Krishna.
"I am Aryaman of the Pitris."
Bhagavat Gita.
We have thus the first stage in life evolution, when the spiritual
Jiva had to descend from the elemental to the mineral form. Next
we have the second stage, when minerals passed through higher forms
of life till the Human Kingdom was reached.
Then we have the third stage, when men became endowed with
the power of discrimination.
In the exercise of the discriminative faculty men were helped by
their elder brothers, the Rishis and Mahatmas of every period, and
by Avataras Who apeared from time to time.
Then the ground was prepared for further evolution. The Sacred
Injunctions or the Vedas were revealed to men to give them a sense
of right and wrong, of duties and prohibitions. The Vedas also held
out to the developed sense of men the charming prospect of life in
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