Every age had its own flora and fauna and it disappeared with them.
Every tree and every creature of every age and stratum is created by the Divine.
None is unimportant.

What is happening in the universe is the gradual death of one created being and the gradual emergence of another, Therefore, whatever will come, it will only be the Divine coming in that form. No one is insignificant, no one is small, no one is low.

The world is a changing phenomenon. Therefore, it is unwise to be attached to any object in the ever-changing world. The very name and form will undergo changes with the change in time and place. The child changes into youth, the youth into the old, and the old into the corpse.

But if wise people take every object of the world as the expression of the one and single Cosmic Consciousness, then on seeing the changes in the name and form of any particular object, they will not be affected by pain or pleasure.

From the inanimate to the animate goes the process of evolution.

Consider a piece of stone for instance. It has neither the power of action nor the sensation of mind. What is the reason? It is because hitherto there has been no manifestation of mind in the stone at all.

Consider the trees and plants that are more animate than the stone. There is activity in them. They grow, draw the vital juice from the earth, maintain their species by creating seeds in their own bodies, and enjoy and suffer pleasure and pain when taken care of or hurt. We see in them the manifestation of consciousness, for mind has awakened in them.

Thus progressing on the path of mental development, we see in humanity its greatest manifestation. Just as evolution takes place from the subtle to the crude, similarly the unit entity reverts step by step from the crude to the subtle, towards the same Absolute Consciousness from whence it came. It is just like the waves of the sea, rippling back from whence they have come.

Even a gold vessel needs polishing occasionally. Unmaintained, it gathers dust and dirt and loses its lustre. Similarly, even a good person, a spiritual aspirant needs proper maintenance, for in a world of constant change, care must be taken that the change be always towards the better or the higher.

Keeping good company is essential for this positive development. While bad company strengthens the bondage of the soul, good company is conducive to liberation and salvation.

The darkness of evolutionary night began to fade centuries ago when the first ape-like creature deserted his tree-branch kingdom and shambled out into the light of the plain. He was guided by something he could not understand: something un-apelike and impossible for his comrades. Somehow, somewhere in his seething body chemistry, something had changed. In his brain lay the seed of humanity; in his strangely bright eyes, the dark shadow of a hidden dream.

Time passed slowly. The new creatures developed and multiplied. The wonderful changes in their bodies and minds continued; their brains, nerves and glandular systems grew in complexity and specialisation. New behaviour patterns evolved and after some time, emotions and feelings unknown and denied to all previous forms of life found their means of expression. The Dawn of Man was reached at that auspicious hour.

The waves of thought generated by that first human expression vibrate even to this day in the unconscious mind of every human being. Everyone of us carries within him the hidden memory of that first sunrise, and even beyond it into the darkness of antiquity. We are, by means of this primordial memory, which is part of our human heritage, intimately connected to all forms of life.