Nobody Can Count How Many Living Entities Are There, Just Like We Cannot Count How Many Atoms Are Within The Universe

[Gavin Swinden]

(Nobody can count how many living entities are there. Paramāṇu. Just like we cannot count how many paramāṇus or atoms are there within this universe. It is not possible)

 

"There are unlimited number of living entities, asaṅkhya. The living entities, they are also calculated in the Padma Purāna:

 

keśāgra-śata-bhāgasya

satadhā kalpitasya ca

jīvo bhāgasya vijñeyaḥ

sa anantāya kalpate

(Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 5.9)

 

Anantāya: there is no limit. Nobody can count how many living entities are there. Paramāṇu. Just like we cannot count how many paramāṇus or atoms are there within this universe. It is not possible. Similarly, we cannot count.

In the Vedas also it is stated, nityo nityānām cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). So the nitya, eternal; and cetana means living being. So Kṛṣṇa, or God, He is the chief living being, or the chief eternal, nityo nityānām, and we living entities—innumerable.

 

He is one, but we are many, plural number, nityo nityānām. So one nitya is singular number; the other nityas are plural number. The plural number nityas are the living entities. The plural number of eternals . . . we are also eternal."

 

(His Divine Grace A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Sila Prabhupada Lecture, March 27, 1972, Bombay)