Question: Can you tell us about the first animal that evolved into a human being?

Sri Chinmoy: According to our traditional Indian mythology, there were ten manifestations of Vishnu. In the animal kingdom, the bull was one of the manifestations. The bull was the animal in which Lord Vishnu expressed His divinity. But this is just according to tradition. From my own inner experience, I wish to say that it was the lion that entered first into the human field. The lion represents divine Victory; it was the divine force that acted in and through the lion to bring the animal consciousness into the human consciousness. It was a great victory for the animal kingdom to come out into the human kingdom; and it was a great victory for the human kingdom to get a creature from the animal kingdom to come and join the human life.

The divine force which is embodied in a dynamic and most powerful way is visible inside the lion. Even now, when the lion roars, it expresses divinity, power and the dynamism to conquer ignorance. How can ignorance be conquered? Ignorance can be conquered only by going beyond ignorance, by going beyond the limits where you are right now. The lion had to transcend the limits of the animal consciousness by means of some higher form, and that higher power was the divine Grace. Divine Grace entered into the lion and brought it into the human kingdom.

So from my own spiritual experience, I wish to say that the lion was the first animal to enter into the human kingdom. But according to our Indian mythology, it was the bull, through Lord Vishnu.