Question: Could the soul that inhabits a human body have inhabited an animal body or a plant in previous times?

Sri Chinmoy: I am sure you are well acquainted with the theory of evolution. Charles Darwin, in the modern world, discovered the process of evolution. He discovered the evolution of species, that is, the change from a lower level to a higher one. But long before Darwin, a thousand years before the advent of the Christ, the great Indian sage, Kapila, had discovered the theory of spiritual evolution in his unique philosophy. The Eternal, Unchangeable and Imperishable at every moment evolves. "Nothing came from nothing." The Indian sage discovered this truth and offered it to the world at large.

The total process of evolution on earth includes the soul as well as the physical form. In the march of evolution, each soul has to undergo the plant life and the animal life in order to launch into the human life.