Chorasi Lakh

Lakh Chorasi means 8,400,000 stages or forms of life on earth. It means a form of a species. For example, there are more than 3,000 species of snakes known today. But many more species might have been living in the past, and are now extinct. 84 lakh is also mentioned in Vedic & Buddhist scriptures. Ginans are full of details about evolution

Lakh Chorasi means 8,400,000 stages or forms of life on earth. It means a form of a species. For example, there are more than 3,000 species of snakes known today. But many more species might have been living in the past, and are now extinct.

It has taken 4,313,000 years of evolution from the amoeba to man of today. Some details:

   * It took the amoeba 432,000 years to evolve into a fish.
   * It took the fish 432,000 years to evolve into a tortoise.
   * It took the tortoise 432,000 years to evolve to a mammal like water hog.
   * It took the water hog 432,000 years to evolve to a higher form of mammal like a lion.
   * It took the lion 432,000 years to evolve to an ape such as a chimpanzee or sometimes known as the missing link.
   * It took that ape 432,000 years to evolve to the first man with intelligence. He was actually the ADAM known as ABUL BASHR.

After another 432,000 years’ period of development, the civilized man appeared during the period of the first RAMA (there are hundreds of kings known as Rama) who lived about 864,000 years ago.

Modern man and his immediate ancestors have been living on earth for the past 7,000 years during which the Biblical Prophets have appeared. The Great Flood perhaps came in this period.

Current estimates of the total number of species on Earth range from 5 to 30 million, of which, the 2005 Millennium Ecosystem Assessment notes approximately 2 million have been formally described.(http://www.enviroliteracy.org/article.php/58.html)

Between the two major stages of evolution such as amoeba and fish, there were thousands of developing and evolving stages which produced hundred of thousands of species. Most of them are now extinct.

The human soul has crossed the vast ocean of Lakh Chorasi and now appears in human stage. There is enough evidence that the soul is developing and progressing all the time. Everything that Nature has produced is progressing. If there is any deterioration or destruction, it is for reproduction in a better form.

Normally a soul will not turn back to an animal stage; but, of course, in some exceptional cases a soul may be retarded or degraded to lower stages as a punishment and for improvement. Otherwise it is created and is meant for development. It may make progress during its human life on earth as well as in the Hereafter.

A human being is given several chances in his lifetime to improve and develop. He is also given many lives to make progress enough to reach nearer and nearer to his Creator.

Ginans

The Ginans are a vast corpus of devotional literature in the form of lyrics and hymns and has been the living tradition of Nizari Ismailis particularly from the Indian subcontinent. The word was borrowed from Sanskrit jñĝna "knowledge, wisdom".

It was an oral rendition mostly by Pirs, first among whom to come to India was Pir Satgur Nur in the 12th century. Ginans are composed in many languages of the subcontinent, especially Gujarati and Urdu, Punjabi, Sindhi and many more. Similar religious traditions exist in the form of qasīdas (قصيدة) amongst Nizaris of Arab, Persian and Central Asian origins authored by likes of early Muslim duˤĝt such as Qadi Noman, Nasir Khusraw and others.