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A Series of Lessons in Gnani Yoga822
absorbs with the food; the sea-urchin and star-fish distribute their food by
canals in their bodies which open directly into the water; in the higher forms
of the annulosa, the food is distributed by a fluid resembling blood, which
carries the nourishment to every part and organ, and which carries away the
waste matter, the blood being propelled through the body by a rudimentary
heart. The oxygen is distributed by each of these forms in a corresponding
way, the higher forms having rudimentary lungs and respiratory organs. Step
by step the life-forms are perfected, and the organs necessary to perform
certain definite functions are evolved from rudimentary to perfected forms.
The families of worms are the humblest members of the great family
of the Annulosa. Next come the creatures called Rotifers, which are very
minute. Then come the Crustacea, so called from their crustlike shell. This
group includes the crabs, lobsters, etc., and closely resembles the insects. In
fact, some of the best authorities believe that the insects and the crustacea
spring from the same parent form, and some of the Yogi authorities hold
to this belief, while others do not attempt to pass upon it, deeming it
immaterial, inasmuch as all life-forms have a common origin. The western
scientists pay great attention to outward details, while the Oriental mind is
apt to pass over these details as of slight importance, preferring to seek the
cause back of the outward form. On one point both the Yogi teachers and
the scientists absolutely agree, and that is that the family of insect life had
its origin in some aquatic creature. Both hold that the wings of the insect
have been evolved from organs primarily used for breathing purposes by
the ancestor when it took short aerial flights, the need for means of flight
afterwards acting to develop these rudimentary organs into perfected
wings. There need be no more wonder expressed at this change than in the
case of the transformation of the insect from grub to chrysalis, and then to
insect. In fact this process is a reproduction of the stages through which the
life-form passed during the long ages between sea-creature and land-insect.
We need not take up much of your time in speaking of the wonderful
complex organism of some of the insect family, which are next on the scale