an end. He also demanded a share of the sacrifices, and it was by Him alone that the science of medicine was introduced into the universe.

As the beginning of the Srimad-Bhagavatam established, everything emanates from the Supreme Lord, who represents the original source of all that exists. We can therefore understand from this verse that the science of medicine was also created by God, the Supreme Person, in His manifestation of Dhanvantari, a science which is inscribed in the pages of the Vedas. Source of all knowledge, the Vedas also contain the medical knowledge needed to completely defeat any disease. By the very constitution of his body, the incarnated being is in a pathological state. In fact, the body itself is a symbol of disease, and even though these diseases vary according to species, they inevitably strike all living beings, just as birth and death do. Through the mercy of the Lord, it is therefore possible to heal not only physical and mental illness, but also that which subjects the distinct soul to the cycle of successive deaths and rebirths. Thus the Lord bears the name of bhavausadhi, for from him comes the healing of the sickness represented by material existence.

Plunged into illusion, the distinct being assumes innumerable forms that the external energy of the Lord confers upon it.

The diverse bodies that separate beings take are as many costumes as they are attributed by the external and illusory energy of the Lord in order to satisfy their desires for material enjoyment according to one or other of the three gunas. Indeed, the material energy, or external energy, is constituted by the three gunas - virtue, passion and ignorance. Even when it acts within material nature, the distinct being enjoys a certain free will by which it can choose to put on one or the other of the material bodies offered to it by external energy. Thus, there are 900,000 aquatic species, 2,000,000 plant species, 1 100 000 species of reptiles and worms, 1,000,000 species of birds, 3,000,000 species of mammals and 400,000 human species, The whole grouping all the 8,400,000 varieties of bodies found in various planets of the universe. Here then is the continuation of the wanderings of the distinct being by the effect of innumerable transmigrations, thus responding to the call of the various forms of material desires that inhabit it. In fact, the soul transmigrates already from one body to another when it passes from infancy to adolescence, from adolescence to youth and from youth to old age. Then, at the end of old age, the soul transmigrates into a new body determined by the acts it will have accomplished during its life. It is in fact the distinct soul which creates its own body by the force of its personal desires; The external energy of the Lord only provides him with the particular material envelope by which his desires can be fully satisfied. The tiger, for