My dear, , Srila Prabhupada stated as follows in a Bhagavad-gita lecture he gave on 21 April 1976 in Melbourne, Australia:
Everyone is in ignorance because the evolution is coming from the
lower species of life, and in Western countries the Darwin's theory of evolution is very prominent, and they believe that man is coming from monkey. Of course, the Vedic śāstra also says the birth of human being are from three sources: one from the cow, the other from the lion, and the other from the monkey. The "monkey" word is there. Those who are coming in the sattva-guṇa, modes of goodness, their last birth is as cow. And those who are coming through the rajo-guṇa, their last birth is lion.
And those who are coming through the tamo-guṇa, their last birth is monkey.
Thus each of us according our predominant mode we were born with were a cow, a lion or a monkey.
