The Gifts of God
We are maintaining ourselves on borrowed resources, on Gifts of God. Often I wonder that the things I so casually use daily are not created by me, but by Krishna and yet I have the audacity to call them mine. We came on this earth with nothing in hand and will leave with nothing in hand and yet we so proudly call things our own, including our family. These have been given to us by God for maintenance and sustenance so we can progress on the path of self-realization. The concepts of ‘I’ and ‘mine’ cause us to live in our daily life without being grateful to Krishna for the things He has provided.
The world within and without is a very delicate balance. We have taken each raw resource provided to us and exploited it. Man has the capacity and the intelligence to do so without any discrimination all in the name of his own sense gratification. It seems like the ongoing state of affairs around the world regarding climate change is getting out of hand. I don’t have detailed knowledge and capacity to comment on this fully, but it surely is troubling to see the repercussions of the damage man has done and continues to inflict on the earth.
We should each take a moment to reflect on our daily life and see how we use our basic resources.
Water, without which we cannot live is getting scarce. We leave runny toilets, we leave taps on while we brush our teeth and we run water in the kitchen while doing dishes without blinking an eye.
Air, which is another necessity more so than water, is polluted due to human activity. What we burn, what we throw out, what we produce in factories with fumes, and what we eat all produce greenhouse gases that are warming the planet.
The land which we step on daily; Mother earth is crying. We are pouring chemicals on her body in the name of producing more crops. We are dumping plastic waste in dumpsites and oceans that will one day probably not leave man any room on earth to live.
Not to mention the widespread and systematic abuse of animals and their habitats, drilling land and oceans for petroleum, destroying mountains for stone and minerals. All this and more.
Yes, all of this has been good for man, so-called progress, and has been helpful in creating a convenient life, but at what cost? The attitude of exploiting and calling these things ‘mine’ leaves little consideration for the repercussions. We can use these things provided to us, but we don’t want to stop for a second and be grateful for the things we have. Praying and being thankful daily by offering to the Lord the things He has given us as a necessity is a burden to man.
Lord Krishna talks about the concept of ‘I’ and ‘Mine’ in the Bhagavad Gita to a great extent. We have forgotten our real spiritual identity and due to this forgetfulness we identify with the material world in these concepts of I and mine. Everything that is in my vision belongs to me and it’s for me to exploit or enjoy. I am the doer and the enjoyer. That is the concept of most humans. Animals too have this concept of mine, but not so much the concept of I. This is a long topic of discussion and very nicely detailed in this article.
SB 3.12.2
sasarjāgre ’ndha-tāmisram
atha tāmisram ādi-kṛt
mahāmohaṁ ca mohaṁ ca
tamaś cājñāna-vṛttayaḥ
Brahmā first created the nescient engagements like self-deception, the sense of death, anger after frustration, the sense of false ownership, and the illusory bodily conception, or forgetfulness of one’s real identity.
Unless a living entity forgets his real identity, it is impossible for him to live in the material conditions of life. Therefore the first condition of material existence is forgetfulness of one’s real identity. This false identification with material nature is the cause of false ownership of things which are offered by the arrangement of superior control. All material resources are offered to the living entity for his peaceful living and for the discharge of the duties of self-realization in conditioned life. But due to false identification, the conditioned soul becomes entrapped by the sense of false ownership of the property of the Supreme Lord.It is simply ludicrous to think the living entity to be equal with the Supreme Being….
When human society is grateful to the Lord for all His gifts for the maintenance of the living entities, then there is certainly no scarcity or want in society. But when men are unaware of the intrinsic value of such gifts from the Lord, surely they are in want.
Even one's material body, being a gift of the Lord for carrying out a particular type of action, can be engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
The natural law is that the human being may take advantage of these godly gifts by nature and satisfactorily flourish on them without being captivated by the exploitative motive of lording it over material nature.
Spiritual advancement of the living entity is absolutely necessary. Human life is intended for the realization of this important factor, and one should act accordingly, accepting only the bare necessities of life and depending more on God's gift without diversion of human energy for any other purpose, such as being mad for material enjoyment.
Ungrateful persons are those who do not understand how much benefit they are deriving by the arrangement of the Lord. They enjoy the sunshine and moonshine, and they get water free of charge, yet they do not feel grateful, but simply go on enjoying these gifts of the Lord.
SB 3.19.36, Translation and Purport
What grateful soul is there who would not render his loving service to such a great master as the Personality of Godhead? The Lord can be easily pleased by spotless devotees who resort exclusively to Him for protection, though the unrighteous man finds it difficult to propitiate Him.
I can quote here many things from the Srimad Bhagavatam and Bhagavad Gita regarding our false ego and greed towards satisfying our senses, wanting more and more, and being totally ungrateful. Due to these, we exploit nature, other humans, and other living entities. We need to individually take action to correct this in our own lives and lead by example, otherwise our progress on the path of devotion will not be much. The root driving force is sense gratification. The gifts of God must be respected, honored, and utilized in and for the service of God. If we truly love Krishna, then we would love the things He has so kindly given us. Remember always, we are on borrowed resources as we never brought anything with us and neither are we taking anything from here. The only thing we take by exploiting material nature is more karma. By offering everything to the Lord we don’t take the karma and utilize this human birth for self-realization only. I am no saint, I am aspiring for pure devotion and I do not know the ins and outs of this earth I live on, but I can understand Mother Nature is angry in many ways. Seeing the recent devastation in Australia, the thick clouds of pollution in India and China, the burning of the Amazon forest, and countless other examples, we have to do our bit and focus on our own actions and encourage those around us to do the same. Be grateful for every minute of the day and to Lord Krishna for the gifts He has given us. Let us try to utilize these gifts not for our own satisfaction but rather in His service.