This is the Life and Soul of All Jivas

Srila Gurudeva: We can make an atom bomb, a hydrogen bomb, and so many things. We can destroy something, but on the other hand we cannot even create a leg of an ant. We cannot create any grass or any creeper or even the leaf of any creeper or anything. Anyone can destroy any land with any bomb, but can they create anyone? Can they give life and soul to any dead body? They cannot. But yet they have so much false ego, thinking that, “We are the controllers of this whole world.” This is the false ego of conditioned souls. Krsna is saying that, “Don’t have that kind of false ego. You should understand that you are My part and parcel.”

You are part and parcel of Godhead. We should all try to realize all these things. You should not think that only human beings have souls. Pigs, hogs, fishes and all other animals, do they not have life? Of course they do. They are also a soul like us, but they have done many wrong things so God has given them that kind of body. In this world, all the conditioned souls want to control everyone else. They will kill our body, they will kill so many people and so many animals, as if all animals have been created by God only so we can eat them and kill them. But this is not right. We want to see that in our country anyone should not be poor and that there should be sufficient foodstuffs for everyone. But still they want to kill animals and fish, all for their own enjoyment. They cannot create anything. They can only kill anything.

They are only interested in their own happiness. The conditioned souls think, “We have advanced so much in medical science. We are so advanced in transportation and communication. We have made these airplanes. We have discovered computers and so many things.” But have they discovered love and affection for all? This is the life and soul of all jivas. This is the real religion of all souls. Our constitutional religion is love and affection. Can they change a thief into a religious person? They cannot do these things. They cannot change any thief into a religious person. They cannot give love and affection to the people who are quarreling. They cannot change their hearts. But we can change their hearts. We can change them very easily.

Why is there now so much divorce between wife and husband? Why do we see that when children are grown up and they are married, they give up their fathers and mothers? Because there is no love and affection for them. Then two days after the marriage even, they want to divorce each other. Why are these things happening? It’s because they have no love and affection for each other. Everyone is only interested in their own self-interest. They are selfish. We should realize these things. We must hear from any realized person that we are part and parcel of God. By constitution we have love and affection for all, but now we have forgotten this. We have forgotten that transcendental truth and that transcendental God.

[Spoken by Srila Gurudeva on December 18th, 1998, Bali, published as part of the Bhakta Bandhav Anthology, Volume 24]