Page 111 - LCNL Diwali Magazine

HAPPY DIWALI RAGHUVANSHI 2023 - 2024

Mother Earth

We call our Earth ‘Mother Earth,’ yet we do not treat Her as a Mother. She has given us all that we need to
sustain our lives, and we are simultaneously destroying Her. If our own mother were sick, we would not let
her simply suffer, decay and die. We would fight tenaciously to bring her back to her full state of glory. We
must give the same love and attention to our Mother Earth. We must not pollute her or waste her; rather,
we must nurse her back to health.

A proverb says, ‘The frog does not drink up the pond in which he lives.’ We must follow the example of
God’s other children, and have greater reverence and gratitude for the wealth and diversity of our planet.

There is a story that goes as follows: A man once lived a long and pious life. When he died, God took his
hand and said, ‘Come, I will show you Hell.’ The Lord took the man to a room where many people sat
around a pot filled with food. The pot was deep, so a long spoon was needed. Each person held a spoon,
but the spoon was so long that the people could not feed themselves. The spoons were longer than their
arms, so — although the people tried various ways — they could not carry the food from the pot to their
mouths. The suffering was miserable. The people were famished and weak.

Next, the Lord said, ‘Come I will show you Heaven.’ He then took the man to a room that was identical to
the first: many people sitting around a large pot of luscious food. Here the pot was just as deep, the spoons
were just as long, but the people were joyous and healthy. ‘I don’t understand it,’ the man said. ‘Everything
is the same as is Hell, but here all the people are so content and well-fed.’

‘The difference between Heaven and Hell,’ God said. ‘Is that in Heaven people have learned to feed each
other.’

Let us realize that if we were left alone we would suffer and starve. We depend upon each other – humans,
animals, plants, water – to survive. Let us continually remind ourselves of the ocean in which we are only
drops. Let us not turn a blind eye to the web of life Mother Earth has so gently wrapped around us.”

H.H. Pujya Swami Chidanand Saraswatiji

107