The venue for the morning walk was Melbourne’s Botanic Gardens. The sun barely shone through the heavy morning mist. Srila Prabhupada, once again well-wrapped against the cold in chaddar, scarf and knitted cap, walked briskly along the tree-lined pathways. Prabhupada occasionally stopped, and as he did so, the devotees with him would immediately huddle close to listen. At one such unscheduled pause, Prabhupada explained the reason why there were so many living entities that had been forced to suffer in the body of a tree.
The reason is karanam guna-sango sya: As one is infected by the modes of material nature, one suffers accordingly. Nature’s law is very strict. Prabhupada gave the example that if one contracted choleric diarrhoea, he would suffer greatly. A civilised man was therefore cautious not to come in contact with such an infectious disease. In the same way, he explained, those with higher consciousness avoid becoming infected with contaminated thoughts, desires and actions. Unless one was very careful, such modes of passion and ignorance would force one to take birth in lower species, like the unfortunate trees.
