Pest Control

Sunil, 06th February 2012

Hare Krishna everyone!

Please accept my humble obeisances

All Glories to Srila Prabhupada

Is it correct to use pest control in residence?

Regards

Sunil

Mahabhagavat Das SDA, 07^th February 2012

Hare Krishna Bhakta Sunil,

Please accept my humble obeisances.

All glories to Srila Gurudeva.

All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

>Is it correct to use pest control in residence?

This is something I found, spoken by His Holiness Giriraja Swami Maharaja, one of the dearmost disciples of Srila Prabhupada, also greatly admired for his humility and service attitude by Srila Gurudeva. This was spoken by Giriraja Maharaja on 16 Dec 2007, in ISKCON Chowpatty, Mumbai

“When Srila Prabhupada first came to America and was staying in an apartment in New York (before he established ISKCON), the landlord brought an exterminator to kill all the “pests,” the insects, in the building, but Srila Prabhupada wouldn’t let them do it in his apartment. So all the insects from the other apartments came to Srila Prabhupada’s, and Srila Prabhupada commented, “Just see, they are taking shelter of Krsna consciousness.” He was the friend of all living entities.”

So, this is the spiritual standard of the pure devotee.

However, we should do what is practical for service to Krishna, for example, if there are some insects in the kitchen which are eating Krishna’s Bhoga before being offered, then service to Krishna is being affected, then one must do the needful to keep the environment clean for Krishna and keep His Bhoga free from being contaminated. I was personally in this situation some years ago where the surrounding environment was unclean, and some other devotees also had similar problems, and service to Krishna was being impacted, so regretfully we had to use pest control in some situations.

Best way is to keep the home in such a spotlessly clean situation that the insects and other creatures don’t find it attractive living environment. In places where dwellings are too close to each other, it is possible that other home resident insects come into your home, but you can take precautionary measures like block up the holes, use repellants (different from insecticides/pesticides).

I stayed for some days in n the ISKCON Boston temple, it is a very old building, close to many other old buildings, full of secret holes and so on. There were mice in the temple. So, the devotees got a cat. Simply out of fear of the cat, the mice ran away, no violence was needed. The cat is confined to one room in the daytime, and at night, the cat can go wherever she wants except certain areas where animals cannot be allowed. She hears Kirtan all day, and gets Krishna Prasadam to eat and drink, so who can say that the cat is not a devotee performing a service to Krishna and His devotees even though she is in animal body, still she is serving, that means she is definitely devotee.

I hope this help. Do what is best for your service to Krishna.

Sincerely,

Mahabhagavat Das

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