Information – Medicinal Plant & Keystone species
Any materialistic man, however, great he may be even in the position of a Brahma down to the insignificant creature like the ant, cannot be happy. Every one is trying for himself to make a permanent plan for happiness but he is becoming baffled in the next moment because that is the law of material energy. Therefore, the materialistic world is the darkest region of God’s creation. The unhappy materialistic man can get out of it simply by desiring to get out of it. Unfortunately they are so much foolish that they do not wish to get out of it. They are there compared with the camel. The camel relishes thorny twigs although thorns cut it’s tongue and there is discharge of blood within the mouth. The fact is that the camel tastes its own blood emanating out of the cuts by the thorny creepers but the camel relishes the thorns because it becomes tasteful being mixed up with its own blood. Similarly the camel and ass like the materialist tastes his own blood as sweet as honey and does not wish to get out of it even though he is always harassed by his own material creations. Such materialist is called the karmis.
(SB 1.2.3 purport)
A similar passage is found in the Tenth Canto (SB 10.35.9) where it is stated that all creepers, plants and trees, laden with flowers and fruits, were bent in the ecstasy of love for Kṛṣṇa, for Kṛṣṇa was the Soul of their soul. After Kṛṣṇa left them, those trees and plants became thorny.
(TLC 32)
Plants and creepers grow by drinking water from the ground. Similarly, a person practicing austerities becomes dry; after the austere performances are completed and he gets the result, he begins to enjoy life in sense gratification, with family, society, love, home and other paraphernalia. Sometimes it is seen that cranes and ducks meander continually on the banks of the lakes and rivers, although the banks are filled with muddy garbage and thorny creepers. Similarly, persons who are householders without Kṛṣṇa consciousness are constantly tarrying in material life, in spite of all kinds of inconveniences. In family life, or any life, one cannot be perfectly happy without being Kṛṣṇa conscious.
(KB 20)
