The "gardener"problem. An exercise in transcendence.
Lots of nice realizations.
Someone might say, "How petty and what a waste of time. There are big important things to be done to spread Krishna consciousness and you are worried about gardeners."
Might reply is, " I am not big and important. I am very small. I have no say or field of activity in "big and important" things. My field of activity is very small. But I am responsible to try to manage within that field as best I can in Krishna consciousness."
What I am seeing with a deeper perspective is that there are different planes of consciousness clashing. Tulsi devi is here. The "gardeners"have no idea at all anything about the transcendental position of Tulsi devi. That is very worrisome.
I am trying to grow edible plants and trees with fruit. This community has no attraction for anything like this. Shiny cars, manicures and poodles. that's it. The gardening service they have hired is made up of day laborers. Same-day pay. Work a day get paid for that day. They are very ignorant and work like prisoners on a chain gang. It is never the same people. Even the job bosses are always different. So there is no way for the company to control them.
Signs, "KEEP OUT"... are useless. they can't read. It's a nightmare.
They spray herbicides on the aloe vera and pineapple patch. Ring the avocado trees with the string trimmer. Blow mulch out of the flower beds and blow the ground cover and small plants right out of the ground.
And there is nothing I can do to stop them!
Krishna. You know this isn't right. You have given me this property to manage. Which means the plants and small animals taking shelter here. What do you want me to do?
At first my anger was boiling into a rage, especially after talking with the secretary at the gardening company. She fooled me the first time by acting as if she took my complaint seriously and was actually going to do something to keep them out. But I saw through that when I called back the next time because absolutely nothing had been done to stop them. She was laughing supposedly with me but she is getting so many calls like this and knows they can do nothing because of their business model... hiring unskilled untrained day laborers. Which is probably the industry standard here. Trying to placate me she is sounding like my call is very important and I may even be one of the very few people who is complaining. She is going to talk the president of the company and he will call me personally.
Oh please. There is nothing she can do, nothing her company can do, nothing the president of their company can do and there is nothing I can do due to their business model and the invasion of walking dead continues.
No sleep last night. Krishna. What is the solution? About 2 am Krishna said, " How about an electric fence?" I researched it and found that I could put up a make believe electric fence. Thinking of it I got some relief. Just picturing one of the zombies touching an electric fence gave me a kind of morbid pleasure. And I was getting ready to put the plan into action. But somehow I don't think even a live electric wire would stop them. They would scoot underneath or hop over. They are so determined, I wish I had that same determination for serving Krishna.
Then in sheer helplessness, (I realized that Krishna had been joking with me about the electric fence) I thought of Draupadi. Yes, why not yards and yards of material draped all around the vulnerable areas. The aloe patch, the ground cover just starting to take root, the blooming gardenia bush and all across the walkway so they couldn't enter that way. I have yards and yards of $1/yd material left over from a privacy curtain I had to make when my father was in the house. The Draupadi protection plan.
No. Wait... There is some plastic green fencing 4' high from Tulsi devi's old garden. Yes. That's it!!!!
Fence off the vulnerable areas. They will still come onto the property but have no access to the fenced off areas. and I don't have to be here all day standing guard. But it has to be fenced very tightly. Like mice they will flatten their bodies and squeeze through even a tiny opening.
I have some signs also. Some of them must be able to read at least... "KEEP OUT, EXCLUIR, RESTER DEHORS"
The dynamic is interesting. In order for me to be able to access higher consciousness I cannot simply react like an animal. And yet I have to protect the property.
So many possible solutions have been spinning through my mind. In complete distress. But none of them were acceptable unless I wanted to spend the rest of my life in prison.
I could see this is the challenge for the devotee. How to deal with the lower modes while not losing footing in Krishna consciousness. It is two different planes of existence and when they meet there is a clash.
I will see how the plan works or fails in a few days when a whole new crew arrives to do their service.
