Srila Prabhupada even showed care for plants. Giriraja Swami recalls that in order to get permission to build the Juhu temple in Mumbai, the local municipality required the devotees to have an internal access road of a certain width, among other conditions.
“It just so happened that right where the access road was supposed to go, there were some palm trees,” says Giriraja Swami. “Once, when Srila Prabhupada came to Juhu after being away for some time, he noticed that one or two of the trees had been cut, and he was very concerned — I would say upset — and he asked, ‘Why did you cut down the trees?’ We thought we had the perfect answer: We had to build the temple, and to get the permission for the temple, we had to cut the trees in the way of the road. Srila Prabhupada said, ‘No, you go to the municipality and tell them it’s against our religion to cut down trees.’ So we had no choice, and we did it… On Srila Prabhupada’s order, we held our ground with the municipality, and in the end they gave us the permission to keep the tree. And even today we can see that tree that Srila Prabhupada protected, still standing there with asphalt all around it.
“So I am thinking that if Srila Prabhupada has so much concern and care and even love, I would say, for a tree, then what to speak of us — how much care and love he must have for us.”
