Gurudev, today while doing gardening seva, I sprayed natural insecticide probably killing a thousands of bugs. How does this fit in with karma and non-violence?

Question - Gurudev, today while doing gardening seva, I sprayed natural insecticide probably killing a thousands of bugs. How does this fit in with karma and non-violence?

Gurudev @SriSriRaviShankar Ji - Don’t worry, you can kill a mosquito (or bugs), no problem! You see, violence is the act that you do with anger or some selfish goal. When animals prey for their food, it is not called violence. They are just doing their dharma. Similarly in your body every day, millions of bacteria are dying. It is happening as a phenomenon inside of you, otherwise you cannot survive.

The moment a harmful bacteria enters your body, all your white blood cells attack and finish it, and that is how you get a cold. What is done for survival or safety is not called violence. Violence is the act done with negative emotions like anger, jealousy, hatred, greed, arrogance.

Otherwise, when you breathe in and breathe out, you are killing many germs, does that mean you should stop breathing? When you take a shower, many bacteria are dying, does it mean you are killing them? There is a sect on the planet that don’t take bath because they think they are killing the bacteria. They don’t get into the water. They simply wipe their body with a towel. I think that is foolish.

Nature is pouring water and giving you rain. Every animal in the forest takes a shower the whole season. So bacteria, mites, insects are dying, but if it is done for the sake of survival, it is not violence. Only when it is done with negative emotions, it is violence. That is why Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, 'You are only doing your duty. It is not a sin. Don’t worry. Even if you are doing a sin, I am there to take away your sin. I will set you free. You be happy. You do your duty and be at peace'. This is the essence of the Gita