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One day, Gurujī recounted that it was around noon. He was sitting outside the ashram, working at a sewing machine to make a shirt for Mahāprabhujī. Suddenly, from his small room, Mahāprabhujī came out and called Gurujī’s name. Gurujī went to him. Gurujī said he saw Mahāprabhujī completely full of love. Only he could perceive that it was indeed Mahāprabhujī, nothing more. When Mahāprabhujī spoke, his words were like a rising light, emanating a feeling of joy. Mahāprabhujī asked Gurujī, "What do you wish? Ask whatever you want; I will fulfill it now." With folded hands, Gurujī replied, "Yes, in my every life, to serve you." My Prabhupāda just smiled, and the light disappeared. He turned back. One could have asked for something more. So Holy Gurujī said again, "Nothing is greater and more joyful in the entire universe—neither mokṣa, nor heaven, nor the wealth of the entire world—than to serve Thee, my Lord." What would you have said to him? I could have asked, "Please, I want my Kuṇḍalinī," or, "I want to have a power so that people come and ask, 'Can you touch my head and make my kuṇḍalinī go up?'" Paramahaṁsa Rāmakṛṣṇa placed his hand on the head of Swāmī Vivekānanda, and Vivekānanda entered into samādhi. One might ask, "Can you do that also to me, please?" These are ambitions. You must remember, that was Vivekānanda. You have to become Vivekānanda first; then that can happen. Paramahaṁsa Rāmakṛṣṇa has placed his hand on the heads of millions of people. Why didn’t they attain samādhi? From the day Gurujī told this story—we were sitting very peacefully somewhere—Gurujī was remembering Mahāprabhujī and was full of tears. So I came to know that helping, to serve, is the greatest sādhanā. That is why Gurujī writes in his Līlā Amṛt that when he received Sannyāsa Dīkṣā, Mahāprabhujī said: "To serve God or to serve me means to serve all creatures." All humans and all creatures. So, to help all creatures, to love them, means to love God. To help them means to help God. Serving them means serving God. Have you seen God? If we see Kṛṣṇa in a picture, Rāma in a picture, Buddha in a picture, Jesus in a picture, Mahāprabhujī in a picture—how do you imagine God? He is everywhere. There is only one God who has created the entire world and universe. We know how old the planet is, how many times He has come to this planet, and He will come. Only one creator. If He is the creator of all, then He is the father of all. And all are His children. We are all sons and daughters of Him. And He loves equally, whether humans, birds, or other animals. Parents love their children equally, however they are—intelligent or a little dull, visible or able—we love them. So, God doesn’t love only. When it’s raining, it doesn’t rain only for our bread. If we think that God is bringing rain because we need bread and we need fruits, and so on, then our thinking is like that of a crow who sits on the peak of a church and feels very proud, thinking that all who are praying in the church are praying to me. The crow doesn’t know that we are praying to Jesus, or in the temples of Kṛṣṇa, or to Śiva. Similarly, humans think that God is only doing things for us. What ignorance! We are learned people, academic people. We should think logically. Therefore, helping—now, that help has more value where it is needed. If you give food to the hungry one, it’s more useful. If you give a hand to a blind person to lead and show the way, it’s more helpful than giving a hand to someone who will take you from here and kidnap you. So, help the poor one. Help the meek one. And the helping consciousness, the helping quality, is more in poor people because they understand the life situation. And as you get rich, you forget the poor. You remember only your money and how you can multiply it. If I can remember, it is said that people were playing, exchanging money right there in front of the temple. Jesus said to them, "Don’t believe these gods," meaning this gold, this money, this richness. God is different. And that was said already before ten thousand years, at the time of the Rāmāyaṇa, in Abba’s time, you know—Kali Yuga. Money will be God, and people will adore money. So, if you are very rich, they will say, "Yes, sir, please, welcome, sir, please come. Hello." Always the first place. And if a very poor person comes to ask you for one coat because it is very cold, or for a little thing, we will say, "Wait, please." We don’t say, "Yes, sir, come in, please." There, the word "sir" is lost. So, do we put this "sir" for the money? For social position? Or for a human? That’s it. So, for Śiva, there should not be differences. Therefore, I say that where help is needed, argument is not needed. It doesn’t matter from which country we are, from which religion, which culture, which age—animals or humans, or our vegetation or the river. Don’t say we don’t want these people from this country. "It’s good, you know. Karma came back. Let them suffer." Unfortunately, there are people who are doing this. I was driving from Vancouver, Canada to Seattle, USA long ago—12, 13, 15 years. We made a little break somewhere to drink tea and so on. Someone had placed a pot with sugar water there to catch wasps. So I asked, "They will die. Catch them in a net and free them in the forest." The reply was, "No, sir. These beasts, they are born to die. They are born to be destroyed." What should I answer? So, when people have such an opinion towards God’s creation, then where is your spiritual consciousness, my dear? People even have such a feeling towards humans; otherwise, the things that are happening today in the world would not happen. And that means the sign of ignorance. We shall love; we shall protect. And, of course, protect ourselves too. Don’t give the chance that you are harmed. We should know the way how to serve. We love the tiger, but it does not mean that we go and embrace it, saying, "I love you, tiger." He will say, "Yes, I also love you—a very fresh, warm blood. I love this." So, we keep a respectful distance. So, I also do the same with humans’ distance. If we think positive and good for people, that’s enough.