Germs: Why Do They Do It?

Naughty Krishna holding a piece of candy

Have you ever wondered what motivates a germ to do the things it  does?  To make us  sick? To digest our food for us? To turn milk into yogurt?

No? Well neither had I till last week when I found all kinds of interesting things about germs on the internet.

Did you know that you have nine trillion of them in your body? No joke. The germs outnumber your body’s own cells.

But don’t tremble and get weak in the knees when you read that your desktop holds more germs than your toilet seat. Some writer just wanted to make you jump. Most of the germs in your body help you survive. Only a small few make you sick.

Make you sick? Just the opposite. Your germs digest your food for you and extract the vitamins and other nutrients. And not only for us humans but for all kinds of species—this monkey or that elephant, this bee or that wasp.  And also  for the hummingbirds and ostriches and for the grass and the redwood trees and the ground and the ocean.

Everywhere you look. Everything you see. Vast hordes of germs, unseen by human eyes, help life on earth survive.

But I wondered, Where does Lord Krishna come into the picture?  In the consciousness of each germ maybe?

So I kept on reading. And wondering about consciousness: Does a little germ know it does acts of kindness for others?

Probably not. The mosquito doesn’t know she hurts you when she bites you. So the germ probably doesn’t know it helps you. The Srimad Bhagavatam explains:

By the arrangement of the Supreme Lord, low-grade living beings like bugs and mosquitoes suck the blood of human beings and other animals. Such insignificant creatures are unaware that their bites are painful to the human being. (5.16.17)

Then why does the the germ perform its welfare work?

For the same reason that the mosquito bites you. It wants to survive.

A welfare worker? Nope. The same germ who caresses you in your liver may attack you with deadly weapons if it gets into your bloodstream.

Yep. Just another bum looking for a free lunch and a spare bed. But then, if it can look, it must have consciousness. I have seen in several places on the internet that the germ swims toward food but turns away away from danger.

Lord Krishna sums it up:

O scion of Bharata, O conqueror of the foe, all living entities are born into delusion, bewildered by dualities arisen from desire and hate. (Bhagavad-Gita 7.27)

That means the germ has perception. And perception  means consciousness. And consciousness means the soul.

Srila Prabhupada explains:

So every germ is an individual, then, with its own desires.

But then how can nine trillion individuals,  each one satisfying its own desires, serve one human body?

And nine trillion germs in every one of the eight billion human bodies on this earth.

And countless millions in every mammal, in every bird, fish, insect, tree, flower, and blade of grass and in the ground and in the air. And each one in its right place, doing its job.

How does it happen?

Goddess Maya, the material energy, manages the whole thing. She tricks all those greedy little germs into doing their welfare work.

Me, I can’t even manage a little group. I have to let someone smarter do it.

What, then, is the scope of Maya’s intelligence?  How can I measure it? Can a frog in a well measure the sky?

Here’s the secret: Mother Maya, the holder of cosmic intelligence, powerful enough to create and dissolve a  universe, just acts as the shadow of someone more intelligent than she is. Believe it or not.

Krishna explains:

This material nature, which is one of My energies, is working under My direction, O son of Kunti, producing all moving and nonmoving beings. (Bhagavad-Gita 9.10)

And yet this same Krishna who directs the entire material energy also directs the wandering of each tiny germ:

The Supreme Personality of Godhead also remains within the heart of the living entity, regardless of whether the living entity is a man, animal, tree, germ, or microbe. The Lord resides in everyone’s heart, and because all living entities who come to this material world do so in order to fulfill their desire for sense enjoyment, the Lord directs the living entities to enjoy their senses. (Srimad Bhagavatam 4.24.64)

So where does Krishna come into the picture? He paints the whole thing.

(I love this knowledge. You too?)

⁓Umapati Swami, November 4, 2023

Eternally touching my head to the floor at the lotus feet of my spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada, for showing me all this.

Write to me: hoswami@yahoo.com

© Umapati Swami 2023

Srila Prabhupada

His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada is the teacher who brought Krishna Consciousness from India to the West and then to the rest of the world. He is the founder of the worldwide Hare Krishna Movement as well as the author and compiler of many works of Vedic knowledge. He left this world in 1977.

Umapati Swami

One of the first American devotees of the Hare Krishna Movement, he became Srila Prabhupada’s disciple in 1966. Since then, he has preached Krishna Consciousness in many countries and is the author of “My Days with Prabhupada,” available from Amazon. Now 86 years old, he has started this blog to share what he has learned.