Who Can Make a Mango?

I just ended a 12 day juice fast. It's called the "Lemonade" fast or Master Cleanse, and it's gotten a lot of media recently from some celebrities who did it. It's a naturopathic way to re-set the digestion and immune system.

The only thing you "eat" on this fast is a lemon drink made from fresh squeezed organic lemons, filtered water, maple syrup and hot cayenne powder. You can drink as many glasses of this as you want. I drank anywhere from 6 to 12 glasses a day. The first 3 or 4 days are hell, because your body doesn't like it and your mind is even more pissed off. You also experience some withdrawal symptoms from whatever food addictions your body has. But after 3 or 4 days, your body and mind accept that all it's getting is the lemon drink, and things settle down. The cleanse becomes easy. The only problem after the 4th day was some boredom (from not seeing, preparing and chewing food) and recurring hunger, which is resolved by making another cup of the lemon drink. Some people claim boundless new energy and mental clarity during the fast. I felt neither, but i did have a lightness of body and mind that is conducive to higher thinking.

Yesterday i drank a glass of fresh orange juice (that's the first thing you're told to take to gradually break the fast). I followed up with my first solid food: a deliciously mellow mango. When that mango was in my mouth, my thought was: wow, what can make something taste this good? Who can make a mango? That's right, only God.

He makes (thru material nature) not just mangoes but everything essential for life. eko bahunam yo didadati kaman. That One is supplying the necessities of life for all of his expansions. Not just for humans, for all species. We are acting foolishly when we exploit nature --including other species-- without seeing nature in its proper perspective, which is an opulence, a spark of divine splendor.

Everyone in our society is so proud of what they do and what they make, whether it's some business activity, public service, writing a great book or making a film. But who can make a mango?

The current chaos in our economy is a symptom of the toxic greed generated when human beings attempt to unlawfully use God's energies. We rob His bank and think we can be happy with the stolen money. But God is smarter. That same stolen energy turns around and burns us. What comes around, goes around. Oil created the modern motorcar society but it also brought two world wars and dozens of smaller ones. Now it threatens a third world war.

Greed kills the soul and hubris--false pride-- brings down empires. America claims to trust in God (it's printed on every dollar bill), but it simply wants to rob from Him. So many billions of souls-- both the exploiters and the exploited-- suffer from the actions of a society based on greed and false pride.

Wouldn't we be happier if we all learned to grow mangoes?