Honey Bee Guru - Taking Little

(A bee hums past, busy with its work. Krishna follows it with his eyes.)

Krishna: "The bee teaches two lessons, Uddhava—one inspiring, one cautionary."

Uddhava: "I am eager to hear both."

Krishna: "First, the inspiring. Watch how the bee moves from flower to flower, taking just a little nectar from each. It doesn't drain any single flower. It doesn't destroy its source. It takes what it needs and moves on, leaving the flower intact to bloom another day."

Uddhava: "A teaching on moderation?"

Krishna: "On wise consumption. The spiritual seeker should be like this bee—taking from life what is truly needed, nothing more. Food enough to sustain the body. Shelter enough for protection. Knowledge enough for liberation. The one who takes only what is necessary harms no one and burdens nothing."

Uddhava: "This seems contrary to human nature. We tend to accumulate."

Krishna: "Which leads to the cautionary teaching. The bee gathers nectar and stores it as honey. But what happens to that honey? Others come and take it—bears, humans, other creatures. The bee's hoard becomes the occasion of its destruction. It guards the honey with its life and dies defending what it accumulated."

Uddhava: "So accumulation itself is the trap?"

Krishna: "Accumulation beyond need. The bee could have lived simply, gathering each day's nectar, using it, moving on. Instead, it built up a treasure that attracted thieves and required defense. How many human beings die defending wealth they will never use? How many are killed for possessions they thought would bring security?"

Uddhava: "(considering) The teaching is to gather enough for the day but not to hoard?"

Krishna: "To trust that provision will come. The birds don't store granaries, yet they are fed. The flowers don't accumulate, yet they bloom. Only humans, with their anxious minds, feel they must stockpile against imagined future scarcity. And in that stockpiling, they create the very insecurity they fear."

Uddhava: "What of responsibility for family, for dependents?"

Krishna: "Prudent provision is different from anxious accumulation. A father stores grain for the winter—this is wisdom. A father hoards grain until it rots while neighbors starve—this is the bee's error. The quality of mind matters. Are you providing from love, or clutching from fear?"

Uddhava: "How does one know the difference?"

Krishna: "By the feeling in the heart. Love provides and rests easy. Fear hoards and lies awake counting. The bee buzzing anxiously around its honey cannot enjoy the very sweetness it gathered. What good is wealth that destroys peace?"

Uddhava: "And the avadhuta learned both lessons?"

Krishna: "He gathered wisdom like the bee gathers nectar—a little here, a little there, never exhausting any source. He learned from each teacher and moved on, grateful, light. And he never hoarded that wisdom—he shared it freely, becoming poor in possessions but rich in peace."

Uddhava: "I shall remember the bee at both ends of its lesson."

Krishna: "Take what you need. Give what you can. Trust that tomorrow will provide for tomorrow. This is the bee's complete teaching."

(Another bee lands on a nearby flower, demonstrating the very lesson in living form.)