Devotional service is the way of using one's senses to offer God a Service that is pleasing to Him. He acts as a spiritual entity and not like animals, according to a conception of existence based on the body. Animals regard the body of another animal as suitable food, and so one species attacks another.
But a human being, especially when it is a devotee of the Lord, cannot do so. A sage, a holy person, is not supposed to kill an animal or a human being. it is not allowed to kill since every human being, animal and plant, shelters within him the Supreme Lord and must therefore be considered as a temple of the Lord.
Logos 184
The soul incarnated and conditioned by the matter ignores what total independence is, which consists of being situated in its original and eternal position.
Thus, for the individual being who is an integral part of God, the Supreme Person, real independence will be of always remain dependent on the Lord. For the conditioned soul, independence is not found in the struggle waged against the obstacles which the material nature poses to it, but rather in the fact of surrendering to God. True independence consists in regaining one's position in the service of the Lord. Anyone who reaches the spiritual planets Vaikunthas or Goloka Vrindavana then freely offers his service to the Lord. Therein lies total independence as opposed to domination over material energy, which we falsely identify with independence.
The living being cannot experience happiness by trying to be independent in this world equipment. Man must therefore surrender himself to the Lord, and devote himself to the eternal and original service which is proper to him.
Logos 185
True knowledge is only revealed to a holy being when, by the grace of Lord, he comes to a right understanding of life. In the material world or at the level of material consciousness, good and evil are on the same plane,
the distinction between the two being a pure creation of the mind.
In truth, all living beings are children of God, issued from his marginal energy. Because of the taint inflicted on us by the influence modes of material nature, we distinguish between spiritual souls.
He who possesses true knowledge does not distinguish between a wise scholar, a virtuous person, an elephant, a dog, a flower and a tree. Instead of considering a person according to their carnal envelope, he sees them as a spiritual soul. A higher level of understanding makes it possible to grasp that the body is only a combination