- Let the universe dance among the love and care of all
Candid Corner
“The day is no more, the shadow is upon the earth.
It is time that I go to the stream to fill my pitcher.
The evening air is eager with the sad music of water.
Ah, it calls me out into the dusk.
In the lonely lane there is no passer-by, the wind is up,
the ripples are rampant in the river.
I know not if I shall come back.
I know not whom I shall chance to meet.
There at the fording in the little boat,
the unknown man plays upon his lute.”
Rabindranath Tagore: “Gitanjali”
As mornings descend into evenings and evenings give way to the dark of the night, time moves on remorselessly. There is no stopping it, or eliminating the pain that it may leave behind.
But the paradoxes within are stunning. There are vast reservoirs of bounteous compassion, each overflowing with offerings for all, but such is our insatiable greed that we can’t resist contriving and manipulating multiple stratagems. We are so inextricably dependent on the benevolence of our surroundings, yet keep trying to find ever new ways to destroy them.
In this complex interplay, there are things we can touch and there are things we seek in their elusiveness. The pursuit is unending because human survival not only depends on finding them, but also on befriending them and begging their mercy for we have been grossly evil and unkind in our indulgence.
There is nothing that we ever valued, that we were ever kind to. We treated everything like it was our exclusive inheritance to deal with as we were wont to. In the process, we wreaked unmitigated havoc around us. What we have ended up with is an existence without any safety paradigm to protect us, nurture us, and give us space for sustenance. We have been rendered vulnerable and void of words. Except ensuring our immediate comforts, we terminated contact with the rest of the universe and whatever inhabited it. We thought we were the only reality while others had to find theirs in us, in our utter disdain. We forgot that, in annihilating these organisms, we were actually hurting our own life, and the life of those who are yet to follow us. It is like our mind had been numbed in the intoxication of our superiority over other elements of the universe– be it the spread of glorious trees and plants, flowers of countless colours and shapes, the birds and their songs, the innumerable hues and shades so generously showered around, the sonorous sound of running water, the fragrance of rain drops touching a parched surface, the majestic mountains, mesmerising valleys and gorges, captivating waterfalls, the snow-flakes spreading a carpet of white, the sun, the moon and the stars lighting our path at night, the splendid clouds hovering above, the streams, rivers and the seas, a vast variety of species of the most wondering kind – in short, an endless manifestation of beauty.
Let us begin a new day with a fresh resolve that the future belongs to all of us together, without any discrimination on the basis of which species we belong to, or what colour or shape we wear. Nobody has any more right on life than others. The right to life is equal for all organisms, and must be accepted as such
We tried to destroy all that and created monsters of conceit and callousness, hubris and arrogance. These edifices, fake and artificial, have continued piling up with time and have now become formidable challenges that we confront, that we need to divorce if we are to ever return to friendly environs which would be conducive to our growth, as also the growth of millions of other living organisms which are spread around us.
What has changed in these few weeks of virtual lockdown? A lot, indeed! We can see a bit of life returning in its original form and colour. We can look up at the blue of the sky during the day and the unfathomable galaxies of stars twinkling at night. We can see deep in the valleys and gorges and hear the sounds which had almost disappeared. We can behold the colours in their multifaceted hues and shades and hear the birds serenading their songs of happiness. We can watch animals sauntering around with some even venturing into the human habitats, just to let us know that their lives may have been threatened, but they have managed to survive. And, you know what? We can actually breathe in fresh air. The environs are no longer laced with unbearable pollution.
But, our challenge has grown. For much too long, we have been used to ways which have caused immeasurable damage to our surroundings, and to us. This cannot continue. We have to get rid of this destructive instinct that permeates our being. We have almost stretched it to the verge of “us” against the “rest”. It should never have been like that. It should always have been you and us, all, together. Nature’s creations have never worked to anyone’s exclusion, yet we have done everything to virtually eliminate them from the face of the universe. But, that never really was in our control, and never should have been. Because, left to us, we would have destroyed the delicate balance which gives our life its beauty and sustenance, and which is the pinnacle of human existence.
We have seen enough of that, enough of the pillage and destruction that we have perpetrated. We have to act compassionately. We have to find panacea for our barbarous conduct─ in our actions, not merely loud proclamations only to renege on them when the moment comes. This is not going to be a fleeting moment. It is real. It is here and would possibly haunt us for a long time to come because we brought it upon us. And we did it extremely cruelly and callously. We did it with utter disregard for other living organisms, other body and flesh and soul things. We thought they were there only for our exclusive pleasure. Instead of being the humans that we were created to be, we tried to act the omnipotent. In the process, we virtually lost our own place and severely compromised our relevance.
Shakespeare put it very aptly:
As flies to wanton boys are we to th’ gods,
They kill us for their sport.
That fun time is over. We have indulged enough. It is now time to make amends, to help recreate various patterns and shades of life that we have tried so hard to obliterate. It is on their rejuvenation, on their regeneration that our own survival is dependant. We can’t live and progress if our environs remain threatened at the expense of our poaching habits.
Let all that be consigned to a time that was in the past. That time is gone. Let us begin a new day with a fresh resolve that the future belongs to all of us together, without any discrimination on the basis of which species we belong to, or what colour or shape we wear. Nobody has any more right on life than others. The right to life is equal for all organisms, and must be accepted as such. Let’s bury our predatory instincts and become the messiahs of hope, resurgence and inclusiveness.
Let’s extricate our universe from the shadows of death and guide it gently into the shades of life. Let’s see it dancing with abandon among the love and care of all, to the exclusion of none.