We can either be butchers and cut up Earth’s resources mercilessly or protect it from further damage, so that it can heal itself

There once lived a venerable sage at the ghats of the river Ganga. When he preached, crowds flocked around him, and sat spellbound in his hallowed presence. It was during one such occasion, when the sage was addressing a gathering that a man who was always quick to debase him, rushed in, clenching a butterfly in his fist. He asked defiantly, ‘Dead or alive?’ The man’s obvious intention was to humiliate the pious man in front of his devotees. If the sage said, ‘alive’, he would in that instant, crush the creature, and if the answer happened to be ‘dead’, he would set it free, thus proving him wrong either way.

A hush fell over the gathering, as everyone waited for the sage’s response, well aware of the criticality of the challenge. The sage looked into the man’s eyes, and answered simply, “It’s in your hands.” 

This beautiful story represents the ongoing plight of our planet Earth, which is at the mercy of man and his senseless drive towards consumerism. The onus rests on man; whether to continue to destroy it, or restore it to its primeval, pristine status.

Is the state of earth today linked to the fact that we have alienated ourselves from a way of life which once enjoyed a close proximity to the supernatural beings who inhabited our natural spaces? In ancient India, for example, at a time when our ancestors attained unsurpassable heights, both in the realm of the intellect and spirituality, Nature was a living entity. Indra, Varun, Agni, Surya, Usha were not merely forces to reckon with, but Supreme Energies to invoke. Ganga, Yamuna, Saraswati, Godavari, and Narmada were not just waterways, but goddesses who had descended from heaven to bless the land with their divine presence. People of that era revered them as such. Even trees, such as, Neem, Banyan, Tamarind, and Peepal were endowed with godly stature by virtue of their magical healing properties. 

The ancient Greeks also lived in concurrence with Zeus, Apollo, Poseidon, and various other powerful gods connected to the natural world. Their legends all revolve around the constant interplay between the two main strata of existence: of gods and men. The Greeks were keen observers of their environment.

The people of the Celtic west, of Ireland and Wales also enjoyed a beautiful rapport with supernatural beings, working out miracles in Nature. They talked of gnomes and elves, busy among the roots of the trees, the sylphs shaping the flowers, the undines helping the water flow, and of salamanders setting the flames ablaze.

How is it then, despite the human civilisation’s age-old bond with this miraculous world of fairy enchantment, and its mystical divinity that it has become impervious to its very existence? And as Civilisation butchers through nature, in the name of progress, it chooses to remain oblivious to the beings it once befriended, and the gods it worshipped? I am reminded of the famous playwright Bertolt Brecht, who, while questioning the moral goodness of man, asks, “Should it be another man? Or another world? Perhaps simply, other gods? Or none?”

Today when the whole world stands at the crossroads, under the menacing shadow of Covid-19, Brecht’s rhetorical question sounds almost prophetic. But, truly it is up to us to reverse the trend, by viewing our destructive past as a necessary evolutionary stage. To use a lepidopterist’s image, the last couple of centuries could be regarded as our caterpillar stage during which we chewed up everything in our path, indiscriminately…until Covid-19 happened.

That provided the necessary pause; it coerced the caterpillar to withdraw into its cocoon, to finally sleep and dream.

Let’s hope that when it finally wakes up, it would have grafted wings and metamorphosed into a beautiful butterfly that flies around in an equally beautiful world….