Giving Back to Mother Earth

God writes the gospel not in Bible alone, but on trees and flowers and clouds and stars-Martin Luther

Do you remember when you used to hurl sand all over yourself as a toddler? All the kids have played with mud mountains in their local play area or houses. The earthy smell after the rainfall can scintillate the mind in its own ways.

We can always relish the days when we planted the bushes in the afforestation drive of our college or plucking the tomatoes and brinjal from our mother's kitchen garden .The old and the retired love the leisurely stroll in the woods.

For the people who own a farm or an orchard, can always enjoy the vicinity of nature. How refreshing the companionship is.

Everybody has spent time in some or the other way in the lap of Mother Nature.

Nature's bounties are not limited only to beauty but nature teaches us a good lot of discipline and punctuality. The sun rises in the morning and sets in the evening handing over the charge of illumination to the cool and charming moon assisted by the twinkling stars. We may wish to get up late in the morning someday but imagine what would happen if the sun starts delaying.

Whatever we consume is derived from nature. As believed in India the very existence of human lies in Panchtatva. The constituent the sky, the earth, the wind, the water and the fire build the human body. The mind and the soul therefore always depend on the nature for peace and knowledge.

Our five senses attain harmony with the environment we are in. This is the driving ideology of Vaastu Shashtra.Any imbalance in the Panchatatva can lead to imbalance in our lives. We have to constantly strive to preserve the environment.

During my stay in a town in Himalayas, I met people who pray to the nature and the ancestors first and then the Gods. For them nature has been helping them in their survival and living since ages. There is no gainsaying to the fact that a human being can spend a day without remembering God but not without nature.

In the contemporary world many environmentalists are banging doors of governments of various states to alert them of the approaching dangers, arising due to environmental degradation. What can we do as citizens of our own country? Volumes have been written on this subject .To name a few car pooling, curbing CFC usage in household, filling printer cartridges with Soya ink and planting trees .

To jostle the funny bone-We can not always afford a recession to reduce carbon emission. Carbon Dioxide emission decreased by 13% in 2009 owing to global financial crisis that started in 2008. (NATURE)

A lot of initiatives have to be taken by the administration. I stay in Bangalore and I can visualize there is a great requirement of garbage bins in huge numbers at public places and on the roadside. Liberal establishments of public toilets (even if they are paid) have to be undertaken. A uniform regulation to replace polythene bags with their biodegradable substitutes through out the country have to be formulated.

Some baby steps have been taken by individuals. Some tailors stitch bags out of leftover textiles and sell them at minimal rates to serve as small shopping bags.81 year old lady Saalamarada Thimakka of Hulikal in Karnataka
has no children and she has planted some 284 trees along with her husband. The plantation worth 1.5 million rupees was started with the meager resources Thimakka had.

We all can contribute in some or the other way to save our habitat for our future generations. A healthy mind resides in a healthy body so to keep ourselves fit we have to lessen down the dumping of pollutants by any means. Please join the discussion.
Our efforts may seem a drop in the ocean but the ocean will be drop less without our efforts.

As responsible citizens, we should come together to save our localities, our neighbourhoods, our states, our nations and our common abode, the Earth.

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul-John Muir