Of Gnomes, and elves...

June 5th, World Environment Day

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 on a lookout to debase him, rushed in, clenching a butterfly in his fist, and 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 place, 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 could very well be representational of the ongoing plight of our planet Earth, at the mercy of man and his senseless drive towards consumerism. The onus is on him to continue to destroy it, or restore it to its primeval, pristine status.

Could one of the reasons behind this planetary mendicancy be linked to the fact that we have alienated ourselves from a way of life which enjoyed a close proximity to the supernatural beings,  inhabiting our natural spaces?  In ancient India, for example, at a time when our ancestors attained unsurpassable heights, both in the realm of 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 and espouse. Ganga, Yamuna, Saraswati, Gaudavari, Narmada were not just waterways, but goddesses who had descended from heaven to bless the land with their divine presence. And, people of that era revered them as such. Some trees, such as, Neem, Banyan, Tamarind, and Peepal, to name a few, by the virtue of their innumerable properties, too were emulated to a godly stature. 

The  ancient Greeks also lived in concurrence with Zeus, Appollo, 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, and aware of an elemental living world within the outer forms. They called them satyrs, dryads, and naiads etc. It might be all too easy to write it off as sheer fantasy of an idle mind. But, remember, the ancient Greece was hardly that. Considered the crucible of philosophy, science, arts, and aesthetics, it had already laid the foundation for the modern Western thought. 

The people of the Celtic west, of Ireland and Wales had also  enjoyed a beautiful rapport with these supernatural beings, working out miracles in Nature. They talked of gnomes and elves, busy amongst 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 civilization's age-old bond with this miraculous world of fairy enchantment, and its mystical divinity, it has become impervious to its very existence?  As it butchers through nature, in the name of progress, it chooses to remain oblivious to the beings it once befriended, and gods it worshipped. I am reminded of the famous playwright Bertold 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 a crossroad, 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 wake indiscriminately...until Covid-19 happened.  Providing the necessary pause, it coerced the caterpillar to withdraw into its cocoon, to finally sleep and dream...and, let's hope that when it finally wakes up, it would have grafted wings, and metamorphosed into a beautiful butterfly...