Bold words and bolder people are what is required in this society. The age old cliché of saying one thing then acting another has haunted our planet since the day we incepted it. ‘Be the change you wish to see’ we roar, ensuring every living organism has heard the reverberating mantras taught to us by our forefathers. And yes, on the surface the concept of ‘being the change’ is an exceptionally good one, no one shall argue with that but is ‘being the change’ a part time hobby or a life long sentiment so deeply embedded within us that not even the strongest of man dare move it, that it stands there imbibed in our lives to such an extent that it doesn’t flinch in a hurricane of thoughts? This is the question we need to answer.
One of the families I met some time ago were devotees of this very mantra. I observed their actions on the day the father had given a lecture about doing our bit for the environment. He spoke emphatically about our total disregard for the planet, claiming that it was high time we woke up from our slumber and realised just what we were doing to the environment. It was a wonderful lecture, something that any environmentalist or climate change campaigner would have been proud of. And he was spot on with what he said, our unnecessary greed has transformed us from one time human beings to barbaric monsters ready to take another chunk out of the earth and its surroundings. Yet what was interesting about this particular man was once he had delivered his award winning speech, he jumped into his rather lavish, gas gozelling 4 x 4 and drove off into the sunset. How ironic that a man who at one moment was dancing to the tune of ‘I love the earth’ was now sat at the wheel of one of the most polluting vehicles that exist on our roads! This man is by no means an isolated case. Me, you, all of us may seem on the surface to be doing ‘our bits’ but are we really practising what we preach, twenty four hours a day, seven days a week? Is it even possible?
The answer to these simple questions is a resounding yes, of course we can. Its about time we took the cap off our reality tanks because in ten years time merely delivering speeches and performing one off acts of environmental friendliness will not be nowhere near enough. This is not news to us, the indications are already there for us to see; rising fuel costs, changing climate, do we need much more of a hard hitting message for us to change our ways? In the end this may not affect us directly but believe me it will affect those we love the most, our children. This is the price we will have to pay for our negligence today.
One of the most beautiful aspects of our Dharma is that we see and equate this planet to the same status as that of our Mothers and our Mothers are verily referred to as Goddesses incarnate. The earth provides us with shelter, food, energy, resources, everything we need to survive and live a comfortable life. Our relationship with our own mothers is never one of simply take, is it? It is a relationship of care, of love and divine worship. In our Sangh Prathanaa we say ‘namaamo bhoomimataram’ which translates to ‘we bow down to thee mother earth.’ If we say that our earth is like our mother, its high time we started treating it like just like our mother...
