Happy Peepal

Bangalore has had it's first rains of the year last night. The Peepal tree in my apartment's garden is looking very happy today. She's feeling so refreshed. In fact, all plants, trees and flowers everywhere are looking cheerful today, exuding healing pranic energies.

City dwellers don't always care much about trees, and spending time amongst them. But one just has to go to the countryside to realize that a tree is so much a part of the fabric of life. Tired farmers taking a nap, village folks chatting and passing time, cattle peacefully munching on their cud, stray dogs socializing and occasionally arguing over contentious matters... everyone seeks it's shade. There's also the occasional enterprising vendor setting up a small shop by selling bidis, matches, betel leaves and paan in a basket. Life moves at a leisurely pace... the usual traffic consisting of bullock carts transporting people, produce, or manure, the infrequent village bus rumbling by on the decrepit road leaving behind a cloud of dust, and the spunky village kid riding a big bicycle "scissor-style". The trees selflessly offer solace and tranquillity to all who seek them.

Our ancient Indian culture had profound respect and gratitude for trees... with many trees being considered sacred in India. Our ancestors discovered that trees like the Peepal (also spelled Pipal/Peepul) and plants like the Tulsi (also spelled Tulasi/Thulasi/Thulsi) have curative properties. Hence the tradition arose to worship these plants and trees as representative of divine forces, thus bringing the worshippers in close contact with the tree, and resulting in transference of the curative energies. Even the leaves of the trees and plants (e.g. Tulsi leaves) were discovered to have specific healing powers - thus the leaves are eaten directly, or concoctions prepared from them.

This close symbiotic relationship with the plant kingdom that man once had has been eroding nowadays. Our greed, hubris and demands have been resulting in large scale deforestation and a damaged ecosystem, leading us onto global warming and its dire consequences for mankind in the near future. An urgent global effort is required to change mindsets and curb our insensitive assaults on Mother Nature... for our Mother can only stay tolerant of our pranks to a limit... after that comes the spanking.

Ok, I've been rambling on too much. Perhaps I've sniffed in too much of the fresh rain scent in the air this morning.