Burqa On The Beach
The title of this article would prompt us to visualize a woman wearing a burqa and enjoying herself on the beach, but it is not so. There is a deeper meaning to this and once we comprehend it, we will realize that the article does justify its title. The burqa here signifies the quality of humans to close themselves to nature, without realizing the fact that they themselves are a part of it. The burqa refers to the isolation man has created between himself and Existence. Humans have separated themselves from their own roots and tried all possible means to establish an individual identity. I sometimes wonder, how will a plant survive when it is uprooted . . . Will it be able to develop its own distinguished characteristics, while becoming independent from the ground which holds it upright??? During the era, when time was not known to man, man was part of nature. The plants, birds, animals and man were all a continuous process of nature and still are. It’s just that Man has started believing himself to be an individual and mentally debarred himself from nature. Man has gone against nature in all possible ways and in doing so, he knowingly or unknowingly has stood against himself. How do you possibly imagine the presence of us, humans without the existence of nature? I feel it’s a fight of the left hand against the right hand of the same person . . . whichever hand wins, the person will always lose.
The beach on the other hand signifies an open-mindedness or the accepting behaviour of nature. The wind flowing, the rhythm of the waves, the calmness of the surroundings, the sea meeting the sky, birds flying, and the ocean habitat are all part of one’s existence. The ‘Existence’ is whole and will always be. It cannot exclude mankind from it. Nature has always accepted man in all forms, right from the primitive version to the age where development of science sees no limit. Nature knows no closedness and it cannot be. It must welcome all that comes back to it, as everything here belongs to it. It has no right to distinguish.
Man has been wearing a burqa for a long time. The ambitions of man, which he terms as scientific development have made him a separate individual. He has closed all the doors from where the light can come in. In doing so, he has not maintained a good balance between his own creation and the laws of existence. Man is not able to visualize everything in existence as energy. If he is coming up with a new creation which may hamper or transform a certain amount of energy to some other form, he must replace or provide a way to get the form back. For example, if a company is planning to open a factory in some village, a lot of deforestation would be expected. The loss of nature should be calculated and the equal amount of energy in its original form must be restored. This reverse engineering never happens. We are more bothered about the produce the factory generates without much attention being paid to its effect on the environment or nature. The energy calculations are not taught in any school or college, nor there is a degree which gives an insight of the same. It comes from within. In my childhood days, my mother used to narrate the story of a woodcutter, cutting the branch of a tree on which he himself was sitting. I feel the story relates to all of us in this present situation. What is the use of scientific development, if it leads to the destruction of nature? Going by the facts, every year thousands of hectares of land is deforested or deprived of nature, just to have industrial development.
It’s time, we humans come out of the burqa and embrace nature. We must be naked – absolutely open to nature. Science can and must be directed in such a way that the harmony of nature is balanced. A thought of belongingness to existence should be inculcated in mankind, so the calculation of energy and its transformation is understood. A man flying in an aeroplane should have a conscious realization that his roots are still within the ground. Mankind should develop a feeling of gratitude towards nature for its altruism. This will generate a feeling within all to relate themselves as a part of the whole. It's time from now onward – every step of the way ahead, that we learn to balance the laws of energy for our own existence. A better world be created, where all the species of the existence share equal proportions of the energy or as per their needs. A human being open to existence is the most admirable creation that existence can ever have.