Curse of the Earth
In my childhood, I heard a story from my grand mother about the formation of the oceans. There were thousands of Sagar Brothers (सागर भया ), who ate the earth making big depressions that contained the water and became ocean. That is why these are called Sagar. In this process, the earth became angry and cursed the Sagar Brothers that they should perpetually be burnt. The Sagar Brothers were burning all the time and never ending. This awful plight of Sagar Brothers ended when Vagarith (वागरिथ) , brought Gangaji (गंगाजी) and liberated them from burning.
In my childhood, I heard a story from my grand mother about the formation of the oceans. There were thousands of Sagar Brothers (सागर भया ), who ate the earth making big depressions that contained the water and became ocean. That is why these are called Sagar. In this process, the earth became angry and cursed the Sagar Brothers that they should perpetually be burnt. The Sagar Brothers were burning all the time and never ending. This awful plight of Sagar Brothers ended when Vagarith (वागरिथ) , brought Gangaji (गंगाजी) and liberated them from burning.
When I grew up, I used to pray in the
morning before placing my feet on earth. The prayer was “Samudra
Basana Devi, Parbat Stana Mandale, Vishnu Patni Namastuvyam Pada
sparsha Khamasua Ma”(स मु ड्रे बसने देवि पर्बत स्तन मांडले , विष्णु पत्नी नमः तुभ्यं पाद स्पर्स ख्यमस्व में ". This is in Sanskrit, which means “O Goddess
the wife of Vishnu, whose cloths are ocean and whose breasts are
mountains, forgive me for touching my feet to you.”
While these stories and sanskrit
couplets may be inconsistent and do not carry any real meaning, they
show the fear of mankind, in different times, towards the
destabilization of nature. When the earth is devastated by man by
disfiguring its topography on a massive scale in a short period of
time, the consequences are not good for its inhabitants.
During my past few trips to my native town Berhampur, which is
located in the state of Orissa, I have been noticing big green
mountains (they may be called big hills as well) being cut, exposing
the earth benith in the form of stones and soils of various color.
Especially the red color gives an impression of cutting the breast of
the mother earth. Ironically, these disfigured mountains are visible
from the four lane free ways just before reaching the state capital
Bhubaneswar and between Berhampur and Aska. Several mountains have
disappeared.
Figure Caption: I took these pictures from my moving car while travelling from Berhampur to Bhubaneswar.
What happens with these material coming
from the mountains? Houses are built, many of which are incomplete
and uninhabitable. Several engineering school and college buildings
were built, which are now being closed. The other issue, I was
thinking is that if more than billion people in India will built
houses by cutting mountains, the situation is unsustainable.
Apart from being really disgusted by
looking at these disfigured mountains our people make, like the
Afgans disfigured the mountain Budhas, I am concerned and
contemplated about the consequences. In Orissa, we already notice
flooding followed by draught every year in the recent time, which is
a direct consequence of destroying natural landscape in a massive
scale in a short period of time.
I am pretty sure that this writing will
have no impact, since most people have below average IQ, who invent
new GODs and GODman every day and forget their tradition and time
tested GODs from ancient time. Anyway, since I have been going
through this thinking for past many years, I decided to blog it after
my trip to my home town in Orissa last week. So, what can I do? I
decide not to contribute to any charity that help natural disaster
until these disfiguring of the “Mother Land” is stopped. Because
these natural disasters are partly caused by the inhabitants in the
contemporary world. It may have no impact, but will give me
satisfaction.
