Curse of the Earth

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.

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.