The Earth Day and its importance

The Earth Day, celebrating the glory of Mother Earth

Happy earth day to you all!

Like every year, 22nd April i.e today is being celebrated as the Earth Day all over the world, at least in the civilized world as we know it. Google always comes up with nice doodles marking the importance of specific days, but the one they've devised this time is truly marvellous! It shows the changing of seasons and how mother earth sustains us.

The entire concept of hailing nature or earth as the mother of all human beings is a beautiful one. Even though I am no longer religious, I seem to find a tremendous level of comfort in poetry and poetic depictions of nature, many of which are very much related to their ancestors mentioned in the Rgveda. Every religion, every culture has realized the importance of portraying the earth as the mother, the nourisher of all life, the provider of food and sustenance to the human race, and to all beings alike. Thus, hailing the earth or nature as the mother is beautiful in its own right. Like all children are equal to  a mother, all her creations are thus beloved to her, the mother of life, the glorious earth.

Goddess Prithvi, the Hindu (Aryan) goddess of earth.
Mother, accept my pranaam. 

"Prithivī for us spread wide and favour us.
  In whom the sea, and Sindhu, and the waters, in whom our food
   and corn-lands had their being,
  In whom this all that breathes and moves is active, this Earth.
   assign us foremost rank and station!

  She who is Lady of the earth's four regions, in whom our food
   and corn-lands had their being,
  Nurse in each place of breathing, moving creatures, this Earth.
   vouchsafe us kine with milk that fails not!

On whom the men of old before us battled, on whom the Gods
   attacked the hostile demons,
  The varied home of bird, and kine and horses, this Prithivī
   vouchsafe us luck and splendour!
  Firm standing-place, all-bearing, store of treasures, gold-breasted,
   harbourer of all that moveth.
  May Earth who bears Agni Vaisvānara, Consort of mighty
   Indra, give us great possessions
  May Earth, may Prithivī, always protected with ceaseless care by
   Gods who never slumber,
  May she pour out for us delicious nectar, may she bedew us
   with a flood of splendour."

- Atharva Veda, Book XII

In Greek religion, the earth has been hailed as the primal goddess Gaia, the mother of Uranus and Oceanious, and ancestress of Zeus and all Hellenic gods and goddesses. Even Zeus's own mother, Goddess Rheia, has many features common to a typical earth goddess. Gaia is said to be the primary one, who emerged from chaos. This simple mythical belief shows us the importance with which the ancient Hellenes regarded the earth.

In the Aryan religion, we have our very own concept of Prithvi Mata, or the Earth Mother. In later Puranic depictions, she has often been hailed as but another form of the glorious Goddess Jagaddhatri (the name literally means mother of the world). Especially in the Vaishnava mythologies, we find that Goddess Prithvi says to her son Narakasura "Son, I am thy mother, the Jagaddhatri Prithvi". In my opinion, this very concept of an Asura or demon being the son of the great earth has ruined the image of the glorious earth. Do we still regard her enough?

In her beautiful language, the great Indian poetess Sarojini Naidu wrote:

"Queen of the gourd-flower, queen of the har- vest, 
Sweet and omnipotent mother, O Earth! 
Thine is the plentiful bosom that feeds us, 
Thine is the womb where our riches have birth. 
We bring thee our love and our garlands for tribute, 
With gifts of thy opulent giving we come; 
O source of our manifold gladness, we hail thee, We praise thee, O Prithvi, with cymbal and drum."

(Extract from 'Harvest Hymn' by Sarojini Naidu)

Even today, farmers and their wives express their gratitude toward mother earth. But why only them? Let us all be grateful for this beautiful gift of existence that mother earth has given us all. Even today, women of Bengal's villages perform a rite in which Prithvi is worshipped, but only that much. Her real form of worship is conservation of nature and not wasting natural resources, I believe.

In more ancient times, the original Aryan texts of the Rigveda and the other Vedas, especially the fourth of Atharva Veda depict the mother earth as the creative essence of everything. Again and again, she has been worshipped in the Atharva Vedic hymns with beautiful poetic depictions of her contributions that finally lead to maintenance and sustenance of life as see we see it thrive all around. The forests and hills are said to be her children, the entire world as we know it is but her alternate form, and 'good and great souls' arise from her because of her mercy to the Aryan civilization.

Earth is for everyone, never harm
unless you're being harmed

Earth and nature are however synonymously used in the Vedas, often. And even the great scholar Chanakya regarded nature, especially the forests, as a great economy-booster. The Mauryans of ancient India were among the first rulers to have taken active steps to conserve plants and animals, and their sacred diversity.

Today, we have witnessed the tremendous advancements in technology, and as an inevitable by-product of development, pollution has raised its ugly head time and again. Global warming, water pollution, melting of polar ice-caps, greenhouse effect, Ozone-layer depletion, all are just increasing every single day, affecting this sacred balance that nature, the great mother Prithvi had herself maintained thus is faltering. And it is our duty, as her children (speaking both poetically and scientifically) to help restore this balance, for individual, collective and universal good. Let us therefore take the vow of protecting nature and combatting pollution.

Pollution is of many types, ranging from soil pollution and water pollution to the emission of toxic gases from vehicles and excessively high levels of sound or noise. Alone, none of us alone can do much good to prevent them all, but together, united as the children of mother Prithvi, the products of nature herself to whom we owe our very existence, we can make a difference.

Here are a few things which should be done to save nature, and to combat pollution. These are very easy to do, and yet, routinely doing them and maintaining a steady course would help us make a real difference:

The glorious, luminous earth, mother of life itself

1. Do not waste water: Never leave your faucet running when you're shaving or brushing. Every single drop of water is precious, and we can't allow more water to get depleted. There are people who'd die for even a bottle of fresh water, even today. Learn to utilize resources well.

2. Use the dustbin: Countlessly many times I've seen people throwing away garbage and other waste right in open drains and alleys. Stop doing this and stop others from doing the same.

3. Prevent elderly men from urinating in public places: I especially mention people above 40 in this case because the so-called experienced and wise elderly men of our country never restrain from urinating where one shouldn't do that. Politely asking someone would be great, at first, after showing him the nearest urinal. But if he stands aggressive, I guess we can take the help of police.

4. Do not use crackers: We celebrate grand events with crackers, but that leads to all four types of pollution. Burning a single, noisy cracker causes noise and air pollution most instantly. Later, deposition of chemical products from them causes soil pollution, and finally poisons the water table (the layer of water below the top-soil that fuels and powers wells, pumps and tube-wells). And we Indians are especially famous for that. I am proud to say that this Diwali I'll use LED lights (I celebrated the previous one with electric lamps). Not only are electric candles and lamps much less polluting, they also are recyclable. No matter what your friends or elders tell you, always remember that firing a cracker isn't manly. Also, spread the word freely, causing pollution is not a way to display happiness.

5. Report insolent polluters: Send anonymous reports against neighbours who're especially responsible for pollution of the surroundings, directly to the municipality or corporation of your locality.

6. Use headphones for listening to music, even when at home: Or else you can also use low volume setting for your music system. Music is supposed to calm and help you relax, so it is important that a proper environment for it is built.

7. Maintain a garden: Even if there's a single plant on a tob, water it regularly. I know, most of you who'd be reading my post are urban citizens like I myself am, but quality and not necessarily quantity can make your garden awesome. Even if you don't have enough place (if you live in a flat like I do), be sure to make that extra space in your balcony useful. And even if that's not possible, try watering a local plant regularly. This is the way of showing gratitude to mother earth.

This is the true religion, the logical system of living. We must strive to make the world a better place, because rightly we "haven't inherited the nature from our ancestors, we've simply borrowed it from our children".

Finally, here's a tiny poem I composed just now to show my gratitude to mother earth. Here's it, to share with you all. :)

Earth

Earth, glorious mother of mine, 

Rise each day, over oceans of brine,

To bless us, your each daughter and son,

To care for each tree and spawn, 

To make every day better than before, 

To make the future nicer, secure,

To make us stand valiant and strong,

And walk the path of glory along. 

HAPPY EARTH DAY TO YOU ALL