“The plants around us not only give oxygen to our lungs but also to our souls”

Anonymous

Continued from Part 1

Our neighbourhood 

Let us look at our green neighbour – the plants around us. These species of organisms scattered on the earth’s surface spend their entire lives confined in one single place. They are, by nature, immobile. They cannot change their geographical location at their whims. They stay still and static in the same place throughout their life. And they keep displaying their vitality and exuberance by growing green leaves, branches, blooming flowers, fruits and seeds. They go on writing the tales of life by spreading their roots underground – out of the reach of human sight.

That’s why in the philosophy of plant life immobility does not always mean an absence of vivacity. Though the aquatic plants float with the current of water and do not settle down or anchor their roots anywhere. They neither entangle themselves to a particular place nor develop any bonding with any point of location. Their positions always keep on changing.           

Human beings and plants         

Human beings perceive vitality as synonymous with variation and dynamism; change is perceived as the mark of life. But variability does not mean change of place or location or movability only. A life confined to a certain location is devoid of change and stagnant is not an acceptable proposition. This is the wisdom that comes from the life of plants of land that are immobile, static.

Each of them is the initiator of such a fundamental and major change in the form of a transformation process called photosynthesis which is directly or indirectly indispensable for the survival of all animal species of this planet. These green, self-fed species embody various kinds of change and transformation to supply provisions for subsistence to other organisms, including human beings. They have been imparting all ingredients of life – from oxygen to food – unconditionally since the very dawn of this creation.

It is a ubiquitous sight that the wanderers pick up and collect flowers, fruits, branches and leaves from the trees on roads or open fields indiscriminately without any hesitation or sense of guilt. Why should they not do that either?! Where would they go to seek permission? Even if they would desire for a nod, the plants are not capable of giving the same.

However lively and self-dependent for producing their own food they might be, the plants do not possess a mind after all. If they do not have a mind, then how can they have memory? Is it at all possible to find out any trace of historical awareness in plants? As per human logic and understanding, it is obviously not possible.

However, though plants do not have the kind of mind humans possess, they can have a mind of their own kind. And why should we assume that the history of human evolution and civilization is not inscribed on the walls of the vegetable mind? Who can say that the narratives of the different parallel episodes of the timelines of human history are not recorded in the annual rings of a tree?

Let’s learn from the plants around us

Truly speaking, our green neighbor sends out the signals of self-reliance of an entity and the height of freedom enjoyed by it. Many realizations derived from the experiences of human life seem unrealistic then. The reality of plant life can show a completely different direction to human philosophy of life. The secret password of feeling vigorous despite being denied any locational movement can be learnt from this set of silent green organisms with whom we have been co-living for so long. Despite being static, one can feel free of bondage – this insight also comes from plant life.

On the other hand, the floating aquatic plants teach us that flowing and moving do not always come out to be rootless. The wealth, greatness and shortcoming of human life are defined according to specific criteria constructed by the human mind only. Thus they are not eternal or fixed once and for all. The motionless state is not necessarily stagnancy; novelty can be sought, and creativity can be cultivated even by remaining still at one singular place. Therefore, stagnancy is not a shortcoming or failure at all as it is often perceived in the human context.

At the same time, we can have a variant outlook towards life if we realize that being in a floating state is not always being rootless or uprooted. Then it would seem feasible to float with the stream of life while carrying our own roots. This insight helps us to overcome the peril of refugee sentiment. Both stability and variability ambivalently attract the human mind, and this probably creates various existential and psychological crises and tensions for us. The plant wisdom can throw some light to get rid of them.           

There is no motivation to prove oneself as benevolent; there is no expectation of getting recognition or honor as a generous soul. These self-reliant, self-contained species spend their entire lifespan by unconditionally giving away their surplus, by providing shelter to others in their own body, by silently tolerating plunder of the goons, by not complaining about their fate of immobility. Perhaps the self-dependence of survival has given such insight, a rich philosophy of life to this species that can enrich the life of the self-proclaimed greatest species of earth. This makes the life and living of plants appealing on various grounds. Each and every nook and corner of human life is filled with the presence of plants – from birth to death – in each moment. The co-living and co-dying with green corpses are mingled with the different layers of human life.

সহমরণ

আকাশে পঞ্চমীর চাঁদ, নিচে আগুনের লেলিহান শিখা

গাছেদের মৃতদেহ পুড়ে পুড়ে সেই শিখা ঊর্ধ্বমুখী হলে

দূরের পাহাড়ে কান্নার ঢেউ

আছড়ে পড়ে কাঁদায়!

গাছেদের নির্বাক বেঁচে থাকা শেষ হলে

একদিন তারা চলে যায় সহমরণের পথ ধরে

মানুষের সঙ্গে চিতায়।  

(As a half moon rises up in the sky, the fire dances below;

The mountains open up the floodgates of their tears,

The trees die when they had lived up silently

burning with the pyre of a man.)

The post Pandemic thoughts (Part 2): Life with the plants around us appeared first on KolkataFusion.

Now more than one year has passed – almost from the beginning of 2020- the life of the most dominant species of this planet has been under the grip of the covid-19 pandemic. This epidemic has badly hit not only our bodies but also our mind. The human mind is not keeping well; many people are suffering from severe mental health conditions. The sky of our mind has become shrouded with feelings of insecurity, uncertainty, anxiety, depression, fear of death – from children to the elderly – perhaps nobody is spared.  

Side effects of the Covid – 19 Pandemic: Challenges to the physical mobility

The scientific research finding that the coronavirus infection is a contagious disease which has started to regulate our lifestyle during this period. If the spread of infection cannot be arrested, the situation would become virulent; we cannot let harmful viruses colonize our bodies. As a result, many various restrictions have been imposed on our day-to-day life to protect ourselves. This form of life is totally unfamiliar and unprecedented to all of us. And sadly enough, this different lifestyle is being called ‘new normal.’

One of the most critical aspects of this ‘new normal’ life is restricted physical mobility in public/social space, as maintaining social/physical distance has been identified as one of the powerful tools to arrest the spread of this infectious disease. Hence, the need has been felt to control and curtail our free and arbitrary movements. Society vis-a-vis state mechanisms have deployed various means to keep watch on and monitor an individual’s movements.

Yet these days, contemporary urban life had come to accustom to enjoying the flavour of freedom with free, unrestricted physical movements and self-regulated activities. Any kind of state or society-imposed injunctions generate a sense of resistance and conflict in the awakened minds of 21st century people.

Having come out of the inertia of unquestionable compliance, individuals of today’s world find the meaningful presence of their independent selves in the acts of protest and opposition. This is eventually reflected through various organised protests, debates, and attempts of disobedience and violation of restrictions and protocol advisories issued to maintain health and hygiene during this ongoing pandemic in multiple corners of the globe. Because of their lack of awareness, some people are showing their disregard for the entire Covid pandemic situation. Also, there are people whose struggle for survival is so very challenging that they cannot afford to sit at home to abide by the regulations of maintaining physical distance and avoiding exposure to the public domain.  

Almost all individuals are finding it difficult to accept the compelling closure and stalemate of homebound life that they have been thrown into by restricted physical mobility due to this pandemic. This sense of confinement is creating stress on their minds, which is affecting their mental health badly.

All these floating thoughts in my mind fetch many other thoughts along with them. Some hitherto forgotten thoughts have surfaced out of the oscillation that is going on in me between dynamism and stagnancy. The repetitive mundane life had covered them up from my sight until recently.

Physical Mobility of the Human Beings

Human science claims that human beings are the most evolved species on this planet and the best of all creations of nature! Human consciousness is the most developed, and therefore, human thought, understanding and senses are the finest among all other species of life. Human language – sign, words, gestures, or any other medium, through which humans express their thoughts and feelings, interpret other minds and external worlds in their terms, is also the most advanced one. This species experience the feeling of bondage in the state of immovability and immobility.

Stagnation, getting stuck in one place and lack of dynamism make humans unhappy, and take away their vivacity. To a species that can change their geographical location at their own wish and will, changing physical position, moving from one place to another, mobility of body are prerequisites of freedom. Unrestricted mobility of both mind and body keep human beings lively, cheerful and enthusiastic.        

But interestingly enough, this same species of Homo Sapiens, at some point of evolution, chose to settle down in one particular place to build up a durable/temporary shelter at the cost of their nomadic life. It took resort to stability in life and bid adieu to the once ever-volatile lifestyle. Since then, a permanent abode, a protected shelter, has started to provide a sense of psychological security to them, which helped them cope with the outer world’s sheer uncertainty. Thus not having a stable residence has become one of the basic existential crises of present-day human life.

Recommended Read: Covid -19 thoughts of a medical professional.

This crisis gives rise to various feelings of insecurity among the dwellers of today’s earth. The sense of security in recent civilized people has become inseparably attached with the assurance of a consistent place of dwelling. The episodes depicting the sufferings out of displacement and homelessness uphold one of this civilization’s major and serious community exigencies. In this way, contemporary human individuals carry inside them the dilemma of motion and rest, immobility and physical mobility, dynamism and stability, change and stagnation.

Perhaps, when the human beings said goodbye to the nomadic life to deal with the uncertainty, contingency, and suddenness of external reality, they started to feel in themselves their dynamic, change-loving spirit more and more. Whenever this spirit gets dampened, humans feel lifeless, depressed and gloomy.    

Continued in Part 2

The post Pandemic thoughts (Part 1): Life beyond physical mobility appeared first on KolkataFusion.