Haven’t you got your dose of Vitamin N?

The entire world is locked down. The world is stand still. Nothing is happening except spread of Covid-19 and thousands of deaths around the world. The entire picture is not pleasing at all and not encouraging also.

Let me tell you something about a living being today, a being who thinks of themselves as the master of all the natural resources and keep on exploiting it, the being which somehow has forgotten the symbiosis, the harmony with nature, the being which keeps on polluting rivers and oceans, the being which keeps on polluting air cover around planet, the being which  not only caused great harm to fellow creatures in the nature but also the fellow human beings, the being which posed extinction on hundreds on species on planet earth, the being which has made sure the natural food chain is destroyed, the being which has become greedy in the race of possessing power and resources , the being which has made its mind to bring upon wrath of nature onto the entire planet. The culprit living being is none other than WE. We the humans. We the Indians, We the Americans, we the Chinese , we the Europeans , We the Arabs, We the Asians , We the Africans. Yes, in times of such great danger to humanity we are still not ONE, we are divided in nations, castes , creeds, religions and races. We have brought the planets almost to an END. And still we are not ready to learn from past. We are still finding solutions to the problems which we have created in the process of modernization; using modern tools and techniques only. I am not against modernization at all, however modernization along with good, has brought evil also upon us. I am against that EVIL. I am very much sure that this EVIL won’t be lifted using the same modernization.

We must use blend of timeless , primitive virtues with modern tools to curb this great EVIL. All we have to do is to practice virtues in our day to day life. In India we call these virtues as DHARMA. Dharma word is not related to any religion or any community. This is collection of simple yet great human values, which have been derived from Mother Nature for humans to co-exist with fellow creatures and fellow humans in the nature.

As Corona virus spread is still going on in many countries and we are still waiting for cure to this deadly disease, most of the nations have forced lock-down. Lock-down is basically staying wherever you are. This is the only possible precaution that every human being on the planet must practice to save themselves and their loved ones from dying.

This lock-down has emerged as very effective solution to contain this lethal virus. When we think of world’s second largest population and the spread of virus in our country, we can say that it’s only the lock-down in India, has helped us minimize the damages so far. Hadn’t this lock-down been placed at right time, we would have seen a very unpleasant picture, here in India. Thanks to Lock-down.

We also must thank to this lock-down as it made sure that Mother Nature is reclaiming its territory. The air is becoming purer, the pollution level is going down, wild life is roaming freely on streets, rivers are looking clearer, far away mountains are becoming visible, wild fires, and forest fires have come down. This all has happened due to lock-down.  That’s the reason we must thank Lock-down.

During this lockdown, we have learnt a very effective lesson. The lesson is very simple and easy. We, human being, don’t need to much of luxuries to survive. We need very basics with safety. We need our loved ones around. We need bare minimum food and limited resources. We can survive without malls, without multiplexes and without dance bars and disco pubs. We don’t need all these things to survive. We learnt hard way that we need people around, we need love and care, we need socializing.

Socializing has now got different meaning. People started phone calling loved ones instead of whatsapp messages and forwards. People have started making video calls. People have started rediscovering their lost childhood hobbies. People have started reading, writing, composing poems. We have started to re-invent the meaning of ‘being human’.

We must not forget this learning and keep in our minds even after the lock-down that being human is not being alien. We are integral part of nature. We have to co-exist with millions of other beings. We must expose to natural world as frequently as possible. We must adhere to DHARMA when it comes to taking from Mother Nature.

I hereby prescribe you Vitamin N (Nature) post lock-down to make yourselves much stronger, much immune to pathogens. We must get dirty, we must get wet, and we must get sunbathed. We must get scratches on knees and elbows while wandering in nature.

Regards

Hemant S Vavale

Author of this article is the owner of nisargshala enterprise and runs this enterprise to offer real, raw nature experiences to city dwellers in a controlled and safe way. People from city can come to campsite with family and friends to get connected with mother nature. With the help of varied activities like camping, rappelling, waterfall rappelling, trekking, hiking, one with nature you can have the bond with mother nature reestablished. The campsite is 70 kms from Pune toward southwest; in Velhe Taluka of Pune district. Please visit homepage for more information.

Do watch a small video of Dr Jane Goodall on Corona Virus and Nature.