Everyone would have come across plants and trees, likewise I also. But there will be a certain point where it enters into your heart deeply. Maybe a few years ago I got an idea to grow some plants in my home. Initially I brought some vegetable yielding plants and tried to grow them, all was good before I stopped spending time with them because of my work. I don’t know how, but unexpectedly and fortunately got a chance to go to Thiruvannamalai, the holy land that too had a chance to see my master Thiru. Palpandian Ayya on that day itself. That was a life changing moment. I also had a chance to attend his classes. A lot changed there after. Initially I couldn’t feel those changes at that time. But now I realize it. I again started to spend time with plants. Earlier I used gloves to handle soil, but one day there were no gloves and I needed to use my hands to dig the soil. After spending some time with the soil I felt the soil was sticking on to my hands. I had a disturbed sense while the soil was sticking on to me. Later I shared this with my master. Then only I came to know how lucky I am, because I have felt the soil for the first time but couldn’t understand what happened clearly at that moment. Without my master these things would have gone unrealized. This emphasizes the importance of a master and how he can open many things within ourselves. These many years I may have handled the soil but never felt it. I realized how blunt my reflexes and senses are and how my body was hijacked by my mind. Because of tharsarpu practices my body became sensitive enough to feel my mother, the soil. She was always ready to be with me but how ignorantly I missed it for these many years, I regret. On the contrary, even if we wont allow your children to play in soil, that’s what we learned and we teach;how wrong was this! After this incident I had a great love and passion towards soil and plants. Whenever I travel, I start observing the plants, trees and the soil. When I see a hard soil [rigidity] it will give a sense of tightness and suffocation within me. But when I see a loose [laxity] and moisturized soil, I feel as if I am breathing easily along with the soil [nilaswasam]. Early from my childhood I used to spend time sitting along the rivers, the mountains and along the trees …. so on. I used to study in an open space under some trees. I felt more comfortable studying near the plants and trees .That gave me a kind of energy and stability. Now I realize how mother nature was with me all the time and that energy came from her.
I admired a lot about the trees. Standing tall it connects both the earth and the sky. How beautifully it is grounded and at the same time it extends its arm towards the sky, maintaining its equilibrium between grounding and orientation. As my teacher taught about grounding and orientation in tharsarpu class and how as a human we are struggling even with practice to maintain an equilibrium between grounding and orientation. But surprisingly the trees naturally were doing this without any effort. Like humans they are formed from the five elements [the basics of the siddha system] received from nature and more than that it gives back the five elements to nature, completing a mutual cycle. It gives back in the following ways; By giving shelter to birds and animals it provides grounding, the Earth element.The nectar from flowers and juices in the fruits, provides the Water element. The dry barks and the sun’s energy in leaves, gives the Fire element. By providing oxygen, it gives the Air element. By its extent, it provides the Space element. We are not giving back these to nature. The trees deserve more than us and are more eligible to live in this universe, as my master said. Whatever may be their situation they will not harm anyone but instead they give only good things back, even after their death.They reciprocate with nature always, where we miss this reciprocation a lot. They shed their old leaves during autumn so that it empties itself for a new growth spurt in summer, a great example of growth in letting go approach. The leaves receive sunlight, the universal energy and these leaves provide a direct source of universal energy to other living beings. There is a great integration between all the parts of the trees not like ours where our body parts though naturally integrated, we will disintegrate them.
When I see a new seed germinate I don’t know why, but it makes me so happy as if a new child was born. Just like the seeds we need to be. Even the seed may contain all the things, but only the grace of nature could bring the seed into life, to its full potential. For such a time, the seed needs to be patient enough to receive the grace and glory. Likewise we need to be patient and humble enough, in order to receive God’s grace. Also the five elements need to be in the right proportion for the seed to germinate. For humans also the elements need to be properly balanced inorder to germinate [mature] and grow towards inner journey. The flowers always look beautiful and soft, but its softness doesn’t mean it is weak because it withstands the strong heat of the sun. We may not be able to stand for a few minutes in direct sunlight. So softness doesn’t mean weakness. The plants grow towards the sun as if a child is looking for her mother and the plants in turn show their gratitude towards the sun by smiling flowers, remaining the humans giving back to nature.This character needs to be cultivated and is the need of the hour. Whenever I shower the plants with water I imagine as if a priest anoints a gods idol. During gardening initially I used to remove weeds less often but I understood the importance of removing it regularly so that the normal plants will grow well and noted how strong the weeds come again and again and also the importance of regular maintenance. Likewise I equated our body with the plants. The plants we grow are our body, our conditioned habits are the weeds, the gardener is the consciousness and the process of weed removal is our practice. This emphasizes how constantly we need to do our practice to maintain our body, for inner journey.
Nature’s intelligence is incomparable with that of humans and its intelligence cannot be decoded with our intellectual mind. The only way for humans is to get along with nature and enjoy every moment with her. She will take care of us. Whatever we receive will have to be given back to Mother Nature. One of the ways for the humans to give back and to show their gratitude is by taking care of these beautiful souls
Dr.T.Karthikeyan D.ortho., Consultant Orthopedic Surgeon.