Exorcizing God

“sarvagna sugato buddho dharmarajastathagata
samastabhadro bhagavan marajillokajijjinaha
shadabhigno dashabalo dvayavadi vinayakaha
munindra srighanasasta muni sakyamunistaha”

- A verse from Amarakosha.

“All-Knowing, Transcendental, Buddha, King of Righteousness, he who has come, Beneficent, All-Encompassing, Lord, Conqueror of the God of Love-Mara, Victorious of Three Worlds, He Who Controls His Senses, Protector from the Six Enemies, Possessor of the Ten Powers, Speaker of Monism, Teacher, Lord of the Sages, Embodiment of Splendor and Eminent Saint.”

Protector of six enemies being, Kama – lust, Kroda – anger, Lobha – greed, Moha – delusion, Maatsarya – envy and Mada – pride, which are respectively in relevance to Goat, Buffalo, Cat, Sheep, Camel and Man.

We have evolved with a nervous system that makes an eternal bond between brain and the body. Nerve – derived from the Sanskrit word, Nara; means human.
The six enemies told, if wins over Nara; the world is said to see the end.

I would like to explore now what made these shlokas in Amarakosha and other tantrik literature to bring animals and human relativity.

One monsoon, I went on a drive with D B Chandregowda, MP of North Bangalore in the forests of Nagarhole national park, we had an interesting chat on natural history and he ticked my thoughts on Wildlife protection laws. I started a conversation on God, if the animals ever worship any of the 330 million deities as we follow, it ended in an equal conclusion and I was proud of a politician with immense respect to wildlife. Recalling his childhood acquaintance with big cats to birds around Chikkamagalore, he felt his heart for the situation when animals are paying for human’s sins now!

Wildlife Protection Act that was brought into force in 1972 during Her Highness Late Indira Ghandhi’s tenure as Prime minister. The newest act and least known to the citizens. The powers designated to officers are high and towards the welfare of flora and fauna. A Range Forest Officer alone has been drafted extensive powers by these laws to enforce protection and preservation of wildlife.
These protection laws are not that new as it seems, it was well brought and directed earlier in 2nd or 3rd century BC!
330 million deities were simply ’created’ by then Gurus to protect not the human race but to protect all those animals from humans which then accounted probably a 330 million. Fear was created through these deities to enforce them to worship and live in co-existence with animals rather than killing them.
Let us consider few of the famous deity forms that have earned popularity,
Ganesh or Gajamukha; one who has elephant head with a story behind it that discovered first ‘transplant surgery’ in the world by Lord Shiva to embark on preserving elephants and the love towards animals was created through this deity form. A snake around his belly and a mice at his feet shows, if the snake is bellyful it does not predate on mice. A simple model that shows harmony and protecting three species here, the elephant, the snake and the mice!
About his dad, Lord Shiva, having a cobra around his neck to show it does not harm unless one harms it, a leopard trophy for his seat to show that he is would be the imaginary form for destruction and he alone can kill if he really existed! But no one other than him has right to have a leopard trophy!
His brother, Kathikeya or Subbrahmanya who has a pet peacock again advertises his bit for the bird protection.
Yama and his bull, Lord Krishna and livestock also some birds during his flute concerts! Even the crows were conserved by a severely feared deity, Shani. Kaali and her various forms have depicted Tigers to be protected. Dogs were treated as forms of Narayana and not to be culled. Wild boars were similarly marketed by Lord Vishnu. Lord Rama shows the brotherhood to primates by making an epic story, starring Hanuman and crew!
Temples were built around the deities, where Prasadam was served and the first share was kept for birds, water was separately stored for cattle and hoofed animals, goats and sheeps were sacrificed as baits for carnivores. Where are these animal-loving practices in temples now? Does ‘God’ turn to anyone’s prayers when his representative animals are not loved and respected?
The ancient world then populated 330 million only, so probably each one were assigned to conserve a species through marketing their deity forms! Their successors worshipped their ancestor’s deeds and the conservation policy turned into religion and races under families! How dumb this creature ‘Nara’ is.
With modern science and technology, people faced challenges to discover, thus started exploring the natural world to fame. The more and more knowledge the man discovered, the more he suffered.
For instance, he wanted to know myths of snakes, ‘did snakes really give out diamonds?’ – it was a strategy done by charmers who collected venom and solidified it to produce crystalline venom as ‘diamonds’. ‘Do they drink milk?’ – of course not! But it was a fear creation so that, people worship a snake when it turns to be someone’s guest. ‘Does elephant tail hairs bring fortune’ – how would it? When owning those hairs themselves, has not been fortunate to them in the ivory market!
Thus by trying to dig knowledge, we have exploited actual protection given by co-existed human life.
How well our ancestors defined wildlife protection laws thousands of years ago and have formed a constitution that is still followed scarcely by people.
God as deities never existed on earth! It was only the means to protect the natural resources. God is in us, in the animals and plants and in every form where life prevails. It was then considered that, a picture represents thousand words. Instead of having a bulky book of written laws of 1972 WLP act, they had a strict enforcement through idols and pictures into souls and hearts of every ‘Nara’ who has been prone to those six enemies!

If anyone of us believes God, then conserve their representatives! Or believe in our self as God and do his deeds that were why Nara and Narayana were called brothers, where one is immortal and other being mortal – the human.

Veerana hosahalli Tiger Prince.

A tiger who has been living with his family, happily married to a princess of northern territory of Nagarahole. He has a bright and active son, all living in and around Veerana hosahalli range. A mighty and about eight feet long, his majesty found himself resting over leaf litter by a ficus tree. His tooth said what had he done that day. Sun closed the twilights and shade after shade explaining the forest floor of the colors from orange, crimson and to blue eventually purple… Birds that flew towards south west in the morning headed back. The jungle fowl endlessly called ‘if everyone are home’, parakeets swapped their trials over my Gypsy. While the roads that led back to the resort were damp and composed with light showers of delayed monsoon. A calm and patient family from Intel corp, Mr. Sastry, were about to ask, where are the tigers in this forest! At their very first, ‘err…’ I asked Mahesh the driver to stop! I turned around to the guests and winked at his silver hair to tell him that it will turn silver even more! They all kept silent and with anticipating eyes that questioned all my senses for what is it now! Indeed, his majesty was resting with his mouth open and breathing puffs of valor and kill. The Tiger sat arm on arm facing towards road, between bushes deep in 50 yards. We looked and he stood as Mr. Sastry’s son mutterd “Oh! Tigerrrrrr..!”. As though he had called him to appear, the Tiger of Veerana hosahalli walked to the open in front of Gypsy and traversed the roadside towards north-east and into a jeep trail leading to Madappan kere. A fifteen minutes of silence covered the dusk at 7 pm, eventually the deers at the lake alarmed of his majesty’s legal pawing towards them. A minute more as darkness meandered, Mr. Sastry affirmed that he was there yet! “Good show Vineith”.

The Kallahalla tigress

May be it was a territorial conflict or a meet of a mother and her daughter, on the 21st day of Gemini month at 7.21 am were indeed the two tigress’ party! We were driving in three jeeps, Mahesh rowing a gang of 6 enthusiasts and Prakash with a family and I was driven by Najeeb with a pack of praying family whose prayers were answered…
I said to Najeeb, Wow a termite hill has come up on the road probably pulled in by a sloth bear as were still in the tune of bear which just danced on the roads near Kallahalla, as we rolled on the glitters of tan expanded dye of black stripes… The whiskers just embossed from the lantana weed and so were the gleaming eyes of the beautiful tigress!
She said to me in telepathy, “Oh! I am seen from my hideout, alright then I will have to give a show..” saying so, she came by our Gypsy and walked behind on the road, she rose her tail to tell telepathically as she stared on to us that, “I would sit here beside the road…. And enough I’d be pushing in the weeds, come back again another day”.
I sighed for her elusive pride and asked Najeeb to roll, further 50 yards had met with Prakash was another young tigress aged about one and half to two years.
That’s not just prayer answered but here be the Gods of this Jungle!

The elusive slayer of Karmad road

Eight kilometers from Murkal elephant camp is a junction that opens towards Nagrhole and Kutta beyond, other being towards Karmad and Gonikoppa. Tall teak wood aged over 60 years tell stories of cats and dogs by their signature on the barks. For about 6 kilometers on the west side of road are plantation of teak and the east side bearing thick, untidy yet beautiful moist deciduous forests. The ground breeds Eupatorium and lantana while the Terminalia bellerica breeds colors of wild Orchids. July being wettest summarizes the ambience with a festive colors of flowers and the butterflies that engross.
But a tiger!?
Prakash the facilitator along with a family from US, Mr. Srinivas who boarded in the resort on 27th July, were on a road safari when they came past a silence hub until whence the jungle babblers floated noisily and the Hill myna squealed to appeal their presence. But at the point where the road rolled downwards was unusually silent from these. Thud! Seemed to be the vehicle’s cry for Prakash’s de-acceleration at 8.11 am. In the eupatorium was a Tiger quite huge resting and yawning to seek the scent of that weed.
Suddenly, Mr. Srinivas creaked over the heightened seats of Gypsy to take a video of him. Carelessly was he staring and another yawn to put his head on his elephant grass pillow.
The gang watched for half hour and gave up by obsession to turn back. I met them with another family at Murkal elephant camp where I was feeding my favourite rogue, Gopala with jaggery.
Prakash bumped into me and asked me to rush to Kamad road to find a dozing Tiger… No more talks in seconds the Gypsy weighed with guests and we were at the spot in 3-4 minutes.
The last glimpse as he walked far in the bamboo was left to us by two roaring and juggling the road, Government busses which ply from Virajpet via Karmad to Mysore.

An accepted taboo

Mitos, a Greek term for thread; that looms endlessly! A chromosome that kept on knocking at the cell for a mitotic action had nothing to do but divide into two.
Eventful changes took place on earth’s mantle and crust from billions of years. In such an event chemistry occurred to discover elements and further the compounds of her discovery. Clashes after clashes wrote earth’s history with their reactions. One such fortunate clash of compounds discovered Life!
Series of reaction that took place within a capsule started to adapt and combine external and internal reactions. Thus a nut-shell for a small processor to handle the inbound reaction came into this ‘system’. Atoms of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and carbon based the major compounds and evolved into complexities of proteins, acids and alkali.
Proteins probably wanted a colony of their own and formed a pact – The DNA pact! These notorious ones wanted a basic structure within the capsule, something or someone like a speaker in a parliament.
Thus to end carnages of compounds this capsule or the nut-shell sworn in the ‘Cell’, who had his own departments and its ministries. One such ministry of the cell is chromosome that found a new way to prove its presence, a reaction that could divide and devise itself. Mitosis was one such activity of this wriggly substance of life.
Agreed by large of the nutshell they organized a duct that can devise all the motives of a cell’s desire, other than brain which prevailed as a processor for this nut-shell, it was a reproductive organ that still had to be under consent of brain; yet was a bias system of the nut-shell!

Sex was termed to rephrase all the above abstractly said reactions. Requisite of school biology, we know what happened through evolution stages as revealed by Darwin et al, further modification, adaptation, preservation, predation and of course that reaction – now let us call it Sex, now presents the life through simple asexual and sexual reproduction.

Asexual being non-physical and less desired has probably kept the plant species fixed to ground while sexual in most of animals and birds started their journey to find a mate to make the best possible physical and interesting gestures of courtship!
There we are now at! Courtship. Indian contexts that have exhibited so much of courtship through art and literature, it is still meant as ‘art’ for the stones and archaeologist or for books and authors.
I traveled length and breadth of Karnataka, visiting places, meeting people and watching life forms of what the State beautifies it.
Hampi, Pattadakallu, Aihole, Naada Kalasi, Halebeedu or consider any temple that was erected few hundred years ago, they all have carving of ‘Mithuna shile’, a stone carving with what probably the architect or the king or the smiths did in brothels or in their affairs.
Books were written like the Kamasutra explaining the science of courtship and the best encashment way to handle one’s reproductive organ!
If this was all published, carved and praised just few centuries ago so open mindedly, why did the thought of we Indians change to be short when we just speak about sex? Perhaps the intension of the speaker or perhaps the perception of the listener has caused sex to be a taboo!
Apparently, whatever are not the intensions, gesture, perception and motive it was all nothing related to sex at all nor is it any closer to sex! When I opened up my mind I saw it happened in most of the life forms, it is a stage of courtship related to brain but not the mitosis – the notorious reaction related to reproductive organ!

I was cycling back from school during spring and on a jolly spirit with the girls, suddenly we passed by two mating dogs by the road. I watched them and then carried with my funny statements, abrupt the girls mounted on their bicycle and darted expressing disgust! As though I had conspired on those dogs to mate!

Later, an age of charm that surmounted my thin body brought me into cheery, flirty and love emotions. As waves they came to my shore and swept back and I realized what sex actually impressed on those ‘waves’, courtship behavior is not sex and I adjourned such tentative waves to be myself  a flowing river. Parents being so possessive of their chromatic duplicates – the children, would create a fear in the minds that showing courtship behavior by brains is a sin! Luckily as I said the naughty reproductive system which has a bias brain than the one ‘nut-shell brain’ keeps on going in thrive! All said and done, copulation is over and loses into past, so what now? Guilt conquers the mind, “I have done a taboo by having sex”. A fortunate reaction that brought life is now an unfortunate activity exacerbated by mind.
Of course, it could be seen as sin for a human to have produced another child when there is no resources to supply that large and has no predator to charge on excess, probably that was why our ancestors who were open minded declared it a taboo so that there would be control of bias system’s desires and thus balance in the ecological chain.

Dogs mate, cats mate, elephants mate, birds mate, primates mate, reptiles mate, plants mate so do every life form but they are still in their intact balanced numbers against resources they need. They would not have thought of taboo or else a tigress wouldn’t have seen new tigers and new territories, nor would have birds migrated to places finding heronries and new pairs or living so freely in open truth of life.

If ever they reproduced in excess, they are either predated or killed by territorial fight or competent males or in infanticide for sustaining resources for the family. Here fittest the survival fits best.

We humans, everyone wants to be fit and wants survival, thus mate throughout the year, throughout the day and having felt it a taboo ONLY in communication and expression till the courtship part and not at actual sex! It has been a taboo over-run by bias organs.

Probably the deadliest diseases found only in humans which being STDs (sexually transmitted disease) like AIDS, might not have remedies only because people have a controlled sexual reproduction, a miraculous nature’s conspiracy against reproductive greed!

We could have controlled our bias organ as it had been a taboo, we could have conserved all those creatures that never thought or even imagined sex as such. We would have balanced the resources and lead a co-existent life with so many life forms of nature.

When neighboring countries like China and a few others, mandate a law on over-reproduction is not just a taboo but a criminal offence; Why not in India? Why not have this taboo accepted with a limited copulation of family planning schemes?

Then adopt an orphan to attribute not just be part of a family but also would help skipping gestation, parenting and thus the Mitos would have loomed endlessly but with many other colours too!

If ever they reproduced in excess, they are either predated or killed by territorial fight or competent males or in infanticide for sustaining resources for the family. Here fittest the survival fits best.We humans, everyone wants to be fit and wants survival, thus mate throughout the year, throughout the day and having felt it a taboo ONLY in communication and expression till the courtship part and not at actual sex! It has been a taboo over-run by bias organs. Probably the deadliest diseases found only in humans which being STDs (sexually transmitted disease) like AIDS, might not have remedies only because people have a controlled sexual reproduction, a miraculous nature’s conspiracy against reproductive greed! We could have controlled our bias organ as it had been a taboo, we could have conserved all those creatures that never thought or even imagined sex as such. We would have balanced the resources and lead a co-existent life with so many life forms of nature.
When neighboring countries like China and a few others, mandate a law on over-reproduction is not just a taboo but a criminal offence; Why not in India? Why not have this taboo accepted with a limited copulation of family planning schemes? Then adopt an orphan to attribute not just be part of a family but also would help skipping gestation, parenting and thus the Mitos would have loomed endlessly but with many other colours too!

 

Western Ghats – An empty ‘Hot-spot’

As I had started traveling in Western Ghats earlier by age of 12, that is when I learned how easy a life lead in townships and cities was. In the midst of the issues related to environment and conservation faced by Western Ghats, my mind inquests on unsolved manipulations by the Government or by any awareness measures or even by the local people involving directly or indirectly to the issue.

Having visited the parts of 1,600 km belt around Karnataka’s Western Ghat Region almost every weekend, things got to my head and heart of the (local) people’s dependency to the forest mainly for Non Timber Forest Products (NTFP), the rich fertile land for agriculture, the shola or grasslands for cattle grazing, small and medium game for pot and market, utilization of water resources to an extent where sharing and co-existent living practices of ancestor folks, tribes and indigenous people of this forest diminished gradually, the intermittent acquaintance with the media that kept their half feet between today and yesterday, exploitation of their skills, knowledge and the traditional practices to monetize the forest resources by middle and influential class of the township and finally their religious belief that conserved so far so little in disguise.

Over 3,500 species of flowering and medicinal plants, 1,700 species of endemic plants, 139 mammal species, 508 bird species, over 300 species of reptiles and amphibians that claim these lands suffer by only 1 species – The Homosapeins!

Call it a biodiversity hotspot or trekkers’ paradise or recently faming ‘responsible tourism’, these buzzword are for promotional and marketing for one or the other reasons. If the minor cumulative issues of ‘locals’ are as such, the giant issues arrive from the economic challenges faced by the states that proclaim these resources.

Mining projects that have severed the Kudremukh region causing many evident hazards, dam construction that count about 50 in the Western Ghats have disturbed the water connectivity to quench and submersion of forests causing imbalance in routines of flora and fauna.
Hydel projects like Gundia Hydel Power Station, proposed by KPCL to generate 400 MW capacity which has carved roads, devastating the land and lithological organization of earth.
Another instance of various mini-hydel projects which generate about 10 to 40 MW like the one in Belthangady to serve 32 families of ‘Malekudiya’ community by politics, is this a move to provide facilities for people who have indigenous values and adaptability ? or to provide electricity to the wilderness of this forest! – a means of development and commencement of expansion from a village to a town hence-forth or is this to gain about 96 votes out of 32 family considering on average 3 adults with voting eligibility per family?
Although these projects does not exhibit much as the others do, but cumulative and distributed operation provoke harder than a single mega project at one location.
How much does these biodiversity spaces support the demands raised by 1.2 billion and counting population?

As an amateur naturalist, I lingered in these forests with friends, villagers and sometimes alone. Once I witnessed an elephant herd of 4 in number trying to manage through their ‘custom’ trails and found it awful during river crossing because of a new road that was constructed to rail a pipe through Dondhole river.

How well and quickly can any animal adapt to changes? For an instance, a tiger in it’s reserve would not eat up or reserve all the food in his territory out of any desire, it would be hard for a leopard living in the same boundary to transit far or to adapt otherwise. Such instances of conspired nature’s harmony of food sharing prevail in every species. Being the fundamental of inter-dependencies.

But Humans! whom I believe to be a disgrace to this earth, have been living only on un-natural grounds,

1. Money – that no other living or non-living creature understands and does not grow naturally.
2. International boundaries – while animals only know their habitats and the plants understand only the soil.
3. God – which the Man created thousands of years ago in order to create fear and protect wildlife has turned now into soulful and rather imaginary, a physical potent present else where than within. Which every creature except humans probably believes.
Thinking the way this is, one has to realize that none of these were present in nature or followed by any other creature but man alone has been racing, fighting for, greedy about, dreaming over on such un-real and un-natural things. Isn’t this a greatest foolish act of a ‘self proclaimed supremacy’?

Was this all because man’s fingers evolved to hold tools? Or was it because he had language to communicate his emotions? or was it because he safe-guarded himself by law, ‘’killing one human by another is a crime’? So who is our predator?

If we have pro-claimed supremacy over other species by any of the above reasons; who would best suit the colloquial term ‘Animal-ish’?

At times ashamed of myself to be a Human, I try to bring myself closer to natural world and see how these creatures adapt and actually inherit this earth physiologically, physically and morphologically. But had we? For sometime now, I’d keep my emotions, philosophical judgments and arguments against man’s very life aside, cause it will only take to different emotional plane.

Western Ghats to me was obscure when I used to travel with my elders to Pilgrims which harbour in such serenity!. Eventually I took part in trekking camps. Then I realized as every other child doomed by Indian schooling method and impression of animals, informed, I exclaimed, “no tigers! no leopards!!, no elephants!!!, none are the creatures of tales I learnt!!!!”. As my mind graduated shade after shade, I learned that I need not look for but reach them instead, But Where?

Biligiriranganatha hills was calling! a few enthusiastic friends in the neighborhood of Mysore took a break during summer vacations in high school. That was then the first acquaintance with animals, Spotted deers! After a day’s stay and heading back home by juggling bus, the Elephants and then the Wild Boars. Even then the faunal diversity was obscure to me and so was it to my friends.

Somewhere in my mind the turmoil’s that – why didn’t they appear during the treks in Western Ghats. After being a careless trekker from the last 12 years, I later promoted my watch to anything that moved during treks in the Ghats, eventually I was fascinated by herpestes! (snakes) that kneeled me down to amphibians and to butterflies and to the huge diversity of insects, gave me a very little knowledge on the onset, yet transforming me as keen observer of whatever seemed to have life!

Elephants being flagship of herbivores have been disturbed greatly either by ivory market or fragmenting villages that label their corridors and directed to leave their homes. So what next? Medium herbivores had enough to feed as the Asian elephants who feed 300 kilos a day spared for them, then the villagers who had guns to protect their crop turned to game a few of prevailing herbivores like Sambars, barking deers, mouse deers, langurs, giant squirrels, flying squirrels and even the rats and moles were not spared! The tough terrains of this region have not welcomed the forest department guards to vigil instead it hosts grounds for the tribes and villagers who have skills and exhilarative energy to rough out the geography.

So other than human predators, the felid cats gradually darted off and a few were killed. After the mammalian predators marching off, the prey was all for humans as ‘supremacy’ declares. Clearance for plantations like areca, paddy, lemon grass, millets, rubber, cardamom, coffee and of course not to mention the social ‘humanitarian’ avenues and plazas for human oriented recreation only, transformed such living forests into merely a patch of hoping woods.

What had been Ghats is now an ‘Empty forest’ with few snakes here and there, which are vulnerable if sighted during any man’s intrusion into their own homes!, a few fishes in the streams, which is often netted by villagers, tourists, pilgrims and trekkers at occasions.

Western Ghats tilts towards the east, making most of the prosperous rivers like Kaveri, Bhima and Tunga flowing eastwards instead of flowing westwards into Arabian sea which is a brink close. Thus these rivers carry life – the rich fertile soil to the Deccan plateau where our food is generated. The balancing of fuel combustion is done in the woods as carbon sink. Birds that dwell as residents and are widespread here pollinate seeds that bring secondary growth to sustain arid Deccan.

There are many more reasons to quote which when estimated qualify richer than the human ‘money’ unanimously! These lands are richer and rather than perceiving them as another property and thinking so short, one has to believe that this world is his address and is all that visible, heard, scented and tasted is his property. That is why we have evolved with such sensory organs to feel at home everywhere in the world. So does every wildlife feel as far as their abilities can reach. To preserve and conserve such a mass freedom of living beyond boundaries but not inquiline and stick to a small space of desires is needed urgently for ‘Our home‘.
A responsible youth need to be around to cherish and implement co-existent living models that helps conserving this biodiversity space. A trekker and amateur naturalists are the ones who visit these places to seek peace, natural life, endurance and fitness enhancement rather be it any cause as humans have varied and uncontrolled ‘supreme’ desires. But one being intellectual, thoughtful and conservative should educate the locals where he presents himself. Although an oral law is passed amid every trekker, ‘Leave only your footsteps’; to amend also leave a valuable awareness and indulge locals for their knowledge in building a conservation model.

There is a lot that we have taken from this part and there is a lot more than debts that we owe. Not just for the wildlife or flora even it would be hard for us to survive.
Let a model conservative action that turns to be an investment to home behold the ‘Hotspot’ or ‘trekker’s paradise’ – the Western Ghats.