WOODS AS TREES AND FORESTS
After 4 days of being in the course ' woods as trees and forests' i have realised, there's more to trees & nature than meets the eye. When I started, I could only draw literal sense out of it but going to places, exploring and observing I can now begin to draw parallels between trees and human life. if you look at it, not just trees but almost all living things have a common way of reacting to certain situations. the agenda in the end is survival.
the course started off with us having to observe a particular tree. fascinated by the one growing in the vicinity of a near by temple; I chose the peepal tree. the tree was almost as tall as a 4 story building and being the only tree in the area, its branches went as far as the neighbouring buildings. its foliage was so thick that barely any sunlight filtered through. nothing grew under its growth, not even grass. here, i saw a similarity between the tree & human nature - dominance .
The tree however was the house of all sorts of birds, insects and animals, you could almost say the tree supported an entire ecosystem of its own. but most importantly it supported age old customs, beliefs and the faith of numerous people to whom the tree was not just a tree but a form of god himself.
I was amazed to know the story behind it. it is believed, during a war with the asuras lord vishnu took refuge in a peepal tree to save himself from the demons. ever since, the tree has been worshiped as a form of vishnu himself. Its quite funny how one participates in these practises and discovers the true meaning behind it. Some people believe in it, some don't; some follow it out of faith, some follow it just out of habit . It is very subjective but after all what is important is an inner satisfaction. everything need not have a scientific explanation or an answer even, but sometimes it's only about how a simple belief can give you solace.. & if tying a red thread around a tree is what it takes, then be it so.
After 4 days of being in the course ' woods as trees and forests' i have realised, there's more to trees & nature than meets the eye. When I started, I could only draw literal sense out of it but going to places, exploring and observing I can now begin to draw parallels between trees and human life. if you look at it, not just trees but almost all living things have a common way of reacting to certain situations. the agenda in the end is survival.
the course started off with us having to observe a particular tree. fascinated by the one growing in the vicinity of a near by temple; I chose the peepal tree. the tree was almost as tall as a 4 story building and being the only tree in the area, its branches went as far as the neighbouring buildings. its foliage was so thick that barely any sunlight filtered through. nothing grew under its growth, not even grass. here, i saw a similarity between the tree & human nature - dominance .
The tree however was the house of all sorts of birds, insects and animals, you could almost say the tree supported an entire ecosystem of its own. but most importantly it supported age old customs, beliefs and the faith of numerous people to whom the tree was not just a tree but a form of god himself.
I was amazed to know the story behind it. it is believed, during a war with the asuras lord vishnu took refuge in a peepal tree to save himself from the demons. ever since, the tree has been worshiped as a form of vishnu himself. Its quite funny how one participates in these practises and discovers the true meaning behind it. Some people believe in it, some don't; some follow it out of faith, some follow it just out of habit . It is very subjective but after all what is important is an inner satisfaction. everything need not have a scientific explanation or an answer even, but sometimes it's only about how a simple belief can give you solace.. & if tying a red thread around a tree is what it takes, then be it so.
my story revolves around the peepal tree and the religious/cultural beliefs that are woven with it.
I chose a little boy as a medium to bring out my thoughts besause I feel children have the highest level of curiosity and out of their innocence can question a lot of things that we as adults fail to see. More often than not we tend to follow customs only out of habit.. in children however, this habit is not formed yet.
indirectly, I have also tried to show the concept of “fear of god” . As children, we only look at god as someone who is calculating our good and bad deeds & as someone who is going to punish us. We do not connect to religion in terms of spirituality or faith.
the story talks about how we tend to twist and turn our own words according to our own convenience and how in a typical indian society, culture and tradion does not only effect people but its grasp has a hold on nature too.
I chose a little boy as a medium to bring out my thoughts besause I feel children have the highest level of curiosity and out of their innocence can question a lot of things that we as adults fail to see. More often than not we tend to follow customs only out of habit.. in children however, this habit is not formed yet.
indirectly, I have also tried to show the concept of “fear of god” . As children, we only look at god as someone who is calculating our good and bad deeds & as someone who is going to punish us. We do not connect to religion in terms of spirituality or faith.
the story talks about how we tend to twist and turn our own words according to our own convenience and how in a typical indian society, culture and tradion does not only effect people but its grasp has a hold on nature too.