Living in harmony with nature

The book opens with a story of an 18th century massacre in which as many as 363 Bishnois were beheaded by men who worked for the king, Abhay Singh, as they tried to protect trees that those men wanted to cut down for the king. More Bishnois were in the queue for sacrifice, but the news reached the palace, and the killing stopped. Such a story has never been told, and it is unlikely to be ever repeated. It remains the bravest act of nature conservation ever seen. The martyrs of village Khejarli in western Rajasthan were all Bishnois, led by a woman named Amrita Devi, who stood for the community commitment to live in harmony with nature. 

Who were the Bishnois? What had got them together to stage such a mass sacrifice? The Bishnois who laid down their lives were only following their guru Jambhoji who, during the 15th century unprecedented drought, had called them to live in harmony with nature. “A tree covered in greenery is my temple and my home.” In telling the extraordinary story of this desert-dwelling community, Martin Goodman, a professor of creative writing at the University of Hull, presents the Bishnois as the most ecologically conscience community in the world.   

The Bishnois have persisted with such a conscience ever since, following a life lived in harmony with nature. It is perhaps the only religion or the religious practice in the world that has environmental protection in its core. Their founding guru declared his place of divine residence to be ‘A tree covered in greenery is my temple and my home.’ The spiritual leader declared twenty one rules which are religiously followed till date, most famously followed by the woman who had led 363 villagers to lay down their lives while chanting ‘my head for a tree’.

Times have changed but not the values that remain dear to them. They do protect living beings at any cost, however, in modern times they have evolved into eco-warriors to ensure that the laws of the land are forcefully endorsed to protect all lives. To a Bishnoi, killing a monitor lizard is as hideous a crime as killing a tiger. Salman Khan learnt it the hard way. Charged for hunting a protected species of the blackbuck, the actor was booked for violation under a criminal offence. 

Goodman provides details of the case, highlighting how the Bishnois patience and perseverance was tested against Khan’s popular image and power. It took no less 68 appearances in the court 

over a period of twenty years to pronounce the verdict. In the years between the blackbuck killings and the actor’s guilty verdict, the Bishnois’ Tiger Force had teamed with law enforcers in perusing the case. The force has maintained information networks to bust illegal activities, so that a repeat of the 1998 blackbuck incident does not recur.   

My Head For A Tree is a story about the incredible relentlessness of the Bishnois. Their commitment to a cause isn’t time sensitive, it becomes their life. They see the natural world as a vital entity with rights of plants and animals equal to us, the humans. A Bishnoi woman breast-feeding an orphaned gazelle, chinkara, could be a common sight. And it is not done to create an identity for themselves, but to present what they firmly believe in. Their love for chinkara is profound, with 85 percent of its global population endemic to south-west Rajasthan.  

The Bishnois is an inspiring story that offers not only wisdom, but a concern to forge non-violent action. It is a book about people saving the planet, the message is embedded in what they do to safeguard nature. Goodman has been to their farms, their schools, their temples, and even animal shelters in narrating the ecological commitment and empathy. Pictures by Franck Vogel in the volume are relevant to the context. For people facing unprecedented challenge of rising temperature and desertification, the book has a subtle message for survival. 

My Head For A Tree is an engaging book that connects our glorious past with an uncertain future, in relating an extraordinary group of people and their practices to the impending climatic challenges. It is a book that fills a gap in the ongoing environmental debate. Within the incredible ongoing story about an amazing community lies the future story of human survival. The story of first eco-warriors, which now number no more than a million people, hold a strong message for the teeming millions.  

It is an essential reading for those who are concerned about our collective future. The Bishnoism holds a future that is dear to all of us. The Bishnois are born, and their practices can be followed to confront our present crises. 

My Head For A Tree
by Martin Goodman
Profile Books/ Hachette, New Delhi 
Extent: 270, Price: Rs. 699.

First published in New Indian Express on 9 Feb 2025

Don't take it for granted.

With nature coming full throttle to assert its immense power in recent times, there is an urgent need to return to the spiritual traditions of treating nature with reverence.

The impact of mindless development has come knocking on our doors. Floods, heat waves, and wildfires have made the summer 2023 with some of the most extreme events on record. Nature has shown to be fierce and awe-inspiring, mysterium tremendum et fascinans (a mystery that both repels and attracts). What is clear now is that given the fearful reality of the climate crisis, homo sapiens alone have to change not only their lifestyle but the entire belief system too. 

Once a nun, and now an accomplished commentator on transcultural understanding, Karen Armstrong has written a timely treatise, Sacred Nature, on reconnecting with nature to rekindle our sense of the sacred. As a child we do have a silent receptiveness of the natural world but with age a sense of superiority takes over. “Our all-absorbing technological living has alienated us from nature,” laments Armstrong. “Even in a place of extreme natural beauty we talk on our mobiles or scroll through social media: we are present, yet fundamentally absent.” Unless nature finds an intimate place in our minds and hearts, humans will continue to remain isolated from it.

Through the reading of ancient texts and scriptures, Armstrong reminds us that myths introduced our forebearers to deeper truths by directing their attention to the eternal and universal. It is, however, another matter that with the astonishing success in science and technology during the 18th century, myths were discounted as false and primitive.

Sacred Nature explores religious practices and philosophical ideas that were fundamental to the way people experienced nature in the past, and how myths, rituals, poetry, and music had a profound effect on their mental life. With nature coming full throttle to assert its immense power in recent times, there is an urgent need to return to the spiritual traditions of treating nature with reverence which gave birth to Confucianism and Taoism in China, Hinduism and Buddhism in India, monotheism in Israel, as well as rationalism in Greece. The classic expression of the Greeks called kenosis, personified by Mahatma Gandhi as 'emptying of the self,' helps liberate us from the destructive strictures and egotism. It opens up a new understanding of ourselves and a fresh perception of the world around us. Needless to say, application of such thoughts, perceptions and practices have much to offer.

Even for those who may not like hymns of devotion, Armstrong’s subtle exploration of the sacredness of nature can push them into thinking about reconnecting with nature. In a world where nature is rapidly receding from everyday life, there is a need to bring nature back into our collective consciousness.

Armstrong suggests a completely new worldview, a belief in nature’s innate power to redeem itself. Unless we develop an aesthetic appreciation of nature and devise an ethical program to guide our thoughts and behavior, we will soon run out of time for ourselves. The threats are indeed looming large and are quite often irreversible. There is a need to evoke the romanticism of Wordsworth and Keats to incorporate into human lives insights and practices that will help in meeting today’s serious challenges because nature’s processes are dynamic, ephemeral, and their origins are hidden from view.

Pulling central themes from the world’s religious traditions – from gratitude to compassion, and from non-violence to sacrifice – Armstrong offers practical steps to develop a new mindset to rekindle the sense of the sacred. Reflective and insightful, the book is a primer on how environmental science need to be redesigned as a subject. In such times of climate change when icecaps are melting, wildfires are raging and floods are rampant, there is no time for partying anymore.

Sacred Nature
by Karen Armstrong
Bodley Head, London
Extent: 239, Price: Rs. 999.

First published in The Hindu on Oct 1, 2023.

Making sense of one's surroundings

In a predominantly growth-obsessed market-driven consumerist culture, the environment as a subject has remained at the margins of popular perception – arcane to some and obscure to others. Environment no longer registers! Even if it does, it is often from the perspective of highly polarized environment-development debates. That environment sustains all life forms rarely merit a majority concern. 

Why is modern living distanced from the environment? Could near absence of inter-generational transfer of empathy towards environment be the prime reason! Stories, both oral and written, have ceased to be the channel for transferring the subtleties of our inter-dependence on nature and myriad other life forms. Stark monetization of human existence has further reduced environment into a set of by-products and services that can be traded. No surprise therefore that environment has been pushed to the margins of social consciousness with the riches of nature being squandered for petty gains.     

Through his collection of refreshing short stories, noted Kannada writer K P Purnachandra Tejasvi connects the civilized with the wild, evoking sentience towards what is often considered ‘given’. Set amidst the forest adjoining his village Mudigere in Chickamaglur district, each of the fifteen stories are encounters in the wild, capturing the innate intelligence of various animals in interacting with humans. The strange behavior of the jungle fowl; the mythical existence of snakes; the defense mechanism of the mud tortoise; and the amazing commonsense of the simians provide compelling insights on the virtues of co-existence. 

Considered as one of the finest prose writers, Tejasvi’s stories are neither obtrusive nor preachy. Full of wit and humor, he delightfully transforms real-life incidents in the forest into stories which have environment as the central character. The storyteller doesn’t lay undue emphasis on environment, leaving it to the reader’s imagination to create possibilities in his or her own depths. These are not just stories but experiences in the wild, making the reader aware about environment even without realizing it. The stories neither compete nor negotiate an existing situation, but create an enduring relationship between the reader and the human/non-human characters. 

There is unmistakable hint of richness lurking in each of the stories in The Story of My Environment. Tejasvi has an exceptional sensitivity towards environment which together with his comic genius helps transform this collection into a work of art. As a tribute to Tejasvi’s brilliance, this collection of short stories is 'highly recommended' for readers of all age groups!

The Story of My Environment
by K P Puranachandra Tejasvi
Pustakaprakashana, Mysore
Extent: 192, Price: Rs 140