A reverence for nature

“People still revere and are intimately entangled with nature in India.”
– Valmik Thapar, Indian tiger expert, wildlife conservationist and author

Man has always been connected to nature in India. According to ancient Indian science and medicine, nature and man are essentially one. Man is said to be the microcosm; the Universe is the macrocosm. What exists in the world exists in man. Man is nothing but a miniature world containing the five elements (earth, water, fire, air and ether) which constitute the minerals, vegetables and the animal kingdom.

However, India has suffered over thousands of years. She has lost much of her fertile soil, her forests, her flora and fauna, her biodiversity. With an ever-bulging population, we are rapidly eating into our stock of renewable resources. It’s likely that, sometime in the not-so-distant future, we shall exceed our ability to sustain ourselves.

But until that day comes, we can still celebrate what India has to offer us. And that’s plenty… according to a spectacular six-hour mini-series on PBS/WNET, the details of which I found in a story called A Reverence For Nature while surfing the Internet

The mini-series, titled INDIA: LAND OF THE TIGER, showcases “the natural history and wildlife of the great Indian subcontinent. Hosted and narrated by Valmik Thapar, this ambitious documentary features footage of remarkable scope and beauty, and explores the various ways humanity is connected to nature through myth, legend, culture, and religion.”