A tree as old as the hills

Apr 20, 2010, 12.00am IST
SANJAY DEV.

I am God's creation; He who created the cosmos also created me. I am one of the elements of the natural world, and so am perhaps as old as the hills, existing say, for more than 210 million years now, going by the estimates of cosmogonists.

Genesis makes mention of me as the Tree of Knowledge planted by God along with the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden, embodying knowledge of good and evil. The one whose fruit was forbidden to eat and which both Adam and Eve ended up eating, succumbing to temptation. And for which transgression they were banished from the Garden of Eden, to toil and sweat for survival.


I am also the Bo Tree, the tree under whose shade Gautama attained enlightenment and became known as the Buddha. I am produced by spore or seed and thus self-perpetuate, as per phytogenesis. That's about my age, origin and evolution. I have witnessed vicissitudes of times; rise and fall of civilisations. I have survived the Apocalypse that flattened entire Creation and reduced me to a fossil or several fossils - proof of my once-being-there.


Years of survival and the struggle to live, inherent in all living beings, have conditioned me to stand the ground and acclimatise to surroundings, hostile or friendly, no matter! I first make sure that I stand on my own, and then prepare the ground for my near and dear ones. I not only create a habitat for myself but do so for others, too, who flock to my arborous arms. As a tree, one must be pliable when young. You can't shape me into a mould once I am grown up and my limbs get ossified.

I understand the language of inter-dependence. And hence have a pact with those who tend to me. I fill their lungs with life-giving oxygen and take in the discarded carbon dioxide to fill mine and nourish myself. To reward others for my upkeep, I give them wood, fruits, rubber, nectar, gum, food and medicinal substances. This constitutes the material exchange. Besides, I also give protection from sun and rain; help stabilise the ground they make their homes on; offer them green cover to counter pollution and rarify the air they inhale.

I can't be faulted because I keep teaching lessons -- audible enough when it blows; visible enough when it blows and pours. I keep beckoning my arm-like branches and fluttering my wing-like leaves. What can I do if the woods and its inhabitants collectively and separately miss my lessons of peaceful coexistence, communion with nature, symbiotic relationship, self-reliance, coalescence, assimilation and absorption, virtues of charity and giving, growing closely yet apart, vertical growth rooted in horizontal development, unobtrusive communication, standing tall, yet bending with one's own weight without throwing it around -- all this and much more. But alas, it seems they miss the woods for the trees!


I have always known my place in the vast cosmos and respect its limits in the context of my existence or not. Unfortunately, those who study the vastness of the cosmos believe in invading others' space. Why don’t they just let me ne? Ought you to judge a tree by its bark? The tree is known by its fruit, sometimes. How long will I take kindly to it all? If there is no more eco-mindfulness in the world and consumerism becomes the main driver of life and living, would that not impact the entire system? What if ultimately trees lose their `treeness’?