MIDDLE
Preserving silence
by Jupinderjit Singh
MAN has always evolved to natural surroundings around him and not otherwise. Nature does not adapt itself to man. It only tolerates, but to a certain point.
So, people in plains can survive in extreme hot conditions but can find difficulty in acclimatising in the cold desert of Ladakh, where the natives run and jump around easily.
But when man starts tampering with nature too much, it reacts, often, in fury, as happened recently in Ladakh — the land of high passes, barren mountains, little vegetation and oxygen, cruel cold desert but home to learned lamas.
Seven years ago when I had first visited the place to cover the Indo-US joint mountain warfare exercise, I had asked a group of tourists what brought them there in such large numbers.
“We come here to enjoy the silence,” was the reply, “and learn from it.” they added. The words echoed all these years.
Last fortnight when I landed there amidst death and destruction, people, both locals and foreigners, mostly discussed why it happened.
People talked about evil spirits and global warming in the same breath. They cursed the increasing population, vehicles and upcoming permanent settlements.
Many think atonement of their sins (both real and imaginary) as well as of society as a whole would prevent such occurrences.
Met experts seem to suggest that the clouds that came to deliver snowfall on higher peaks around Leh had some “chemical locha” when they could not find friendly temperatures to suit their job. They burst open and caused misery.
“It had to happen. People have interfered with the work of nature. They had to suffer. Buddhism teaches not to throw litter and garbage in rivers and rivulets as people, besides livestock, may be drinking it downstream. Yet, this pollution is rampant here,” said my taxi driver when I asked him.
He grumbled about greed and cheating: “Poor are being exploited more and paid less. There is general greed for material pursuits.”
Greed may be rampant everywhere in the world but lamas believe God has given them the message to warn the world about global warming. Senior lamas have already started a purification drive in and around the city to cleanse the sins.
Tourists come for spiritual solace as well to this land. They come to seek answers. But I was leaving without knowing why it happened.
As I was about to leave Leh along with a swarm of panic-stricken tourists running away from the place they had made their second home over the years, I met Erica, a tourist from Switzerland, who was visiting Leh for a decade now and had started bringing groups of trekkers and meditators.
She was living in the same guest house as ours but was mostly quiet.
“So, will you come back next year,” I asked her stressing, “with the tourists?”
“Yes, only if the Silence is preserved,” she said.
(This Middle published in The Tribune, August 31.)
link : http://www.tribuneindia.com/2010/20100831/edit.htm#5
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