• Buried Alive? The World's Oldest Leper Found in India

• Hinduism: An eco-friendly way of life

In Hiduism, plants and animals have a distinctive place. All the Gods and Goddesses are associated with a particular tree or animal. Thus, Hindu culture teaches us to respect other living beings and live together sharing mother earth. In this era of global warming, much effort is given to promote environment-friendly living and lifestyle. In this regard, Hinduism is very much forward and since time immemorial, Hindu rishis (sages) were much aware of the Panchabhuta (five elements) and the need and also the process to live in harmony with everything animate and inanimate in this world. For example, in Hinduism even Gods are imagined in natural atmosphere and worshipped associating them with animals and trees. Lord Vishnu (the saver of the whole universe) is imagined as sleeping peacefully on the bed formed with Sheshanag (great snake) on great ocean. Lord Shiva is meditating on glaciers, accompanied by bull named as Nandi and River Ganga is flowing out of the hair of his head and snakes are playing peacefully on his holy body. The ocean and the glaciers are most important chain for existence of this globe and are thus kept as most sacred place and protected from any human intervention. In Hinduism, all Gods are worshipped with one animal as vahan (carrier/company). Apart from spiritual meanings, this is helpful to protect animal bio-diversity; all the animals which have an important role in environment are preserved carefully by allotting a special status as attached with Gods-- for example, beautiful white swan is associated with Lord Brahma (the creator) and Goddess Saraswati (Goddess of education and fine arts). God Maheswara is sitting on Brisava (great Ox ), Lord Krishna is associated with cows. Dhavali and Saoli are the names of His two favourite cows. Goddess Laxmi is accompanied by owl or elephants, Devi Durga is sitting on a lion, Devi Ganga is sitting on Makara (an ancient sea-animal looks like an elephant), Lord Ganesha is worshipped with a mouse and Lord Kartikeya is seen on a peacock.

Among dus avatars (ten incarnations) of Lord Vishnu, fish, tortoise and wild boar are described as the three most primitive avatars. In this way, Hindus tried to point out the chain of evolution of life on earth, and this also gives a special protection to tortoise, fishes and wild boars. Most of the temples in India, especially in rural areas are home to different animals like monkey, tortoises, fish, snakes, bats, owls etc. In many Shiva temples, snakes are worshipped. Snakes easily move in and around the temples, take milk from devotees, nobody harms them and even they don't harm any one. In many ways, Hindu culture teaches humans to build a humane relation with animals and live together sharing the earth. Ayurveda (the Veda for life) prescribes many herbal treatments for many diseases; this not only saves human being with natural medication, but also saves herbs and plants as useful friends of human being and facilitates respect to nature. Also it offers many natural pest control measures which are popular and used in homes. For example, turmeric powder is used to get rid of red ants in the kitchen. Sarpagandha plant is planted near the courtyard to repel snakes etc. These prevent the use of chemical pesticides. In rural areas of Orissa, farmers rarely kill rats; they just catch one rat, colour it hugely with sindoor (vermillion) and release it. Next day, rats stop visiting the place for at least three months. Biodiversity management groups may list out such practices and encourage replication of these 'good practices' to keep the food-chain intact and help preserve the bio-diversity. To protect the environment, protection of trees is very necessary. Hindu culture gives special attention to this also. Banyan and bata trees are given the status of God and imagined as an abode of Lord Narayana. These trees cannot be cut or uprooted according to Hindu culture and plantation of these plants is considered as most pious work. But unfortunately, after English subjugation of India since 1757 to 1947, a tendency of rejecting all the practices of Hindu culture as 'foolish thing' or 'blind faith' is embedded in the mind of people and this has taken much toll on relation between human and nature also. Bio-diversity of India today, is almost destroyed. Sustainable education to people through generations on importance of bio-diversity and its impact on global warming is a Herculean task. Our culture could do it in a simple way-way of love, respect and mutual recognition!

Courtesy: www.merinews.com, September 11, 2009

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It's a sombre tale; one of death, disease and live burial. But the body of a man found in Rajasthan, India reveals much more than an ancient horror story. The disovery in the town of Balathal, 40km north-east of Udaipur, is tying together some of the mysteries surrounding the tribes of the Indus Valley, who lived in the shadows of the mighty Harappans. The unfortunate man is thought to have been aged between 25 and 45, and predates the earliest-known human leprosy case by around 2,000 years. The previous oldest was an Egyptian dating to 400-250 BC, though the Ebers Papyrus mentions the disfiguring disease as early as 1,550 BC. The man, who belonged to the agricultural Ahar-Banas culture, may also have met a gruesome ritualistic end. Though bodies in the Harappan region were usually cremated, diseased frames were consigned to the earth - and it was frequent practice to bury those with afflictions alive. The man was buried in the cross-legged samadhi yoga posture, which appears to uphold this morbid notion. So there's the death and disease - what of the leper's little-known tribal provenance? Rarely anything is found from the Ahar-Banas group, and they are regularly confused with their much more illustrious Harappan contemporaries from the twin cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro. Yet they were much more than jealous next-door neighbours. Converting from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to agriculture around the mid-fifth millennium BC, the Ahars had pottery and copper by the fourth millennium BC, and had created complex road, housing and fortification systems by 2,500 BC. They are even the proud owners of the world's first burned brick, found in Gilund in 2001. "Gilund is emerging as an urban centre of the Aharites," Vasant Shinde of Deccan College told India Today. "The Harappans did help them flourish but the farmers retained their culture intact," says S.P. Gupta, Chairman of the Archaeological Society of India. The skeleton shows that as well as the Harappans, the Ahars took cultural lines from their neighbours in south and central India. Cow dung ash found in his pit are believed to have come from mounds towards south Deccan and north Dharwar. How much more do you want from one skeleton?

Courtesy: http://heritage-key.com, September 4, 2009

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