I travelled to Bheemeshwari, the banks of Cauvery just about 2 hours drive from Bangalore . I had arrived here with a friend to do some editing work. We wanted a place, where we can be one with nature and we found this one was ideal.

While the river flows across uninterrupted, the birds spread their joy through music and the clouds revolve around the hills. The animals in the forest are living peacefully as we see the peacocks and deer enjoying the silence of the forest.

While, we as humans can take a lot of credit for all the technological advancement, which mankind has benefited from, we are equally responsible for destroying nature by all our acts and deeds.

When you come to a place like this, you realise that there is so much more to learn from nature. A morning walk before the sun rises in the East lets you hear the sounds of nature in its best form. Then as the river flows down the hills and plains you can hear the crocodile crawling across the river and making his presence felt.

One feels as if the world has come to a halt when you be with nature. There is absolute freedom for man and the animals and birds around him. We neither spoil their daily routine nor they come in your way of work. Today, we realise how much we have moved away from nature.

As I write this blog, I can hear the chirping of the birds almost like an orchestra. While we may not understand the language of the birds and the animals, they are rhythmic and make you listen to them and enjoy their tunes.

On the other hand, they also convey to us how much noise we create around us disturbing their daily joy. The best thing I learnt about nature today is to let them be themselves. We should not disturb their daily lives and they will not interrupt ours.

We sometimes feel as if we are the masters of the universe and have a right to live life our way and not allow plants and animals to live life their way. It is this selfish nature of man, which destroys nature.

If we travel to remote villages and hills, we realise that humans continue to live along with nature and respect them as they are and not as we want them to be. Today we travel away from the city to experience nature in its purest forms.

However, if we are willing to learn from our friends and relatives living in hills and villages, we may realise that if we let them be as they are then there may not be a need for us to travel to discover nature.

Life is no different from nature. If we allow people to live the way they want to be, then they may flourish. If we impose our beliefs and our values on others, then they may dissent and even oppose it. Our duty is just to create a culture of openness and authenticity around us. This may be true in our families , organisations and society at large.

Let’s learn to live and let live.

S Ramesh Shankar

16th March 2023

 

Ayurveda is a heritage stream of medicine based on nature. This originated in India and survives as a unique branch of medicine, practised and followed by millions around the world. Its origins go back to Atharva & Rig Veda and got systematised between 6th century BC to 7th century AD also called the Samhita period.

I have believed in this science of medicine and have benefited over the last decade. Both my spouse and me attend an ayurveda centre regularly for detoxification & rejuvenation. This year we are at Poomully Mana, a heritage ayurveda retreat in Kerala.

While many have a belief that Ayurveda is all about massages only, this may be a misnomer. It is a holistic science. Ayurveda literally means the “knowledge of life” as “Ayur is life and “Veda” means “Knowledge”. The belief in Ayurveda is one of universal inter-connectedness, body constitution and life forces.

Ayurveda starts with an internal purification process with a special diet, herbal medicines and massage therapy. So they first prepare the body to get to a stable state and then cleanse the body.This could be supplemented with yoga and meditation.

We spent 11 days this time and it has been a holistic detoxification process. The first eight days they prepare the body to stabilise through special medicated oil massage therapy along with herbal medicines and diet control. Then they detoxify the body with enema and clear off all toxins. You become lighter and fitter by the end of this process. The doctors monitor your progress all through the day and all through your stay.

The serene environment with kingfishers, wood peckers and peacocks around you and the gentle breeze from the trees cleanses your mind and soul too. The chirping of the birds wake you up naturally and the selfless service of the staff make you grounded and humble.

It is important for us to come here with an open mind and surrender ourselves to the caring doctors and staff. As far as possible we should not carry our day to day work pressures here and continue to create more stress in our minds, while we undergo this treatment. I know many of us are playing important roles in organisations or own businesses. However, I believe our health is more important than whatever work we do. We need to remember that health and happiness money cannot buy.

In my view, if we believe in nature, we could believe in Ayurveda. It is the purification process of the body, mind and soul. In order to get the maximum out of such treatments, one should leave our work ecosphere and come here with an open mind and trust the benefits of Ayurveda.

Our ability to disconnect from our daily rituals of work will make this stay worthy of its investment. We need to take control of ourselves and not blame anyone else for not benefiting fully and wholly from this science of nature.

It may be worthwhile to cleanse our mind, body and soul at least once in a year for all the toxins we feed our body right through the year.

Let the journey begin.

S Ramesh Shankar

22nd Feb 2023

If we look back in time, people lived in villages and small towns and managed all their issues within their commune. They produced what they needed and consumed within. They went out only when they could not produce. This was true for all aspects of life and living. Today human beings are creating problems everyday around themselves and struggling to find solutions.

Whether it is climate change or warming of the earth’s surface, all our actions today ,is leading us to a bleak tomorrow ,for our future generations. We have to move from a world living on greed, to a world satisfied with their needs. I am not sure if we have solutions, for all the problems we are creating ,for ourselves and our future generations. However, the silver lining is that ,Nature has solutions for all man made problems.

Let us look at how we can learn from nature and at least prevent the further de-generation of the human kind. A simple example could be the natural disasters. I am told that the animals sense the onset of a tsunami or an earthquake and caution other animals and birds to move away from the likely site of disaster. Tribal communities who are closer to nature observe and listen to the calls of these animals and reduce the impact of disaster on them.

I am at an ayurveda retreat at present in Kerala, India. As per Ayurveda experts, there are many precautions human beings can take ,to lead a healthy life. This could include ,the type of food consumed, the exercise we do and even our daily routine of getting up and going to sleep. These have been prescribed hundreds of years ago and we are still groping in the dark and knowingly ignoring them.

Another interesting video I was watching was about the bullet trains in Japan. I was told they had a perennial problem of high decibel noise from the bullet trains when they exited tunnels and this impacted the nearby communities. They struggled to find a solution till an engineer saw a kingfisher bird diving into the river without a splash. This prompted the engineer to design the frontal side of the train like the beak of a kingfisher. this not only reduced the sound emitted but also reduced power consumption by the trains.

Nature has myriad ways of teaching us everyday. We have moved away from nature .humans have started believing that our ingenuity and technology can solve all man made problems. We are realising that this is not true and the sooner we get closer to nature, the better it is for mankind.

Let us look at the waste we create everyday around us. Earlier it was mostly organic and got naturally recycled back to earth. Nowadays with plastic and all other chemicals used in packaging etc, there is no way waste will get recycled easily. Although, we are going organic rapidly, our ability to reduce consumption will lead us to a better tomorrow. Here again animals teach us that they never consume more than what they need. Have you ever seen a dog over eating ? It will refuse food when its stomach is full. It is humans who keep consuming irrespective of need and because of greed.

It may be time to reconnect with nature and learn everyday.

S Ramesh Shankar

18th February 2023