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Earth Day: What Are We Celebrating?



“I believe in God, only I spell it Nature."
-- Frank Lloyd Wright

Earth Day, celebrated annually on April 22, may be the one day that aims at transcending all boundaries of 
culture, language, and tradition.

Let’s get crazy about EarthDay.  
Let’s save the planet! Shall we?


The Pertaining Questions
As I blog this one from my office desk, seated comfortably from my air conditioned cubicle, surrounded by several grim-faced working class heroes, I wonder do we really require a special day to feel overjoyed for our planet?

Do we really need a day marked on the calendar to commemorate that one place where all of us belong?

Do we actually require a single day to feel that sudden urge of awareness and responsibility for taking measures to protect our Earth?

Don’t we have better things to worry about already? Can’t the Earth take care of itself?

Oh wait, I have to get back to that script I was creating. That’s what actually should matter to me for my sustenance. Isn’t it? 

Who gives a damn about that pale blue dot anyway?


Not that I am a sadist, or against observing a single day when some of us, are overwhelmed with exuberance in showing how much we love and care for our mother Earth. 

 By the way, did you check out the doodle today? 

Yes, for most of us, it is just another day. Meanwhile, my news feed is being flooded with several captivating articles and insights about this special day.


Be it Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, I surely have several thought-provoking articles to meditate on! And these posts do save the planet too. So does my blog post. So does the Earth Anthem.


 "For 200 years we've been conquering nature. Now we're beating it to death."
-- Tom McMillan


About Earth Day
Scientists estimate the Earth’s age at over 4.5 billion years, but its Day has only existed for 46. 

Earth Day inspires all of us to appreciate our big blue and green orb with events big and small, ranging from family hiking trips to citywide recycling initiatives.

Originally conceived by peace activist John McConnell in 1969, Earth Day as we know it was established by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson a year later. 

Concerned about humanity’s impact on the natural world, Nelson sought to raise public awareness of environmental issues by devoting a day to environmental events and education. 

Since its inception, Earth Day has spread to nearly 200 countries, with millions of celebrants all around the world.


The Pertaining Issues
We human beings constitute the most successful species on Earth! 

 We thrive on every continent on the globe. We add one billion of ourselves, net gain, every 12 years. We expect to add at least three billion more of ourselves by mid-century and ever more after that. 

 From 7.1 billion in 2013, we could double to 14 billion by the end of this century.

Along the way, billions of us live in utter misery and starvation cycles. Over 10 million children and eight million adults starve to death annually or die of starvation related diseases. That doesn't deter our species from producing ever more of ourselves as we add that 80 million net gain annually.

Funny thing about Mother Nature, however, she brings a reckoning to all species who overshoot the carrying capacity of any finite land mass. 

 She kills without guilt, shame, temperance or concern. She kills slowly or quickly. A few or a few million! She kills without mercy or conscience. 

And we think nature is fucked?

There are several core issues that can be identified and tackled at various levels.

Yes, we have been an audience to lengthy discussions and case studies. Many of us are well aware of potential threat(s) to our existence. The Internet is flooded with links, that meticulously highlight several threats to our existence. 

I believe the biggest threat to human existence is humans themselves.


The Hopeless Helplessness
Several environmentalists think we humans have already crossed the point of no return - having hit the threshold and being completely unaware of it- tardily drifting towards a global catastrophic risk. 

 We simply go around with our daily routine, consuming mindlessly, blatantly ignoring warning signs, acting as if we have a plethora of resource to sustain human lineage to sprout on this holy planet, failing to correct ourselves, letting each of our corrupt acts bring more tears to the ailing mother Earth! 

When/How will we understand?

 It is not the Earth that needs us, the planet had and will survive even without humans thriving on it. It is us humans who are in a greater need to preserve and conserve the only home we have!


“Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize we cannot eat money.”-- Cree Indian proverb


The Impromptu Solution(s)

We often wonder what we can do, when the world seems to be spinning out of control.
Yet you're alive with a gift. You're here because you have a gift.

You're reading this because there is something inside you that knows it's time to Master that gift and bring it out to the world.
Where do you start?

Hence, the age-old question, How can I help? 


A simple google search returns many interesting links on how making very simple changes to our daily routine, we can bring about a conscious change to our planet.

Here is a link, that lists 350 ways to save the world!

Or another giving 50 ways to help our planet.

Try watching a perfect documentary on Saving Planet Earth.

> Here is a quick list collating some simple practices you can inculcate consciously in your daily routine, that will sure contribute towards a healthy and happier planet Earth:

🌎 Swap out your light bulbs. Switch to CFLs.

🌎 Turn off the lights when walking out!

🌎 Plant a tree or three. Be a part of #TheGreenWaveChallenge (Visit the facebook page, if you're game!)

🌎 Go paperless. Paperless bills. Paperless writing. Refuse duplicate bill slips. Use the least amount of tissues (Carry a handkerchief, or two if u are a wet person!)

🌎 Go for nature walks. Go for a jungle trek. Only when you get really close to mother nature to appreciate its beauty and essence, will your inner self-guide your actions towards preserving the planet.

🌎 Drive the speed limit. This one may be the hardest one. Driving the speed limit increases your miles per gallon, in turn saving you bucks at the pump.

🌎 Carry your own water bottle. Reduce the amount of plastic water bottle waste in the world by carrying your own

🌎 Recycle at work. Most people do it at home, but there are a shocking number of offices and workplaces that don't recycle. Just think about the amount of wasted paper that could be recycled but instead is being thrown away with the trash!


Endless possibilities lay ahead us, our destiny is in our hands. Nature was and will be fine without us. It is we who need to understand our dependency on our fragile environment and the urgency to grow sensitive towards it.

Embrace the beauty of your surrounding. Feel the benign presence of the nurturing mother.

Understand, that we are one in this journey, that the Earth is our home, where it all started, and will end one day.
In the end, it is all about the choices we make.



“Sooner or later, we will have to recognize that the Earth has rights, too, to live without pollution. What mankind must know is that human beings cannot live without Mother Earth, but the planet can live without humans.”

-- Evo Morales



Together WE stand, divide WE fall!


“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed.” -- Mahatma Gandhi



***

So, what do you pledge this Earth Day?



Leave your suggestions in space below. 



What do you feel is that one concerning area that's causing the maximum threat to our existence?



Suggest steps we can inculcate in our day to day lives to bring about a change for a better tomorrow?

How did you celebrate Earth Day?


Happy Earth Day!




 References:

 1. Earth Day 2015 Quotes: 23 Inspirational, Funny And Wise Sayings That Pay Homage To Mother Nature.
2. Google Doodle - Earth Day 2016.
3. Human Species Most Destructive On The Planet.
4. 10 of the Biggest Threats to Human Existence
April 22 Day destroy
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Day After Tomorrow.


I. 

TODAY



What is it to be a human?


Dear mother,

I know, I should’ve written earlier. But a lot has been going on here since you left us. 
See, the endowments you bestowed onto the few selected lot of imbecile monkeys to stride forward together, towards a more beautiful and peaceful home, have largely misinterpreted your divine blessing, taking undue advantage of their free will - replacing your statue of love and harmony with ever imposing hatred and never ending ego. 
Whom, once you blessed as brothers are now up in arms, facing off and slaying each other over trivial issues you would be disappointed to hear. Yes, the conditions are worse as they sound, and, believe me, dear mother, I am not exaggerating.

What you might have once dreamt as your beautiful second home, outlined by shadows of your unconditional love, is slowly moving towards the dark side. 
Mislead and misguided, often with deliberate attempts of choking on meaningless desires, that never ceases to lure the human greed. Peace, love, harmony are mere words, sung by disheartened dreamers, long boycotted by the vicious circle of rules, regulations, sect, creed, religion, their version of reality, woven in a perfect hallucinatory design, earmarked to believe as truth. 

But you cannot see the truth with your eyes closed. Or can you?

The messengers of love - young men and women singing in your glory, spreading the divine word, narrating the doctrine of peace - end up burdened under relentless conspiracies - piles of unfinished stories. Sadly, only the powerful and ego-maniacs win.

Oh! You won't believe we've invented this object termed money - that has further aggravated our existential on this beautiful planet. We actually pay for living, for staying alive! 
As if every breath blessed by your loving grace, connecting us and making us merge with The One was not enough - yes, we have invented a bigger pursuit than happiness. 
It is more than mere peaceful existence - we have started to be something else you chose us to be. We have forgotten the purpose we started this euphoric journey the first place. 
Yes, we have pushed and shoved your image away. We sadly have taken our existence for granted, ignoring to dance to the rhythm of the universe, blinded enough to overlook the obvious patterns and designs we were born to. 
Choosing to forget that we chose to be here inside the human bodies of ours for a much bigger reason, than chasing and filling our lungs with greasy bundles of printed paper, giving fake promises of an accomplished life. 

Sigh!

I envisage mortality as the single toppling brink that has helped your offspring's survive midst tremendous pandemonium that prevails on your blessed land since centuries. We have collectively failed to realize Love is the answer. 
Maybe our ego curtained ignorance is too perdurable to view the obvious, finding happiness in everything else but within ourselves.

As I write this disheartening piece of letter under the influence of the divine invocation, many hapless heads are being butchered for non-existential boundaries and borders, greedy hands vying to butcher every inch of your blessed endowment.

Lamenting, I throw my nimble hands up in the air, seeking intervention. I know all isn't lost - there still is hope. 
All my brothers need is a sign - a divine harbinger whispering into their deaf ears - that shall resonate and awaken them from their long hibernation to discover the abundant radiance of the almighty surrounding and embracing us all. 

That infinite ray of light beaming and exploding through the minds of all, thrusting us in togetherness towards the One.


Reveal yourself. Reveal Yourself. Reveal Yourself. Now!





Om trayambakam yajaamahe sugandhim pushtivardhanam


Urvaarukamiva bandhanaan mrityor muksheeya maamritaat.







* * *


II.

TOMORROW


“Hey, Bob, look out, we got two of those flashers out there. They could be SLA [Spacecraft Lunar Module Adapter] panels. I don’t know. They’re alike in intensity and pretty regular in the bright and dim flashes they come out with, and they’re widely separated.”


A dazed Bob gazed into the infinite ceiling above his shining head. It was a week later his centurion day on his mystically surfaced planet. 
Flashbacks of the crazy jamboree his mates back home threw to commemorate his special day, pranged back his head. Never before had he felt so dazed and confused. 
Realizing and perceiving stories during his mystical blackouts under the influence of the Shaman's medicine paved path and gave birth to this journey he decided to disembark with his long time comrade Tim. 

They were midway solving the long existing puzzle as to what might happen if one dared to break free and egress the divine pattern that was all connected and delineated by Gaia herself. 

Was it even possible? 

To ignore the obvious links and knots you knew were handcrafted to exist. What could life possibly mean without being breathed in, caressed and treasured by the loving hands of nature, and when the rightful time arrives, being breathed out and rested in sublime sleep - transcending to an alternate dimension - a possible alternate life hidden away from the realms of this existing form.

A panting Bob joined his frenzied pal and zoomed their optics out into the open space - an infinite omnidirectional dimension as they were always narrated and made to learn about in their dorms.

Their superior sense of vision - a characteristic that was common to off springs of their lineage made them good explorers - a job that was much in demand and sought after in their homeland - Paxterra. 
Their forefathers had envisioned a near perfect system and way of existence, that was well preserved and eventually passed on to the upcoming cohorts. It was widely believed and revered as the divine's way of existence. No one, till then ever imagined a life devoid of the peaceful existence that was meant to devour on the souls of all beings on their territory. The pair was the first to wander and explore the possibilities of breaking away from the devout bond holding all beings together as one.


Yes, it was true; both of them saw a pale blue dot hanging out motionless in the distant space. As small and insignificant as a speck of dust, it reflected back light from the near and distant stars that blessed its surface - an assurance, it had no light of its own - a possible satellite or may be a planet - a possibility it could usher similar life forms blessed and taken care by Gaia.

But, stumbling on something so precious in this infinitesimally spanning dimension was never easy! Their fathers had futilely spent their entire lifetime trying to make contact with other species, merely trying to understand their existence and to share their treasured knowledge that helped sustain and flourish the mesmerizing Paxterra.
They started to jot down notes and excitingly taking snaps of what laid ahead of them.

"Umm, Yeah! We are making a detour. This pale blue dot might be interesting. Wish us luck! Namaste."
Several nervous moments of intense breathings and constant static followed from the chambers of the bronze plated speaker and mic setting that laid tangled in front of Bob. 
With every dripping of red sweat from his third eye – a clear indication for Tom, that his pal was feeling the heat – his hunch about a possible existence of life form in the pale blue dot converted to a belief. An affirmative nod followed.


“Hi this is Bob, yes we see some strange gas, all black and stinky filling up the atmosphere surrounding the planet. Poor bastards shit them inhaling down here!”


][shivering…][



“Ha! This is crazy!”



][After some heavy static...][



“Yeah! They are in terrible shape James. Shruck! These ego driven minions seem to lustfully live in utter Helter skelter. Shruck! 
I fail to understand how should I react at this moment? Shall I be angered at these potheads for blatantly ignoring the obvious channels of love and mutual co-existence or should I be brimming with pitiful tears of sorrowfulness and stretch out my hand to pull them out of this plight…”
][A loud thud subduing a heavier explosion resonates the sealed chambers...][



“ Shruck! They are in desperate need of our help...The message must be delivered. At once – flash of light needs to be… Shruck! The divine message...”


“Uhm, you sure about it?”


][Heavy crackling voice resonating… ][


“We don't understand the universe yet. We don’t understand any of this stuff. They've come to believe, inside every black hole, there is another universe.Wrap your fucking head around!”




* * *




III.

DAY 
AFTER 
TOMORROW



You are standing in an empty room. A room made of little pieces of stardust that carry emptiness between them. There are no pieces of furniture - no chairs or tables. They were there, but they took them away. There are no monsters from your bad dreams, although, they never were there. Remember! You are standing in an empty room. While breathing in and out, you feel the movement of the emptiness inside you and that the emptiness is You. At this moment, you see that the only things which are absent in the room are the impossible ways of existence. 
Do you see the reason for your existence?

Seeing is not always believing ... Or is it?




"My third eye has been active ever since I was a child. Years back it turned into a full blown Kundalini awakening - you know the kind that feels like lightning bolts shooting down your spine through the major chakra pathways. But when I was a kid, I could physically feel things near my forehead and it would intermittently tickle.
I used to telepathically communicate to the street dogs and they would rub their whiskers against my forehead and it would send intense energy soaring through my endocrine system. 
This sounds kind of weird but I grew up thinking that all people experienced these sensations in their pineal gland until I had the Kundalini awakening and learned that hardly anyone does. 
It was hilarious when I was trying to explain this to my doctor and realized he had no clue what I was talking about. They tested me for brain seizures and everything."

 But then one day it happened again...

 Of all the significant hypothesis proved, equations etched, laws imposed against the will of nature - I chose one - a bicycle trip - that single handily has the potential to outweigh almost everything else, making the mere existence of all the egocentric motives and rituals around you laughable. 
Throughout human history, as mankind has witnessed a plethora of groundbreaking declarations - most of which can - and has made us question our will, only one can be earmarked as worthy decree, that one single bicycle trip that seemed to change the very perception of human senses and made us see what our eyes were designed for - what our minds were fabricated and connected to perceive - what our souls roamed for in human forms endlessly craving for - the dream to finally be exigent - to be here and now - opening the doors of perception and realizing to free your mind should be the ultimate whim of the moment. Nothing else should matter!


To see the light we must embrace the darkness.


I met Jesus while he was raving during the days of cannibal holocaust. It was intense. They came, they delivered the message, and with a flash of light, every moment of happiness gushed out from our lifeless veins into the infinite pool of love and harmony of the universe. 
The message that should’ve been learned a long time ago was finally being whispered into the deaf ears, resonating inside the mind of the numb receivers with every available inch of dimension, every tune delivering a different meaning – a magical world of truly infinite possibilities. 
Where none was judged or jester at the way one thought or held an opinion about everything close or remotely associated with his world. 
Oh! A world where every head was held high and all understood the meaning of each other’s existence inside the creation we all were collectively a part of – where everyone held equal responsibilities towards the betterment of the environment they were attached to as a whole. 
All embraced and held each others’ nerves during tense moments of intense peaks - vibrations racing down from their crown spiraling across The Sushumna tunnel of enlightenment, dissociating its energy across the floral shaped ground on which they stood.

Only after intense dark nights arrives the brightest shimmering sun.


140bpm… 180bpm… 220bpm…


It was close to five in the morning, the moon which radiantly overlooked the night proceedings slowly started to recede midst the shy gray bordering clouds, creating intricate patterns outlining mystically shaped faces in the sky that made way for that nascent reddish sunbeam outstretching across the abysmal horizon.


][A boisterous mob had gathered, looking up at the sky, dazed and confused!][


“You are ant-like pitiable creatures living in your own confined dimensions, unaware of an existence beyond your known defined realms. You are a nightingale singing gaily in your own delusional world, elaborately created by your adroit mind. You don’t want to invest any time rationalizing out your thoughts, it’s easier to make a blanket statement that everyone is equal and inherently good. Not true. All of you are instinctively reacting to your own circumstances. 
The fact is, there is only one obvious truth out there. There is or there is not. It makes no sense to me as to why you morons would choose to make your own deities when common sense demands only One. 
Human history keeps on repeating itself because you have been designed by The Mother, one short of perfection. 
See, you can’t fix this mess the way of conquering this planet, simply because you did not author it the first place. So quit trying. Accept things as they are meant to be, rather than over analyzing and tweaking everything as per your own whims. 
You are incapable of total unity – as there always will exist diametrically opposite dualities. There is no creation without dual existence. All you walking bodies of bones and veins are in dire need of enlightenment. 
Even within your ethnic differences, all are aware of a presence of something higher – that has guided and created every inch of this universe into existence. 
Even your children are born with this awareness – but are too soon sucked into the giant heap of evil schemes and plots weaved to mess things up by sick bastards out there trying to vanquish and conquer your holy mother! 
Wake up! Did you come into existence into this beautiful realm for this? Think while it is still legal.”


][Harsh laughter crossfades across the skyline with harsher music, raining full power!][


Bizarre images flashed in front of him, questioning his own confined vision, he entered realms unknown to his trained mind. 
See, this is why knowledge is dangerous. It limits your mind. We forget too quickly that the mind craves infinity. 
Quit taming your mind to believe what you think is apposite to affirmation, 'cause the mind wants to turn on, tune in and drop out. 
When the veil of ego floating on the wings of knowledge fades off, frightful thought loops overtake those who try to control the mind – those who don’t want to let go.
 He rose up, looking around, quickly realizing this – all new dimension he was puked out, bordering with grim faces, echoing with eerie voices and strange noise - was not taught or narrated in any of those books he was made to love as a kid. He wanted it to stop, wishing to exit this strange dimension.

 He started to breathe heavily, as more confusion poured over his fazed mind.
Nnaaarrrrrgggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!
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