Earth Day today:

Five simple ways to save Mother Earth

Daya DISSANAYAKE

Man's evolution and his progress in culture and civilization has always been harmful to our Mother Earth and our environment. If we consider Mother Earth and all living things on her as one single living entity as proposed by the Gaia Hypothesis, we have been violating a living being all these years and very soon a time would come when she will not be able to take the torture any longer.

This would mean the end of Mother Earth, or before that she could hit back to eliminate this selfish egocentric Homo Sapiens.

It is not too late for mankind to help Mother Earth to recover from this abuse and regain the healthy life she once had enjoyed.

There are five simple ways to achieve this, irrespective of one's race or creed.

Refrain from harming all life on Mother Earth

Life forms include not only animals but plants too, as we call them, all Flora and Fauna. They all breathe, and they grow old from birth to natural inevitable death. No living creature has any right to hurt or kill any other living entity before their natural death. Every living thing has a right to live and to live in peace and harmony with the rest of the living beings.

Once we accept this truth it will save our environment from all destruction. Cutting down of trees would stop, unless it is of dire necessity or for the well-being of the rest of the world. Since animals will not be killed for their meat, all the food available on earth would suffice for man and animal equally.

To produce 1 kilo of meat suitable for human consumption Mother Earth has to provide 16 kilos of food for the animal. According to the United Nations reports, livestock now use 30 percent of the earth's entire land surface, and generate more greenhouse gasses than all human transport systems. The myth propagated by the international business mafia that man has always been a carnivore and that man needs to consume flesh of dead animals for his good health and survival has been disproved by the Indian Vegetarian Society who had not only survived without animal flesh but also produced some of the greatest men who lived on Mother Earth.

It is also now established that early man had been vegetarian, probably a vegan, one who did not consume milk or eggs either.

When man got used to killing animals, got used to the sight of blood and the pain of the dying animal, the same weapon he raised against the animal, he could raise against his brother. Once man gives up cutting down trees and animals he would become a kinder person, sensitive to the pain and distress of the animals he used to kill. This in turn would make him less violent against his fellow man. He would not venture out to kill another man for his land or property, or because of his race, caste or creed, or because he is paid by another to kill.

Refrain from taking that which is not given

On Mother Earth, there is truly nothing that we could call ours. Everything belongs to Mother Earth or Gaia, which means everything belongs to all of us, including all living things, to be shared equally.

Just as we should not take as our own what belongs to all of us, we should also not pollute, harm or destroy them, like the air we breathe or the water we drink, because these natural resources belong even to the plants around us.

In order to abstain from taking what does not belong to us, we have to control our greed and envy, which is now combined into one word, 'grenvy'. We have also to avoid situations which increase our grenvy. One major contributor is the television, the most powerful agent of Mara and Lucifer, to lead man astray, to tempt him with unwanted and utterly useless products and services, to rouse his greed and to rouse his envy when he cannot have what the others are having.

When we control our grenvy we will not be tempted to exploit the consumer by making unreasonable profits or supplying unwanted, unnecessary and harmful products and services. We will not be tempted to ask for and accept bribes. We will not be tempted to cheat or take what belongs to others by force or by fraud. This will put an end to corruption.

We will not be tempted to cut down trees, disturb and destroy the natural surroundings and leave huge carbon footprints.

Refrain from sexual misconduct

Man is the most promiscuous, most depraved and the most sadistic of all animals when it comes to satisfying his sexual urges and fantasies. Even though Jean-Paul Sartre said 'Imagination is the ability to think of what is not', man is using his imagination for extreme forms of carnal depravity.

This is not a recent development. We find such aberrations mentioned in ancient chronicles and even religious literature. It has probably got worse over the ages with the 'progress' of civilization and the 'advances' in technology. With the development of printing, along with other literary forms pornography became popular. With the development of the motion pictures and video technology erotica became widespread and out of control. All this contributes to increased sexual abuse and perversions.

Aphrodisiacs have also been a major contributor for this depraved behaviour. In the past animal extracts were used, which required the killing of animals, and today technology has made it possible to create man made aphrodisiacs, which though have spared the animals, are causing more harm to man.

What is difficult to comprehend is why man is unable to control his desires and emotions. Man believes that he is the most intelligent animal on Mother Earth, that he has the power to think and reason. He believes that he is the most civilized. But his actions are totally contradictory, because the uncivilized animals do not display such behaviour.

Refrain from incorrect speech

We try to void telling the truth, or distorting it or telling only a half truth. We try to tell untruths. We do all this because of our greed and envy, for our selfish gain. We do it to cheat other people, to mislead them, to deprive them of something, to steal something from them.

Incorrect speech is used to sell a product or service, which is not really needed by man, or to sell it at a higher profit, or sell a substandard, faulty or harmful product. Incorrect speech is used by politicians to win the votes of the people, by making false promises, by making false accusations against others, by creating disharmony among people. Incorrect speech is used to cover up criminal acts, acts against society and other human beings.

The reason that incorrect speech has prevailed throughout man's history is because man's inherent weakness to believe what he hears or what he sees, believing in his brother's word. Even the written word is corrupted, misrepresented, or totally distorted to achieve someone's greedy aims, or to hide a crime.

Most often untruths are used to hide or escape from a crime, where it is not used to take something that is not given. It is often required to be resorted when man is unable to refrain from the three above mentioned anti-social acts.

All this is caused by man's greed. When man realizes this, and refrains from the above acts, man would never have a need to use any incorrect speech, during his entire life.

Refrain from substance abuse

Under a distorted mind, man behaves much worse than under normal conditions. All his inhibitions are dropped, reason has disappeared and man becomes the beast. There are also opportunists who act irrationally, inhumanly pretending to be under substance use.

Under the influence of such abusive substances man would not be able to abstain from the other crimes and this makes it the most important issue.

The World Health Organization says "Substance abuse refers to the harmful or hazardous use of psychoactive substances, including alcohol and illicit drugs. Psychoactive substance use can lead to dependence syndrome - a cluster of behavioural, cognitive and physiological phenomena that develop after repeated substance use..."

Even though among early humans psychoactive substances would have been used occasionally, as part of their religious rituals, it was man's greed which made such substances to be used more often. It was for commercial gain, to earn the filthy lucre, that such substances were commercialized, and made other men get addicted. This could not have happened if man had refrained from trying to take what is not given to him.

Man does not need an psychoactive substances to drown his worries, if he refrains from the above mentioned acts. He does not need to deceive himself that he can be happy only when he takes such substances. Then man will also realize that he would not commit any act against other life on Mother Earth even when he is not in a sound frame of mind.

Refraining from the above evil deeds should not be difficult for any human being, anywhere on Mother Earth, whatever labels he may be known under, by way of his race, caste or creed, which are only labels he had stuck on himself. Such labels are used for their own selfish gain by people who behave in an anti-social manner, who do not wish to refrain themselves. The day all human beings come to realize that harming other living beings, taking what is not given, giving into sexual urges, uttering untruths and consuming psychoactive substances can all be easily avoided, are not necessary to achieve happiness, to be successful, on that day Mother Earth could heave a huge sigh of relief.

From then on we could have a paradise to live in, a Garden of Eden and a Utopia.

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