Gaia does not sing.

It is said that the world for all its turmoil is still beautiful.

So this got me thinking:

 We say, “ the day is too hot”

The sun or the season don’t care.

The temperature is what is as measured by a thermometer or by your skin. Unaffected by your response, the sun blazes down.

The day is not hot. You feel hot.

There is too much rain.

There is neither too much or too little rain.

The great Monsoon engine doesn’t care.

You may not need so much rain. You may want more water.

You may not like the feeling of damp. Or wading through knee deep floods. 

You don’t like this much rain.

The world is neither beautiful or ugly.

It seeks no approval or disapproval of its countenance.

It’s what it is , indifferent to your opinion.

In the yoga Vashisth, the Sage teaching the Hero how to become a God, says “ The world is as you see it.”

We feel the heat. We resent the rain. We see the world as beautiful or ugly.

Which brings me to the present and clear danger of Climate Change.

While we can see the world as a place designed  for us and in many cases designed by us, the planet actually is indifferent to our behaviour,our perception and our actions.

It does not weep when through our predation we kill off yet another species. It does not protest when we devastate  forests that are the bellows to our lungs. It will not care if all the ice melts on the polar ice caps.

The truth is this: we are only killling ourselves. At best we are hastening our own demise as a species.

After all we are just another species. We may grandstand and demonstrate our powers. But millions of species have come and gone before us. When we too are gone we will not be counted. 

Because we are also the accountants  and there will be no one writing up the books

There are some who believe that the planet has a voice and a soul. This may or may not be true. I think the planet is not sentient in the way we define sentience which is subject object consciousness. 

Planet Earth doesn’t see itself this way. It can’t. It is inclusive of everything that happens on its surface, above it and under it: all living and non living things from insects to fishes to mammals to rocks and sea and sand and trees . The ozone layer the sun the molten core all are part of the planet.

No one and nothing is favoured. Everything is accepted with the same standard. Uncaring indifferent and oblivious. 

We are the ones debating how we are upsetting the fine balance, the intricate machinery that runs the planet. The fine balance and the intricate machinery is what keeps us alive. If it is upset another balance will be found and the machinery will re-engineer for the new . A new which may be too hot, too wet or too dry for us to survive. 

So is it a hot day or a cold day or a wet day? 

The earth doesn’t care . We do .

So we should ask who will mourn our passing?

The answer is no one.

P.S. Mars has not sent an invite to us either.

written 2020