The safety of the earth lies in Lord Shri Ram’s love for nature.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the Shri Ram Temple in Ayodhya on January 22, 2024. Certainly, the event of Shri Ram being established in his own temple from this five hundred years of exile in tents is a real Diwali and an occasion of happiness, which will usher India into a new era. Will enter. With the same faith and devotion that people have expressed their devotion and faith towards Shri Ram, with the same faith and determination, now every person will have to implement the ideals of Shri Ram in his life, make himself like Shri Ram and nature-like. Shri Ram’s fourteen years of exile inspires us to protect the environment. His entire life, from birth, childhood, rule and death, is filled with love for nature and environmental consciousness. Today, environmental pollution and climate change are problems in the country and the world whose solution can be found through Shri Ram’s teachings of love for nature and environmental protection.

In Indian culture, we have inherited the message of protecting lush green trees, sacred rivers, mountains, springs, animals and birds. Lord Shri Ram and Mother Sita themselves lived in the forest for 14 years and gave the message of saving nature from pollution. Protected nature by killing the demons who were obstructing the oxygen coming out through the havan-sacrifice of the sages. When Shri Ram has given us the message to live in harmony with nature, then why are we currently engaged in playing with nature. It is our duty to protect nature. Goswami Tulsidas, by composing Ramcharit Manas 550 years ago, has given the message of best son, best husband, best king, best brother, love for nature and following dignity to the world through the character of Shri Ram. Ramcharit Manas is a mirror in which a person can improve his present by looking at himself and can find a solution to the growing environmental problem.

The fabric of Indian society is woven around two epics, Ramayana and Mahabharata. In these, the way to make life as well as death nectar has been shown. These are wonderful and unique examples of the path to physical salvation. In Ramayana, Lord Shri Ram drowns in the Saryu river while walking and in Mahabharata, Yudhishthir crosses the Himalayas and attains salvation. In both these incidents, great human beings have inspired people to love nature by making nature i.e. river and mountain the medium of death. But we are seeing that today we have made the situation of salvation-giving rivers and mountains such that it has become difficult to even live a life, let alone salvation. Will we be able to restore the honor of salvation to rivers and mountains? This is the question of our times, to which Shri Ram and Yudhishthir will not come to answer, but we will have to become Shri Ram and Yudhishthir and become companions of the rivers and mountains which are the basis of nature and environment, we will have to protect and respect them.

Today, concern is being expressed all over the world about the pollution of rivers, mountains and nature, but thousands of years ago Lord Shri Ram inspired us to save nature by living among it. In the leaf cottage where Lord Shri Ram resided during his exile period, there were five trees – Peepal, Kakar, Jamun, Mango and Banyan tree, under which Shri Ram and Sita used to sit and do devotional worship. At many places Tulsidasji and Valmikiji have underlined the sensitivity towards environmental protection. Ramrajya was a very prosperous and golden period from the environmental point of view. Trees with strong roots laden with fruits and flowers were spread throughout the area. In Shri Ram’s kingdom, the roots of trees always remained strong. Those trees were always laden with flowers and fruits. The clouds used to rain according to the wishes and needs of the people. The wind moved slowly, making its touch pleasant. Therefore, whatever we all understand from Ramayana is the eternal tradition of human life. The same tradition tells us all that nature is the basis of Ramrajya.

We want to become Shri Ram but do not want to adopt Shri Ram’s life ideals, do not want to adopt love for nature, this is a big contradiction. It is strange that the person who is the hero of our people, the pinnacle of the best consciousness, who has Lord Shri Ram in his breath, who has so much faith in him and whom we worship, we do not adopt the lessons learned from that personality in our lives. Find. Lord Shri Ram made the biggest sacrifice for the balance of nature. Did not care about anything outside his own. To protect every particle of nature, rules were kept supreme and Maryada Purushottam was called! But we have not learned this and breaking the rules in the name of nature and environment has become common. To save nature, one should be restrained and follow the rules, but people do not take this seriously.

There is an interrelationship between nature, environment and progress, human attitude towards which is formed and developed from the cultural heritage and life of Shri Ram and in this context, the global role of Indian Hindu culture has been recognized since ancient times. From Ramayana written by Valmiki to Ramcharit Manas written by Tulsidas, nature depiction, environmental awareness and environmental protection have been mentioned in detail. In fact, Hinduism is not limited to a specific method of worship or faith, but as the Supreme Court of India has also defined Hinduism and said that Hinduism is a lifestyle. In this lifestyle of Hindu religion, there is a correlation between religion and environment. Under which the proper, emotional, sensitive and harmonious relationship between man and environment and nature is his religion. Earth was worshiped as Mother Earth and Sun, water, air, trees, fire were all considered gods and worshipable. Not only this, the method of worshiping various animals and birds as carriers of various gods and goddesses was also developed. Contaminating water, air, cutting trees unnecessarily was considered a sin because at that time the sages and sages knew the importance of these important components of the environment. In the contemporary Indian social life, the feeling of harmony with environmental elements was linked to religion.

Ramrajya was full of forest areas. All the trees were lush green with flowers and fruits. Wild animals used to live naturally in the rich forest. All the wildlife was prolific in such forest area. Lions, elephants, various types of colorful birds and deer of different species etc. used to make life lively. In Ramrajya, all the living beings lived their natural life with a happy heart. No element of nature was tampered with in any way. Lack of forest areas creates a serious problem of fuel and fodder. Rural areas are badly affected by shortage of fuel and fodder. Lack of fodder reduces the production of milk and curd which adversely affects the health of human life. Hunting and trading of animals and birds disturbs the balance of creation. There was no shortage of fuel and fodder in Ramrajya, cow was considered revered and a mother, hence the cow gave milk in sufficient quantity – Manbhavato Dhenu Sravahi.

Today, in the twenty-first century, the very existence of mankind has been challenged in the form of environmental pollution. The extremely destructive forms of air pollution, water pollution, noise pollution, soil pollution, radioactive pollution, holes in the ozone layer, acid rain etc. have become a cause for concern among living beings, rational scientists. When man is not able to protect the earth, the earth is also showing its anger in the form of many natural disasters. The day will not be far when we will not be able to get pure water, pure air, fertile land, pure environment and pure vegetation. Without all this our life will become difficult to live. Certainly, the solution to all these problems is found in Shri Ram’s love for nature. The inauguration of Shri Ram’s temple is definitely a rare opportunity to move towards the establishment of Ramrajya. On this occasion, we should imbibe the teachings of Shri Ram on nature conservation in the country. Not only this, water is needed to liberate the world from the problems of environment, climate change and creation imbalance.

-Lalit Garg

(The author is a senior journalist and columnist)