Nature is the answer

This is the second time I read Alchemist by Paulo Coelho and I’m glad that I did it. For each book I devour, it takes me a step closer to nature, and is it not the way of life! We evolve from nature and go back to nature when we die. The other day I was watching a documentary on fungi when I felt a strong surge of the call of nature in me. The fungi are one of ancient beings that existed for millions of years and went through an extremely hostile environment. This teaches us that life always finds a way to flush and nurture to an evolved and complex form. The belief in nature gets stronger with the knowledge which brings the exposure where our soul can connect more intensely with the soul of the world. The prominence of language or technology or history or medical science is possibly an indication of how nature allowed us to grow and from our consciousness. The books that we read or the research that we do is more likely a manifestation of nature over our soul that compels us to look forward to the avenues that enrich our civilization and evolve us into a more advanced version of one of the complex creations of nature. Thus, nature possesses the power to turn matter into simple or complex shapes according to its nature. 

[Photo Courtesy: Felix Mittermeier]

Now the question is how the discipline of media and communication is related to nature as it most likely is linked with the studies of biological beings or maybe distinctively related to anthropology. But is not everything related and dependent on each other to survive and last long enough to create millions and trillions of progenies throughout the centuries. The answer would definitely differ among the experts, so the existence of the question where it entirely depends on the perception of the person who is asking the question in different circumstances. The knowledge accompanied with wisdom was gifted to mankind thousands of years ago when we carefully evolved into intelligent being but probably forgot to bring along the wisdom with us. The stories based on Indian mythology say the bearer of knowledge and wisdom in the form of a river was Saraswati which was descended into the mother earth when humankind has taken the knowledge from her, leaving her mighty wisdom almost untouched for hundreds of years. Most of the curriculum from different parts of the world is constantly working on enhancing the level of knowledge for the learners but fails to understand the constant depletion of wisdom, which progressed with generations and produces more intelligent forms of human but with a minute or absence of wisdom. 

I still remember the time I was watching the movie namesake made by Mira Nair based on the novel written by Jhumpa Lahiri, where a dialog of a traveler spoke to the fellow traveler that a book lets you travel around the world without moving an inch from your position. The true magic lies in the quest of the seeker who is in a constant search for his destiny that often manifests itself into knowledge, be it treasure, love, feeling, revenge, wanderlust, or anything that the seeker thinks is precious. There is another very strong truth that lies in all of us but we hardly realize its importance and almost live in oblivion that we can harness the same knowledge that was once gifted to us and would come closer to the oneness of nature. Understanding nature through acquiring knowledge would help all of us to understand any discipline much better as it has already existed in nature. While talking about learning the things that we need to understand the world better, we need to study the past along with the present and future. Then only we would be able to understand the language of nature and to some extent the secrets of the discipline that we are eagerly trying to decipher. 

Author:

Sayak Pal

Assistant Professor, 

School of Media and Communication