Science says nature does not care whether any species, including man, exists or not. Paleontological studies show that hundreds of thousands of species had gone extinct in the many a millennium since the life sprouted on the Earth, with evolution bringing in new ones. The disappearance of species like Homo erectus, Homo floresiensis, Neanderthals, etc. shows that nature has put in a norm which says extinction is the rule and survival is an exception. If we scale up our thoughts to the labyrinth of planets, stars, galaxies and many other discovered and undiscovered galactic objects and phenomenon, then we will realize that a planet as small as the Earth is insignificant, so are its inhabitants, for the universe. In this no-nonsensical approach, is there a greener pasture of caretaking of its not-so-important creation called human beings by the universe?
In Malayalam language, there is an adage: “Matha, pitha, guru, dhaivam,” which literally translates to mother, father, master and God, sequentially placing ‘mother’ before everyone, even before God, in the order of importance. That is the level of value and reverence a mother holds in the Indian society. Why has mother been placed at the highest pedestal? Because no one, presumably not even God, knows one’s kids better than a mother does. Incidentally, God, it has been told, is a He, not a She, so it is logical that He has been placed behind mother when it comes to caretaking. If father is the head of the house, then mother is the lid of the house, and without that lid, the effervescent pot of family, where upbringing of children happens, will lose its essence into the thick air of disorderliness and incivility; she knows when to open that pot’s lid and how far to open so that her children will grow up without suffocation yet learn the ropes to survive in this otherwise difficult world — this is what the caretaking phrase practically emphasizes. Hence, when we ascribe motherly qualities to anything or anyone, it implies a lot for comprehension.
Mother Nature! What a wonderful nomenclature! Nature is the only being that I had known to have prefixed mother in its name. Why do we call nature as Mother Nature? Outside the motherly phenomenon, nature is the only qualified existence that knows what its children, i.e., the human beings need and to what extent. And, accordingly, configures the ecosystem to meet those needs. Nature, for example, knows that man needs sodium to avoid memory loss and dementia in the long term. So the brilliant mother nature has made man to feel all the foods, barring fruits, taste bland without sodium chloride. That is how she has configured man’s tastebuds — a little bit of salt is inevitable. At the same time, salt intake in higher than needed level can cause long term ailments like high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, kidney strain, etc. Nature, hence, made our taste buds to feel acrid, making it inevitably impossible to eat when the salt addition to food is beyond the usual palatable level. Just as a mother knows intuitively what’s best for her kids, so does Mother Nature
Does nature take care of man like mother does for her kid? It does. Recently, I was having a chat with the security staff of my housing society when he told me that he had gone through an unusual level of sweating for a prolonged period of time the day before. Initially, he thought it was due to the hot weather prevailing at that time. He, however, noticed that the sweating was intense and sustaining, making him to feel that something was wrong with him. He rushed to a hospital where it was diagnosed that his blood sugar level was alarmingly low which was quickly taken care of with the medicines. His timely reading of the forewarning symptoms that his body — which is natured by nature — was emanating helped him to stop a life-threatening health problem. Our bodies have inbuilt forewarning mechanisms for most of the health problems before they get into acute and alarming stage, and a timely and correct reading of the manifestations of those mechanisms is the key to open the doors of nature’s care. Nature takes care of man if only does he listen to it because nature’s care comes as advance warning; it foretells man with enough clues and symptoms when his health and well being are in danger, enabling him to make quick measures to counter the impending danger.
Incorrect reading of nature’s care calibrated in the forewarning can be disastrous, even fatal. During a visit to Liberia, I came across a case where an Indian woman police officer died as she misread the nature’s care mechanism. She was a member of the all-women Indian police contingent deployed in Liberia under the U.N. mandate as the country was recovering from the civil war. The police officer was infected with malaria, had showed the symptoms of fever, body pain and headache which she misread as the symptoms of normal fever and self-medicated with paracetamol tablets — a usual but unsafe procedure many do when they have fever or headache. She continued with this self-medication without telling anyone for a week when she collapsed and was rushed to the hospital. But it was too late, and she passed away. Malaria is a curable disease if treated when the symptoms arise — I had contracted malaria four times during my business trips to Africa.
In addition to the internal warning system, nature also foretells man when external ecosystems become dangerous to his existence. Global warming and the consequent natural disasters like increased levels of glacier meltdown, unusual weather patterns with high-intensity rain — of late, the term: ‘heavy rain’ is replaced by intense and high-intensity rains, thanks to the torrential rain happening in a short period of time — and extreme heatwaves are the symptoms that foretell the distant existential threat man will likely face down the line. Nature can, as a mother does, only tell her kids about the paths they should and should not take. A mother keeps telling such things to her kids irrespective of whether they listen to her or not because she cares for them, so does nature for humans. Man, you listen to it or not is up to you.
I have used the terms: nature and the universe interchangeably because nature is the nature of the universe; nature is the nature given to us by the universe and that the universe may have a different nature in its existence outside earth. However, we are fortunate that we have a nature which is motherly in its approach to us though its underlining attitude remains universal; this attitude can be better described as oxymoronic, for it manifests in both diametric ways — that says though I care, it is your business, so do it and progress, and I do not mind. What an incredibly protective, corrective and professional system has been put in place by Mother Nature to take care of man!
Nowhere Perspectives 