The message from a garden !

During a recent visit to a mountain village in the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border in the Nilgiri mountains, Anna and I noticed these butterflies in one corner of a wild garden. Their presence made that corner of the garden colourful and vibrant. It looked like a breeding corner for the butterflies. 

Their colours and designs gave the butterflies a distinguished look. They belong to different species and families. Yet they shared a common home. 

This has a lesson for the human species. Historically, humans struggled to dominate over others. The history of wars and invasions tells us the hidden human instinct. However, from that traditions, the nations of the world evolved to become fraternal nations. The Second World War was the result of the resurgence of the pursuit to impose racial dominance. Now after about seventy-five years, we see another resurgence of 'authoritarian' culture returning to dislocate the fraternal spirit of co-existence. 

The lesser beings than the humans discover the pleasure of relational behaviour! Has the human species got entrenched in narrow selfish pursuit of intolerance and aggression to control and possess?

I noticed at the summit of a mountain range, terraced land and two cottages. The coconut plantation surrounded the hill. In a conversation with a professional who retired in his mid forties and came to live in this area 'close to nature' was seeking to live in peace and harmony with nature. 

Amidst all the advances we make in our human pursuit, has peace and wellness for oneself and goodwill towards others got subsumed in the strife to be successful, prosperous and wealthy! 

In the quiet corner of a garden, different species of Butterflies shared a common space to live and flourish! 

The language has shifted from 'saving' to 'investing' when we listen to younger people! Even that has become a reason for strife and stress! 

Stephen Grellet (1773-1855) wrote: " I shall pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again". 

Stephen Grellet was a French-American Quaker who travelled to different places advocating for prison reform, abolition of slavery and peace. Born into a French nobility, he survived death sentence at the age of 17 years, during French Revolution. He managed to escape prison and fled to Amsterdam, spent time in West Indies and finally landed in New York in 1795. He dedicated his life to global humanitarian work. Raised as a catholic he became an agnostic during his youth. He had a spiritual awakening and joined the Society of Friends (Quakers) in 1976. Grellet became a successful merchant and used his profits to tour north America and Europe to spread the message of peace and reconciliation. It was he along with Elizabeth Fry initiated action, to change the horrific living conditions in the London's Newgate Prison. 

Grellet had a change of heart and was illuminated by the love of God to which he responded by pursuing to bring goodness of God to human hearts. 

He transcended from being possessed by success as a merchant and turned his heart towards people who needed wellness and peace! His was a journey from being 'imprisoned' by his wealth to a life of self emptying to bring wellness to others! 

The serene and jubilant ambience in the butterfly corner awakened me to a new consciousness of interior peace, which is what others too long for themselves ! 

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)