"The tree ladden with fruits
Always bends low.
If you wish to be great,
Be lowly and meek."
- Swami Ramakrishna Paramhansa
 |
| Nature is always "The Best Teacher" |
The trees prepare food for themselves utilizing things from the nature -
1.) Chlorophyll, the green pigment present in the leaves;
2.) Carbon-dioxide - from the nature exhaled by human beings and animals;
3.) Light energy - from the sun
4.) Water - from the soil through the roots
There are several additional benefits that trees provide to all the creatures living on the Earth. Trees improve air quality by acting as natural air filters removing dust, smoke and fumes from the atmosphere by trapping them on their leaves, branches and trunks. Just 1 hectare of beech woodland can extract 4 tonnes of dust per year from the atmosphere.
Trees reduce the 'Greenhouse' effect by removing carbon dioxide from the
air and releasing oxygen. Each year a mature tree produces enough
oxygen for 10 people.
Trees are also an effective sound barrier and can limit noise pollution.
Recent research shows that trees also help reduce the stress of modern
life.
Trees in themselves benefit the environment and the landscape, but they
are also an integral part of the ecosystem providing benefits to
wildlife and biodiversity.
The benefits that all creatures derive from the trees are endless.
What trees provide us are really endless in terms of matter, materials and many more such things which we use for benefiting our needs.
Above all materialistic needs, trees provide us such immortal values and divine lessons in our lives which can fill our lives with immense aroma of divinity, pious love and complete bliss towards all other creatures.
Nature is the best teacher for all creatures. We have a lot to learn from various elements of nature. Trees are also one of Nature's Best Teacher. Trees teach us to be selfless and sacrifice oneself for self & other's benefit. Trees teach us various qualities and values to imbibe within our lives so as to fulfill our lives with moral values. We are known about the 36 divine virtues which human beings should imbibe within themselves to lead a truthful and righteous life. We can recall those 36 divine virtues.
A brief description of these 36 divine virtues can be -
1.
Good
wishes – Have good wishes for all.
2.
Generosity
– Be generous towards all.
3.
Honesty
– Be honest in your work and in all your relationships.
4.
Humility
– Be humble towards everyone.
5.
Lightness
– Be light, stressfree and burdenless.
6.
Mercy
– Be merciful towards all creatures.
7.
Obedience–Be
obedient towards God, elders, other respectable ones and most important towards YOU (yourself).
8.
Patience
– Be patient towards circumstances, relations and Yourself.
9.
Purity
– Have pure thoughts towards All, use pure words, show pure actions for All including YOU.
10. Royalty – Be royal in your thoughts,
words and actions.
11.
Self-confidence
– Have 100% self-confidence on yourself and your GOD.
12. Simplicity – Believe in “Simple
living and High thinking”.
13. Sweetness – Maintain sweetness in
your words and relationships.
14. Discipline – Let Discipline be your most adorable and admirable Ornament.
15. Carefree – Leave everything high-up
in the hands of the most beloved God.
16. Cleanliness – Have clarity in your
vision and cleanliness in your thoughts, words and actions.
17. Cheerfulness – Always be cheerful
irrespective of the situations and circumstances.
18. Contentment –Always be satisfied,
as, THE BEST IS ALWAYS FOR ME (given by MY LORD).
19. Courage – Be courageous in all
situations because GOD is always your
COMPANION and GUIDE.
20. Cooperation – Cooperate with
everyone irrespective of the situations as it’s
The Lord who is my companion, colleague, guide and mate.
21. Tolerance – Try to tolerate other
people’s words & actions, develop and intensify Tolerance Power within.
22. Tirelessness – Don’t get tired, Life
is not tiresome but Life is a tireless
journey, it’s a pilgrimage
and you are the pilgrims.
23. Accuracy – Be accurate in your words
and follow them accurately in your actions.
24. Appreciation – Appreciate others
even at their minutest good works in order to uphold others dignity and motivate them. On the
other hand, don’t expect appreciation or
praise for yourself even at the highest achievement.
25. Benevolence – Have good and pure
feelings for everyone irrespective of others’ goodness or evilness.
26.Detachment – Be detached in all of
your actions. While performing actions, do not think of the output or the result. Most important, don’t
associate yourself much with
the result rather be focused on the input and processing.
27. Determination – Have firm
determination to always follow the path of truthfulness, honesty and dedication.
28. Easiness – Let things around you go
on at an easy pace, don’t make the surroundings complex for
you and others to breathe in.
29. Egolessness – Uproot ego from within & get rid of the idea – I am
Superior to others.
30.Energetic – Always be full of positive energy in your
thoughts, words and actions. Derive this
positive energy from the only source of positivity – The Almighty Lord.
31. Farsightedness – Have greater, higher vision – which will be
beneficial for all. You will observe
Lord is your all-time Companion and Guide.
32. Fearlessness – Don’t be afraid of
the up-sailing storms in your life, for God is your sailor.
33.Maturity – Only mature actions yield sweet fruits, the
immature actions never bear sweet, edible
and easily digestible fruits.
34.Politeness – Be polite towards all
whomsoever you come across.
35.Introspection – Talk to yourself and Your Lord about your
everyday thoughts, words and actions.
“Are they as per the directives given by your Lord?”
36.
Orderliness
– Firstly, keep your things in order. Try to be organized in managing your
daily things and
activities. Then automatically, the
incidents in life get placed in order (By
the grace of The Almighty).
Out of the above 36 divine virtues, trees exhibit maximum of these virtues.
We focus on a tree which is ladden with fruits i.e. a fruit-ladden tree.
1. When any tree is ladden with fruits, it always bows down towards the Earth. This feature can be compared as a virtue -"Down to Earth" - means that however rich or famous a person is, but he should always be a "down-to-earth" person. Such persons are always kind-hearted, gentle, humble, generous and helpful towards every person / creature.
2. Most of the trees have their leaves always bowing down towards the ground. The leaves of tree also define the similar virtue of generosity, humility and discipline. The leaves try to follow the discipline of their parent tree and bow down towards all other creatures living on the Earth.
3. When we will observe carefully, the trunk of most of the "trees" is always straight, strong and bears the burden of all its branches, leaves, flowers, fruits & even seeds. The trunk teaches us the lesson to be uphold all responsibilities of our family, the society we live in, towards our motherland (the country) and finally "The Mother Earth". The tree trunk also teaches us to be benevolent and have good feelings towards all irrespective of their existence and importance in our lives.
4. The tree-trunk bears the burden of the whole tree with the combined effort of its roots. Subsequently, the roots bind themselves with the surface soil and underground soil. Unless, the roots bind themselves firmly and strongly to the underground soil, the tree can't stand erect and hold all it's parts at appropriate position. So, the roots of the tree teach us to be in Orderliness, develop the feeling of maturity and always be fearless in life irrespective of all terrible situations upcoming in our lives. The roots also teach us to develop self-confidence and strong determination to win the race of life. Because, we are well aware that roots do not know where they are penetrating deeper and deeper into the soil. The roots keep on spreading and scattering the tertiary roots in search of water and food (in form of minerals).
5. The trees are planted because of the greenery and other benefits that they provide for the benefit of all living creatures present on the Earth. The fruit bearing trees are especially planted for the fruits that they bear on the branches. The flowers of the trees teach us to be polite, develop the feeling of easiness, egolessness and get detached from the worldly developments. The flowers on becoming mature shed off the petals and sepals (parts of the flowers) i.e. get detached from their parent tree and undergo the process of reproduction to form fruit.
6. We keep watching the trees when will they bear flowers and subsequently the flowers will mature as fruits.The fruits are in different stages - unripe, ripe & over-ripe fruits. These various stages of maturity of the fruits teach us various divine qualities in our own lives. The unripe fruits - teach us to develop obedience, patience as well as far-sightedness. The unripe fruits are obedient towards nature and time, are patiently waiting to get ripen and develop far-sightedness to overcome various upcoming obstacles of life.
7. The unripe fruits should not be eaten before hand i.e. before they get ripe. This teaches us that we should not be impatient to achieve the final result of the work done before proper time approaches. "Right thing at right time in right place and in right manner".
8. The ripe fruits are alike the ripe actions in our lives which yield timely result of the actions which were performed in the past. In the past, we have performed the actions; in the present, we are (eating the ripe fruits) enjoying the sweet result of the past good actions performed; in the future, the satisfaction, contentment & sweetness observed (in the present time) will prove as the seed for the future actions in our lives and the cycle will carry on in the same process. The process is a repeated process of "Recycle". So, the ripe fruits bearing on the trees teach us to develop the virtues of sweetness, satisfaction, contentment, maturity, energetic, courageous, cheerfulness & above all tirelessness and Royalty in the continual journey of everyone's life.
9. On the other hand, the over-ripe fruits are not all good or tasty for our health. Such over-ripe fruits are similar to excess of sweetness in our relationships with few particular persons in our lives. They are alike the over-thoughts which we keep on thinking about our past & present actions and keep expecting about the result. Such over-thinking about the actions and it's expected result creates chaos within our conscious mind and we start developing negative & waste thoughts in our lives. It's always better to avoid eating such over-ripe fruits because when such over-ripe fruits are hanging from the branches of the trees, such fruits are pricked by beaks of birds and sometimes, may even cause some particular diseases within human beings. We learn lessons of accuracy - accuracy for achievement of success in our lives. We also learn lessons to stay farther away from appreciation, praise or criticism. So, it's better to avoid consuming over-ripe thoughts & actions in our lives.
10. After consuming the ripe fruits, we leave behind the seeds. Seeds have a definite role within the fruits. Similarly, the seeds within the fruits can be compared with the human soul present within the human body. As the seed contains all features to develop the next generation tree. Similarly, the human soul also contains all pious thoughts and pious actions to form the human being. The seeds present within the fruits teach us the moral values of introspection, royalty and accuracy. As seeds contain all features of a full-grown tree, we should also go deep within the soul and introspect about the 36 divine virtues present with a (Godly) human being. We need to become royal in our thoughts, words & actions while leading our (Godly) human birth. Lastly, accuracy in developing and emerging the 36 divine virtues within ourselves while leading the (Godly) human birth.
Finally, it can be concluded that Nature remains our best and perfect idol / ideal / teacher and preacher. By following, the Mother Nature we can adopt and develop within ourselves all 36 divine virtues bestowed upon us by the Almighty Authority.
James A. Garfied has quoted few words for "The tree" -
When the Divine Artist would produce a poem,
He plants a germ of it in a Human Soul;
And out of that soul, the poem springs and grows;
As from the rose tree -the rose,
And from the mango tree -the sweet ripe mango fruit!!
