What can we learn by connecting to nature and nurturing animals? The natural environment of our forests presents an ability to learn empathy and compassion. Forests are the sustenance to society and the animal kingdom. With upkeep and preservation to nature’s habitants and woods lays the foundations of humility and respect. This unravels an essential interconnected relationship to wildlife and people coexisting together.
Ancient Indian civilisation started in forest hermitages - the ‘Tapovan’ (meaning a sacred forest) - amid sylvan surroundings in the heart of nature. On the banks of the Saraswati, great sages lived in ashrams, carried on spiritual meditation and realised noble truths which they expressed in poetic diction as immortal treasures of the human mind.
Today, there is a rising neglect of these teachings and knowledge which has resulted in exploitation of natural resources and animal agriculture. Cultivation and protection is prescribed so that there isn’t a danger of plant extinction and animal species which was envisaged by scholars who provided a theological base for their rational use through literature.
By nurturing animals and our natural environment, we can build a relationship that allows us to integrate with nature without causing harm.