Calling coexistence

When we talk of co-existence, the good old principle of live and let live strikes our conscience. Isn’t it?

If we dive deep into its meaning we might learn that applying the principle of co-existence to our lives can answer most of our questions related to sustainability.

In nature, there are no loose ends; every thing is in a closed loop and is cyclic; hence whatever is produced, has to be consumed somewhere and a perfect balance of consumption and production has to be maintained. The entire balance is created by coexistence that is a win-win strategy- benefiting everyone with the presence of other ones.

In fact, the theme of vernacular is nothing but coexistence—to be in existence together with the surroundings without imposing yourself.

I recall a slogan from our mythology –Kshiti, jal, pawak, gagan, sameera, paanch tatva mil bana shareera--It implies that human body is made up of five elements of nature namely Earth, Water, Fire, Sky and Air; hence it is desirable to be in harmony with these elements. Coexistence suggests relating not only to the landscape and climate, but also to the culture of the place. A trivial example of the life of a villager I would like to mention. He co exists with the flora and fauna indigenous to that place. The waste in various forms released by him and the animals he keeps, is ultimately utilized for enriching the soil of the fields where he grows his crops. Remains of crop become the primary diet of his domestic animals which in turn provide him food and aid in farming & transportation, etc. while the food grains are his own staple diet.

It’s a kind of mutualistic symbiosis, a relation in which the output of one is the input for the other and vice versa.

The waste produced by the animals is also used as cooking fuel as well as a disinfectant for smoothening the walls and floors of the mud houses. The agricultural waste is further used in many forms into making mats, mattresses, containers, and so on. Thus he exists in harmony with other elements of life around him.

The essence of co-existence is togetherness. But one of the central challenges is that of individual growth and development.

Say Mr. X has a house in destination A, he produces two children Y and Z, grows them well, and they also turn out to be successful and in pursuit of their success and status they too build separate houses each for themselves at destinations say B and C.

Then, Y and Z also settle and produce children Y1 Y2 and Z1 Z2. Y1,Y2,Z1,Z2 also grow up and excel in their career and to prove their potential they too buy their own houses at four other destinations D,E,F,G…and hence the development goes on and on.

Had they all stayed together in the same house and had undertaken the same occupation, don’t you think they would have been more energy and resource savvy? Are we not exceeding our needs? Every time we initiate action to raise our living standards we enhance the burden on the natural resources, the thing which is fast depleting and cause irreplaceable loss to the nature which produced us and our environment.

Finally and perhaps most importantly, co-existence is the highest degree of self reliance.

One has to be self reliant till such extent that she/he overcomes the need to exploit others to meet her/his own needs. There is a fine line between working with someone and exploiting someone. With the passage of time we have crossed this distinction and have believed that we are the born leaders and are entitled with all rights to exploit each and everything that falls on our way.

What we call human development aims at achieving higher and higher standards of self-reliance and in our attempt to achieve that we are becoming more and more dependent—dependent on more energy, more resources -- denying the existence to others.

Gayatri
"There is only one sin: That is weakness...The only saint is that soul that never weakens, faces everything, and determines to die game."