I have never been a religious person, barring the first 15 years or so, though I grew up in a deeply religious and ritualistic family. Since high school, I have moved in the spectrum of agnosticism to atheism, finally settling for the latter. No compulsions or pressures from home also helped my cause. During my early career, while working in an unconventional and radical organisation, I came across the definition of God as ‘collective goodness of humankind,’ which appealed to me and stayed with me forever.
Recently (on April 10), my father-in-law passed way after a brief, terminal illness. Everyone in the family were around and had the satisfaction that we could give him the best care during the last days. Cremating the body within own compound is still a practice in Kerala, if one has space. Unlike the traditional way of using wood, which requires larger space and an inconvenience to neighbours, the new sophisticated method is that a service provider brings home an incinerator powered by gas. They finish the cremation process; the ashes and bones are collected in a shallow pit on the ground.
There is a series of rituals on select days during the first 16 days. These rituals were perhaps done in olden days to help the family go through the grieving process. On the fifth day, the bones are collected after some pooja/offerings. While many of these rituals vary between different regions in the same state, the priest/facilitator who was presiding this had his unique way of explaining the rationale behind each of the steps.
After taking the bones (for later immersion in sea/river), the shallow pit was closed with soil, symbolically ending the final journey back to soil/nature. Then, on that place, a coconut palm, a banana tree, and an alocasia plant were planted. Coconut tree, because it will provide food and shelter for strangers/travellers, the banana tree will give food for birds, and alocasia will provide food for the rodents with its roots. Nine different types of grains were then thrown on the same patch of soil, as these will give food for ants. Some of them will grow to become plants.
I couldn’t help but appreciate this thinking that recognises human as merely just another species in this earth, integrated to nature, and then after life returns to it, while being useful for the ecosystem. Most tribal religions/practices recognise this organic symbiosis between nature and human beings, reminding us of being part of a larger organism.
Coincidentally, during these days, I was also reading two fascinating books—The Invention of Nature – The Adventures of Alexander von Humboldt, The Lost Hero of Science and Anti-Fragile by Nassim Taleb. Humboldt, a passionate scientist/polymath in the 18th century, travelled across the world to the interiors of South America, Russia, North America, and Europe; climbed mountains; studied volcanoes, rivers, and plains; collected and documented thousands of plant species; measured heights of mountains and temperatures; spent time studying astronomy and weather patterns; taught and gave lectures; and published large volumes of books, inspiring a generation of scientists of all disciplines, including Charles Darwin. His most famous work ‘Cosmos’ is said to have shaped two generations of American scientists, writers, poets and artists. He spoke about the ills of colonisation and warned about environmental damage, as early as 19th century. He was a firm believer of the ‘inter-connectedness’ of the world and the symbiotic connection between nature and human. Humboldt’s belief was also influenced and reinforced by Goethe and Friedrich Schilling who suggested :
“that the concept of “organism” should be the foundation of how to understand nature. Instead of regarding nature as a mechanical system, it should be seen as a living organism. The difference was like that between a clock and an animal. Whereas a clock consists of parts that could be dismantled and then assembled again, an animal couldn’t – nature was a unified whole, an organism in which the parts only worked in relation to each other.”*
Nassim Taleb in his book writes about how modernity’s mechanical approach takes away the benefits of an organic system and makes us fragile. While writing about biological and non-biological systems, he referrers it as the difference between ‘cat’ and ‘washing machine’ (a’la animal and clock). Stressors make biological (organic) systems adapt and make them anti-fragile or less susceptible to fragility, while non-biological systems can wear and tear fast.
In another fascinating book, The Mind-Gut Connection: How the Hidden Conversation Within Our Bodies Impacts Our Mood, Our Choices, and Our Overall Health, Dr. Emeran Mayer explores the need in medical science to see our body as an organic whole and not as a collection of parts, as todays’ super-specialisation in medicine tend to do.
After over a century of focusing on specialisation, systems thinking is perhaps leading the way to help us understand ourselves and the world better.
In the meanwhile, my father-in-law, who led a quiet, ultra-minimalist, and frugal life, and insisted throughout his life that he should not cause inconvenience to others and therefore did not even disclose his pain till the last three months, sleeps peacefully, perhaps knowing that he is giving to nature even in his death.
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