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Natural Calamities: Wrath Of God or Human Error

By S Darapuri

04 May, 2015
Countercurrents.org

As a small child I remember watching some Bollywood films, where invariably to show the displeasure of God, earthquakes and floods were being shown.
Even till today somewhere in the back of my mind whenever such calamities occur, strong urge grips me, forcing me to believe that natural calamities are nothing but the wrath of the God against the erring beings.

The other day, as I sat jostling with the apprehensions and doubts about voicing my sentiments on watching the Nepal tragedy, a spokesperson of a reputed TV channel, said it all.

“Pashupatinath temple remains intact in face of the deadly disaster”. Although other old temples also had turned into rubble, he deliberately or out of sheer ignorance failed to mention that. Next morning, a leading newspaper on its front page, showed picture of devastated Buddhist temple. Whatever did it want to convey, was hard to discern?

That some Gods protect themselves but fail to protect their followers? Or Lord Buddha, whom some claim to be ‘avatar’ of Lord Vishnu, though he himself never claimed to be one and seemed satisfied in being regarded as just another human being; and a teacher whose teachings had to be followed not blindly but after putting to test; was not as powerful enough as Pashupatinath, to save his temple from the calamity.

Few years back the Kedarnath tragedy was interpreted to be a wrath of a displeased displaced goddess by some, the arguments given by some renowned researchers were being completely ignored.

The point is, are we just going to sit in one corner deriving solace in some kind of childlike exercise in finding miraculous explanations to man-made calamities and keep losing our valuable natural and historical heritage.

Older structures are certainly not going to be there for long but advanced technology and scientific knowledge could help in protecting them for more longer time. And the most important fact is that it is now high time, that man stops fiddling with Nature.

Recurrent natural calamities seem to affirm the fact that no matter how much man with self created weapons of destruction may claim to be powerful, he still stands dwarfed in face of power of the Nature.

There is also another universal Law of Nature that without compassion for fellow beings, survival of humanity is impossible. We are somewhere failing as human beings. For the same reason, not for a moment we hesitate to spill blood of ‘Live Humans’ in our desperate bid to protect stone made structures.

God does not reside either in stones or manmade structures, He is known for his omnipresence. Only recently, the film ‘PK’ tried hard to prove it. Before that, many reformers and saints tried to prove that. But that also does not give us the right to break structures of historical importance and aesthetic excellence. Every human being is a God’s creation, is a common belief, then why does our religiosity fail to prevent us from tainting our hands with the blood of other beings and yet deprived of guilt we tend to bear the audacity of proclaiming ourself to be ‘pure’, ‘clean’ and ‘vegetarian’ to the core.

In the present time, being a Third World Country there is a need to save our natural and human resources from all kinds of destruction. There is a need to draw out clear cut plan to save the country from natural and manmade calamities. Science and Technology should be directed to produce devices that avert recurrent disasters, if not avert, atleast alert the people at the right time. Policies of government should have a human face, attitude of preparedness should be there to deal with disasters of anykind. There is more and more need to educate people especially in moral education, to awaken their moral consciousness, so that each task is carried out in the direction of welfare of humanity. There is an urgent need to remind each individual that we are part of a ‘human civilisation’ where violence and savageness against anyone has no place! It is also to be remembered, forgetting to be humane, is the gravest sin and violence meted out against humankind and Nature alike!

S Darapuri,Former Coordinator I/c,CSSEIP, BBAU

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S Darapuri

Nepal Earthquake

Natural Calamities








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