Happy Earth Day 2020
Pavan Guru Paani Pita, Maata Dhart Mahat … Air is our teacher, Water our father, And the Great Earth our mother. [Guru Nanak, Japji, Epilogue]
When I looked out at the fields outside my home yesterday evening, it seemed as if I was transported back to Baba Nanak’s Punjab – more than 550 years ago.
Clear skies, crisp, clean air, birds chirping everywhere by the hundreds, no sound of traffic and no interruptions of modern life.
Add the faint sound of the evening prayer from the Gurdwara Sahib and this simple sight was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before. Suddenly, the place that I’ve lived in for so long – seemed brand new – transformed!
And then this insight – that our economic “progress” has come at a very heavy price and this lockdown is the perfect time for humanity to reconsider, reevaluate and course-correct.
The environment and the economy need not be at war. This should definitely not be an either/or situation. It’s time for business leaders, policymakers, educators and the public at large to listen to what Mother Earth is trying to tell us.
Or else, as the old saying goes, these lessons will be repeated until we learn and change. Happy Earth Day 2020!
#earthday2020 #earthday #climatechange #earth #simerjeetsingh