Spring is that season in which the harshness of winter ends, the air becomes balmy, the temperature is moderate, gardens are in full bloom, the rabi crop is heading towards ripening and a young man’s fancy turns to love. In India this is called Vasant, when people come out in the open air, fly kites and rejoice in the peace and general air of leisure of the season. Spring is marked by the vernal equinox around March 20 in the northern hemisphere and September 22 in the southern hemisphere. There is also the autumn equinox around September 22 in the northern hemisphere and March 20 in the southern hemisphere. Vasant has a particular significance in the northern part of India where the winters are harsh, because spring is the time when life returns to the region and people who have huddled around fires wearing heavy woollens can now come out in short sleeves and enjoy the pleasant sun in the open.
Of course, spring is followed by summer, when the hot “loo” blows and one seeks the shade and the protection of the indoors against the heat of the sun. The harvest is in, the farmers have some money, this is the season of marriages, but it is also the time of year when the earth becomes hot and dry. It is a season of quarrels also as temperatures run high, but it is necessary because unless the surface of the earth heats up the moisture-laden winds from the sea would not blow towards the land and there would be no monsoon, no rainfall and no renewal of the earth. It is the law of nature that there will be summer which will give rise to the monsoon and the earth would blossom as the kharif crop is sown. As the monsoon recedes there is the autumn in which the air becomes dryer, temperature moderates and the kharif crop ripens. This is the season for the fruits from the hilly regions to ripen and come down to the plains for the delectation of the population. Autumn is followed by winter which is the season of the rabi crop and of lovely green leafy vegetables, peas, salads and other delicious things. This is a bracing season and ultimately it leads to spring. But in all this cycle perhaps spring is supreme.
The earth, whose seasons follow a cycle of nature, also has living creatures, avifauna, reptiles, insects and mammals. On top of the chain is homo sapiens, that is, man the primate who belongs to the genus homo and the species sapiens. Of all the vertebrate and invertebrate life on earth, man is the only one endowed with the quality of understanding and of developing technology. At his best, that is, in his true spring, man can be extremely creative in terms of art, literature, humanities and social sciences, engineering and pure science. With science and technology man can eradicate disease, improve agriculture, keep the quality of water pure and he can bring life to arable lands by technological inputs such as irrigation. But in the form of summer, man can be terribly destructive because through science and technology he can so adversely impact the earth that he can virtually destroy it. In fact, with nuclear energy harnessed for war he can render life impossible on earth. If man goes with nature, if the endeavours of man are environment-friendly and ecology compatible, he can solve the health, nutrition, geological, environmental and ecological problems of the world. But at his worst man can destroy Himalayan forests and disturb the topography of the fragile hills to an extent that Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir can be devastated by floods. The floods do not represent the fury of nature, they represent the greed and technological irresponsibility of man. This is not man in his spring.
The physical dimension apart, there is a mental and psychological dimension to man. Nature intended all men to be equal in the sense that they automatically adjust to the environment and climate of the place of their birth. The dwellers of the Amazon rainforest live in a hot and humid climate in which left to nature there is great fecundity of both the earth and its creatures. The Amazon tribes have adjusted to this. But when a Henry Ford decided to convert a huge area of the Amazon forest to a rubber plantation he not only permanently destroyed the forest, he failed in his venture while at the same time bringing about a massive change in the ecosystem of the largest rainforest in the world. Human beings are often of this ilk because mentally they are not attuned to nature. Nature made all men part of the same species and the same genus, designed to live at peace with each other, which means that they were designed to understand the forces of nature whose main message is equilibrium and peace. Religion and faith are very often the consequence of man’s understanding of the region in which he lives, but it is amenable to influence by someone with greater mental strength or focus. Nature accepts this but it also accepts that diversity of thought will lead to heterogeneity, not persecution and war. There has to be mental equilibrium in human beings just as there is a balance of nature. The natural balance can be ruined by undue intervention and mental balance destroyed by wrongful thoughts and deeds.
Ritualistic orthodoxy and bigotry are the two diseases that cause the lack of mental balance and it is this which leads to conflict. In a season of eternal spring this mental balance would not be lost and there would be peace on earth. This means that there has to be inclusiveness in religion, tolerance and liberalism in thought. When after the Kalinga War Ashoka felt revolted by the horrors of war he came into his own season of spring in which violence was abjured and sanity restored to the state. The extremist elements such as Swaroopanand, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, al-Qaeda, the Salafists, the Islamic jihadis are all enemies of such a spring and a real dharma yuddh, a jihad, a holy war would be that which eliminates this form of extremism from our midst. If spring is a season of moderation, if spring is the best of all seasons, then the spring of homo sapiens has to be a state of moderation, liberalism, tolerance, compassion and inclusiveness. For man, too, a state of spring is best.
M N Buch, a former civil servant, is chairman, National Centre for Human Settlements and Environment, Bhopal;
E-mail: buchnchse@yahoo.com