11-08-2006, 03:54 AM
Some more random thoughts:
After the Gaia phenomenon within the new-age movement, many people started thinking that humans and all living beings form parts of a large planet-wide organism, called mother-earth or gaia.
Someone asked Mother-Meera, whether relation of a human to the mother earth (bhUmAtA) is that of a part in a larger whole. She replied that the relationship is not like a part and a whole, but rather that of a mother and her children. Children are not part and parcel of the mother, but are separate individuals although dependent on her.
When we think of Mother-India, we can ask a similar question. Do all Indians form a part of mother India or they her children? That is, is Mother-India nothing more than a collection of all the Indians, or is she an independent entity with her own individuality, separate from her children?
A village can have village deities, a family has family deities, similarly a nation can have a national-deity that looks after the members of that nation. That national-deity is not just a collection of all the individuals that make up the nation, but is more like their caretaker, like a mother.
After the Gaia phenomenon within the new-age movement, many people started thinking that humans and all living beings form parts of a large planet-wide organism, called mother-earth or gaia.
Someone asked Mother-Meera, whether relation of a human to the mother earth (bhUmAtA) is that of a part in a larger whole. She replied that the relationship is not like a part and a whole, but rather that of a mother and her children. Children are not part and parcel of the mother, but are separate individuals although dependent on her.
When we think of Mother-India, we can ask a similar question. Do all Indians form a part of mother India or they her children? That is, is Mother-India nothing more than a collection of all the Indians, or is she an independent entity with her own individuality, separate from her children?
A village can have village deities, a family has family deities, similarly a nation can have a national-deity that looks after the members of that nation. That national-deity is not just a collection of all the individuals that make up the nation, but is more like their caretaker, like a mother.