Kapi

Photo credits:www.pinterest.com & www.amazon.com
Memory tags: Listening to the incident, recounted by the tall and graceful Saraswati, as she laid out sweets from her basket. My son and I meeting Kapi the King of monkeys in the Karadi Tales.

Copenhagen 2009 and the UNO Climate Change Conference. A success or failure? A question we all should be deeply concerned with! Yet where would you stem the tide of “progress” synonymous with ever increasing production, translating into more carbon emissions and consequently more pollution? The nose to nose traffic is a sign of progress! Amidst all this, a small incident brought home a very different lesson, a very different ethos and mind set. Across our garden wall one evening , coloured tents went up in no time, mikes and lights were fitted put in place and, almost immediately the people gathered, began to recite Hanuman Chalisa in right earnest into the mikes. I wondered why this sudden prayer meeting had been set up? Then I learnt from Saraswati, who had just put down her basket of sweets, that earlier in the day a Hanuman had been electrocuted. Therefore prayers had to be said to atone for such an act of destruction, even though it was inadvertent. We Copenhagen activists, scientists, modern day Earthlings have a deep lesson to learn in respecting and value of nature. Perhaps, the banner with Hanuman emblem carried by the Pandavas in the Mahabharat war would have been suitable for Copenhagen, which should have been given similar status. The simple village folk, who held steadfast to the reason for the meeting and recitation of prayers, believed firmly in their own wrong doing . Prayers were their only way of atonement!

Do we the greatly progressive, scientific, modern carry such guilt at such acts? Or do were merely turn up our noses at these acts and term them animal worship? The Hanuman after all is at the top of its food chain and protecting it would be protecting the others down the line! Work that into the food web and ecosystem and see where it gets you. My son and I met Kapi the King of monkeys in the Karadi Tales. Mangoes were unknown to man. They grew in their luscious sweetness only on a particular tree in the deep jungle. The monkeys were warned never to drop a mango into the river below for fear that humans would come to know of it. But one did drop, the humans came to investigate and almost destroyed the monkeys! Kapi their king made a bridge out of his own body so that the monkeys could flee to safety. He even helped the disobedient one who dropped the mango, and brought down destruction, to cross over. When respect is couched in folk tales and imagery, in parables and religious texts, why do we only sneer at the apparent and conveniently overlook the lesson beneath?

Which other animal is so endearingly painted to show the Lord’s name on his open heart? Which other connects the earth and heavens as the son of the wind? Linking the biotic with the abiotic? Who else is so loyal,courageous,larger than life, strong ,a complete metaphor for all that is good and should be found in humans. In the worst of times, he did not sell his Earth for a few dollars more.

Main references:

1. The Monkey King-Karadi Tales ( also https://karaditales.com)
2. The Ramayana my mother read to us every year