The only constant in life is change.
In this world, everything is changing. Life is fragile, and we want to create an illusion of stability. You are playing at the beach and want to build sandcastles. You want to set up a house of cards, but you have forgotten about the waves and ignored the wind. Everything that you build up will fall down eventually. There is no shame in admitting that everything that once existed in glory will turn to dust. It will all be gone.
In Urdu, there exists a poem:
Ek hava ne mujhse poocha,
Ret men kya likhte rehte ho?
A wind inquired of me once:
What do you keep writing on the sand?
Similarly, P.B. Shelley’s Ozymandias says:
Nothing besides remains.
Round the decay of that colossal wreck,
Boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
In this great poem, Shelley introduces us to a character called Ozymandias. He is a mighty king, so powerful, ruthless, and generous that he has a statue made for himself with the words inscribed: “Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair.” This king has a huge ego, even bigger than his empire. Regardless of everything, his empire is vast, and he boasts about it. The statue existed long ago, but as the poem proceeds, we find out—nothing remains of the statue or the empire. Everything has turned to dust. The great, mighty statue is smashed to bits and pieces, and the entire empire is lost. So much for ego, might, and boasting. Time gives us gifts and takes away everything. Thus, the only truth is change.
Today, the climate is changing. The alarm bells are ringing. Scientists are screaming about the inevitable to the rest of the world. Some nations accept the truth, while others turn a blind eye. Regardless of everything, one thing cannot be denied—there is a great deal of commotion when it comes to climate change. Slowly, it is becoming a topic, an idea, a reality that everyone has begun to talk about. It is being taught to children, politicians are discussing it, civilians are denying it, activists are alarmed by it, and so on. Climate change is becoming a big word.
The truth is that there is nothing unnatural about climate change because change is inevitable. What has happened is that the change, which should have occurred over millions of years, is now happening in just a few decades or centuries. The weather extremes that the planet should have gone through over eons are now being experienced on a daily basis. It’s not that change itself is bad—in fact, if things didn’t change, life would become very boring—but the problem comes from the rate of change. We human beings and other living organisms on Earth are simply not used to handling change at such an accelerated rate. The shock and impact of this profound transformation may eventually even kill us. It may destroy everything we’ve been building so far.
At this point, it makes sense to pause and carefully reflect on the close connection between the micro and the macro world. In other words, I’m saying that we should explore the close connection between the human body and the planetary world.
Whenever a human being begins to abuse their body and take its material composition for granted, the body begins to break down and sends out alarming signals to the individual in the form of heart attacks, panic attacks, diseases, and various other symptoms. The terrible injuries to the body are simply a way for it to communicate that you cannot continue the way you had been. It is telling you that enough is enough and that it cannot endure the abuse anymore. Thus, the body automatically creates an opening for change. If the individual is wise enough to understand these primal signals, they will end up altering their lifestyle—making small modifications to their sleep patterns, diet, social settings, thought patterns, and various other everyday things. However, if the individual ignores the call that their body is making, then they are in for a bumpy ride. The body begins to break down, doing so in a very painful and alarming fashion. Often, it is only when we reach the end of the road that we realize the mistakes we have made. Perhaps we should have changed the course of our path long ago.
In Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra, the manifestation of some diseases is called a slow suicide. According to this philosophy, the individual alone is responsible for the creation of disease in their body. In other words, many diseases and misfortunes could have been prevented if the individual had been aware enough to stop them from growing and festering. If you don’t solve the problem when it begins to form, it may very well compound so much that it becomes unsolvable after a great interval of time has passed.
The point is that climate change is simply a way for the planet and nature to tell us that our ways and lifestyles are not good for the planet. All of us have been on a developmental high—enjoying and abusing the resources that the planet has provided us. But now the global body cannot take it anymore. It is growing sick and telling individuals that the time has come for change. We’ve had enough fun in the wildness of our young spirit, but the time has come to be a little more mature—a bit wiser in our conduct. The time has come to make a change—a change in one’s own nature, a change in lifestyle, a change in the human being.
Hitherto, we have always seen ourselves and our entire human race as the masters of nature. Perhaps we were traumatized by what nature did to our ancestors, leading us to believe that we have conquered nature and are masters of it. We have grown a bit cocky because of it. Plants and animals cannot hurt us as they once did, natural calamities don’t threaten us, and we have simply become the masters of nature—we are the worldwide conquerors, the emperors of nature and the natural world. We can bend everything to our will and extract all the wealth that nature hides in her belly. Essentially, we are pirates and thugs who are looting everything from nature—perhaps to take revenge for our ancestors or simply to lead a boisterous and lavish life that’s unchecked and unregulated by any kind of opposing force. We couldn’t be more wrong about things.
When a father plays with a small child, sometimes the child will pretend to conquer his father. The father will go down on his knees and let the child mount his back and command him to do whatever he wants. The father will do so, not because he is afraid of the son, but because he loves him dearly and is willing to engage in the play simply out of his endless love and patience. Similarly, nature has not retaliated against our developmental fury simply because it loves us. It has allowed us to conduct our aggressive capitalistic play because of its loving and compassionate nature. After all, nature allows everyone an opportunity to nurture and grow—that’s one of her primary functions.
Unfortunately, we have abused this facility of nature for too long, and now scars are beginning to appear on her body. We haven’t just beaten, destroyed, and burnt nature; we have also robbed her to the extent that she can no longer provide for other living organisms. Gradually, we human beings are becoming the one and only dominant species on the planet, and our ways are growing more violent and aggressive. We exploit nature in the name of development, but our notions of development are not organic or natural. For us, development means owning more money, building bigger weapons, and slaughtering fellow human beings. It is actually the creation of a bully consciousness. To become a better bully is to be more developed.
The anger and retaliation of nature and the environment is simply a natural response to our actions. We’ve been abusing our home so much that now the ceilings are beginning to crack, and the very foundation is shaken to its core. Nature is warning us that if we continue to behave in this way, soon it will retaliate against us all. The fury of nature will be unlike anything we’ve ever seen. It holds the potential to destroy entire landmasses, topple hills, flood cities, burn houses, quake buildings, make storms, and annihilate every aspect of human existence. It’s better not to let her wrath unfold, for if she gets angry—the game is over for everybody.
Climate change is a threat indeed, but it is also an opening—an opportunity for us to change ourselves. Maybe the age of conquest, violence, greed, and gluttony is over—maybe what the planet needs is love, compassion, kindness, and nurturing. These are the qualities in which nature and life thrive, and climate change is also an opportunity for us to discover these beautiful dimensions of existence within ourselves. The great transformation begins with our own individual being. By being kinder to ourselves, more compassionate to ourselves, more loving, we can come closer to our own being and body, and then we realize the harm it undergoes due to our behavior. It will also prompt us to come closer to nature and understand how human behavior impacts and destroys natural things. How extreme heat, disappearing species, and fading forests are direct consequences of our individual and collective behavior.
Policies, technologies, innovation, and finance are important in fighting climate change, but what the world also needs is healing—a transformation and evolution of the human personality and character so that we become more open to life and nature. Instead of conquering and commanding nature, the time has come to understand and sync with it. The moment has arrived to find the great harmony of existence. In such a time, it becomes not just a wish but a necessity to change our lifestyle and way of being so that we may become witnesses to the greatest change in human history—the evolution of humanity.
Thus, let climate change be an opening—the beginning of the great quest that transforms our human consciousness. Let it create space for more love, kindness, compassion, intelligence, and technology. Let people understand one another and the environment in which they live. Let them come close to themselves and their nature, so that they may understand it, and with the power of human love, be able to heal it. In this life, change is inevitable—the ultimate question is, what will change first: the climate or the human being?
