Plants, animals and everything existing in this world are all a part of evolution. They are not just inert matter but sensitive beings. We may not be able to see their agonies or understand when they smile, but definitely they do. When a person approaches them, they understand and immediately shrink away or become glad. The secretions in their systems are highly reactive, and are altered either positively or negatively in response to different kinds of people.
Trees and plants are also greatly affected by the actions performed near them. They have a highly developed system of vision and recording. You may have killed someone and think that no one has seen, but the trees have witnessed it and they know all about it. They have memory membranes, and if you could develop plant interpreters and put them into the trees, they would tell us everything that has taken place nearby within the last week.
By reconnecting with nature, we reconnect with the divine, spiritual force inherent in the whole of creation. This is the path of ‘yoga ecology’, the yoga of harmonious living. the first step in yoga ecology is tree pooja.
In all traditions the tree is worshipped as the symbol of life, and worshipping trees is an ancient practice. Trees provide oxygen, fruits, seeds, wood and shade. Trees purify the air, water and soil. They provide shelter and homes to thousands of other species. Tree pooja is worship of Mother Earth, the source of all nourishment and life, as trees represent all the divine qualities of Mother Earth, endlessly giving, nurturing and sustaining. Without trees, we would have no oxygen to breathe and we would die.
Trees and other plant life represent the flowering of life from insentient to sentient. It is said in the yogic scriptures, “Consciousness sleeps in minerals, is aware in plants, walks in animals, thinks in humans and expresses as a realised, liberated person.” It is the same energy, the same spirit, the same life force flowing in all aspects of creation. Tree pooja is a way of honouring and remembering the transition where matter awakens to a new dimension of consciousness and connects us to that divine force.
Photosynthesis?
From the Mahabharata;Vana Parva,
Yudhishthira, the son of Kunti, approached his priest and in the midst of his brothers said:
The Brahmanas versed in the Vedas are following me who am departing for the forest. Afflicted with many calamities I am unable to support them. I cannot abandon them, nor have I the power to offer them sustenance. Tell me, O holy one, what should be done by me in such a pass?
After reflecting for a moment seeking to find out the (proper) course by his Yoga powers, Dhaumya, that foremost of all virtuous men, addressed Yudhishthira in these words:
In days of old, all living beings that had been created were sorely afflicted with hunger. And like a father (unto all of them), Surya (the sun) took compassion upon them. And going first into the northern declension, the sun drew up water by its rays, and coming back to the southern declension, stayed over the earth, with his heat centered in himself. And while the sun so stayed over the earth, the lord of the vegetable world (the moon), converting the effects of the solar heat (vapours) into clouds and pouring them down in the shape of water, caused plants to spring up. Thus it is the sun himself, who, drenched by the lunar influence, is transformed, upon the sprouting of seeds, into holy vegetable furnished with the six tastes. And it is these that constitute the food of all creatures upon the earth. Thus the food that supports the lives of creatures is instinct with solar energy, and the sun is, therefore, the father of all creatures. Do thou, hence, O Yudhishthira, take refuge even in him. All illustrious monarchs of pure descent and deeds are known to have delivered their people by practising high asceticism. The great Karttavirya, and Vainya and Nahusha, had all, by virtue of ascetic meditation preceded by vows, delivered their people from heavy afflictions. Therefore, O virtuous one, as thou art purified by the acts do thou likewise, entering upon a life of austerities, O Bharata, virtuously support the regenerate ones.
From the Mahabharata,Santi Parva,
Bhardwaja said: When the high-souled Brahman has created thousands of creatures, why is it that only these five elements which he created first, which pervade all the universe and which are great creatures, have come to have the name of creatures applied to them exclusively?
Brigu said: All things that belong to the category of the Infinite or the Vast receive the appellation of 'Great'. It is for this reason that these five elements have come to be called Great Creatures. Activity is wind. The sound that is heard is space. The heat that is within it is fire. The liquid juices occurring in it are water. The solidified matter, viz., flesh and bones, are earth. The bodies (of living creatures) are thus made of the five (primeval) elements. The five senses also of living creatures partake of the five elements. The ear partakes of the properties of space, the nose of earth the tongue of water touch of wind and the eyes of light (of fire).
Bharadwaj said: If all mobile and immobile objects be composed of these five elements, why is it that in all immobile objects those elements are not visible? Trees do not appear to have any heat. They do not seem to have any motion. They are again made up of dense particles. The five elements are not noticed in them. Trees do not hear, they do not see, they are not capable of perceptions of scent and taste. They have not also the perception of touch. How then can they be regarded as composed of the five (primeval) elements? It seems to me that in consequence of the absence of any liquid material in them, of any heat, of any earth, of any wind, and of any empty space, trees cannot be regarded as compounds of the five (primeval) elements.
Brigu said: Without doubt, though possessed of density, trees have space within them. The putting forth of flowers and fruits is always taking place in them. They have heat within them in consequence of which leaf, bark, fruit and flower, are seen to droop. They sicken and dry up. That shows they have perception of touch. Through sound of wind and fire and thunder, their fruits and flowers drop down. Sound is perceived through the ear. Trees have, therefore, ears and do hear. A creeper winds round a tree and goes about all its sides. A blind thing cannot find its way. For this reason it is evident that trees have vision. Then again trees recover vigour and put forth flowers in consequence of odours, good and bad, of the sacred perfume of diverse kinds of Dhupas (incense). It is plain that trees have scent.
They drink water by their roots. They catch diseases of diverse kinds. Those diseases again are cured by different operations. From this it is evident that trees have perceptions of taste. As one can suck up water through a bent lotus-stalk, trees also, with the aid of the wind, drink through their roots. They are susceptible to pleasure and pain, and grow when cut or lopped off. From these circumstances I see that trees have life. They are not inanimate. Fire and wind cause the water thus sucked up to be digested. According, again, to the quantity of the water taken up, the tree advances in growth and becomes humid.
In the bodies of all mobile things the five elements occur. In each the proportions are different. It is in consequence of these five elements that mobile objects can move their bodies. Skin, flesh, bones, marrow and arteries and veins, that exist together in the body are made of earth. Energy, wrath, eyes, internal heat, and that other heat which digests the food that is taken, these five, constitute the fire that occurs in all embodied creatures. The ears, nostrils, mouth, heart and stomach, these five constitute the elements of space that occurs in the bodies of living creatures. Phlegm, bile, sweat, fat, blood, are the five kinds of water that occur in mobile bodies. Through the breath called Prana a living creature is enabled to move. Through that called Vyana, they put forth strength for action. That called Apana moves downwards. That called Samana resides within the heart. Through that called Udana one eructates and is enabled to speak in consequence of its piercing through (the lungs, the throat, and the mouth). These are the five kinds of wind that cause an embodied creature to live and move.
Properties of scent an embodied creature knows through the earth element in him. From the water element he perceives taste. From the fire element represented by the eyes, he perceives forms, and from the wind element he obtains the perception of touch. Scent, touch, taste, vision, and sound, are regarded as the (general) properties of every mobile and immobile object. I shall first speak of the several kinds of scent. They are agreeable, disagreeable, sweet, pungent, far-going, varied, dry, indifferent. All these nine kinds of scent are founded upon the earth element. Light is seen by the eyes and touch through the wind element. Sound, touch, vision and taste are the properties of water. I shall speak (in detail) now of the perception of taste. Listen to me. High-souled Rishis have spoken of diverse kinds of taste. They are sweet, saltish, bitter, astringent, sour, and pungent. These are the six kinds of taste appertaining to the water element. Light contributes to the vision of form. Form is of diverse kinds. Short, tall, thick, four-cornered, round, white, black, red, blue, yellow, reddish, hard, bright, smooth, oily, soft and terrible. These are the sixteen different kinds of form which constitute the property of light or vision. The property of the wind element is touch. Touch is of various kinds: warm, cold, agreeable, disagreeable, indifferent, burning, mild, soft, light and heavy. Both sound and touch are the two properties of the wind element. These are the eleven properties that appertain to the wind. Space has only one property. It is called sound.
I shall now tell thee the different kinds of sound. They are the seven original notes called Shadja, Rishabha, Gandhara, Mahdhyama, Panchama, Dhaivata and Nishada. these are the seven kinds of the property that appertains to space. Sound inheres like the Supreme Being in all space though attached especially to drums and other instruments. Whatever sound is heard from drums small and large, and conchs, and clouds, and cars, and animate and inanimate creatures, are all included in these seven kinds of sound already enumerated. Thus, sound, which is the property of space, is of various kinds. The learned have said sound to be born of space. When raised by the different kinds of touch, which is the property of the wind, it may be heard. It cannot, however, be heard, when the different kinds of touch are inceptive. The elements, mingling with their counterparts in the body, increase and grow. Water, fire, wind are always awake in the bodies of living creatures. They are the roots of the body. Pervading the five life-breaths (already mentioned) they reside in the body.
From The Secret Life of Plants; by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird.
Mrs. Rattallack ran a series of trials with sweet corn, squash, petunias, zinnias and marigolds. Under controlled experiments, playing of rock music caused some of the plants at first to grow either abnormally tall and put out excessively small leaves, or remain stunted. Within a fortnight all the marigolds had died, but only six feet away identical marigolds, enjoying the classical strains by Hayden, Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert etc., were flowering. More interestingly, Mrs Rattallack found that, even during the first week, the rock music-stimulated plants were using much more water than classically entertained vegetation. Despite this an examination of the roots on the eighteenth day revealed that soil growth was sparse in the well watered group, averaging only about an inch, whereas in the second, it was thick, tangled and about four times as long.
Further experiments in which Mrs. Rattallack submitted her plants to Acid Rock Music, a particularly raucous and percussive type of music that subordinates harmony to volume and tempo, revealed that all the plants leaned away from this cacophony. When she rotated all the pots 180 degrees, the plants leaned decidedly in the opposite direction. The plants were definitely reacting to the sounds of rock music. Mrs.Retallack guessed that it might be the percussive component in the music that so jarred her plants and she therefore started yet another experiment. Selecting the familiar Spanish tune, ‘La Paloma’ she played one version of it played on steel drums to one chamber of plants and another version played on strings to a second. The percussion caused a lean of ten degrees away from the vertical, which was very little in comparison with the rock; but the plants listening to the fiddles leaned fifteen degrees towards the source of the music. At eighteen day repeat of the same experiment using twenty five plants per chamber including squash from seed, and flowering and leafy type plants from green houses, produced largely similar results.
Ravi Shankar – Classical Indian Music
Now she wondered how the plants would be affected by more sophisticated music of both east and west. She chose some Bach organ preludes and some classical Indian music played on the sitar by Ravi Shankar. The plants gave positive evidence of liking Bach since they leaned an unprecedented thirty-five degrees towards the preludes. But even this affirmation was far exceeded by their reaction to Ravi Shankar. In their straining to reach the source of the classical Indian music they bent more than half way to the horizontal, at angles of more than sixty degrees, the nearest one almost embracing the loudspeaker.
The alarming effect which acid rock music had been shown to have on plants made Mrs. Rettallack wonder whether the nationwide craze for it among the younger generation might be extremely deleterious to their development. One longhaired musician, peering into the rock-suffused biotronic chamber, said to her; "Man, if rock is doing that to plants, I wonder what it is doing to me?"
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