Co-existence with Co-operation ; the sunflower trait (Let's be the sunflowers in each other'

Hello friends, I want to talk about this wonderful information about sunflowers;

THAT these flowers tend to turn their faces towards the position of the sun as they need to follow the sunlight to obtain their energy....

THAT on the days when the sun gets covered by clouds, these flowers get their energy by turning towards each other and share their energy by way of reflection....

Isn't this amazing ?? And then I thought that it would really be very interesting to see how this amazing perfection of mother nature gets reflected in our lives....and I wrote this blog;

If you have noticed, that at times when we feel dejected or when we are low on our spirits & on our energy levels, we unknowingly apply this dictum of reflection to our lives and turn towards various avenues around us to get re-energised & re-vitalised....so while some of us get our stimulus from our work/profession, some seek their light of faith from the religion they follow....While some of us obtain our strength from our families and some look for moral support from their friends & buddies....

This very interesting aspect of drawing energy from each other and empowering each other is termed as 'Co-existence with Co-operation'....

And to illustrate this aspect, I take you to a trip down the memory lane to our school days;

See, most of us had read this beautiful parable about 'the Heaven & the Hell' in our school curriculum which went something like this;

One day a man requested God (read father or teacher) to show him "the Heaven & the Hell" and in order to demonstrate the same, the God took that man to two identical looking rooms. Inside the first room, there was a large round table with a large pot of stew placed thereon. The stew smelled very delicious and made the man's mouth water....Upon looking further on, the man noticed that there were a few thin and sickly men sitting around the table who were holding spoons with very long handles tied to their arms and though each found it possible to reach into the pot of stew and take a spoonful but they couldn't get the spoons back into their mouths because the handles (of their spoons) were longer than their arms.... and then he further noticed that all of them were doing everything they could, to bend their arms and get the spoons to their mouths and in the process kept spilling the stew here & there, & on the table, & on themselves but all of this to no avail....so ultimately they gave up and stopped making further efforts to eat the delicious stew lying right in front of them. Thus all of them were looking famished and quite frustrated at their inability to eat....

Well, the man shuddered at the sight of their misery & suffering and inquisitively looked at the God....& the God said; 'Now, this is Hell'.

Thereafter the God took the man to the second room which appeared exactly the same....It too had an identical large round table with a similar large pot of wonderful stew placed thereon. The stew smelled so delicious that it made the man's mouth water again....Upon looking further on the man noticed that much like what he saw in the earlier room, a set of people were sitting around this table as well, holding the similarly long-handled spoons tied to their arms....however these men looked very well nourished and healthy.... And when the man looked furth

er on, he noticed that while these men too were not able to get the spoons back into their mouths (because of the handles being longer than their arms) but rather than trying to bend their arms to get the spoons back to their own mouths these people were instead reaching out to the men sitting right across them (respectively) with their straight arms as the handles were long enough to enable them to do so....and thus all of them were eating, talking, laughing and enjoying....

Now, the man looked all the more bemused and gave another inquisitive look to the God!!

And the God smiled & said to that man ;; You just saw a 'Heaven' and then went on to explain that; the self-centric, selfish & greedy people (of the 1st room) kept thinking of feeding themselves only which resulted in none of them being able to eat and it caused their misery....and that's how they created their 'Hell'....while the people (in the 2nd room) had realised this early on that under the circumstances, they would need to share and feed one another rather than trying to bring the spoons to their mouths against the odds and that's what enabled them to eat and enjoy....and which is what makes any room or any place on the Earth, a 'Heaven'....

So the moral of this story, as I inferred, is that while thinking solely of our own personal needs, we generally tend to forget our interdependence on the people/resources around us which results in a hell-like situation (what that man witnessed in the 1st room).... and in this situation, we become so focused on our personal gratification that we stop caring about our fellow beings and our surroundings so much so that eventually it starts harming our own well-being....

A case in this study can be the issue of 'Global Warming' wherein the average temperature of the Earth is rising with each passing year.... Some studies have revealed that this rapid warming is largely caused by the effect of greenhouse gases emitted by (we) human beings only which unfortunately is a result of our sheer disregard & apathy towards our natural surroundings. And which has already started to harm us now with all the climatic changes that are adversely affecting our lives....

And then there could be many such instances that could be cited as glaring examples of our self-centred approach resulting in a lot of agony to us, like the one (which I raised in one of my earlier blogs on "Don't waste food as it can save many lives"....) wherein I wrote about how three young girls lost their precious lives due to malnutrition and hunger after having survived on empty stomach for around 8 days (and later succumbing to sheer starvation) in an East Delhi locality....while their entire neighbourhood remained totally oblivious of their plight because of their pre-occupation with their own pursuits....And though I know all of us experience quite hectic life-patterns in the present day volatility however in a civilised society like ours, there can not be a matter of a greater shame that in this our 'RAT-RACE', we become totally oblivious to the fact that some one in our neighbourhood could be dying of hunger, as this'll be nothing short of a 'Hell'....

So, as this parable has amply demonstrated; that by having a self-centric, selfish approach, we unconsciously end-up harming ourselves only....because let's not forget that we all are connected with each other on a very deep level and therefore this becomes important that we become slightly more civil towards our fellow beings....and must start caring a bit more for not only the people around us but also for our natural resources (& surroundings) and try and be the sunflowers in each other's lives....

I conclude by wishing you all a world full of "Sunflowers" where we share & care....and try & co-exist with co-operation, making it a better place & creating our own "Heavens"....

GOD BLESS ALL....