Eco-system or ego-system?

Contributor: Shashank Kalra

In what we call Hindu mythology, there are over 33 crore gods and goddess. There is an image of a god for everything. For sun, moon, air, water and other elements in nature. What I understand by worshiping the images of god, we worshiped nature and entire creation. Partly there is devotion and gratitude to this huge balance and partly there is fear. Fear because we humans have not been able to control the movement of seismic plates, flow of river etc. Operating from this fear, I feel and with the advent of the industrial age, there began this popular underlying culture to dominate and control the forces of nature. And we divided everything into man-made and natural. Trying to expand the extent of what we called man-made. 

But I see man as one part of the entire ecosystem. And not its manager. Only a participant. In this video titled 'how wolves changed rivers' what stood out was not so much about the wolves or the act of humans to introduce wolves in the national park. But how each element is interconnected and one completes the other. How one thing led to another and yet another. And the interdependence of different elements and beings, create an eco-system. 

This video just reaffirms significance of eco-system and how it works. So the question is whether we see our species as a participant of the entire eco-system or the manager or controller creating an ego-system?