Rivers form another important part of our ecosystem. When the trees make the atmosphere yield their water content to the soil as rains from clouds, the water as rivers flow across the landscape, enriching the soil and giving life. Flora and fauna are but siblings nourished by the flowing life before reaching the great deposits of seas.
All these cycles of nature are considered facets of divinity in our culture. They are not there as commodities for human beings to exploit. They form part of the great chain of being which houses human beings also. What part these play as natural functions, human beings should play knowingly and in full awareness. What was added to the human being as knowledge is compensated by the lack of automaticity in the discharge of nature. The human being born is not automatically human being in function. For that the human being must choose to reach upto its own nature and function. Intelligence is a great thing given to the human being but not as automatic. The human being must choose to be intelligent and choose to stay intelligent.
A place of divinity should be a topos where all these elements of nature are held in deep consideration. That is why in our temples, the sthalavruksha play an important part. Sthalavruksha is 'the tree of the place'. Rivers or bodies of water form the Tirtha attached to the temple. Tirtha is 'what is purifying'. In our concept the divine not only resides in the sanctum but also in the form of all these elements of nature. You cannot be cruel to the trees and say you are devoted to the God inside. You cannot desecrate the rivers and say you are a bhakta of the divine form inside. Our worship starts from our conscience.
Srirangam Mohanarangan
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