From the hurricane and the great whale's sounding to the fall of a dry leaf and the gnat's flight, all they do is done within the balance of the whole.

But we, insofar as we have power over the wild and over one another, we must learn to do what the leaf and the whale and the wind do of their own nature. We must learn to keep the balance. Having intelligence, we must not act in ignorance. Having choice, we must not act without responsibility."― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Farthest Shore

Mesmerized by these powerful lines, I paused to gaze at the garden around me. Birds chirping and building their nest; squirrels scurrying along the fence, butterflies fluttering on the lemon tree, bees buzzing and dragonflies adding that enchanted touch to the whole landscape.  I couldn’t help but wonder, why can’t I retire in my thirties and just watch nature bloom and thrive? Why can’t that be my occupation? The tiny slice of nature that this grandma’s house offered me in childhood was enough to make me fall in love with every bit of the ecosystem. I thought I was playing with them as a kid where they were the students in my make-believe world; turns out it was their way of teaching me how to grow deeper with their roots while I told them the folklores of my world.

Lots of rhetorical questions whirled around four years ago. Is the pandemic a consequence of the imbalance humans have been creating for decades? Is it the constant disrespect towards nature, forgetting that we are just the visitors and not the rulers, that leads to a parasitic medium - a microscopic virus- putting the whole world at a standstill?

Folklores say that the collective egomania of humans often becomes a reason for the creator's wrath in the form of infernal punishments. In mythological tales across cultures, God gives a certain number of chances to the sinners - those whose actions are not in sync with the moral fabric of being human. Once those opportunities are over, a catastrophe is imminent.

In Hindu mythology, the Vedas talk about an intricate balance of energies in the cosmos. Brahma is the creator, Vishnu is responsible for upkeep and Shiva, for destroying. While we see the destruction with a negative connotation, it is considered a constructive way to recreate the world in Hinduism.

Most of the world's folktales and mythological stories talk about the world's end. Cyclical or linear stories of an apocalypse in the form of floods look like a common theme. In Biblical and Mesopotamian beliefs, large arks were built to save animals in the new world. In Greek myth, Deucalion built an ark and survived with his wife, Pyrrha. The Hindu religion talks about a flood after every yuga. A cyclical world cleansing process. We are currently in Kalyuga, the fourth one, which is supposed to witness the lowest rung of human characters. A cosmic dance of death is believed to be performed by Shiva at the end of every era, paving the way for an instrumental change.

In Egyptian creation myths, the gods form the universe out of primordial chaos. The Norse end of the world, Ragnarok, is supposed to be a complete pandemonium to be ended by a great battle between the gods and the giants. Both the Norse and Egyptians believe that the world will be consumed by a universal sea only to be resurfaced as anew and fruitful.

There are mentions of a savior coming at the end of the world in many of these tales. In the Zoroastrian religion, it is Saoshynt. In the Hindu religion, it is Kalki, an avatar of Lord Vishnu. Jesus is supposed to arrive again too. Whether the saviors are supposed to put a reset button on the world or find a new planet with a chosen few is a matter of folkloristic debate.

The apocalyptic concerns aren't limited to just fables and mythicism. They have entered into the scientific realms too. Scientists have been warning about dangerous consequences due to climate change for decades that are now gradually turning into reality. There are a lot of theories that predict solar flares, magnetic pole shifts, tectonic plate activities, dust clouds, and inhabitable temperatures that might wipe out humans. Super cyclones, locusts-attacks on food crops, earthquakes, global warming, and ice-caps melt are raising the alarm.

The concept that nature exists in an equilibrium predates to Greek writer Herodotus who noted this between a predator and prey. Plato and Cicero supported the concept as well. Charles Darwin called it natural selection. Ancient Greeks believed that natural changes ultimately circle to maintain or come to an equilibrium. Even the 17th-century rationalists believed that nature is governed by laws to maintain order.

However, by the end of the 20th century, ecologists started refuting the idea of equilibrium in nature. They observed that disturbance events were more common than the equilibrium ones. Upheaval or chaos seems to be the norm, not balance. They believe that nature is a dynamic system and everything in it is ever-changing. According to them, the general public sentiment of believing that there exists a balance is an idea of romanticism. Even though this notion is a part of cosmologies and natural history as well, ecologists have been disproving it for some decades now.

This does not imply that equilibrium is never achieved but rather, it asserts that nature often exhibits emergent phenomena with relatively sudden occurrences that are beyond prediction and are open to outside influences including those from other ecosystems or human activities.

There are two perspectives on this. One is that nature is so robust that no matter what happens, it will come back to its original state. Maybe by disturbing the disturbance.

The quarantining by humans cleared the lakes and brought the bluest shades of the sky back. Nature found its way to recovery. However, that seemed short-lived because the hustle to let economies thrive won over the lives of humans with limited means to survive.

The other part is that it is too delicate and even a little bit of disruption can make it imbalanced. The means to tackle the pandemic brought heaps of plastic waste and destroyed oceans that were already struggling to keep their marine biome alive.

Maybe, there is a third perspective. In congruence with American environmentalist Bill McKibben, who often talks about balance, but about balance with nature, not the balance of nature. And there lies the difference. A cataclysmic future awaits if we cannot understand the value of this balance of humans with nature.

Zoonotic diseases are on the rise with the destruction of our forests by logging, mining, construction and population growth. We are clearing not only trees but the whole ecosystem that thrives in them; how can we be blind to the curse that shall befall? Curses that are scientifically proven and warned. The pandemic, according to many scientists, was just the tip of the iceberg. There will be more mutations, more disease transmissions and faster. They are certain of a next pandemic. Just not certain from where and when. The emergency gong is being beaten loudly by nature’s mallet.

Can we hear it?

Even though it is asked to save the planet or reach the ideal of balance for selfish reasons – to let it be habitable for humans, the day we all could fathom the idea of saving it because it is our responsibility, our moral duty and because we have a spiritual connect with the Earth and its other inhabitants, we may have a sigh of relief. Until then, we shouldn't stop trying and dreaming about an ideal world where we wouldn't bother a deity to take an avatar to maintain the equilibrium. Maybe the true meaning of these metaphorical mythologies is to evoke the godly element within each of us to become our own saviours.

Maybe we aren't allowed to decipher the codes of the universe and the chaos and balance will continue to see-saw.

Until seas cleanse us again.