Tree walks give you inner peace and calmness. In Japanese philosophy, trees and Forests cure you. In Modern lifestyle, trees are our best friends. Generally, I love going to parks. Being a Delhite, I have travelled to a lot of beautiful gardens like Lodhi Garden, Raj Ghat, Shakti Sthal, Nehru Park etc. Lodhi garden and Shakti Sthal have a artificial lake which is used for rain water harvesting also. Both lakes are home to a large number of white
ducks, whose quack-quack make your day. So, when I was invited for a tree walk by Manisha ji, CEO of harajeevan.org under the guidance of renowned tree expert Padmavati ji, I thought it to be a routine walk, but it was altogether a different experience.
THE WALK
It was an mid afternoon of Spring, I went to the park i.e. Buddha Jayanti park with Manisha ji and her environment enthusiast family. Gradually, around 8-10 people of all age groups joined us and then came the lady , Padmavati ji. I was delighted to see her due to her magical persona.
She introduced herself and started the tree walk by focusing on a tree , its leaves and flowers. Then we all moved ahead in the garden blossoming with beautiful flowers. She showed male and female parts of a pine kind of tree which was a new thing for all of us. A musical party was
going on side by side and people were throwing wrappers here and there , she got really miffed with that but we couldn’t do anything. Moving on, I got totally mesmerized when she showed us the inner part of ovary of a flower with the help of a magnifying glass, which was a universe in
itself. There was a Rose Garden also which has almost 25 different varieties of Roses and children were very happy to see them.
Then there was beautiful golden statue of Lord Buddha on a manmade island amid a lot of bougainvillea. We all did a quick photo session. Then there was a Relic, which was read by all of us. After that we all seated in a circle and she talked about the relationship of humans with the
5 elements of Universe i.e. Sky, Earth, Water ,Air and Fire. Knowledge of these 5 elements allows a person to understand the laws of nature and to use it to attain good Health, Power, Knowledge, Wisdom and Happiness.
She discussed about how we city people are moving far away from nature and living in a concrete jungle happily. She told us to put our both hands on the soil and to be remain silent for a few moments. It was a real magical feeling, experiencing each and every sound of birds, inhaling pure air. She talked about how our elders were deeply connected with mother Nature. They used to eat simple food coming from nature and lead a simple lifestyle. They used to find solution of their problems directly from nature, which COVID has really taught us i.e. go back to our roots.
Finally, we all clicked a group picture under “Holy Bodhi Tree” whose sapling was gifted by Sri
Lankan authorities to our then Prime Minister , Late Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri. Then again we all
passed through the same beautiful route blooming with flowers and shrubs and headed back to
our homes with smiling faces and calm minds.
For more such visits , you can contact ecodastkaari.com.
