Hindu mythology is filled with a number of metaphors. Metaphor is always difficult to interpret. Amongst all of the metaphors used in Hinduism mythology, a critical and the most relevant metaphor that describes the Hinduism worldview is that of a forest. Forests have always been considered as a symbol of advantageous in a country like India, and it is an embodiment of many of the same qualities as Indra’s Net. In the forest, thousands of species exits, which includes animals, plants, and microorganisms in a state of mutual interdependence. At any given level of the forest, the macrocosm and microcosm are always with each other. There exist numerous worlds within a single world (which is a forest itself), which are never separate or never isolated from one another. All the elements of forest are immensely adaptive to one another and easily transmutable or fuse into new forms over time.
A forest is a symbol that indicates fertility, plurality, adaptation, interdependence, and evolution. The forest loves to play the role of a host, and is never shut itself or reacts resentful to outsiders. Newer and newer, life forms that migrate into it are welcomed and rehabilitated as natives. The growth of a forest is organic; new forms of life co-exist without requiring the destruction of prior ones. Basically, it adopts change however without changing its prior exits. The forest has no predefined final end-state. Its dance is ever-evolving. Analogously Indian thoughts, are largely based on this type of openness and blending.
Besides this perspective of the forest, there is also another side to it. Forests represent the default wild world, where mighty is right, where the strong prey on the weak; while culture represents the world. With the pass of time from the ancient age, man has put in great effort to domesticate the forest. Gradually when the forest was domesticating it was been understood that mighty is no longer right, and the strong take care of the weak. In fact, the transformation of the wild ancient human into civilized settlements is seen as the journey from the desire to dominate and be territorial, like an animal, to space where the mighty help the meek and dependable and even put an effort to uplift the helpless so that they can thrive too.
The forest is just like the human body, which provides a context for describing complex relationships. In the forest of dharma traditions, multiple texts and rituals flow into each other in a complex manner, defying any attempt to classify them with rigidly linear chronologies. Dharma traditions take its root to the banks of rivers with sacred waters flowing, their currents being symbolic of constant change and evolution. The experience of endless organic evolution characterizes all our texts, deities, rituals, spiritual practices, and festivals. The idea of an ultimate harmony underpinning this vast miscellany of elements arose from the forest and its interwoven nature. As a people, the descendants of forest dwellers can be expected to have inherited profound respect for nature, as well as ingrained regard for all its creatures.
The diversity of forest is an expression of God’s immanence—God is manifested as a bird, mammal, plant, and many other creatures. Just as infinite processes are constantly underway in the forest, so there are infinite ways of communicating with God. Indeed, Hinduism’s spiritual outlook rests on this very principle: that the divine is immanent and inseparable from life and nature in all forms.
When we read the Samaveda, we find that Samaveda melodies are classified into two different categories: first one those that should be sung in a settlement, and the second one those that are sung in the forest. This division is crucial to understand the transition and transformation of humans from animals to superhuman beings. From a world where they are consumed by hunger and fear to a world where they outgrow hunger and fear and can empathize with the hunger and fear of others.
In some of the earliest Indian classics literature and folk tales the forests are iconized as “aranyakas”, or “forest discourses”. Rishis/Sages / Hermits, the exemplars of Indian thought. They are also known as ‘forest dwellers’. Amongst the stages of life advocated for individuals, the penultimate one, in which the individual severs the bonds of family to pursue spiritual goals of life cycle fulfillment, is termed as vanaprastha, which literally means ‘the forest stage of life.
According to the Rig Veda, the forest is associated with a goddess named Aranyani, who is described as wearing anklets and is a dancer. She can only be heard and never be seen. One may wonder how she lives so far away from human settlement and can still feed on all manners of living creatures without ever having been digging the soil. This is the first understanding of the forests that we find in Hindu mythology.
In the latter part during the Puranic period, in the epics of, Ramayana and Mahabharata, forests play a very vital role. Ram (of Ramayana) goes into exile for 14 years and whereas the Pandavas (of Mahabharata) goes for 13-years of exile. It was then when they were actually exposed to a world without the shade of being a king or without the status quo. The word “king” in Sanskrit is called ‘raja’ and a world without kings creates “arajakata” ( pronounced as ‘a-raja-kata’) or disorder, where the weak are at the mercy of the strong. Thus Ramayana and Mahabharata become epics that try to convey and present the idea of dharma over adharma, that must be established by the king. It is an effort to create an ecosystem in which the law of the jungle has been overcome.
In Puranic literature, the forest plays a role as being the adobe of the gods. “Vana” is the Sanskrit word for forest.- Shiva is associated with Daruka-vana, the cedar forest. Whereas Ganesh is associated with the forest of sugarcane known as the Ikshu-vana. On the other side, Krishna is associated with Vrinda-vana (Vrindavan) forest of tulsi (basil). Hanuman is associated with the forest of bananas or Kadali-vana. The goddess is associated with Imli-vana or the tamarind forest, which is evergreen. There are the references of the enchanted forests, where only women reside and any man who enters becomes a woman himself. Only men who have complete control over their senses, like the yogis, can enter it without any difficulty.
A related metaphor in the forest is the banyan tree, which is associated with numerous beloved myths and stories across India. The banyan is unique among trees. Whose branches sprout and bow down to the ground, becoming additional roots of the same tree; each root provides nutrition, nourishment, and stability to the entire banyan tree. Eventually forming into a trunk in its own capacity. The tree is a single structure but functions like a complex, self-organizing network, providing shelter and nourishment to birds, beasts, and humans beings. Its multiple roots, trunks, and branches represent multiple origins and sources. They are all part of the same living organism, even if the complexity of the whole cannot be comprehended at a single glance. Each of the separate roots feeds every trunk, and hence every leaf is connected to the entire root system to make a single banyan tree stand. The tree has no well-defined center because its multiple roots, trunks, and branches are all interlocked and inseparable. It is, in effect, polycentric. The forest and the banyan tree may be seen as metaphors for context-based cultures, and they help in explaining why people living in such cultures are comfortable with pluralism and complexity. Such metaphors are commonly found in Indian narratives.
A forest is, in a way, space where there are no rules or regulations, no bondage, and where everything is fair — so long as you survive. It is a place of natural justice and not social justice. It is the place of food chains, pecking orders, herds and packs, and of territories established through violence. It is a place where everyone must take care of themselves and no one comes to anyone’s rescue. This sounds increasingly the direction that modern society is taking, doesn’t it?
Probably it is talking about the civilized forest that we dwell in. Yet forest remains to be a metaphor.
Subroneel Saha is high in life. He enjoys life and believes to savour everything by doing along the path with passion, which he considers to be the most important part of the experience. He is a prolific writer on history, mythology, sacred lore, legends, folklore, fables and parables, and for challenging willful misinterpretations of ancient Indian and world scriptures, stories, symbols, and rituals. He intents to break the dogma and reveal the intentional part of every myth and the story, with the relevance with business, management, social life, political scenario, student life.
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