“Only after the last tree has been cut down.
Only after the last river has been poisoned.
Only after the last fish has been caught.
Only then will you find that
money cannot be eaten”.
Prophecy of the Cree Native American Tribe
Thank you, ratna
that was a great truth. Profound.
provided that you have got money………..only then
“Only after the last tree has been cut down (to make Mandirs, Masjids, Gurudawaras, Churches, Havans…),
Only after the last river has been poisoned (by doing Tirth Ashnans, by throwing “fulls” or bones of dead bodies or even dead bodies into them),
Only after the last believer, yogi, sadhu has died of hunger.
Only then will you find that
Soul, spirit or God too cannot be eaten”.
Find the perfection in the whole scheme of things otherwise be wary of taking only one side.
Harb
this thing will happen one day for sure ðŸ™
“The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.”
– Albert Einstein
“Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers, but to be fearless in facing them.”
– Rabindranath Tagore
Do we celebrate Plant’s Day ?
When will we plant a plant worldwide on a single day in an year ?
When ?
ancient wisdom beats modern man thinking
Is my gmail signature for quite sometime now…:)..zillionbig shows the other side of it though..!!
Only when the eternal wish
‘sighs’
Only when the last ounce of blood
‘cries’
Only when the last breath
‘dies’
.
Only then will you find that
life
.
is
.
‘EAteN’
Very curious
True words, we live in a world where commonsense has been sacrificed for selfishness.
Sounds very wise and insightful, on closer consideration it quite silly as are most other pieces of wisdom that seem to suggest money is bad. Money is just a facilitator, a medium of exchange. In the indian context we love to critisize money or the rich, a mindset that needs to be broken if prosperity must arrive.
Logicall, assuming there was only one tree left then probably it wouldnt be worth cutting down because afterall what can you do with one tree ? Even if one does cut it down because now it would be a rare commodity what would you exchange it for since nothing else would be left. ie. you will have to give it away of 0 sum of money.
The problem is not money, the problem is human stupdity one of the symptoms of this is greed to have more. Another symptom is stupidity is to bark at the wrong tree.
when the last tree, river and fish vanish, man would have evolved new resources for survival. for all you know, by then he would have genetically modfied himself to survive without these. or might have the formulae to manufacture substitutes for the elements – we cant put anything beyond him.
– tho am glad that mine and atleast three generations after mine wont see those days!
Sifting Through the Embers
by Douglas Adams
There’s a story I heard when I was young that bothered me because I couldn’t understand it. It was many years before I discovered it to be the story of the Sybilline books. By that time all the details of the story had rewritten themselves in my mind, but the essentials were still the same. After a year of exploring some of the endangered environments of the world, I think I finally understand it.
It concerns an ancient city – it doesn’t matter where it was or what it was called. It was a thriving, prosperous city set in the middle of a large plain. One summer, while people of the city were busy thriving and prospering away, a strange old beggar woman arrived at the gates carrying twelve large books, which she offered to sell to them. She said that the books contained all the knowledge and all the wisdom of the world, and that she would let the city have all twelve of them in return for a single sack of gold.
The people of the city thought this was a very funny idea. They said she obviously had no conception of the value of gold and that probably the best thing was for her to go away again.
This she agreed to do, but first she said that she was going to destroy half of the books in front of them. She built a small bonfire, burnt six of the books of all knowledge and all wisdom in the sight of the people of the city, and then went on her way.
Winter came and went, a hard winter, but the city just managed to flourish through it and then, the following summer, the old woman was back.
“Oh, you again,” said the people of the city. “How’s the knowledge and wisdom going?”
“Six books,” she said, “just six left. Half of all the knowledge and wisdom in the world. Once again I am offering to sell them to you.”
“Oh yes?” sniggered the people of the city.
“Only the price has changed.”
“Not surprised.”
“Two sacks of gold.”
“What?”
“Two sacks of gold for the six remaining books of knowledge and wisdom. Take it or leave it.”
“It seems to us,” said the people of the city, “that you can’t be very wise or knowledgeable yourself or you would realise that you can’t just go around quadrupling an already outrageous price in a buyer’s market. If that’s the sort of knowledge and wisdom you’re peddling, then, frankly, you can keep it at any price.”
“Do you want them or not?”
“No.”
“Very well. I will trouble you for a little firewood.”
She built another bonfire and burnt three of the remaining books in front of them and then set off back across the plain.
That night one or two curious people from the city sneaked out and sifted through the embers to see if they could salvage the odd page or two, but the fire had burnt very thoroughly and the old woman had raked the ashes. There was nothing.
Another hard winter took its toll on the city and they had a little trouble with famine and disease, but trade was good and they were in reasonably good shape again by the following summer when, once again, the old woman appeared.
“You’re early this year,” they said to her.
“Less to carry,” she explained, showing them the three books she was still carrying. “A quarter of all the knowledge and wisdom in the world. Do you want it?”
“What’s the price?”
“Four sacks of gold.”
“You’re completely mad, old woman. Apart from anything else, our economy’s going through a bit of a sticky patch at the moment. Sacks of gold are completely out of the question.”
“Firewood, please.”
“Now wait a minute,” said the people of the city, “this isn’t doing anybody any good. We’ve been thinking about all this and we’ve put together a small committee to have a look at these books of yours. Let us evaluate them for a few months, see if they’re worth anything to us, and when you come back next year, perhaps we can put in some kind of a reasonable offer. We are not talking sacks of gold here, though.”
The old woman shook her head. “No,” she said. “Bring me the firewood.”
“It’ll cost you.”
“No matter,” said the woman, with a shrug. “The books will burn quite well by themselves.”
So saying, she set about shredding two of the books into pieces which then burnt easily. She set off swiftly across the plain and left the people of the city to face another year.
She was back in the late spring.
“Just one left,” she said, putting it down on the ground in front of her. “So I was able to bring my own firewood.”
“How much?” said the people of the city.
“Sixteen sacks of gold.”
“We’d only budgeted for eight.”
“Take it or leave it.”
“Wait here.”
The people of the city went off into a huddle and returned half an hour later.
“Sixteen sacks is all we’ve got left,” they pleaded, “times are hard. You must leave us with something.”
The old woman just hummed to herself as she started to pile the kindling together.
“All right!” they cried at last, opened up the gates of the city, and let out two ox carts , each laden with eight sacks of gold. “But it had better be good.”
“Thank you,” said the old woman, “it is. And you should have seen the rest of it.”
She led the two ox carts away across the plain with her, and left the people of the city to survive as best they could with the one remaining twelfth of all the knowledge and wisdom that had been in the world.
[From the book Last Chance to See by Douglas Adams.]
Disagree.
This once I’m not a pessimist.
Survival instinct too strong.
Have you ever planted a tree?
I used to have this quote on a poster with a beautiful native american woman.. in my dorm room 1st yr of university. made my day to read it today!
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I saw this quote on an Athena post with a picture of a pretty sqwar, I still have my doubts about the authenticity of this since it talks about pollution which really did not become a problem until the 20th Century. Unfortunately more enclined to believe it was made up in the 80’s by a clever marketing man wanting to cash in on anything “Indian” something that began to get very trendy in later part of that decade, remember “Dances with wolfes” and the lesser know bu far superior “Black Rob”….
This is a beautiful and true poem —
world is dangerous as Einstein said – because of the people who DON’t DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT!
I am in complete support of the Native People T R Y I N G to ‘wake up the world.’