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Break for Glory: Plants Live Rich Sensual Lives!

August 20, 2012


Another break for glory (to celebrate the Lord's Vibhooti i.e divine glory). This time round, I found a reference to a fascinating book, "What a Plant Knows" by Daniel Chamovitz through my favorite blog Andrew Sullivan's The Dish. I haven't yet got the book, but in an interview published in the Scientific American, I came across this quote by Chamovitz:

If you think about it, rootedness is a huge evolutionary constraint. It means that plants can’t escape a bad environment, can’t migrate in the search of food or a mate. So plants had to develop incredibly sensitive and complex sensory mechanisms that would let them survive in ever changing environments. I mean if you’re hungry or thirsty, you can walk to the nearest watering hole (or bar). If you’re hot, you can move north, if you’re looking for a mate, you can go out to a party. But plants are immobile. They need to see where their food is. They need to feel the weather, and they need to smell danger. And then they need to be able to integrate all of this very dynamic and changing information. Just because we don’t see plants moving doesn’t mean that there’s not a very rich and dynamic world going on inside the plant.
We've seen verse 10-41 before, where Śrī Kṛṣṇa declares that "Whatever it is that is glorious, prosperous or powerful in any being, know that to be a manifestation of a part of My splendour." The previous verse, 10-40 is just as beautiful:

नान्तोऽस्ति मम दिव्यानां विभूतीनां परन्तप |
एष तूद्देशतः प्रोक्तो विभूतेर्विस्तरो मया ||१०-४०||

naanto.asti mama divyaanaa.n vibhuutiinaaM parantapa .
eshha tuuddeshataH prokto vibhuutervistaro mayaa .. 10\-40..
There is no end to My Divine Glories, O Parantapa; this is but a brief statement by Me of of My Divine Glories.

It appears that science continues to add to the glories enumerated in Geeta chapter 10 by bringing to light ever new glories of the Lord's creation. As the Brahmananda kirtan says,


करे कौन तेरे गुणों का निरूपण किताबें कवीश्वर मुनीश्वर भी हारा ।
kare kaun tere guNo.m ka nirUpaN kitaabe.m kaviishvar muniishvar bhii haaraa
Who can really describe thy glories, even the great poets and sages have failed

Previous 'break for glory' posts here.

Hari Om and Namaskaar until the next post

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