This article was published in Mid-day, a Gujarati daily. Originally written by Gunvant Shah, in his column 'Aaj ni email' (meaning Today's email).
Upon hearing the word separation the thought comes to mind is of divorce. But if you go deep thinking, you will see that on every step in life we are indeed suffering from the curse of divorce - separation. But for the reason this separation is minor (as we think of it) and has been accepted as a normal phenomenon, we tend not to perceive it.
For centuries man has been playing-wandering-living in the lap of Nature, taking earth and heaven for mother and father. He had been living in synergy with surrounding animation - vegetation and animals. But now on the name of so-called civility this synergy is breaking. On the land of Red Indians (America), came the whites from the England and assaulted the innocent natives of the land. At last, the natives gave up against the whites. At the time of reconciliation the head of the natives begged the winning whites:
I have only one wish that the whites will have to treat every beast of this land as a kin. Because whatever passes onto animals is immediately transferred onto men. Everything is integrated on the planet. The planet is not of man, but man is of this planet. We only know one thing: there is one heaven for us all.
First comes the separation from Nature. We do not have time to devour the rising sun. The river is not too far away, but our relationship with it has been cut off, and its water is contaminated now. How many children can climb a tree today? Swimming pools have arrived for lakes. Fresh lemon juice is replaced by synthetic lemon squash. Guided tours instead of free wanderings, and gymnasium instead of natural bodily exercises. Tension grows and peace disappears because of the separation from Nature. And all of it on the name of progress and civilization.
Second comes the breach of relations. In the big cities people are drawn away from each others. A man working in a factory is unaware of the entire further process of production, and for life remains as a tiny screw of the gigantic machine. His deeds are all repetitive and hence destructive to the freshness of life. He gets time to speak leisurely with the wife only on Sundays. And if both are working, no time for children. Life flies on like a misdirected kite, and TV stands the place of an entertainer. Seeing loads of deceptive and alluring advertisements on TV, he develops the desires to buy and own every new thing. Expenses rise, now income has to rise anyhow. Badly earned income now seems dear. So-called life-standard comes up, but life tumbles down the ground! Slowly the time comes when he is separated from himself. Such minor separation is not as noticeable as what we call divorce. The human relationships become warmth-less. And life seems like a second-hand thing. All the pride of human birth is washed up. But there is no custom of calling the separation from the self a divorce.
Third comes the separation of speech and mind. When the harmony between speech and mind fades, man grows rusty inside. The lies that are become an integral part of every action need to hide with the help of speech. Men deceive each other with speech, and deception comes to be accepted as a system. Workers deceive the boss with sweet speech, and vice-versa. And in the world where such acts of deception are considered as normal, the one who does not lie is unable to exist. We have grown too weak to accept straight No, straight disagreement and straight criticism.