Why do we worship 'Peepal Tree'!!

I wanted to give an effort to bring out the scientific reasons behind the various traditions, customs we, as Indians, follow. Why I thought to start this column, is the basic reason of following some traditions without knowing the reason why we are following them. Normally, we do so by seeing our parents/grand-parents doing it. Even if we ask them the reason most of the time we get a reply which is related to God or religion or simply saying, “ye hamari parampara hai”.

I do not know whether I’d be able to do justice to what I am trying to do here, but I’ll try my level best.

To start the series, let us take up a very common tradition, worshiping and offering water to ‘Peepal’ tree. Why do we do that? Hindu religion asks us to offer water to ‘Peepal’ tree because as per it, it’s the abode of God. The religion asks us not to uproot any ‘Peepal’ tree because it will bring bad omen to us. There is a fear of God created for the ‘Peepal’ tree and we worship it thinking that it is the abode of God and God will get angry if we uproot them. Ever wondered, why we worship ‘Peepal’ and not ‘Neem’??

‘Peepal’ tree is almost useless for an ordinary person living in a village (think of thousands of years back when the society was not this modern and literate) except that its shadow is used for ‘Panchayat’ or other meetings etc in a village. ‘Peepal’ does not a have a delicious fruit, its wood is not strong enough for any purpose then why should a common villager or person worship it or even care for it? On the other hand every part of ‘Neem’ tree is useful for a common man but still he does not worship it. Why?

Our ancestors (the thinkers of that time) were very intelligent. They knew the quality of a ‘Peepal’ tree which an ordinary man would not either understand or probably would not bother to understand as it does not have any direct benefit for the ordinary man. Our ancestors knew that ‘Peepal’ is one of the very few trees (or probably the only tree) which produces oxygen even at night. (It must be brought to the readers’ notice that all trees use carbon dioxide in day time while doing photosynthesis and produce oxygen which is ‘pran vaayu’ for human beings and at night all trees ‘inhale’ oxygen and ‘exhale’ carbon dioxide at night.) But ‘Peepal’ tree ‘exhales’ or produces oxygen even at night. It generates so much oxygen in one minute which is enough for approx 1000 living creatures.

Our ancestors knew that a common man would probably not understand this scientific reason so in order to save this tree because of its unique property they related it to God/religion and a common is, most of the time, God fearing. This fear of God and the belief that a ‘Peepal’ tree is God’s abode we offer water to ‘Peepal’ tree, we do not uproot it and take every care of it.

Just think if it was not linked to God we would not respect a ‘Peepal’ tree which has so much benefit for we human beings.

If you also know about any such scientific reason behind our traditions please do contribute. Let’s know the ‘why’ of Indian traditions and reason they are still going strong since ages.

                                                         

-Shitanshu Srivastava