One morning recently, I was looking out of our patio window, and noticed a fair-sized moth flitting from flower to flower on our Buddleia bush. I thought, “It must be a Silver Y moth”. These are easily identified because on the underwing there is a silver mark like the letter “Y”, which shows up against the plain brown colour of the rest of the wing. These moths usually seem to arrive from the continent in late summer, when and if the Painted Lady butterflies arrive, and they flutter their wings constantly. Well this year, I haven’t seen either a Painted Lady or a Silver Y moth, so I thought I would go and look at this one. When I got to it, I realised that it was actually a Hummingbird hawk moth, hovering higher above the flowers than the Silver Y moths ever do, because it has a long proboscis, which it directs down each tiny Buddleia flower.I have seen one before, but high above me, so this time I was able to see it up close. It was perhaps two inches from front to back, and it really did seem like a tiny humming-bird, except that it had feelers/antennae stuck on the front of its head, like a joke from a science fiction movie! It does look more like a bird than an insect: not only was it hovering, with wings beating at about 80 times a second, but its eyes look compact, right in the middle of the side of the head, as on most birds. Most bees, wasps and flies have enormous compound eyes taking up the whole side of the head, and quite often the same colour as the rest of the head.
Anyway, it has set me thinking. I have probably never written a blog about the Bahá’í attitude to nature. So I decided to write this one. Bahá’u’lláh loved nature – the trees, flowers, birds, and probably also the insects. The only story I am aware of which involves Bahá’u’lláh and insects was in His later years. There was a garden which the Bahá’ís had created for Bahá’u’lláh. Pilgrims who had been able to visit Him had brought plants, walking six hundred or more miles from Persia to see Him, and keeping the plants alive at all costs! One day, a small swarm of locusts had arrived in the garden, so Abu’l-Qasim, the gardener, was going frantic. He had been devoting every day to tending and nurturing these precious plants, and now thousands of locusts were busily munching away at everything that was green, particularly the trees that provided the shade for the garden. He begged Bahá’u’lláh to send the locusts away, but Bahá’u’lláh Himself had no animosity towards the locusts at all, and replied: “The locusts must be fed; let them be.” But He could see how upset Abu’l-Qasim was, so He stood up and addressed the locusts: “Abu’l-Qasim does not want you here; God protect you!” Then, according to the story, he simply lifted the hem of his robe a little, and the locusts all took off and headed away from the garden.
Bahá’u’lláh always taught kindness to animals, and even made it an aspect of someone’s personal spiritual search. He listed several specific points of behaviour which any seeker after truth should manifest, and concluded with: “That seeker should also… show kindness to animals.” Presumably, judging by this story, that includes insects!
On nature, Bahá’u’lláh wrote (as the mouthpiece of God):
“Nature in its essence is the embodiment of My Name, the Maker, the Creator. Its manifestations are diversified by varying causes, and in this diversity there are signs for men of discernment.
Nature is God’s Will and is its expression in and through the contingent world. It is a dispensation of Providence ordained by the Ordainer, the All-Wise. Were anyone to affirm that it is the Will of God as manifested in the world of being, no one should question this assertion.
It is endowed with a power whose reality men of learning fail to grasp. Indeed a man of insight can perceive naught therein save the effulgent splendour of Our Name, the Creator.
Say: This is an existence which knoweth no decay, and Nature itself is lost in bewilderment before its revelations, its compelling evidences and its effulgent glory which have encompassed the universe.”
So: Nature is God’s Will. It is His creation. In the second sentence (“Its manifestations are diversified by varying causes…”) Bahá’u’lláh clearly affirms that it gradually diversifies (which science now confirms). In the last sentence it says: “It is an existence which knows no decay.” As decay is constant at the micro level, Bahá’u’lláh was clearly talking about Nature at the macro level. I take the sentence to mean that we can never destroy it altogether. In another piece, Bahá’u’lláh wrote: “All praise be to God Who hath adorned the world with an ornament, and arrayed it with a vesture, of which it can be despoiled by no earthly power, however mighty its battalions, however vast its wealth, however profound its influence.” I have always found this very reassuring. We can never totally destroy life on this planet, it will always regenerate eventually. But we can do a great deal of damage, to all life on Earth, actually destroying our own environment – after all, we depend on plant life for our food. We also depend on plants giving out oxygen, and so on. The planet will not tolerate us tampering with methane levels, carbon dioxide levels, temperature levels, etc. But… after man has messed it up, Nature comes back! Think of Chernobyl. Think of how nature reclaims gravel pits, and what happens when factories get knocked down.
And all this was sparked off by having a moth visit my garden! Nature is special – and God meant it to be.
