Moth

A simple brown mouth that came in my house. That moth gave me interesting stories.

Once I was speaking with my colleagues that the brown moths appear around the beginning of the winter. While mentioning it I had happened to mention that they appear somewhere between Dussehra and Diwali. One of my friends had something sweet to add to this fact, "in my village they say that these moth are our ancestors. They come to our house to see if everything is going on well. We do not see when they enter our homes and when they exit our homes. They arrive and depart mysteriously. In my village we do not shoo them away or kill them. We let them sit whenever they want without disturbing them. After all who wants the wrath of the ancestors?" This was an interesting perspective from my friend. I felt that this tradition comes from the love for the nature including insects. With such backstories we definitely would not want to harm these little creatures. I made a promise to myself not to harm them or a kill them if I see them at my home.

Another interesting story was narrated by my childhood friend, "in our Bengali culture we see these moths as Goddess Lakshmi. Goddess Lakshmi often comes to our homes in form of these brown moths. If we see them in our homes we should offer turmeric and kumkum to them. If we have a flower at home then that too should be offered to the moths. This is one opportunity to please Goddess Lakshmi so that our homes are filled with prosperity," I liked this perspective as well. It was interesting to consider a moth, an ordinary insect as Goddess Lakshmi. I believed that this belief too comes from the love and respect towards nature. We do not want to disturb and disrupt the nature and even tiny beings like moth. When we consider an animal or even an insect to be a form of God or our dead relatives we will obviously become emotional. These stories will bind us to our Gods or ancestors. When we are emotionally bound to any creature we would not think about harming them. Hence I like both stories because both of them ask us to be kind to these harmless creatures. Both stories request us to leave the insects alone and undisturbed.

When I think about both of these stories today I do not see the moths as disgusting as I used to see them earlier. I now feel that they to have a life like me and I should respect their life and existence. Out of my love towards the nature I often take pictures of birds, animals, and insects. Now whenever I see a moth I think of it as if it is Goddess Lakshmi or one of my ancestors.

Last night a moth had come to my residence. I offered Kumkum and turmeric to it and said, "I do not know if you are Goddess Lakshmi or one of my ancestors. Whoever you are I would not harm you. You can stay here as long as you like. Treat this as your own home". With this I left the moth alone. Even today it is at the same place where it was last night.

One thing is for sure. These little creatures give us food for thought and make us kinder.