Nature Responds to Love
Adapted from an article in the 2016 edition of Magzav (a cultural magazine in Auroville).
Being blessed with the incredible luck to have an uncle in South Africa, I was invited for a magical journey with a flavor of deep nature connection. I also had the chance to spent 3 days in the Cape-area and to start learning interspecies communication with Anna Breytenbach, an amazing woman. The whole journey was an epic tale, but here I share with you the very last encounter.
Botswana, close to the River Kwai, November 2014
It is our last game drive! I sit in the front seat, next to Motusi, our very skilled and gentle local guide. The other Range Rover is setting off to look for the elusive leopard which we heard calling around the camp for the last 5 days but who never showed himself. In our car it is festive, we sing while driving along the African landscapes watching thousands of birds, impalas, zebras … Who will we meet today: lions, crocodiles, the leopard? Our guides are so skilled, they are almost one with all around, they hear birds far away and know what they are saying… Motusi spots a group of elephants at the river, he decides to drive in that direction: six elephants leisurely drinking, showering…He stops the vehicle about 50meter away or less, the elephants are aware of us, they seem to trust as they turn their back on us. A hippo watches too.
Time goes by… as one elephant slowly prepares to step out of the waterhole, he moves towards the front of our vehicle in a tranquil steady way. He than stops right in front….and watches us straight in the face, we can see his eye clearly focusing.
I feel extremely small and vulnerable without even a front window. Only a few meters away is this enormously strong and wild animal, unknown to me… We are all death silent, almost holding our breath…I think: ‘Well if I die now, it is all right!!’ I am on the edge of fear and love. Meeting those eyes, I realize deep within, all our history together, me representing the human kind… I send my highest feelings: enormous respect, appreciation, love and gratitude. He starts moving closer, slowly passes right in front and circles around the vehicle watching each and every one of us in the eyes: Motusi and me in front, the Bushman, Tina and Reiner next, and Nina, Donalea and Stella in the back. Finally he leaves, still looking back: stopping, watching.
At that moment Alwyn, the other guide calls us from the radio in the other car telling us the leopard is grunting close by: Do we wanna join them? We shake our head, Motusi calmly replies ‘we will come when we can…’ all of us just want to be right here where we are! Meanwhile 2 elephants in the water seem to enter a dance… Slowly one or the other elephant places its trunk on the other elephant’s trunk, mouth or defenses…than both halt for a moment as if suspended in timelessness and start again… We get into the slow entrancing rhythm of the elephants, I hear drums in the background (I still do not know if there were really drums or someone suggested it was our small fridge sound in the car which I used unconsciously to get into a drum trance rhythm).
The dance goes on, mirroring each other. Sometimes they halt with their trunk rolled up in the air…it feels magical, no words. It seems to be a mating ritual… rare privilege to witness. Then all the elephants will one by one come out of the water, stop and watch us…
Did we get elephant blessings? A transmission…?
More and more elephants appear out of the bushes behind us, slowly watching us…At this point we all cry… Finally after maybe 40 minutes or so, we leave…joining the others for a sunset snack in the bush…we can’t speak, only tears come for the entire next hour or so. But our heart is shining in love.
