Am I The Doer?

I had grown a tree in front of my house

With all the love and care

Since the house was exposed to a lot of dust;

I gave the best of my effort to grow it

Not for the want of its flowers or fruits

But because I loved the trees naturally;

When the tree grew taller and wider,

Spreading its greenery and shades all around,

I was delighted to see the fulfillment of my effort;

I was not eager to see the flowers and fruits next

As I wanted the tree to cover the front side first

And hence I continued to nourish and protect it;

The days rolled by with no anxiety nor expectation

As some birds started visiting the tree quite often

Perching, playing, eating and even nesting on it;

It was a delightful sight for me every day

To sit watching the playful, colorful tiny birds

And the tree itself offering shelter to them;

One fine day, as I sat peeping through the bushy leaves,

I couldn’t resist myself being caught all of a sudden

By the sight of a small plant that didn’t resemble the tree;

The curiosity dragged my attention towards that plant

And I quickly discovered it was growing on a branch

But the curiosity asked me to know who planted it there;

As I focused on the question, I remembered having seen once

A bird sitting on the branch, holding a fruit with its legs

And eating it after breaking the fruit using its beak;

All the curiosity subsided slowly as I discovered for myself

That few seeds from the fruit had got stuck to that branch

Helped by the bird, which would rub its beak against the branch;

The natural selection phenomenon caused the seed to germinate

And grow into a plant, getting nourishment from the tree

Bringing more delight to my watchful eyes;

The tree started bearing tiny but beautiful flowers

Along with nourishing that strange plant without bias

And this new sight became a thing of amazement and joy for me;

Several seasons rolled by with the tree bearing flowers

And the plant growing freely and spreading all over the tree

But, everything seemed fine as I couldn’t notice any danger;

On a day when I brought my friend to show this wonderful sight,

A big surprise caught my attention all of a sudden

As the flowers seemed to be hiding behind the new plant;

When I peeped through the leaves with anxiety carefully

I found that the leaves of the new plant at every branch

Had outnumbered the flowers, which struggled to breath;

I kept on watching this strange wonder day by day mutely

Since my affection prevented me from disturbing the relationship

And several months passed by in this helpless condition;

The next flowering season arrived tempting me to see it again

But, there were hardly any flowers to rejoice now

As the strange plant seemed to engulf the entire tree;

My lovely tree stopped bearing flowers one day silently

But continued to nourish the plant, which took shelter

And with this a strange silence occupied my mind;

As I sat one day to understand what went wrong

For the tree to stop flowering any more

And I wondered if it was the strange plant or my own lapse;

The mind started enquiring about the Cause & Effect phenomenon

And I traveled backward from the plant till the bird

To ask if the cause was the plant or the seed or the bird;

Why did the tree gave shelter to the plant and nourished it?

Was it the ignorance or the benevolence on the part of the tree?

Or was it my own ignorance, affection or curiosity then?

How could the plant try to destroy the tree that protected it?

How could I allow a strange plant to grow to such an extent?

How could the seed take root and grow so much without the soil?

No amount of inquiry seemed to satisfy my restless mind,

Which tried to unravel the mystery behind the cause & effect

And I asked myself if there was meaning to good and bad;

People say that good cause will produce a good effect

And bad cause will produce bad effect always

But I asked again if a cause can be related to an effect;

As my mind started getting tired of this endless inquiry

I decided to stay with only one question for now –

“Am I the doer of either good or bad, OR am I responsible for whatever I do?”