Deep Ecology and
Transcendence in Sumana Roy’s How I Became a Tree
Dr Jasleen Kaur Nanda,
Assistant Professor,
Department of English,
GSSDGS Khalsa College Patiala,
Punjab, India.
Abstract: When human being
feels the disillusionment of being a human, there is a possibility of finding
deeper meaning of life and exploring connection with nature, so that one can
analyse the path taken by humans in the name of progress and the drawbacks
associated with this progress. Nature’s divine existence has been felt by many
writers in the past and ecocritical theorists have critiqued how this
benevolent nature has been exploited and abused by humans. Sumana Roy, an
Indian author, has highlighted the importance of close association with nature
and in her memoir How I Became a Tree (2017)
she starts learning the natural way of life from trees. The trees that are not
restricted by clocks and artificial appearances, provide an insight towards a
calm and hassle free existence.“Tired of making mistakes, I turned to the plant
world for lessons” (16). The violence prevalent in human world in the form of
rapes, murders, honour killings, is not found among trees. Roy reminds the
readers of Margaret Atwood’s novel Surfacing
and Chipko Movement of Garhwal Himalayas. The present paper explores the need
to live in harmony with nature and understand the wisdom hidden behind the
innocent and benevolent ways of nature.
Keywords: Ecology,
Nature, Plants, Trees, How I Became a Tree, Sumana Roy
Sumana Roy attempts to express through this nonfiction
work that human beings can gain wisdom that is embedded in nature if they are
receptive enough to appreciate their divine existence. The superiority that was
felt by humans of being more capable than non human beings must come to an end
so that a harmonious existence can be envisioned. The posthuman will not be
anthropocentric and there will arise many possibilities when non human beings
will become a guide to humans. The definition of a cyborg given by Donna
Haraway clearly presents a picture of human who is a hybrid and a mixture of
technology as well as non human nature. The tendency of exploiting and abusing
nature doesn’t become a part of the personality of such a human.
In her work, Sumana Roy brings to the attention of
readers that non-violence is a quality that can be observed among trees. Just
sitting with trees and nature around, brings peace to mind. There is only a
need to appreciate how trees can have a calming effect and they oppose the very
concept of violence. When a person feels exhausted by the never ending demands
of life, it is heartwarming to observe that trees are not pressurized by goals
and ambitions. People are following fast pace of life in which there is hardly
any time to admire the beauty of nature lying in abundance as a gift of God. “I
was tired of speed. I wanted to live to tree time” (4). Roy writes that she
stopped reading or watching news because they were also an addition to this
fast paced life. Human beings have themselves complicated their lives leading
to psychological ailments. The present time demands simplifying life and
following the rhythm of divine nature.
Roy condemns the artificial way of life chosen by humans.
Gaining immediate pleasure is the only goal and the inner voice that guides the
moral actions died long time back. “There is also the epidemic of fairness….”
(11). Skin whitening creams are ruling the makeup world and rejection of
sunlight is only the byproduct of artificiality. Not only the rejection of sun
but the rejection of many healthy ancient practices has led to degeneration. A
posthuman perspective involves reviving the forgotten association with nature,
birds, and animals. “In front of me, then, was an illustration of why some
ancient civilizations had worshiped the sun as god” (11). Roy also points
towards the fact that humans have become very greedy and they want everything
in abundance. In contrast, the trees consume only the bare minimum.
In her
work, Roy appreciates the classical poet Ovid who made plants or animals the
significant part of his myths. She contrasts those myths to modern day violence
and writes that the violence is deep rooted. There is a need to bring human
conscience back to non violent ways for healthy co-existence. Roy emphasizes
upon this much needed transformation of human beings. She admires the noiseless
existence of trees as opposed to the traffic noise produced by human practices.
The author wants to escape the noisy world of humans and to enter the silent
world of trees. She wants to gain understanding of their sensory reactions and
how they feel or react to outside stimulations. The author observes that
beautiful music sounds are produced by plant life. The sounds made by leaves
while facing wind were no less than those created by musical instruments. The
trees also protested against cutting and breaking. The association with trees
was felt so strongly by the author that she herself wanted to become a tree:
Overcome by desperation and the need to escape the
invisible violence inside humans, I grew desperate to turn into a tree
immediately. (27)
The author
Sumana Roy thought about the women living in Garhwal Himalayas who had hugged
trees to stop the builders from felling the trees. Those women also must have
felt close association with trees just like the author had been feeling from a
long time. She photographed dead trees for many years and looked at them like
statues of great beings. She also collected different kinds of leaves as a part
of her memories. Roy writes in the chapter “The Literature of Trees” that when
she read and felt so much about trees, her existence and the existence of other
things around her started resembling the functioning of trees. Everything was
connected to different branches of knowledge spreading to different directions.
This is the kind of existence that Donna Haraway writes about in her Cyborg
Manifesto in which non-human world becomes an integral part of human world.
Even the generations in different families are drawn as trees. The famous
author Gabriel Garcia Marquez drew various branches of family tree of Buendia
family in his novel One Hundred Years of Solitude.
The trees
helped the author in reducing the mechanical fast pace of life and she adopted
the ‘tree time’ for one or two hours daily in her busy routine. This slowdown
procedure had a therapeutic effect on her. Gloria Anzaldua also writes about
this kind of therapeutic effect in her book Borderlands. She writes that
during Coatlicue State a person slows down completely and this procedure helps
him or her in rejuvenation. Trees also have that calming effect on mind which
can act as a prevention or cure from diseases. Nature has a healing effect on
body and mind and whenever humans become one with nature, they feel more
fulfillments in their mental and spiritual states. The shadows of trees have an
equally soothing effect when they save people from scorching sun and they prove
themselves to be selfless givers. The trees become mothers and give solace to
others in their laps.
Roy writes
in the chapter “Studying Nature” that in Rabindranath Tagore’s school for
children, set up in 1901, nature study was taught to them as a subject. The
students learnt about the connection among the birds, animals, environment, and
plant life while studying at the ashram. Different seasons and their
close association with plant life were taught to the students.“What his
students inherited through this course was a sense of trees as participant,
friend and neighbor, in the ongoing drama of daily life, not merely as
background” (98). The ideology of anthropocentrism was repudiated by
Rabindranath Tagore and he negated the dominance of man over nature. The
harmony between humans and nature was considered essential by Tagore so that a
loving relationship with nature can be developed. He wrote many stories and
poems in which nature was celebrated as divine blessing.
According to
post humanists, human beings are not the supreme in this whole existence. They
have no right to marginalize non human nature. Vandana Shiva, an Indian
ecofeminist, has taken a powerful stand on loving trees and plants. According
to her, it is a practical and political approach. It is also a spiritual
commitment which is very much needed for survival and justice. While living
together with nature, there needs to be a symbiotic relationship rather than a
relationship of dominance. Shiva was deeply influenced by Chipko movement. She
admired the women who selflessly hugged the trees to save them from felling.
According to Vandana Shiva, the patriarchal mindset dominates nature and
capitalism is the root cause of the hierarchy established between humans and
environment. For Shiva, loving trees is not being too sentimental rather it is
a rational response to a system that is killing the planet.
Sumana Roy writes that her disenchantment with never
ending ambitions brought her to spend time in a forest. It was her romantic
desire to live like a tree among other trees in forest. A forest can be the
only place where one can lose all ego and self-centeredness. Roy writes in her
chapter on ‘The Buddha and the Bodhi Tree’ that she went to see Bodhi tree in
Gaya to manifest all the stories that she had read from different sources.
Buddha attained enlightenment while sitting under that tree. “The Vinaya
Pitaka tells us that the Buddha spent a week looking at the tree in
gratitude, and subsequently gave permission to his devotees to worship it”
(184). The tree was worshipped for seven days with tears in Buddha’s eyes. It
seemed to Roy that the ideals of Buddhism reflect the deep essence of existence
of trees as if Buddha is urging people to learn the art of life from trees.
Rachel M.
Knight-Messenger writes in his book The Role of Nature Mysticism in Building
Ecological Theology and Ethics (2025) that the ecological crisis is
ubiquitous and ecological theologians suggest that one of the causes is
spiritual malaise. Human beings have abused nature due to the sheer rationality
pervading their lives and the neglect of connection between nature and God is
clearly evident. “…the mystic emphasizes becoming conscious of the presence of
God within the cosmos that subsequently elicits not only a deep awareness of
the sacredness and interconnectedness of all creation but also contains an
ethical imperative that strives to build an ethic of creation” (Knight n.pag.).
Ecological ethics should be connected to spirituality in order to sensitize
human beings towards a creation that equally values all forms of existence. The
mystics have also experienced this deep connection between all kinds of
existence on planet Earth.
Christopher
Falzon’s book Foucault and the History of Philosophical Transcendence (2024)
throws light on transcendence and its role in individual’s life. “This concept
of finite transcendence can, I argue, provide the basis for a dialogical ethics
that encompasses not only human social relations but also environmental ethics”
(Falzon 1). Environment became an ‘Other’ to human beings in the past, but in
the present time environmental crisis is a crucial concern. The domination of
nature in the past has resulted in a complete imbalance in environment. Falzon
writes about ‘technological mastery of nature’ and its adverse effects. The
dualism between humans and nature destroys the relationship of kinship between
them. ‘New thinking and new practices’ are needed to restore the balance, as
suggested by the phrase ‘death of Man’. The transcendence of human being will
pave the way for a deeper knowledge of nature and better moral conduct in
concern with environment:
Ethical concerns relate to subjects, and inter subjective
relations, so we would have to impute subjectivity to animals and plants, even
to minerals, and be in communication with nature so understood, for it to be
meaningful to speak of developing a more ethical relationship with nature.
(Falzon 191)
Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature (2005), edited by Bron Taylor, describes the term ‘Nature
Religion’ which is a “…type of religion found in the United States which takes
nature as its sacred center” (1173). This term was introduced into contemporary
discourses of the study of religion and nature by Catherine Albanese’s Nature
Religion in America (1990). In the Encyclopedia, Nature Religion has been
distinguished from other religions on the basis of its understanding of
transcendence. Many spiritualists in the past embraced nature as sacred and
worshipped it as a form of God.
Bob Pepperman
Taylor writes in his book Our Limits Transgressed (1992), regarding the
spiritualization of nature and nature to be considered as God. Taylor also
explains Deep Ecology that offers an alternative practice that can give new direction
to human activities and consciousness. Humans as well as nature would benefit
from such a reorientation by establishing a deeper, soul based relationship.
Deep Ecology intends to liberate nature from human exploitation and gives
importance to kinship. Taylor also throws light on the concept of transcendence
in relation to becoming one with nature. He gives examples of people who
practice deep ecology, its principles, and its lifestyle. This practice
involves direct experiences with nature and rediscovery of mother Earth. Sumana
Roy is one of the authors who have found spirituality in trees and nature, and
this affiliation with nature is exemplary in developing a positive
consciousness and building harmony with nature.
Works Cited
Falzon, Christopher. Foucault
and the History of Philosophical Transcendence: Freedom, Nature and Agency. United
Kingdom, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2024.
Knight-Messenger, Rachel M.. The
Role of Nature Mysticism in Building Ecological Theology and Ethics. United
States, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2025.
Roy, Sumana. How I Became a Tree. Yale
University Press, 2017.
Taylor, Bob Pepperman. Our
Limits Transgressed: Environmental Political Thought in America. United
States, University Press of Kansas, 1992.
Taylor, Bron
Raymond, et al. Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature. United
Kingdom, Bloomsbury Academic, 2005.