________________
In this treatise all plants have been termed as “Kalpvrikshas” meaning the belevolent trees capable of giving all that is required. The word Kalpvriksha was meant for all sorts of plants and trees. The epithet 'Kalpvriksha' was attributed to all plants because of their overwhelming benevolence in providing multitude of products to fulfil all sorts of needs of human beings, animals and other life forms. The green leaves of plants with their photosynthetic properties are the only agents in nature which harness sunlight to produce variety of products, edibles, drinks, chemicals and host of others. Human beings and animals depend on what plants produce and are thus totally dependent on plant kingdom. The argument of non vegetarians that they consume animal meat and not plant products is not correct because the animals they consume eat plants. As a matter of fact an animal stores hardly 10% of total calories he gets from plants because rest is consumed in its metabolism. If the animal has obtained 2000 calories from plants it stores only 200 calories as meat available to non-vegetarians who actually consume indirectly plants which if consumed directly would have given 2000 calories. Thus non-vegetarians consume 10 times more vegetarian food. Grains fed to animals for non-vegetarians can feed 10 times more number of people.
Apathy towards trees :
The term “Kalpvriksha’ also got distorted through passage of time because of superstition and instead of encompassing entire plant kingdom it got restricted to one particular tree Adansonia digitata. Some person by chance and infact by his effort might have been benefited or his wishes fulfilled while watering or worshipping this tree. He must have spread his story and such superstitions fan out like wild fire. This one tree is being worshipped at many places by multitude of people for boons. It is not this one tree species alone that benefits mankind but all plants individually and collectively give all that we need. Unfortnuately
89 For Private & Personal Use Only
Jain Education International
www.jainelibrary.org
