”Please don’t catch them you would hurt them, their wings would lose the color and beauty” I used to appeal like this to my siblings and friends in my childhood whenever I saw them in hunt for butterflies. I was fearful that the butterflies would fly away never to return back and I would lose the unending joy and pleasure which they provided with their beautiful and majestic presence. These small and fragile insects had such a great impact on me whenever I had the chance to see them.
I so much detested the hobby of all those who used to catch and preserve butterflies in their scrap books on the pretext of immortalizing them. This was a habit of possessiveness; people want to possess all beauty, all good things in life. Beauty and all good things are the pleasures that must be shared and not possessed.
Today, we find that this habitat is fast vanishing and we seldom see the beautiful and colorful sight of these delicate creatures. Where the butterflies have gone?, I haven’t seen them in years! Environmentalists tell us that this is now a global issue and we are losing these beautiful creatures very fast and each one of us has to protect “their” butterflies.
Protecting butterflies mean much more than merely protecting them. Butterflies are the symbol of beauty, civilization, love, life, environment, relationships, harmony and the wholeness of being. When each one of us saves our part of butterflies, then we actually had indulged in saving and serving all that which they symbolize.
