Wildness
The yogi feels a part of the world and all of creation.For the yogi, the definition of wild is free, creative, robust, and meditative, in community with all of nature. This feeling is part of our original state that is corrupted by a culture that sees the world as exploitable. In the ancient Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh we learn of a natural creature named Enkidu who suckled at the breasts of the animals and grazed with them in the meadows. Hunters discover Enkidu as he helped the animals escape their traps. The stories about this wild one who could speak to all creatures intrigued the King Gilgamesh, who proceeds to seduce, hire, educate and befriend Enkidu. It is a sad story of how each of us lost our connection to nature and the natural world. Our own wildness is a lost treasure that must be recovered at all costs.
When Enkidu dies Gilgamesh recites this elegy to the natural human:
Enkidu, . . . your mother is a gazelle, and . . . your father who created you, a wild ass. [You were] raised by creatures with tails, and by the animals of the wilderness, with all its breadth. The paths going up to and down from the forest of cedars All mourn you: the weeping does not end day or night —Tablet VIII Epic of Gilgamesh
The whole world mourned the passing of Enkidu, even the trees and pathways. A treasure had been lost – the connection between humans and the rest of creation.
David Life, November Focus of the Month, 2015. Jivamukti.