The primitive man used to live in jungles, surrounded by nature lived to fulfill the basic challenges of the acquisition of food, clothing and shelter. Today also, the modern man lives in jungles, except for the fact that these are concrete jungles, where breath is slightly choked and challenges ensconced in fear, stress, desperation and roller coaster rides to nowhere.
Those who have had an occasion to live amidst nature or continue to do so even now co exist joyfully as they are meant to do. Man has many lessons to learn from proximity to nature. On the other hand, those who have boxed themselves in the thick walls of expensive concrete may have boxed themselves enough within thick, impenetrable walls so that neither the experience of fresh breeze carrying the aroma of sweet smelling flowers nor the chirpy songs of the birds, not even the frolic of clouds in the sky can enter. To be away from nature is unnatural. It is true that staying away from nature hardens the human heart. Nature is the greatest leveler for the ego of the human being.
I am humbled by the trees! They stand unflinchingly tall in the scorching sun to allow men to rest under their shade. When they are laden with fruit, they bend over towards the earth as if bowing to it in gratitude. I learn to re invent myself each time I sit by a river. I watch it undulating, flowing steadily towards the ocean, its source. I see it weaving its way around boulders, finding new pathways, tireless, undeterred and determined.
I look at the vast expanse of the sky which integrates and shelters all Creation like a benevolent parent, loving and kind and I think to myself, “this is what we should learn from the sky: to integrate and accept one and all as different forms of the same Divine Energy.” As the seasons come and go, giving us warmth, rain, coolness and challenging our tolerance and adaptability, so too, life comes in similar phases, daring us to rise to every occasion and come through with flying colors.
Then, of course, there is the ocean. I cannot find a better example of the working of the human mind than the ocean. The restlessness of the conscious mind is so beautifully represented in the waves crashing against the shores and receding into the ocean as compared to the stillness of the depth of the ocean, as is the sub conscious mind which can be accessed only by diving through the surface layers of the waves. Therein, deep within the self, deep as the ocean, dwell peace and oneness.
So also, the mountains, the hills, the valleys, the grasslands and all other forms of Nature are teachers of the highest order of God, following the universal laws to perfection while, sadly, man disregards every spiritual law of co existence with Nature as he continues to live each day with a greater sense of self absorption and an unbecoming callousness .
If truth be told, every awakening dawn brings a new hope for the day as the sun shines its pure golden light upon the earth and each day, dusk merges into the darkness of the night, taking with it the day’s experiences and lessons, and, above all, a hope that tomorrow will be better than today has been in every way. Man, with all his intelligence, fails to recognize his troubles in life as being the result of a lack of this very awareness.
“Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature — the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.”
― Rachel Carson, Silent Spring
― Rachel Carson, Silent Spring
Surekha Kothari
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