Nurturing Nature Nurtures Us

By Pallavi Muruganant

(Mrs Pallavi K Muruganant is a doctorate in Microelectronics from IIT Bombay. She is a faculty in James An College, Wollongong, Australia and 'Education Coordinator' of Sri Sathya Sai centre, Wollongong, Australia. She enjoys handling SSEHV classes in Wollongong and can't thank Swami enough for giving her this opportunity. Pallavi is also a very soft spoken and she truly embodies the spirit of ‘Humility is the hallmark of true education’. Here she shares her insights on the intricate inter-relationship between mankind and nature and how Nature is our best teacher and role model).

The word nature is derived from the Latin word natura which means "essential qualities, the innate disposition”. For example if a person loses his temper very often, we call him a short-tempered person. Hence we attribute his nature to what he exhibits. If someone always loves everyone, we say “to love” is his nature.

But wait! Don’t we also call trees, rain, sky, mountains....as nature. So whose nature is this? God’s? ...............Could be? Because all of these: the trees, rain, the sky, mountains.... follow their duties in perfect order. The sun never fails to rise; the earth never stops its revolution. They adhere to a Universal code which is their dharma. They do not judge. They just perform their dharma.

We often hear Baba telling us our dharma:

“To acquire the grace of the Lord, man has to offer worship at the outset to Prakruthi (Nature). Abusing the resources of Nature and forgetting his own basic human nature, man is going against the purpose of Creation”.

Let us try to ponder on the word “Worship”. Literally it is to adore, admire, respect and love something or someone very much. As our beloved mother Sai emphasises will we not appreciate nature once we love it nay once we worship it?

So, only when we love something can we worship it, Isn’t it? And what is the purpose of creation according to Bhagawan?

“I separated Myself from Myself so that I can love Myself.”

Hence it is Him and only Him in my family members, relations, people whom I interact or even the ones with whom I do not, in the living and non-living creation of His. For, He has separated and assumed all this forms to prove His existence and love Himself. Now, if that is getting too philosophical or theoretical let us find ways to experience it.

Most of us need and look forward to vacations so as to unwind ourselves from the everyday stresses.

Each one of us seems to be stressed and lost in our worries. What is that which keeps troubling us? Problems relating to health, finance, relationship; worries due to unfulfilled desires, irrational fears, natural catastrophes (earthquakes, volcanic eruptions) and manmade problems (wars, terrorism). Almost all of these are avoidable as Swami points out. Through a proper understanding of the value based system through EHV and by placing a “Ceiling on Desires (CoD)”. Now, what about natural catastrophes; like the recent floods in Pakistan and Merapi volcanic activity in Indonesia? Sai says:

“Many natural catastrophes are entirely due to man's behaviour. Earthquake, volcanic eruptions, wars, floods and famines and other calamities are the result of grave disorders in Nature. These disorders are traceable to man's conduct. Man has not recognised the integral relationship between humanity and the world of Nature. In the human body, all organs like eyes, ears, mouth, etc., are integrally related to each other. Just as these organs are important for man, man is equally important for society as a limb of the social organism. Man is a part of the human community. Mankind is a part of nature. Nature is a limb of God. Man has not recognised these inter-relationships”.

Some of the environmental problems that we witness today are due to man’s greed for more and more comfort:

·  Soil salinity and dry land salinity are the two problems degrading the environment of Australia.  Groundwater levels earlier used to be in equilibrium; the salt water of the underground tables never rose to ground level due to absorption by native flora growing on the surface.  After the clearing of the native vegetation for European-style agriculture, excess water leached down into the saline layers of soil, and allowed them to move, sometimes into waterways or to the soil surface. Over time this process caused the thin top-soil layers to become irreversibly salty, and no longer suited for agriculture.

·  Phosphates are used in laundry and dishwashing products because they help soften hard water and break down dirt, but once released into the environment in waste water they can cause algal blooms that starve aquatic life of oxygen.

So should we not infer that “Our desire for comforts is in fact betraying us of our life”. We draw more from nature than we need to satisfy our greed and nature leaves us barren. It is just our action that has invoked the reaction. Swami always points that there is “reaction, reflection and resound” (3Rs) of every act, thought and word. How true? Instead, if we expand with love for nature and worship it, I leave it to the readers to infer nature’s response as per the simple formula of 3Rs.

During one of the festive occasion (Navarathri) and celebration at Puttaparthi Swami said:

”The Navarathri celebration is an occasion for revering Nature and considering how natural resources can be used properly in the best interests of mankind”

In fact at every available opportunity Swami emphasises the importance of revering, loving and nurturing nature so that it helps in nurturing our true self.

It is something like a tasty dish kept before a person. If you are a food lover, you go, taste it and you love it. Then you try to find out what the name of the dish is, who made it, so that you get the recipe or where you could get this dish from! Similarly when one finds the unison with nature; that admiration, love, awe directs itself to the creator. We should clearly understand that this is a process. This process either happens now or later; but it shall never fail from happening and that is the whole purpose of this game of life. All that we seem to have in our hands is the effort to surrender and keep away from digressions and distractions which make this journey a long one. Do we now understand the statement “I separated Myself from Myself so that I love Myself” better?

So, we were talking about wanting to take a vacation. People around the world go to hill stations to be with nature. One who wants to meditate secluding away from the hustle and bustle of this busy world, goes to the mountains to be “one” with nature. Why?

Have you ever wondered why we feel at ease and peace when with nature-the mountains, the rivers, waterfalls, and the flowers? Because we lose our smaller judging self in nature’s beauty, majesty and stand accepting all of it un-judged. All that remains is an experience of peace.

When we stand in front of mountain ranges, they look so huge and mighty, that all our troubles look small. God whose might and vastness when we ponder on, all the trials and tribulations look smaller or even get washed away.

When we see the sky, it seems to be so full of emptiness, it transfers some of its emptiness into us and we feel light. It seems to have the ability to suck out all our sorrows and give us peace. If the nature we observe is so vast and mighty, the one who permeates it all over (God) is even vaster and mightier. Our narrow outlook (directed outside through senses) cannot see him.

Flowers which have been created with their intricate designs, the beauty and the fragrance keep each one of us enraptured and we forget everything else at that moment of oneness. Bhagawan, our creator is beauty Himself and that is the reason we lose our smaller-narrower self in His physical presence which am sure many of us would have experienced.

Being with nature fills us with that vastness, that detachment and connects us to the beautiful-pure inner self which is a beautiful sadhana path in itself.

When we worship, love, adore and respect nature Ceiling on Desires need not be consciously practised, for, the reverence of nature has placed this moderation in us already.  We don’t need to be told about COD then; about closing the tap and not to waste water etc. Feeling of oneness with nature makes us feel one with all His creation, and that respect and love for everything becomes natural. Ceiling on desires happens. We will not, we CANNOT waste anything in His creation. We stop desiring for anything that is beyond the need. Hence the greed too loses its feed.

Just being with nature and listening to the voices of it will make us more resonant with the voice of conscience-the God inside-the real me - “I”!

Let us learn to be with nature, to listen to it, nurture it, which will eventually nurture us. If I take this one beautiful step it is sure to lead me to myself; My true Self. Let me be myself then. Just be!