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I live in a city with my family. Often we get exhausted living in a city & try to find out an escape to the lap of nature. On a Sunday morning, we planned to visit my native village for a day. It was mid of February; so the weather was little bit cold with a mild chilling wind. The reason we often go out to village is that we find a strong bondage with nature and the same feeling I am to pass on to my kids. Since their birth they have grown up with almost every modern amenity to make their life easy. However one deep and strong realization is not found in the relationship with nature. To become a best human being it is important to understand how nature defines one life within us.
First of all nature is a great teacher. So we have to take out time to be with nature for sometime frequently. No wonder our ancestors used to look up to nature to understand about life itself. Our ancient scriptures are filled with hymns devoted to nature, as we treated nature as God in many instances. The first Shloka of the Rig Veda is ‘Agnimile purohitam’ which means Agni is the most adorable God in the world. The Sun, Moon, Trees, Rivers, etc. all were treated as Divine creatures. Today we will discuss how the divine creatures define our lives …
SUN: The giver of light, energy, seasons … the list is endless. But what we could learn most from it is how we should be when we are in a position of power. Many a times the sun is covered by the clouds … yet, what does it do? It does not wrestle with the clouds to show who is greater; it does not take away the cloud’s moment of glory, that the cloud overshadow somebody as great as the sun. Instead, the sun gives the cloud a halo, its silver lining, making the cloud look more beautiful.
When one is great & is in a position of power, it is not necessary to take away the limelight from others all the time… Appreciating others not only add to that person’s glory, it also makes others look forward to seeing YOU again.
MOON: The bestower of calm, cooling sensations to the aggrieved or restless mind. The moon changes its shape every day, it is called fickle … but have you ever visualized the moon with a sad expression? No, never. In any shape, it always seems that the moon is smiling. Whether it is a wide crescent smile or an open-toothed half-moon smile or a peaceful full moon smile … it’s always happy and filled with love. It doesn’t matter that it is faced with a change every single day. It still inspires hope and love.
RAIN: We love the rains; we look forward to a break from the heat. It bestows life into the parched earth. It helps the crops grow. But beautiful rains create messy, dirty roads. Much like Life – this beautiful life of ours creates messy, ugly situations sometimes. These situations make us understand life; they make us realize the value of everything that we have. They help US grow. Dirty roads don’t make the rains any less lovely; bad situations shouldn’t make us value and love life any lesser.
TREES: Nature’s ardent helper, giver of oxygen, provider of shade to the tired traveler, health giver, shelter provider to the birds and other creatures. The tree never knowingly harms anybody. Instead, it feeds the hands that hurt it, whether one pelts it with stones for the fruit or cuts it for the wood. The first knowledge of virtue like patience, forgiveness, generosity must have come by observing the trees.
RIVER: The River is one of the most important eco-system in the world. It is the giver of life to the fields, animals, trees and humans alike. It finds its way through the mountains & hills, through rocks and stones. It is playful in some places, tumbles down with a roar or is very peaceful sometimes. It finds its own sweet music, makes its own path and there is nothing that can stop it, no, not even the biggest boulder. And best of all, it accepts its merger into the big, wide sea. Can human life and its final journey be any different?
SEA: There is nobody on earth who can claim to know how many treasures the seas contain in their depths. Perpetually attracted by the moon, they heave and ebb in response to its closeness. Look into our lives … we can never measure the depth of human emotions, can we? Every emotion is a treasure which does not have to be displayed to one and all. Being peaceful and humble despite our richness, remaining within our limits almost always should be the most important lessons that we can learn from the sea. Never forget that there is always another wave even if the earlier one returns … there is always more to life, irrespective of the setbacks.
FIELDS: Barren sometimes and sometimes slushy, a verdant green sometimes and brown otherwise, the fields reflect the seasons so beautifully. They are willing to bear the pain of ploughing and weeding, to give the farmer their best crops. Even when the crops are cut and they are neglected, they sprout grass is fed to the cows. To bring out from the depths to give and then give some more selflessly, is what we can learn from the fields. Remember that the lush fields also lay bare from time to time. That is the time that the field replenishes its reserves. In business when we face a downturn, that is the time to start collecting our energies and build up our reserves so that when the time is right, we are able to give our best.
Divinity exists in all aspects of life. When we are aware of ourselves, we become aware of the God in all, big or small. We then learn to live life well. We become complete.
