Hindu Article-Learn from nature

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Learn from nature

 

 

 

CHENNAI: Nature is very often a great teacher in spiritual life

because it enables the spiritual seeker to be in touch with Reality.

It is even more essential to turn to nature today when human beings

are alienated from it due to the humdrum of day-to-day life. The

cycle in nature if appreciated rightly is God in action. It is for

this reason that scriptural texts are replete with examples from

nature to illustrate abstract concepts.

 

One of the analogies that Adi Sankara uses to describe the nature of

a man of realisation in his work, Vivekachudamani, is that of a river

flowing into an ocean. One can imagine the volume of water that is

discharged by the rivers of the world into the oceans, but there is

no change in them at all.

 

What must be their capacity to receive! So also is the case with a

man of wisdom. He is unaffected by any amount of sensory inputs

entering his mind and retains his equipoise. On the other hand, the

layperson is unable to face even a little sorrow. He becomes

depressed and shuts out the world wallowing in self-pity.

 

A spiritual seeker could train his mind to withstand the vicissitudes

of life by contemplating on the vastness of the ocean or space so

that he could develop the ability to remain unperturbed, said Swami

Mitrananda in his discourse.

 

Just because it is said that a realised man has the capacity to

absorb any amount of sensory inputs, it does not mean that he can get

involved in the world. By nature he does not seek sensory

gratification on his own. Lord Krishna advised Arjuna to follow the

example of Janaka who was renowned for his wisdom. He continued to

rule his kingdom for the welfare of the world and was totally

detached. Developing a spiritual bent of mind does not entail

suppression of sensory involvement in the world; it is transcendence.

Like a child outgrowing its obsession with toys as it becomes older,

a spiritual aspirant will also overcome his sensory cravings with the

onset of Self-knowledge.

 

Sankara cautions that a seeker must not fool himself that he is

unable to get over his worldly attachments due to latent tendencies

(Vasana) in the mind from previous lives. Spiritual knowledge

pulverises all the tendencies and detachment is always total. This is

one of the ways to assess one's spiritual progress. In the experience

of Self-realisation all attachments drop off of their own accord.

 

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