There is a rhythm to everything in the cosmos. The wind, the rain, the waves, the flow of our breath and our heartbeat—everything has a rhythm. Similarly, there is a rhythm in life. Our thoughts and actions create the rhythm and melody of our lives.
When the rhythm of our thoughts is lost, it reflects in our actions. This will, in turn, throw off the very rhythm of life. Today, this is what we are seeing all around us.
Today, the air is becoming more and more polluted; the water as well. Rivers are drying up. Forests are being destroyed. New diseases are spreading. If this continues, a huge disaster is in store for all of Nature and humanity.
The current generation lives as if it has no relationship with Nature. Everything around us is artificial. Today, we eat fruit and grains grown with fertilisers and pesticides.
We add preservatives to increase their shelf-life. Like this, consciously or unconsciously, we are continuously eating poison. As a result, so many new diseases are appearing. Not only has the food we eat and the water we drink become polluted, even the air we breathe has become full of toxins.
Because of this, humanity’s immune system is weakening. Already, so many people depend on inhalers to breathe, and this number is continually increasing.
In a few years, we may have to walk around with oxygen tanks to breathe, like astronauts in outer space. Most people today are allergic to something or the other, even to the most seemingly insignificant things.
Today, not only people but even the animals and plants we raise and cultivate are disconnecting from Nature. Wild plants survive regardless of the weather, adapting to Nature’s conditions.
But houseplants cannot withstand pests on their own and have to be sprayed with pesticides. They need so much special care that they are unable to survive naturally.
Nature is like a duck that lays golden eggs. But if we kill the duck and try to snatch all the golden eggs at once, we will lose everything. We must stop polluting and exploiting Mother Nature.
We have to protect her in order to ensure our survival as well as the survival of future generations. Nature is the wish-fulfilling tree that gives humanity all abundance.
But today, our situation is like that of a fool sawing off the very branch upon which he is sitting.
Nature is our first mother. Our birth mother may allow us to sit on her lap for a couple of years, but Mother Nature patiently bears our weight our entire life. Just as a child is obligated to his birth mother, we should all feel an obligation and responsibility towards Mother Nature. If we forget this responsibility, it is equal to forgetting our own self. If we forget Nature, we will cease to exist.
In the old days, there was no specific need for environmental preservation because protecting Nature was part of worshipping God and life itself. More than remembering ‘God’, the people loved and served Nature and society.
They saw the Creator through the creation. They loved, worshipped and protected Nature as the visible form of God. Let us try to reawaken this attitude. At present, the biggest threat to mankind is not a third world war, but the loss of Nature’s harmony and our widening separation from Nature.
Life becomes fulfilled when humankind and Nature move together, hand in hand, in harmony. The writer is a world-renowned spiritual leader