NATURE IS A GREAT TEACHER IN SPIRITUAL LIFE

O Nanak, the True One is the Giver of all; He is revealed through
His All-powerful Creative Nature (sggs 141).
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The spiritual quest, which every individual undertakes whether consciously or unconsciously, is the urge to know his Essential Being, which is Divine ("Joti-Svaroopa"). Nowadays due to rat race in day-to-day living, human beings are alienated from nature. It teaches us real selflessness, true renunciation and sacrifice etc. We can thus learn a great deal from nature: very often it's a great teacher in spiritual life because it enables the spiritual seeker to be in touch with Reality. God is revealed through His All-powerful Creative nature. As indicated in the Gurbani, everything seen is God in action. The world-scriptures are replete with examples from nature to illustrate abstract concepts.

Here are a few examples in this context. First consider flowers. Flowers are very short lived, compared with the human life. But yet flowers smile, even they live a few days. Not only that , they selflessly give their nectar to bees. However, we the humans due to the humdrum of daily life (ego or Haume — lust anger, greed, attachment, self-conceit, enviousness, stubborn mindedness etc.), whose life-span is significantly longer than flowers, do not know how to genuinely smile and selflessly love others! Also, as Baabaa Nanak observes, as flowers are short lived, so is one's youth and material wealth. But the layperson due to attachment and the feelings of "mine mine" (ego or Haume) are so fearful that he thinks it's all permanent! The Gurbani says, we all can blossom forth like flowers (the state of egolessness), if we can imbibe in the Divine Name.

Wonderful fragrance is boxed in flowers. The Gurbani says that as the fragrance which remains in the flower, and like the reflection in the mirror, God dwells within us. But, owing to our ignorance and illusion, we do not know this Truth. The Gurbani says that by conquering the outgoing mind, we must find God within while incarnated in this life.

Before a flower is fully blossomed, it is a bud. One cannot forced open the petals of a bud to make it blossom into a flower. Petals must open themselves, spontaneously (Sahaj). If one applies external force to open petals, the bud will be destroyed. Similarly, the Gurbani says that we must blossom forth in Sahaj. Man's fully blossomed form is "Gurmukh" or one in Divine Consciousness, and his bud form is "Manmukh" or ego-being who, like a closed bud, has a closed heart.

In the Gurbani, this Sansaar — material world, the place of repeated suffering — is likened to the safflower. As the safflower, the Sansaar is deceptively enchanting, full of repeated pain, and surely ephemeral. Only the true Spiritual Beings (Gurmukhs or Self-realized) know its real nature. Therefore, they are the only ones who know how to handle it, without getting entangled or hurt in the process! However, it's the ignorant and illusioned one who gets fooled by its mirage-like deceptive appearance. He then becomes attached to it, and suffers the consequences! Through the example of this safflower and its deceptive nature, the Gurbani tirelessly tries explaining the real nature of the material world and its gross objects (Sansaar) or Maya. We are warned by the Gurbani not to get emotionally attached to it (i.e. Sansaar) and its objects; for worldly attachment is the root cause of man's sorrows (Dukha). Accordingly, he who attaches to the safflower-like Maya or Sansaar is declared by the Gurbani to be a "madman", a "crazy" person or a "Manmukh".

The Gurbani says that a bird flies in the sky without leaving any mark, a fish swims in the water without making any footprints, and the swan swims across the stream without getting wet. Similarly, although the lotus flower lives in the water of slimy scum, but it remains untouched. In the same way, the Gurbani urges us to live amidst the so called impurities of the material world without being affected by them. In other words, we should remain unaffected by any amount of sensory inputs entering our mind and retains our equipoise.

We see the vast ocean and its waves, but we do not the see the invisible ground that underlies it — its Substratum. We also see trees, but do not see the invisible roots that underlie them — their Substratum. Similarly, we see the body, but do not see the invisible Self or Aatamaan — its Substratum. In this error, man generally identifies himself with his body-mind-intellect personality without knowing his True Nature, which is Divine ("Joti-Svaroopa"). It is this wrong identification, which is the root of his sorrows. Due to this mistaken identity, we think that the body is the real thing! This is ego or Haume that is called in the Gurbani the "great disease" the man is afflicted with. On account of ignorance and illusion, man forgets about his Essential Nature as "Joti-Svaroopa" or Soul-consciousness, resulting in false ego-sense, illusion, body-consciousness or "I-am-the-body" idea. In this mistaken identity ("I-ness"), he then confounds the Eternal Self with the finite body-mind-intellect apparatus. Seen in such ego or illusion is the birth of the body made of the five elements and its death. Also, seen in it is the phenomenal world of names, shapes, movements and miseries. This body-consciousness, in turn, gives rise to the sense of doership and enjoyership (ego-identity).

There are countless galaxies, earths, and stars. There are countless suns and moons or solar systems. But they all move in an orderly fashion because, as indicated in the Gurbani, every thing functions through the Hukam (Divine Order, Command, Will, Eternal Law...). No one is immune from it. The orderly movement of them reminds us of the Divine Order called "Hukam" in the Gurbani. The Gurbani says, whosoever understands this Divine Hukam, do away with his menacing egoism (Haume).

In some religions, as a religious ritual, Aartee (lamp-lit worship service) is performed in front of deities several times a day. Sometime Aartee is also performed in front of a holy man. Many times, Aartee of this sort being performed in front of SGGS can also be witnessed at the conclusion of the so called "Akhand Paath" (uninterrupted page to page recitation of the SGGS). Generally, the ingredients of the Aartee include lamps (Deepak or Deeve), bowl (Thaal), incense, flowers, fan (Chavar), jingle bells, and so on. Such is not Baabaa Nanak's Aartee. He did not perform Aartee in front of any religious text, deity or mortals. His Aartee is by the Infinite, of the Infinite and for the Infinite. The lamps of his Aartee are the sun and the moon, placed on the Thaal (bowl) of the sky. The stars in the constellations are the pearls placed on this Thaal. The fragrance of sandalwood is the incense, the wind is the fan, and all the vegetation are flowers in offering. Transcendental vibratory sound current of the Shabad is the sounding of the bells. Then, Baabaa Nanak exclaims, "What a beautiful lamp-lit worship service this is! O Destroyer of fear, this is Your Aartee, Your worship service."

Wind constantly blows around us like a fan. The flow of the wind (or wind-storm) is a metaphor for one's fire of greed and a dust-storm of doubts within. It is also the metaphor for treacherous Maya, the deluded youth, and the awakening of spiritual wisdom within.

Birds like nightingale (song-bird) or the rain bird sing so melodiously, without taking any music lessons. The Infinite Cosmic Kirtan or the Transcendental Vibratory Sound - Cosmic Vibration, Cosmic Music, Cosmic Sound, Cosmic Orchestra, etc. - is the movement of the entire creation, preservation and dissolution. It is God's Endless Impulse or Unstruck Sound-current (Anhata Shabad, Panch-Shabad or Dhuni) which is taking place within each of us; and within every atom of the universe, at this very moment. Hence we are all singing with this Divine Orchestra at this very moment, and the Divine is with us. But we do not know about it, because of the intervention of false ego-sense (Haume). Thus, we have lost our connection with this Cosmic Vibratory Sound, from which the entire creation is born. The Gurbani urges us sing the Divine's Kirtan, ourselves. The purpose of the Kirtan is to eliminate the mind's ego consciousness (delusion or the ceaseless flow of thought currents) by quieting it, so that we can link back to the Endless Divine Pulse - Pure Awareness; our Essential Nature.

One's spiritual evolution may be estimated from how one responds to nature. In other words, one's spiritual level is proportional to the influence of nature upon him. For example, if one is spiritually inclined, a leaf or a human body is will inspired him and he will see God's hand in them and everything else. On the other hand, to the layman, skeptic, or the one who is not so spiritually inclined, even a most spectacular scene may not inspire him. This explains as to why the spiritual beings, and thinkers are generally influenced by nature.

The Gurbani says that the human birth is a great opportunity for individuals (Jeevas) to strive for liberation from the cycle of repeated suffering by knowing our own True Nature, which is Pure Consciosness (Joti-Svaroopa) — linking with the Source as so many rivers merge with the ocean.

— T. Singh
www.gurbani.org

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Updated on Friday, March 29, 2013 3:33 PM (PST)

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