Q . Located on the banks of this pristine freshwater river , one gets the vibe that being made of five elements ourself bodily , how do we connect with the water , the rocks and the Himalayas ?
“ The value of silence is greater than the value of noise , so when you make contact with the silence within you through the practice of meditation , there is a natural communion which starts to happen with the elements . ”.
A . See , we often speak of nature in third person . Even when we go to the doctor sometimes , he will say , you must spend more time in nature . But if you pay attention , we are as much nature as a rock . We don ’ t come into the universe , we come through it . So we , this body is as much nature as the tree . We live on a planet which peoples , as it rocks , as it mountains . It generates this body which we call human . So when we begin to realize this innate connection with ourself , we start to cognize that same intelligence vibrating in a rock , that same intelligence vibrating in the tree and the same intelligence vibrating in the water . It is closer to the source value because there is no thought . The value of silence is greater than the value of noise , so when you make contact with the silence within you through the practice of meditation , there is a natural communion which starts to happen with the elements . This is because you have refined your awareness . Your awareness is now expanded at the level of silence . The more the silence , the greater the connection you have with the mountains , with the rivers , with the rocks .
The converse is also true that in the presence of these , meditation becomes much more accessible than let ’ s say , in the middle of Delhi . It is possible to delve deep in Delhi too but it is much more accessible when we are surrounded by the mountains and rivers . If we meditate in the Himalayas , we can stabilize our consciousness and then we can bring that meditativeness even in the city , where it becomes very impactful and relevant . That ’ s why we created this place here because there is natural silence which starts to vibrate and if you are sensitive and you are practicing , then this communion starts to happen with our essential nature . We really are the space between this self and the mountain or the rock . It is not a separator , it is a connector , the boundaries that we experience is a five sensory phenomena . Even if you look with a microscope strong enough , you don ’ t see boundaries , so the boundaries are just only locatable by our senses . If we transcend the sensory value of boundary , then we find there is really one unified home .
That ’ s why in the Upanishads , it ’ s called Advait . Advait doesn ’ t mean one , it means that which cannot be divided by its essential nature . The nature of nature is indivisibility , so when we realize who we are , it ’ s a natural media . The truth is not some esoteric belief , it is a fact that you and the rock are coming from the same field , and this body is arising from the same field as the trees . The more you are connected with yourself , the more you are connected with the whole beings and we become more conscious of our planet . We become more conscious of keeping it pristine and clean and not polluting our rivers , because what we are doing to the rivers , we are doing to ourselves . What we are doing to our environment , we are doing to ourselves and this is very important for us to realize that we are not doing this to an environment which is third party , we are doing it to ourselves and as long as this shift of perspective doesn ’ t happen , human beings will keep impacting the environment in a violent manner .
JAN 2018 YOGIC HERALD 09