In the Midst of Nature, Our Minds Become Calm Because We Feel the Pull of This Joyful Cosmic Consciousness

In the Midst of Nature, Our Minds Become Calm Because We Feel the Pull of This Joyful Cosmic Consciousness

In our normal day to day existence, we seldom can get in touch with this sublime but joyful Cosmic Consciousness (God), from which springs this Universe comprising insentient matter and living beings. The rigours of sustaining a daily existence, load our minds with so many anxieties, that we block out the Creator.

Caught up in our daily worries we ignore the Cosmic Consciousness manifesting itself as beautiful Nature.

It is only when we come across a beautiful flower, or a serene landscape, that we are able to switch our consciousness from focusing on our troubles, to becoming aware of the great Infinite Joy (Sat-Chit-Ananda) that permeates everything.

Just as a small magnet when placed in the vicinity of a larger magnet, feels its attraction and pull, so too when we place ourselves in the presence of Nature, the conscious element within us (our Soul), feels the attraction of the larger Cosmic Consciousness (God) that is expressing itself as this vast variety of Creation.

The beauty of Nature draws us to forget our worries and to lose ourselves in the Blissful Cosmic Consciousness.

This attraction is so strong that in the lap of Mother Nature, our minds immediately become calm and peaceful. We leave behind our trifling worries and mundane pursuits and are subconsciously drawn back to the infinite source.

Swami Vivekananda expressed this very fact in a letter he wrote to Sister Christine in 1896: (Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda – Volume 9)

“I am in Switzerland. It is a miniature Himalayas, and has the same effect of raising the mind up to the Self (the Soul, which is a part of the Cosmic Consciousness) and driving away all earthly feelings and ties. I am intensely enjoying it. I feel so, so uplifted.”

The Same Consciousness That Is In Us, Is Also In The Flower. This Subtle Recognition Fills Our Hearts With Joy

Thus it is that Nature helps us to “get out of the human mental limitations and see the (One) Cosmic Consciousness, individualizing itself in (many) forms—plant, animal, man and growing towards what is beyond man”. (Letters on Yoga – I by Sri Aurobindo, scroll to Volumes 28-31, page 407 of pdf)

These fleeting moments of subconscious recognition, during which we sense that the same consciousness that is in us, is also manifesting itself as the flower, the butterfly, the forest and the sunset; fill our hearts with sudden joy. Our Soul, after its many wanderings, finally notices the faint callings of the Eternal Creator, gently illuminating the way back home.

Note on “God is Ananda“: According to the Upanishads, the best and most complete description that can be accorded to God is that He is Sat-Chit-Ananda.

Sat means that He is the Infinite and Absolute Existence, which encompasses everything and beyond which nothing else exists. Chit means that He is the Infinite Consciousness that permeates everything. This Consciousness is the unifying substrate from which arise all matter, space, time and living beings. And Ananda means that God is Absolute and Indescribable Bliss or Joy. It is to this third aspect of God, that the above mentioned verse of the Taittiriya Upanishad, is referring to.

Om Namah Shivay