Why is Nature So Beautiful? Why Does It Fill Us With Joy and Peace?

Why is Nature So Beautiful? Why Does It Fill Us With Joy and Peace?

“Form, colour, scent and something else which is indefinable constitute the beauty of flowers.”
- Sri Aurobindo

Why is nature so beautiful? Why does a short walk amidst nature have such a calming influence on our mind? Why does the sight of flowers, butterflies and rainbows fill our hearts with joy unspeakable?

Mankind’s love for nature is perhaps one of the greatest mysteries of life, one that even evolutionary biologists are hard-pressed to explain. After all, what is the utility in admiring a sunset, or delighting at the sight of snow-capped mountains, when it serves no evolutionary purpose?

While evolution and science can explain many facts of our daily existence, the answer to this profound puzzle lies a little beyond the reaches of present day science, and in the realms of the super-conscious.

Nature is Beautiful Because it is a Manifestation of God’s Joy

It is in the advanced stages of meditative super-consciousness, that the ancient sages of India first lifted the veil over this great mystery. The profound answer that they witnessed is chronicled as a Sanskrit verse in the Taittiriya Upanishad :

Verse from the Taittiriya Upanishad

A translation and explanation of this verse is presented below from the writings of Rabindranath Tagore:

Pronunciation: Anando brahmeti vyajanat, Anandadhyeva khalvimani bhutani jayante, anandena jatani jivanti, Anandam prayanty-abhisam-viçanti.

Translation: God is Ananda, i.e. joy or bliss. “From (God’s) joy does spring all this Creation, by joy is it maintained, towards joy does it progress, and into joy does it enter.” (Sadhana by Rabindranath Tagore, page 45)

Explanation: “It means that God’s Creation has not its source in any necessity; it comes from his fullness of joy; it is his love that creates, therefore in Creation is his own revealment.” (Sadhana, page 45)

The immortal Cosmic Consciousness (God) manifests itself by giving its joy a form. “Just as the joy of a singer is expressed in the form of a song”, so too, is the joy of God expressed in the form of Creation. We observe this truth in mankind too, where “man in his role of Creator, is ever creating forms (art, sculptures, buildings etc.), because they come out of his abounding joy.” (Sadhana, page 58)

Therefore, “the beauty of Nature is not a mirage of the imagination, but it reflects the joy of the Infinite and thus draws us to lose ourselves in it.” (Tagore in My Reminiscences)

Om Namah Shivay