It is amazing to watch nature. The river is flowing continuously without knowing its destination. The mountains are standing tall with their own unique designs and patterns. The clouds have theirown movements, sometimes moving above the mountains and sometimes into them. Sometimes it seems they want to cling to the mountains and merge with them. Birds keep playing their own music, almost whole of the day. I am staying near Leh for the past few days. It seems as if the entire nature is operating under a silent command.
Big Highway is just near the homestay where we are staying. It’s long flat road. I walked down the road for few kilometres yesterday. Vehicles are running madly at a speed of around 90 km/h, as if they are missing something badly and just want to get the same at any cost. I visited nearby monastery where again people appeared to be in a mission note to somehow have a glimpse of the statues of different realised persons as if they will come out of the statues and bless them with the fulfilment of their desires. A sense of restlessness was very much visible among the visitors to the monastery, which is apparently a place to calm down the mind.
While nature seems to operate under the silent command, human beings are so driven by their desires that they seem to have lost the connection with that silent command. Human beings, with their very limited mind, have set different goals for their lives. Even while visiting a calm place like Ladakh, the limited human mind is not willing to give some space to the silent command. It sets new goals in terms of tourist points and somehow rushes on the roads in a hurry to reach the next tourist spot. The mind is so occupied with the outcomes that there is no space for the process. The process has a beauty of its own. Sitting silently, looking at the mountains, and the river flowing aimlessly, does something magical to the human mind. It brings the human mind into the present moment and creates a distance from its goals and outcomes, and within that space it can connect to the silent command.
Not only the human beings got obsessed with their goals, but most of the times, the goals they have set for themselves are not even connected to their authentic selves. We don’t want to examine ourselves ever. The society has become so overbearing that consciously or unconsciously, in-fact mostly unconsciously, it follows the dictates of the society. Society has put premium on money and weak human beings want validation from the society since they have lost connection with the silent command. As a result, they give their command in the hands of the cruel society, which set their life goals in terms of money. Similarly, society validates a set pattern of life whereby one studies to get a job, marries, have kids, earn a lot of money, accumulate wealth, and powers, visit different countries and tourist places, and dies. Whosoever does not follow this set pattern of the society, is not validated by the society.
However, the society fails to realise that the free souls are driven by the silent command, and therefore their need for social validation reduces significantly. The silent power gives strength to the free souls to stand, tall, like the mountains, irrespective of the weather, and also to flow like river, undisturbed by the terrain through which it is flowing.
If we spend some time with the nature, letting our mind drop its fixations on the goals it has set for us, we realise that it is the process which is full of joy. The destination of river is finally the ocean. But it has to again come back in the form of river, after the water from ocean gets evaporated to form clouds to cling to the mountains again to fill them with the snow, and finally melt to flow into the river. With its limited understanding, the river may set the point of merger with the ocean as its goal. If it does not have that great vision, it may set reaching a particular place or passing through a particular terrain as it’s goal. But the fixation with the goal will take away the joy of the process. What goal will the mountains set for themselves? What goals will the birds set for themselves? What about the trees, which cannot even move. However, the process is equally joyful for the mountains, trees and birds.
Once we connect to the silent command, we realise the limited utility of the mind. It may have some utility of guiding us like a Google maps, however, it does not have the intelligence to decide our destination. Even en route, we have to make many intelligent modifications which Google maps cannot anticipate. When we reestablish the connection with the silent command, it guides us throughout our lives. Yes, of course, they would be moments of conflicts and confusion because the limited mind which has been conditioned by the society does not let go its command so easily. However, when we reconnect to the nature, even for a short period of time, that silent command gets some space to operate and set us free off the commands of the limited mind and unintelligent mirroring of the society. First, it brings the authenticity back and then it widens the existence beyond the limited self and its fixed goals. The silent command is not concerned about the goals and patterns created by the limited mind and orthodox society. Rather, it is more interested in the growth of each and every individual which can take place only by being there in the present moment.
Comments