The Rigveda, a collection of hymns from the Early Vedic period in ancient
India, is a prime example of nature worship in Hinduism:
Deities
The Rigveda worships many deities associated with natural forces, including
Agni (fire), Dyaus (sky), Surya (sun), Vayu (air), Apas (water), Usas
(dawn), Marut (storm), and Prithvi (Earth).
Hymns
The Rigveda contains hymns that praise these deities and the natural
phenomena they represent.
Rituals
The Rigvedic people performed rituals and sacrifices to honor these
deities.
Beliefs
The Rigvedic people believed in karma, and that people would be rewarded or
punished for their actions. They also believed that heaven and earth were
parents, sustaining all creatures.
Fear
People in the early Vedic period worshipped natural forces like rain,
thunder, and wind because they feared them and didn't have scientific
explanations for them.
Gratitude
People expressed gratitude to nature by worshipping it, believing that
nourishing nature would nourish them, and that destroying nature would
destroy them.
Though henotheism refers to a pluralistic theology, in Hinduism many
deities are viewed as one manifestation of a unitary, equivalent divine
essence. Considering this, sometimes Equi- theism meaning “all gods are
equal” also, but loosely refers to henotheism by the west in 1800 write up
unaware of its depth. Henotheism is the worship of a single, supreme god
that does not deny the existence or possible existence of other deities
that may be worshipped. Friedrich Schelling (1775–1854) coined the word,
and Friedrich Welcker (1784–1868) used it to depict primitive monotheism
among ancient Greeks. Max Müller (1823–1900), a British philologist and
orientalist, brought the term into wider usage in his scholarship on the
Indian religions, particularly Hinduism whose scriptures mention and praise
numerous deities as if they are one ultimate unitary divine essence.
வழிபடக்கூடிய பிற தெய்வங்களின் இருப்பையோ அல்லது சாத்தியமுள்ள இருப்பையோ
மறுக்காத, ஒரே ஒரு உயர்ந்த கடவுளை வழிபடுவதே Henotheism ஆகும். ஃபிரெட்ரிக்
ஷெல்லிங் இந்த வார்த்தையை உருவாக்கினார், மேலும் ஃபிரெட்ரிக் வெல்க்கர் பண்டைய
கிரேக்கர்களிடையே பழமையான ஏகத்துவத்தை சித்தரிக்க இதைப் பயன்படுத்தினார். Müller
made the term central to his criticism of Western theological and religious
exceptionalism (relative to Eastern religions), focusing on a cultural
dogma which held "monotheism" to be both fundamentally well-defined and
inherently superior to differing concepts of God. HOWEVER, BRAHMAM IS ONE
AND MANY FORMS PEOPLE MADE IS THE VERSE OF RIGVEDAM ONLY WHICH MULLER DID
NOT UNDERSTAND.
The sky was naturally the most prominent object of worship, and
as the sky assumes various aspects, various names were given to it, and the
conception of various deities was formed. The oldest is probably Dyu, but
in India he soon lost his place, and the sky in one of its peculiar
functions soon usurped his place. For in India the annual rise of rivers,
the fertility of land, and the luxuriance of crops depend, not on the sky
which shines above us, but on the sky that rains, and Indra soon became the
first among the Vedic gods. Another ancient name of the sky was Varuna,
the sky which covered the earth, probably the sky without light, the
nightly sky. Both the idea and the name of Varuna as a god of sky were
known to the ancestors of the Aryan nations before the Indo-Aryans and the
Iranians separated. In that remote period Varuna was the highest and
holiest of the gods, and represented the spiritual aspect of religion.
After the separation had taken place, this deity of righteousness was
translated in Iran into Ahura Mazda, the supreme deity, while to the Hindu
Varuna the Vedic bard sang: – [ 7.86–88, 1.25, 2.27–30, 8.8, 9.73, and
10.123. RV]
“O Varuna! the birds that fly have not attained thy power or thy vigour;
the water which flows ceaselessly and the moving wind do not surpass thy
speed.
“King Varuna of unsullied power remains in the firmament and holds on high
the rays of light.
“King Varuna has spread out the path for the course of the sun. He has made
the path for the sun to traverse in pathless space.
“O King Varuna! a hundred and a thousand medicinal drugs are thine; may thy
beneficence be vast and deep. Keep unrighteousness away from us, deliver us
from the sins we have committed.
“Yonder stars which are placed on high and are seen by night – where do
they go by day? The acts of Varuna are irresistible; the moon shines
brightly by his mandate.”
As the emperor, Varuna is mighty and awe-inspiring. He is
Risadas the destroyer of enemies (RV 1.2.7), tuvijata and uruksaya mighty
(RV 1.02.9). His might and speed are unequalled (RV 1.24.8). He rules over
both men and gods; and presides over the relationship between man and the
gods. His sovereignty pervades both the physical and moral domains, where
his laws are equally eternal and inviolable. “Indra protects from external
foe; Varuna protects and upholds the moral order rta – RV 7.83.9”. Even a
god does not dare transgress his immutable ordinances (vrataani). He
restricts and fetters the wrong doers with his bonds that he has at his
command.
mitraṁ huve pūtadakṣaṁ varuṇaṁ ca riśādasam |dhiyaṁ ghṛtācīṁ sādhantā || 1.
2.07
kavī no mitrāvaruṇā tuvijātā urukṣayā |1,002.09
ṛtena mitrā-varuṇā-vṛtāvṛdhāvṛtaspṛśā |kratuṁ bṛhantamāśāthe || 1. 2.08
vṛtrāṇy anyaḥ samitheṣu jighnate vratāny anyo abhi rakṣate sadā |7,083.09
Elsewhere, in more ethical strain, the poet prays forgiveness for his
sins:–
“O Varuna! with an anxious heart I ask thee about my sins. I have gone to
learned men to make inquiry; the sages have all said to me, Varuna is
displeased with thee.’
“O Varuna I what have I done that thou wishest to destroy thy friend, thy
worshipper? O thou of irresistible power, declare it to me, so that I may
quickly bend in adoration and come unto thee.
“O Varuna! deliver us from the sins of our fathers. Deliver us from the
sins committed in our persons. O royal Varuna! deliver Vasishtha, like a
calf from its tether, like a thief who has feasted on a stolen animal.
“O Varuna! all this sin is not wilfully committed by us. Error or wine,
anger or dice, or even thoughtlessness, has begotten sin. Even an elder
brother leads his younger astray; sin is begotten even in our dreams.
“Freed from sin, I will faithfully serve, as a slave, the Varuna who
fulfils our wishes and supports us. We are ignorant, may the Arya god
bestow on us knowledge. May the wise deity accept our prayer and bestow on
us wealth.”
Still more poignant is the entreaty:–“O King Varuna! may I never go to the
earthen home! O thou of great power! have mercy, have mercy!“O Varuna with
thy weapons! I come trembling even like a cloud driven by the wind. O thou
of great power! have mercy, have mercy!
“O rich and pure Varuna! I have been driven against righteous acts through
weakness. O thou of great power! have mercy, have mercy!
“Thy worshipper path thirsted even when living in water. O thou of great
power! have mercy, have mercy!
“O Varuna! we are mortals. In whatever way we have sinned against gods, in
whatever manner we have through ignorance neglected thy work-O do not
destroy us for these sins.”
Rig Veda celebrates the glory of Varuna in myriad ways ; and describes him
as : the Great One (Mahat); the vast (brahat); the mighty (bhuri);the
immense (prabhuti); the abode of life (visvayu); the knower (vidvas); the
wise (medha);the intelligent (dhira); the discriminating (pracetas); the
clever (grtsa); the adept , dexterous (sukratu); the inspired (vipra); the
seer (kavi); the great-poet (kavitara); the greatest of poets (kavitama).
Amarakosa has five synonyms for Varuna : (1.1.142) pracetā varuṇaḥ pāśī
yādasāṃpatir-appatiḥ
Besides these, Varuna has other sets of titles as being the lord of waters,
the lord of Rta; and as the king and judge. We shall see more of those in
the next sections. He has too many epithets. I admit, it is rather
confusing.
Despite the sanctity invariably ascribed to Varuna, however, he was
less popular than Indra, who is peculiarly. Indian and is unknown to other
Aryan nations. One of the most famous legends about Indra, probably the
most famous legend in the Aryan world, is the myth of his destruction of
the demon Vritra, who confined the waters and would not let them descend
until Indra struck the monster with his thunderbolt. The captive waters
then descended in copious showers, rivers rose almost instantaneously, and
gods and men rejoiced over the changed face of nature. The Maruts, or
storm-gods, helped Indra in the battle; sky and earth trembled at the
noise. Vritra long waged an unequal combat, only to fall and die at last –
the drought was over, and the rains began. Many are the hymns in the
Rig-Veda which recount this conflict, but here we have space to cite only
one:–A scene in the Himalayas
“We sing the heroic deeds which were performed by Indra the thunderer. He
destroyed Ahi (the cloud-serpent) and caused rains to descend and opened
out the paths for the mountain streams to roll.
“Indra slew Aid, who rested on the mountains; Tvashtri had made the
far-reaching thunderbolt for him. Water in torrents flowed towards the sea,
as cows run eagerly towards their calves.
“Impetuous as a bull, Indra quaffed the Soma-juice; he drank the Soma
libations offered in the three sacrifices. He then took the thunderbolt and
therewith slew the eldest of the Ahis.
“When you killed the eldest of the Ahis, you destroyed the contrivances of
the artful contrivers. You cleared the sun and the morning and the sky, and
left no enemies behind.
“Indra with his all-destructive thunderbolt slew the darkling Vritra
(cloud) and lopped his limbs. Ahi now lies touching the earth like the
trunk of a tree felled by the axe.
“The proud Vritra thought that he had no equal, and defied the destroyer
and conqueror Indra to combat.
But he did not escape destruction, and Indra’s foe fell, crushing the
clouds in his fall.
“Glad waters are bounding over the prostrate body as rivers flow over
fallen banks. Vritra when alive had withheld the water by his power; Ahi
now lies prostrate under that water.
“The prostrate body lies concealed and nameless under ceaseless and
restless waters, and the waters flow above. Indra’s foe sleeps the long
sleep.”
It -would be easy to multiply such legends, but our limits forbid such
a course. We will therefore only make a passing mention of the legend of
the recovery of light by Indra after the darkness of night. The rays of
light are compared to cattle which have been stolen by the powers of
darkness, and Indra seeks for them in vain. He sends his messenger Sarama
(probably the dawn) after them, and she finds the fortress where the Panis,
or powers of darkness, have concealed the cattle. The Panis try to tempt
Sarama, but in vain. She returns to Indra, and Indra marches with his
forces, destroys the fort, and recovers the cattle; darkness is gone, and
the day has dawned. The legend is related in its fullest form in the
following hymn:–
The Panis say:–“O Sarama! why hast thou come here? It is a long distance.
He who looks back cannot come this way. What have we with us for which thou
hast come? How long hast thou travelled? How didst thou cross the Rasa?”
Sarama replies:–“I come as the messenger of Indra. O Panis! it is my object
to recover the abundant
Indra From a modern Hindu drawing cattle which you have hidden. The
water has helped me; the water felt a fear at my crossing, and thus I
crossed the Rasa.”
Paris. – “What is that Indra like, whose messenger thou art and for whom
thou hast come from a long distance? How does he look? (To one another) Let
her come, we will own her as a friend. Let her take and own our cows.”
Sarama. – “I do not see any one who can conquer the Indra whose messenger I
am and for whom I have come from a long distance. It is he who conquers
everybody. The deep rivers cannot restrain his course. O Panis! you will
surely be slain by Indra and will lie down.”
Panis. – “O beautiful Sarama! thou hast come from the farthest ends of the
sky; we will give thee without any dispute these cows as thou desirest. Who
else would have given the cattle without a dispute? We have many shrp
weapons with us.”
Panis. – “O Sarama! thou hast come here because the god threatened thee and
sent thee here. We will accept thee as a sister; do not return. O beautiful
Sarama! we will give thee a share of these cows.”
Sarama. – “I do not comprehend your words about brothers and sisters. Indra
and the powerful sons of Angiras know all. They sent me here to guard the
cattle until its recovery. I have come here under their shelter. O Panis!
run away far, far from here.”
Indra is, in fact, the most vigorous of the Vedic gods, fond of Soma wine,
delighting in war, leading his comrades, the Maruts, to fight against
drought, leading hosts of the Aryans against the black aborigines, and
helping them to win the most fertile spots along the five rivers of the
Panjab. The sky and earth gave him birth as a cudgel for their enemies, but
when the child went to his mother Aditi for food, he saw Soma wine on her
breast and thus drank Soma before he drank his mother’s milk.
We now turn to a group of deities who have a more distinctly solar
character, some of whom are classed together under the common name of Adityas,
or sons of Aditi, the undivided, the unlimited, the eternal.
There is much confusion in the Rig-Veda as to who the Adityas are – the
sons of this celestial light. Some lists name Aryaman, Bhaga, Daksha, Ansa,
Varuna, and Mitra, while elsewhere the Adityas are said to be seven in
number, but are not named. We have already seen that Indra is called a son
of Aditi. Savitri, the sun, is often described as an Aditya, and so are
Pushan and Vishnu, who are also different names of the sun. When, in course
of time, the year was divided into twelve months, the number of the Adityas
was fixed at twelve, and they became the suns of the twelve months. Surya
and Savitri are the most common names of the sun in the Rig-Veda, and
commentators draw a distinction between Savitri, the rising or the unrisen
Surya sun, and Surya, the bright sun of day. The golden rays of the
sun were naturally compared with arms, until a story found its place in
Hindu mythology that Savitri lost his arm at a sacrifice and that it was
replaced by a golden arm. The only extract we will make from the hymns to
the sun will be that most celebrated of the many stanzas in the Rig-Veda,
the Gayatri, or the morning hymn of the later Brahmans. It is found in the
third book and runs as follows:–
Tat savitur varenyam Bhargo devasya Dhimahi Dhiyo yo nah, prachodayat.
“We meditate on the desirable light of the divine Savitri who influences
our pious rites.”
Pushan is the sun as viewed by shepherds in their wanderings in quest
of fresh pasture-lands, and the hymns in his honour are all pastoral in
their tone. He travels in a chariot yoked with goats, guides men and cattle
in their travels and migrations, and knows and protects the flocks. Vishnu
has obtained such a prominent place as the Supreme Deity in later Hinduism
that there is a natural reluctance among orthodox modern
A late conception of Vishnu
Fire was an object of worship in ancient India, where sacrificial fire
received the highest regard. As no sacrifice could be performed without
fire, Agni, or fire, was called the invoker of the gods. So high was the
esteem in which fire was held among the gods of the Rig-Veda, that when the
ancient commentator Yaska tried to reduce the number of the Vedic gods to
three, he named Agni, or fire, as the god of the earth, Indra or Vayu as
the god of the firmament, and the Sun as the god of the sky. Agni But
Agni is not only the terrestrial fire in the Rig-Veda; he is also the fire
of the lightning and the sun, and his abode is the invisible heaven. The
Bhrigus discovered him there, Matarisvan brought him down, and Atharvan and
Angiras, the first sacrificers, first installed him in this world as the
protector of men.
Vayu, or the air, has received less consideration from the Vedic
bards, and there are but few hymns assigned to him. But the Maruts, or the
storm-gods, are oftener invoked, probably because they inspired more
terror; and they are considered as the companions of Indra in obtaining
rain from the reluctant clouds. The earth trembles as they move in their
deer-yoked chariots, and men see the flashing of their arms or the sparkle
of their ornaments, the lightning. Yet they are benevolent, and they milk
from the udder of their mother Prisni (the storm-cloud) copious showers for
the benefit of man. Rudra, a storm deity, is the father of the Maruts. Like
Vishnu, he is a humble deity in the Rig-Veda, and only a few hymns are
assigned to him. But like Vishnu, Rudra has attained prominence in later
times, and is one of the Hindu Trinity of the Puranic religion, a portion
of the Supreme. Another god who has also changed his character in the
Puranas (and very much for the worse!) is Yama, the king of the dead.
Whatever the original conception of Yama may be, there is no doubt that in
the Rig-Veda he is the king of the departed and the beneficent king of the
happy world where the virtuous live and enjoy themselves in after-life.
Clothed in a glorious body, they sit by the side of Yama in the realms of
light and sparkling waters, they enjoy endless felicity there, and are
adored here below under the name of Pitris, or fathers. In the Puranas, on
the other hand, Yama, later called the child of the Sun, is the stern
avenger of sin and the god of death and hell. The older conception of Yama,
whom the Rig-Veda regards as the offspring of Vivasvat (the rising sun) and
Saranyu (the dawn), may be illustrated by the stanzas:–
“Worship Yama, the son of Vivasvat, with offerings. All men go to him. He
takes men of virtuous deeds to the realm of happiness. He clears the way
for many.
“Yama first discovered the path for us. That path will not be destroyed
again. All living beings will, according to their acts, follow by the path
by which our forefathers have gone.” As a more complete allusion to the
future life we may quote here another passage from a hymn to Soma, the
juice of a plant made into wine and used as libation in sacrifices:–
“O flowing Soma! take me to that immortal and imperishable abode where
light dwells eternal, and which is in heaven. Flow, Soma, for Indra.
“Take me where Yama is king, where there are the gates of heaven, and where
mighty rivers flow. Take me there and make me immortal. Flow, Soma, for
Indra.
“Take me where there is the third heaven, where there is the third realm of
light above the sky, and where one can wander at his will. Take me there
and make me immortal. Flow, Soma, for Indra.
“Take me where every desire is satiated, where Bradhna has his abode, where
there is food and contentment. Take me there and make me immortal. Flow,
Soma, for Indra.
“Take me where there are pleasures and joys and delights, where every
desire of the anxious heart is satiated. Take me there and make me
immortal. Flow, Soma, for Indra.”
In addition to Yama and his twin sister, Yami, Vivasvat and Saranyu had
another pair of twins, the Asvins, who appear in the Rig-Veda as great
physicians, healers of the sick and the wounded, and tending many persons
with kindness. Long lists of the kind acts of the Asvins are given in
several hymns, and the same cures are spoken of over and over again. On
their three-wheeled chariot they make the circuit of the world day by day
and succour men in their distress.
Brihaspati, or Brahmanaspati, is the lord of hymns, brahma in the Rig-Veda
meaning hymn. The conception of this deity arose in much the same way as
the conception of the deities Fire and Soma. As there is power in the flame
and the libation of the sacrifice, so there is power in the prayer uttered;
and this power of prayer is personified in the Vedic god Brahmanaspati. He
was a humble god in the Rig-Veda, but in the course of centuries the
thinkers of the Upanishads conceived of a Supreme Universal Being and gave
him the Vedic name Brahma; and when at last Puranic Hinduism supplanted
Buddhism in India, the Puranic thinkers gave the name of Brahma to the
Supreme Creator of the Universe.
These are the important gods of the Rig-Veda. Of the goddesses there are
only two who have any marked individuality, Ushas, the dawn, and Sarasvati,
the goddess of the river of that name, who afterwards became the goddess of
flowing speech. There is no lovelier conception in the Rig-Veda than that
of the dawn. There are no hymns in the Veda more truly poetical than those
dedicated to her, and nothing more charming is to be found in the lyrical
poetry of any ancient nation, though here we can make room for only a
single extract:–
“She, the young, the white-robed daughter of the sky, the mistress of all
earthly treasure, dawns upon us, dissipating darkness! Auspicious Ushas!
shine upon us to-day on this spot.
“Following the path of mornings that have passed, to be followed by endless
mornings to come, bright Ushas dispels darkness and awakens to life all
beings, unconscious like the dead in sleep.
“How long have the Dawns risen? How long will the Dawns arise? The present
morning pursues those that are gone, future mornings will pursue this
resplendent Ushas.
“Mortals who beheld the pristine Ushas have passed away; we behold her now;
and men will come after us who will behold Ushas in the future.”
Sarasvati, as her name implies, is the goddess of the river of that name,
which was considered holy because of the religious rites performed on its
banks and the sacred hymns uttered there. By a natural development of
ideas, she was considered the goddess of those hymns, or in other words the
goddess of speech, in which character she is worshipped now. She is the
only Vedic goddess whose worship continues in India to the present day; all
her modern companions, Durga, Kali, Lakshmi, and others, are creations of a
later day.
There are no indications in the Rig-Veda of any “temples reared by mortal
hands” and consecrated as places of worship. On the contrary, every
householder, every patriarch of his family, lighted the sacrificial fire in
his own home and poured libations of the Soma-juice and prayed to the gods
for happiness to his family, for abundant crops and wealth and cattle, for
immunity from sickness, and for victory over the black aborigines. There
was no separate priestly caste, and men did not retire into forests and
subject themselves to penances in order to meditate on religion and chant
these hymns. On the contrary, the old Rishis were worldly men, men with
considerable property in crops and in cattle and surrounded by large
families, men who in times of danger exchanged the plough for the Kali as
worshipped today spear and the sword, and defended against the black
barbarians those blessings of civilization which they solicited from their
gods and secured with so much care. But though each householder was himself
the priest, the warrior, and the cultivator, yet we find evidence of kings
performing rites on a large scale by help of men specially proficient in
the chanting of the by and in other religious rites and specially engaged
and paid for the purpose. And as we go towards the later hymns of the
Rig-Veda, we find this class of professional priests gaining in reputation
and in wealth, honoured by chiefs and kings, and rewarded by princely gifts
of cattle and chariots. We find mention of particular families specially
proficient in the performance of religious rites and ceremonies and in the
composition of hymns, and it is more than probable that the existing hymns
of the Rig-Veda were composed by members of these families and were
traditionally learnt by rote and preserved in those families.
In course of time the priests boldly grappled with the deeper
mysteries of nature, they speculated about creation and about the future
world, and they resolved the nature-gods into the Supreme Deity.
“That all-wise Father saw clearly, and after due reflection created the sky
and the earth in their watery form and touching each other. When their
boundaries were stretched afar, then the sky and the earth became separated.
“He who is the Creator of all is great; he creates and supports all, he is
above all and sees all. He is beyond the seat of the seven Rishis. So the
wise men say, and the wise men obtain fulfilment of all their desires.
“He who has given us life, he who is the Creator, he who knows all the
places in this universe – he is one, although he bears the names of many
gods. Other beings wish to know of him.
“You cannot comprehend him who has created all this; he is incomprehensible
to your mind. People make guesses, being shrouded in a mist; they take
their food for the support of their life and utter hymns and wander about.”
This sublime hymn teaches us in unmistakable words that the different Vedic
gods are but different names of the one incomprehensible Deity. We quote
another such hymn:–
“At that time what is, was not, and what is not, was not. The earth was
not, and the far-stretching sky was not. What was there that covered? Which
place was assigned to what object? Did the inviolate and deep water exist?
“At that time death was not, nor immortality; the distinction between day
and night was not. There was only One who lived and breathed without the
help of air, supported by himself. Nothing was, excepting Him
“At first darkness was covered in darkness. All was without demarcation;
all was of watery form. The world that was a void was covered by what did
not exist and was produced by meditation.
“Desire arose in the mind; the cause of creation was thus produced. Wise
men reflect and, in their wisdom, ascertain the birth of what is from what
is not.
“Males with generating seed were produced, and powers were also produced.
Their rays extended on both sides and below and above, a self-supporting
principle beneath, an energy aloft.
“Who knows truly? Who will describe? When was all born? Whence were all
these created? The gods have been made after the creation. Who knows whence
they were made?
“Whence all these were created, from whom they came, whether any one
created them or did not create, is known only to Him who lives as Lord in
the highest place. If He knows not (no one else knows).”
“Him who by his power is the sole king of all the living beings that see
and move; him who is the Lord of all bipeds and quadrupeds. Whom shall we
worship with offerings?
“Him by whose power these snowy mountains have been made, and whose
creations are this earth and its oceans. Him whose arms are these quarters
of space. Whom shall we worship with offerings?
“Him who has fixed in their places this sky and this earth; him who has
established the heavens and the highest heaven; him who has measured the
firmament. Whom shall we worship with offerings?
“Him by whom the sounding sky and earth have been fixed and expanded; him
whom the resplendent sky and earth own as Almighty; him by whose support
the sun rises and gains its lustre. Whom shall we worship with offerings?
“Mighty waters pervaded the universe, they held in their womb and gave
birth to fire. The One Being, who is the life of the gods, appeared. Whom
shall we worship with offerings?
“He who by his own prowess controlled the waters which gave birth to
energy, he who is the Lord above all gods, he was One. Whom shall we
worship with offerings?
“He, the True, who is the creator of this earth, who is the creator of the
sky, who is the creator of the glad and mighty waters – may he not do us
harm! Whom shall we worship with offerings?
“O Lord of creatures! None but thee has produced all these created things.
May the object with which we worship be fulfilled! May we acquire wealth
and happiness!”
Thus, the religion of the Rig-Veda ascends from nature up to nature’s God.
The worshipper appreciates the glorious phenomena of nature, and rises from
these phenomena to grasp the mysteries of creation and its great Creator.
K RAJARAM IRS 1125
On Wed, 1 Jan 2025 at 11:06, Markendeya Yeddanapudi <
[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
> --
> *Mar*Faith in Nature or God
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>
>
> When one adopts the Holistic method of research or perception and
> investigation, which is by breathing,smelling,sensing,perceiving,
> interacting and discovering by feeling, one has to depend totally on
> nature. Another name for nature is God. But God is felt and can never be
> defined or described in words. When words are used, faith gets diluted in
> the strength of the paradigm.
>
> Faith grows naturally and that growth cannot be stopped. Actually the
> faith is felt by the Biosphere as a whole and that faith cannot be put in
> the 3D language of human beings. Faith or feeling cannot be maintained if
> the Biosphere is damaged or destroyed. Faith is the basic characteristic of
> the Biosphere as a whole, ---the Theosphere. But we cannot make the whole
> Biosphere our paradigmatic base because of our basic limitations. But we
> can make the small patch of nature in which we live, the paradigmatic base
> and ‘smell and sense converse’ with the flora and the fauna in our reach.
>
> Today we do not really believe as we cannot feel. We lost the basic
> faculty to believe. We give and get lectures about Theism and Atheism, like
> the lectures on running given by a person who has no legs.
>
> Rapid industrialization means the rapid destruction of God, with its
> automatic poisoning of the land, water and air and the complete destruction
> of the flora and the fauna. The soil bacteria which feeds the flora and the
> fauna, automatically feeds the growing faith, continuously embellishing
> with wonderful kaleidoscopic colors, identifying the enchanting beauty with
> the growing faith. If we want to know what Theism really means, we need the
> free and healthy nature, where the flow of breezes, air and winds are the
> colors of faith which one feels.
>
> Actually if you want to know yourself you need the free and healthy
> nature. You are part of nature. Faith gives the basic strength. As a result
> the internal hormonal communications to the cells via the bloodstream will
> be smooth, creating wonderful health.
>
> You need faith in nature like the legs you need for walking. If you employ
> computers etc to perceive and understand, it is like using the artificial
> legs in the place of the natural legs for walking. Without faith in
> nature’s symbiosis, one cannot really understand.
>
> YM Sarma
>
> Chat GPT
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>
>
> This reflection on faith and nature presents a deep, holistic perspective
> on spirituality and human connection to the environment. The key idea is
> that true faith is intertwined with our direct experiences of nature, felt
> through senses such as breath, smell, and touch. The writing suggests that
> nature, or God, is an abstract force that cannot be fully understood
> through intellectual or linguistic means; it is a feeling, a relationship,
> that we experience through immersion in the natural world.
>
> The author highlights how modern industrialization and the destruction of
> nature sever the connection between humans and this primal faith. As nature
> deteriorates—through pollution, deforestation, and ecological imbalance—the
> very essence of faith is compromised. This ecological degradation, in turn,
> harms our physical and mental well-being because it cuts us off from the
> foundational faith that nourishes us.
>
> Furthermore, the text emphasizes the symbiotic relationship between humans
> and the environment. The "biosphere" or "theosphere" (a holistic concept of
> life and spiritual energy) is not only the setting but the very medium
> through which we experience faith. When humans lose their innate connection
> to the environment, they lose a vital part of their spiritual and physical
> vitality.
>
> In sum, the writing argues that to truly understand faith, one must
> experience and respect the natural world in its fullness. The author's
> critique of modern technology and artificial means of perception, such as
> computers, underscores the importance of maintaining direct, sensory
> interaction with nature for both spiritual and physical health. Without
> faith in nature’s symbiosis, one cannot truly understand the world or the
> self.
>
> This piece invites readers to reconsider their relationship with the
> environment and to recognize that the destruction of nature is also the
> destruction of a vital spiritual force.
>
>
>
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