NATUREand RELIGION

Nature as mother

NATURE AND RELIGION

There is a close relationship between nature and religion. For understanding this we have to understand the meaning of nature. In general as per scientific definition NATURE in broadest sense is equivalent to natural world around us. It refers to the phenomena of physical world or rules of nature and ranges from subatomic to cosmic.

Nature also means habits or properties of the body or creature.

This thing or nature is best explained in Hindi or Sanskrit language. Here there are three meanings of Nature: Prakriti; swabhave and sahaj. Prakriti means everything surrounding us and has same meaning as nature has in science and considered as the force creating life and maintaining the whole system of universe along with earth. Sawbhav means habit or properties. Third one sahaj is very peculiar which means anything or act in which one feels comfortable and one apt to do the act when not under some influence. In Hindu religion Nature is considered as mother and called Prakriti. Mother means who gives birth. In Bhagwad Geeta Lord Krishna says_____

Mum yoni mahat brahm, tasmin garbham dadhamayaham;

Sambhava sarve bhutanam tato bhavti bharat

Which means nature is mother and God is father who creates the life. He places the seed in nature of life and thus the whole cycle goes on.

Once god created the life on the earth and then it goes on. If we look in details in Veda; Manu and Satrupa were the first to born on the earth and then the cycle of nature went on further. In Christianity they consider Adam and Eve as the originator of the world.

To run this world smoothly nature has fixed some laws and these laws are called as natural dharma or nature of the creature. In science it is called natural laws. Trees make their food from Sun earth (soil) water and air with the help of chlorophyll present in them; which gives food for all the living beings on the earth.

Similarly the nature or natural dharma of lion or Carnivorous animals is to kill the Herbivorous animals. If lion or carnivorous animals leave their culture of eating flesh; will it be beneficial? No! The whole of the Nature will smash. Whole of the cycle will ruin and life of herbivorous will also be in danger or they will also extinct.

To run nature smoothly everyone has to follow the natural rules or natural dharma. Human being the best creature of the nature is gifted with the power of thinking and analysis, so they can question and have some doubts. There is so much development in human that their religion is multi dimensional, or we can say the dharma of men is subdivided. There are different duties assigned to group of human beings as per their capacity.

It was first done in Hindu religion as they divided the whole humanity in four varnas as Brahmin; kshatriya; vaisaya and shudra according to their capabilities.

In Shrimad Bhagavad Geeta Jee Lord Krishna says

Shreyan swav dharama viguna; pardharmat swanu thisthat;

Sawabhav niyatam karam kuravanapnoti kilbisham.

Our own religion or dharma is better than other dharma whether that is proved better than our own dharma and they does much better than our dharma, as men did not get papa (sin) following his own religion.

Here a question arises why a man should not change his dharma when it has some faults?

He says further:-  sahajam karma kauntay sadoshmapi na tyajet,

sarvarambha hi doshen dumenagni giri vavarta.

Sabhi karmo mein dosh hai hai isiliye apne dharam ko nahi tayagna chahiye.

Every dharma has some faults; no one is perfect. So one must not leave his dharma, or change it. Here He means natural Dharma of men or we can say simply nature (habits)