Living in the Lap of the Mother

The big picture from our front yard and Swami Rama

“Nature is the manifest form of the Divine Mother, the transcendental ocean of beauty and bliss. To enjoy her protection, love, and care, we must live in her lap. The more we distance ourselves from her, the further we distance ourselves from divine love and protection. Exploiting nature is like abusing our own mother. Out of ignorance we fail to see that we are constantly receiving nurturance from the sun, moon, stars, air, fire and water. We are made of these forces; they are integral to us. Even the force of gravity is a form of sentient love emitting from the heart of the planet. It holds us fast to the bosom of the Earth. Punching holes in the ozone layer is like drilling holes in our skulls. Destroying the forests is like hacking away our own limbs. Allowing the soul to erode is like ripping off our own skin.<br />

“…worshipping nature is the core of spirituality. ‘Worship’ means living in harmony with nature, actively contributing to her well-being, and refraining from harming her. Once we are in harmony with nature we begin to experience divine love and grace manifesting everywhere, and our hearts open spontaneously. As this happens, the curtain of duality is lifted and we no longer experience ourselves as entities separate from her. This experience erases our fear of death, because we now realize that we have been with her all along: there is nothing like being born or dying. We are drops of bliss emerging from the wave of bliss and subsiding into it again. We are no longer bound by the cycle of birth and death, for we know birth is like coming into the lap of our mother, and death is like returning to her womb.”<br />

From “At the Eleventh Hour, the biography of Swami Rama,” by Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, Ph.D.