Universe: Sacred elements of Nature

Smog, a rising air quality index, and increasing health problems: winter brings a degree of miserableness these days. We have so normalised the issue that it has become an annual feature. Experts reiterate the same solutions, short-term and long-term. At best, they are dutifully listened to, knee-jerk measures are undertaken, and the matter is shelved for the next year as soon as the situation naturally improves.

What if we looked at it from a spiritual perspective? In the Japji Sahib, Guru Nanak says: “Pavan Guru, Pani Pita, Mata Dharat Mahat.” This shlok is often translated as “Air is the Guru, Water the Father, and Earth the Great Mother”. From the ecological standpoint, it tells us that the environment is not a resource to be exploited, it is a part of the family. The kinship of Nature and human beings is stressed, more so in the subsequent part of the shlok: “Divas Raat Dui Dai Daia Khelai Sagal Jagat.” By asserting that day and night are the two nurses, in whose lap the whole world plays, the Guru asserts that the planet is the nursery of the soul.

Pavan gives life to our body. We can live without food and water for some time, but as we all know, air is vital; we can’t live more than a few minutes without it. Why is it that we treat what gives us life so callously? With more stress on materialism, we are so caught up in maya that seeds of our exceptionalism, sown by our haumai, sprout and grow into a thick, impenetrable forest of ignorance that disconnects us from the Creator and His hukum. Sikhs who pray to the Almighty to give them the strength to follow Akalpurkh’s hukum behave as if they can bend His kudrat to their will.

The situation with water, which Guru Nanak calls Pita, is pitiful, with ground pollution, overexploitation, and a lack of proper equipment to treat effluents. Imagine the very Kali Bein river from where Guru Nanak emerged to announce, “There is no Hindu, there is no Muslim, all are created by the same Divine”, was badly polluted, till volunteers led by Sant Balbir Singh Seechewal cleaned it up.

The problem has become so big that we all think it’s someone else’s issue. When administrations seek a way to combat smog or water pollution, they take the route of fines and actions. What we need is to reframe the issue as a spiritual one. We are breaking Waheguru’s hukum, or natural law, and we face the inevitable results when we break His hukum.

Gurus loved Nature, and Guru Har Rai, the seventh Guru, was an outstanding environmentalist and an animal lover. In recent years, EcoSikh, a global organisation, has been planting trees and herbs. Through the Guru Nanak Sacred Forest project, EcoSikh has created over 300 manmade forests in India and in many other countries. Other notable environmental initiatives include Baba Sewa Singh’s Nishan-e-Sikhi Charitable Trust at Khadoor Sahib.

The onslaught of pollutants, however, is too intense. The uncaring attitude of individuals adds up to make mountains of trash and a stream of pollutants. Self-centred individuals, because of their haumai, are divorced from reality by maya, which gives rise to lobh or greed. The Gurus taught us to have santokh, or contentment. That’s the key to living in harmony with the environment and preventing over-exploitation of our natural bounty.

Environmentalism should not be a policy enforced by the government; ideally, it should be each individual’s commitment to the spiritual principles that many profess, but few follow. We don’t need more data to save the world; we know we are hurtling down the precipice. We need to imbibe Guru Nanak’s “Pavan Guru…” and focus on how we can all heal the world by acting as responsible individuals and treating Nature with the reverence it deserves.

If each one of us sets out to make a difference, we will move mountains of indifference and trash, both mental and physical.

— The writer is a senior journalist & author