Living Lightly on Earth

During my first trip to Prashanti Nilayam, I noticed a quote of Baba’s hanging on the dining hall wall—“Let the Universe be your teacher.” Reflections on this sentence led me to believe that Baba was instructing us to learn from the entire world surrounding us; to honor, respect and venerate this world and to live in a spirit of constant gratitude to the elements of the world. Essentially, to act towards the Universe as we would towards a Teacher or Guru.

“How very strange and surprising that you never think of thanking God for all the precious things He has so graciously bestowed on you! He has placed you in this vast and wonderful Universe, providing for you fresh air to breathe, clean water to drink, Mother Earth to live on, etc…. ln short, but for the five elements created by Him, you cannot live even for a moment. Therefore, is there a greater sin than forgetting to offer your thanks to such an all-merciful God?”

Summer Showers – 1990

Many of us do offer thanks with our hearts and yet with our hands we cause harm to those very same things for which we are grateful. This happens sometimes because we lack knowledge and lack awareness. Since habits are, very often, strong, we determine that care of the Universe is not so necessary. Then, we pollute the air with our cars and our factories; we ruin the rivers with our laundry detergents and our toxic wastes, we destroy Mother Earth with our farming practices and our mountains of trash.

In the months to come, we would like to have a column that offers practical methods to remove our ignorance, so that we may examine our habits that harm the Earth. We would love contributions and feedback. By changing some of our habits, we will expand our ability to practice gratitude.

~Sheila Brown and June Reiber