RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY AND THE MODERN WORLD

Some religions place God and Nature apart or in conflict with one another. Others see Nature as God's creation, which he owns and rules from on high and for which the glory belongs only to him. The Hindu view is a little different. According to Hinduism Nature is the manifestation of God who is our very Self. Nature is our own body.

The entire universe is our manifestation, the reflection in form of the Truth of who we really are. We not only exist in Nature, Nature exists in us. We are the Cosmic Being that expresses itself through all the forms of creation. God has not merely created Nature, Nature exists in God. Nature is the expression of the Word of God. It is the Divine Message and teaching vehicle through which we can come to know our True Self.

What Hinduism teaches is not pantheism, the idea that Nature is God, but monism, the Truth that there is only One Reality which includes the world and is not apart from anything. Hindu saints and sages have always reveled in the world of Nature, communicating through her with the Divine Existence.

Nature is the Divine Mother who, if we are open to not only her beauty but her wisdom, will unfold all the mysteries of consciousness to us. Besides the outer Nature is her inner form, the power of yogic knowledge, the intelligence that directs the evolution of consciousness, which ultimately reveals all the universe within us.

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