Question: What is the connection between spiritual practices and the protection of Nature?

Amma: "Everything is pervaded by Consciousness. It is that Consciousness which sustains the world and all the creatures in it. To worship everything, seeing God in all, is what religion advises. Such an attitude teaches us to love Nature. None of us would consciously injure our own body, because we know it would be painful. Similarly, we will feel the pain of other people to be our own when the realization dawns within us that everything is pervaded by one and the same Consciousness. Compassion will arise, and we will sincerely wish to help and protect all. In that state, we won’t feel like plucking even a leaf unnecessarily. We will pick a flower only on the last day of its existence, before it falls from the stem. We will consider it as very harmful to the plant, and to Nature, if the flower is plucked on its very first day due to our greediness.

In days gone by (in India), every house had a family shrine room. People used to grow flowers in the yard surrounding the house. Devoted care would be given to the garden. The flowers from those plants which were planted and grown with loving care by the family were offered to God during worship.

Whatever is provided by Nature, the very source of flowers and plants, should be lovingly returned to it. This is the symbolism behind the offering of flowers to God. It also helps to enhance our devotion to God. Worship performed with one-pointedness helps to diminish thoughts, and this in turn will cleanse and purify the mind.

Some years ago, the garden or surrounding land of each home contained a wood or a tree grove, with a small temple. The wood or grove contained highly medicinal trees such as the banyan, fig, and bilva (wood apple). The shrine and the grove was the common worship place of the entire family. At dusk, the family used to gather at the shrine to chant the divine Names and offer their prayers in front of lighted oil lamps. Modern science has recently discovered that music will enhance the healthy growth of plants and trees. Besides the bliss that devotional singing gives to all creatures, if it is done with love, it bestows purity and peace to our minds. The wind that filters through the leaves of medicinal trees and plants is also good for our health. The smoke from both the oil-soaked wick burning in the brass lamp and the pure beeswax candle will kill the germs in the atmosphere. But over and above all, prayers done with concentration will restore the lost harmony of Nature.

If an ordinary person can be compared to an electric lamp, a real sadhak (spiritual aspirant) can be compared to a transformer. By making the mind still and conserving energy, which otherwise would be dissipated through overindulgence and pleasure seeking, the sadhak awakens the infinite source of power within him. Having no likes or dislikes himself, even his breath becomes beneficial to Nature. Just as water is purified by a filter, the prana (vital force) of the tapasvi (ascetic) is a filter that purifies Nature. Ayurvedic physicians will use a certain natural stone to purify the oil that has been boiled with medicinal herbs in the preparation of some remedies. Likewise, the tapasvi’s pure vital energy can purify Nature by correcting the imbalances created by man.

Looking at Nature and observing its selfless way of giving, we can become aware of our own limitations. That will help to develop devotion and self-surrender to God. Thus, Nature helps us to become closer to God and teaches us to truly worship Him. In reality, Nature is nothing but God’s visible form which we can behold and experience through our senses. Indeed, by loving and serving Nature, we are worshiping God Himself.

Just as Nature creates the favorable circumstances for a coconut to become a coconut tree, and for a seed to transform itself into a huge fruit tree, Nature creates the necessary circumstances through which the individual soul can reach the Supreme Being and merge in eternal union with Him. A sincere Truth seeker, or a true believer, cannot harm Nature because he or she sees Nature as God — he doesn’t experience Nature as being separate from himself. He is the real lover of Nature. Mother would say that a real scientist should be a real lover — a lover of mankind, a lover of all creation and a lover of life."