Why is Nature So Beautiful? Why Does It Fill Us With Joy and Peace?

“Form, colour, scent and something else which is indefinable constitute the beauty of flowers.”
– Sri Aurobindo

Why is nature so beautiful? Why does a short walk amidst nature have such a calming influence on our mind? Why does the sight of flowers, butterflies and rainbows fill our hearts with joy unspeakable?

Mankind’s love for nature is perhaps one of the greatest mysteries of life, one that even evolutionary biologists are hard-pressed to explain. After all, what is the utility in admiring a sunset, or delighting at the sight of snow-capped mountains, when it serves no evolutionary purpose?

While evolution and science can explain many facts of our daily existence, the answer to this profound puzzle lies a little beyond the reaches of present day science, and in the realms of the super-conscious.

Nature is Beautiful Because it is a Manifestation of God’s Joy

It is in the advanced stages of meditative super-consciousness, that the ancient sages of India first lifted the veil over this great mystery. The profound answer that they witnessed is chronicled as a Sanskrit verse in the Taittiriya Upanishad (page 225, World, India):

Verse from the Taittiriya Upanishad

A translation and explanation of this verse is presented below from the writings of Rabindranath Tagore:

Pronunciation: Anando brahmeti vyajanat, Anandadhyeva khalvimani bhutani jayante, anandena jatani jivanti, Anandam prayanty-abhisam-viçanti.

Translation: God is Ananda, i.e. joy or bliss. “From (God’s) joy does spring all this Creation, by joy is it maintained, towards joy does it progress, and into joy does it enter.” (Sadhana by Rabindranath Tagore, page 45)

Explanation: “It means that God’s Creation has not its source in any necessity; it comes from his fullness of joy; it is his love that creates, therefore in Creation is his own revealment.” (Sadhana, page 45)

The immortal Cosmic Consciousness (God) manifests itself by giving its joy a form. “Just as the joy of a singer is expressed in the form of a song”, so too, is the joy of God expressed in the form of Creation. We observe this truth in mankind too, where “man in his role of Creator, is ever creating forms (art, sculptures, buildings etc.), because they come out of his abounding joy.” (Sadhana, page 58)

Therefore, “the beauty of Nature is not a mirage of the imagination, but it reflects the joy of the Infinite and thus draws us to lose ourselves in it.” (Tagore in My Reminiscences)

In the Midst of Nature, Our Minds Become Calm Because We Feel the Pull of This Joyful Cosmic Consciousness

In our normal day to day existence, we seldom can get in touch with this sublime but joyful Cosmic Consciousness (God), from which springs this Universe comprising insentient matter and living beings. The rigors of sustaining a daily existence, load our minds with so many anxieties, that we block out the Creator.

Caught up in our daily worries we ignore the Cosmic Consciousness manifesting itself as beautiful Nature.

It is only when we come across a beautiful flower, or a serene landscape, that we are able to switch our consciousness from focusing on our troubles, to becoming aware of the great Infinite Joy (Sat-Chit-Ananda) that permeates everything.

Just as a small magnet when placed in the vicinity of a larger magnet, feels its attraction and pull, so too when we place ourselves in the presence of Nature, the conscious element within us (our Soul), feels the attraction of the larger Cosmic Consciousness (God) that is expressing itself as this vast variety of Creation.

The beauty of Nature draws us to forget our worries and to lose ourselves in the Blissful Cosmic Consciousness.

This attraction is so strong that in the lap of Mother Nature, our minds immediately become calm and peaceful. We leave behind our trifling worries and mundane pursuits and are subconsciously drawn back to the infinite source.

Swami Vivekananda expressed this very fact in a letter he wrote to Sister Christine in 1896: (Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda – Volume 9)

“I am in Switzerland. It is a miniature Himalayas, and has the same effect of raising the mind up to the Self (the Soul, which is a part of the Cosmic Consciousness) and driving away all earthly feelings and ties. I am intensely enjoying it. I feel so, so uplifted.”

The Same Consciousness That Is In Us, Is Also In The Flower. This Subtle Recognition Fills Our Hearts With Joy

Thus it is that Nature helps us to “get out of the human mental limitations and see the (One) Cosmic Consciousness, individualizing itself in (many) forms—plant, animal, man and growing towards what is beyond man”. (Letters on Yoga – I by Sri Aurobindo, scroll to Volumes 28-31, page 407 of pdf)

These fleeting moments of subconscious recognition, during which we sense that the same consciousness that is in us, is also manifesting itself as the flower, the butterfly, the forest and the sunset; fill our hearts with sudden joy. Our Soul, after its many wanderings, finally notices the faint callings of the Eternal Creator, gently illuminating the way back home. (This last concept has been explained in greater detail in Sadhana, pages 20, 58)

Note on “God is Ananda“: According to the Upanishads, the best and most complete description that can be accorded to God is that He is Sat-Chit-Ananda.
Sat means that He is the Infinite and Absolute Existence, which encompasses everything and beyond which nothing else exists. Chit means that He is the Infinite Consciousness that permeates everything. This Consciousness is the unifying substrate from which arise all matter, space, time and living beings. And Ananda means that God is Absolute and Indescribable Bliss or Joy. It is to this third aspect of God, that the above mentioned verse of the Taittiriya Upanishad, is referring to.

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