Julia Roberts, the actress who has given us so many memorable performances, speaks in this video as the voice of Mother Nature, for Conservation International.
Here is the script of Julia's words:
“ Some call me Nature. Others call me Mother Nature. I've been here for over four and a half billion years: twenty-two thousand five hundred times longer than you.
I don’t really need people. But people need me.
Yes, your future depends on me.
When I thrive, you thrive. When I falter, you falter.Or worse.
But I've been here for aeons.
I have fed species greater than you. And I have starved species greater than you.
My oceans, my soil, my flowing streams, my forests, they all can take you or leave you.
How you chose to live each day, whether you regard or disregard me, doesn't really matter to me.
One way, or the other, your actions will determine your fate. Not mine.
I am Nature. I will go on. I am prepared to evolve. Are you?”
My first reactions: breathtaking visuals, very hard-hitting dialogue, in the famous manner of a Julia who doesn't mince words. Right now, she sounds ominous. She is telling me, or us, that we had better start mending our ways. Let's not overestimate ourselves or our powers. Mother Nature will go on, whether we mess up our existence or not.
A bit intimidating. Nature with a capital N.
As someone who has sought answers in the Bhagavad Gita all the time, let me see how this relates to what Bhagavan Krishna (God) says in the Gita, in the context of man and nature.
What Krishna says sounds quite different, at least in a literal sense, from the words of Mother Nature in this video. But in the end it all connects in a wholesome way, in the circle of life. How?
I give below selected verses from the English translation from Swami Chinmayananda's The Holy Geeta (each quote is numbered as "chapter.verse"). The words are spoken by the Lord.
13.20. Know that Nature and Spirit are both without beginning; and know you also that all modifications and qualities are born of Nature. *** Creation is an eternal process***
9.10. Under Me as her Supervisor, Nature produces the moving and the unmoving; because of this, the world revolves.
7.4. Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intellect, egoism --- these are My eight-fold Nature.
7.5. This is the "lower" Nature; different from it, know thou, My "Higher" Nature, the very Life-element or Spirit, by which this world is upheld. ***this implies that Consciousness is all-pervading and represents the eternal Spirit which exists in all Nature and is yet beyond it ***
7.6. Know that these (Nature and Spirit), are the womb of all beings. So I am the source and dissolution of the whole universe *** man has only the autonomy to change only a few things, but not the big picture ***
7.8. I am the juice/taste in water, I am the light in the moon and the sun; I am the syllable OM in all the Vedas, sound in ether, and virility in men; *** it is not a random design without purpose ***
7.9. I am the sweet fragrance in earth and the brilliance in fire, the life in all beings, and I am austerity in the austere. *** Here austerity means giving more to life than taking from life, the basis of man's responsibility ***
3.14. From food come forth beings; from rain food is produced; from sacrifice (meaning work done according to one's nature, but with an attitude of doing good for all creation) arises rain, and sacrifice is born of action. *** the circle of life ***
3.12. The "Devas" (demigods governing the forces of nature), nourished by the sacrifice, will give you the desired objects. " Indeed he who enjoys objects, given by the Devas , without offering (in return) to them, is verily a thief. *** Man's duty to creation ***
3.20. Janaka (a famously wise king) and others attained perfection verily by action only: therefore you should perform action, even with a view to conserving all this creation. *** the word is Loka Samgraha in Sanskrit, exactly same as global conservation! I give at the end a beautiful explanation of this term by a well-known author in this area, S. P. Agarwal.
13.21. In the production of the effect and the cause, Nature is said to be the cause; in the experience of pleasure and pain, Spirit is said to be the cause. *** Consciousness or Spirit in man ***
13.22. The Spirit, seated in Nature, experiences the qualities born of Nature; attachment to the qualities is the cause of his birth in good and evil wombs. ***the principle of the individual Self and its karma leading to rebirth ***
13.23. The supreme Spirit in this body is also called the Spectator, the Permitter, the Supporter, the Enjoyer, the great Lord and the Supreme Self. *** Definition of God and how God is always an enabler and motivator, yet giving each creature a degree of autonomy ***
13.24. He who thus knows the Spirit and Nature together with the qualities, in whatsoever condition he may be, he is not born again. *** Concept of wisdom leading to liberation, or Buddha and Nirvana!***
So in summary, the Gita talks of Nature as encompassing all creation including man. Nature revolves, evolves, dissolves and is reborn. It is an eternal cycle of change. Man, by his very nature, is part of this circle of life, and he has to recognise how connected he is. He has to give to life, or nature, willingly, in a spirit of sacrifice or worship. In that spirit, nature is nourished, he is nourished in turn. God has planted the seed of life, the seed of evolution, and the seed of a higher nature or godliness in all creation, which manifests itself as "giving". Knowledge of this truth confers on everyone of us the grace of well-being, and leads us towards the liberation of the spirit. At the same time, this knowledge makes us act responsibly, supporting the circle of life.
Two questions remain. In the video, it is said that when Nature falters, man falters even more. Secondly, man can either destroy himself, or save himself. In the Gita, instead of making it a Man vs. Nature discussion, the Lord tells us that we have the power to save ourselves, or destroy ourselves, through our choices and actions:
6.5. Let a man lift himself by his own Self alone, and let him not lower himself; for, this Self alone is the friend of oneself, and this Self is the enemy of oneself.
6.6. The Self is the friend of the self for him who has conquered himself by the Self, but to the unconquered self, the Self stands in the position of an enemy like the (external) foe.
In these two verses, the Self is to be understood to be the same as the Spirit, separate from the ego. The self (no capital) is the ego. Conquering himself means becoming wise and owning responsibility.
God exists in Nature. God exists in man. God guides in our evolution. And just as Mother Nature speaks to us, God speaks to us through Nature, all the time. We just have to listen to Nature. And feel Nature. And give to Nature.
Hari Om!
Explanation of Lokasamgraha
You can read the original Bhagavad Gita with Swami Chinmayananda's translation online, here.
You can but the book here.
A Comparison Table (click here to read the Excel sheet)
