Nisarga (Nature)

 

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Nisarga (Nature)

Nisarga means to be natural, to be spontaneous, to be simple and poor. And blessed are the poor – only they shall inherit the kingdom of God. Only the poor are rich. This inner poverty is really an inner richness. When we simply move with nature, by and by we disappear. We are so poor that even we are not there – the poverty is total. When the poverty is total, there is nothing to possess and nobody to possess it.

That is why in the streets of big metro cities in India we see street urchins playing happily with not a care in the world. That is the life they know, and they make the best of it – they are happy and healthy with great naturally built immunity!

That’s what Jesus means when he says ‘poor in spirit’. A man can be poor but may not be poor in spirit. He may not have anything to claim as his own but at least he has his ego. He may not have possessions but he has the possessor. The inner poverty, the poor in spirit, means that even the possessor is gone – no possessions, no possessor. Then we cannot be against nature because there is nobody to be against. Then nature simply flows through us. We become like a cloud - wherever the winds take it, it goes. It has no idea of its own. It has no destiny, no private goal.

It has not planned any journey, so wherever it lands it is beautiful, because there is never any frustration. Frustration comes out of a private goal. Whenever we come across a man who is frustrated, it simply shows that he has a private goal against the universe. Naturally he is frustrated. When we move with the universe, there is no frustration; there is tremendous fulfilment. Each moment is joy because everything is going right. Nothing can go wrong because whatever is happening is the way it should happen.

That is the meaning of nisarga. It is one of the most beautiful terms in Sanskrit. And it would be great if we could disappear completely, to die completely. When someone who is one the spiritual path is bestowed the name – nisarga, then such a person is just on the brink of it, on the very edge. A slight push and he will be gone. That is the meaning of changing the name. Ordinarily names are meaningless.

They don’t have any relevance to our being because they are given to us by people who cannot read our inner being. Maybe they like the sound of the name, maybe they like the dictionary meaning of the name. Maybe the name was very popular. They heard it somewhere – some famous man also had the same name - some actor, some actress, some author, some musician, some singer, some poet. It was famous in the same way and so the parents give it to us.

But they cannot read our being. When a master gives us a name, it is not ordinary. It has tremendous significance. It is like a seed which will start sprouting. In the right season and in the right climate it will become a big tree. This is going to be that person’s path. The path is to be natural, to be simple. No struggle. 

A profound surrender – and out of that surrender our being will be born. And we can do it, we can do it very gracefully…. Swamiji is watching over all of us every moment.