Know Your Heritage - 04

Another important concept in our heritage is the respect and understanding towards nature. Nature consists of five elements. The soil forms the basis of our living. When we lose ourselves in abstract concepts even symbolically we say 'let us come down to earth'. We feel the earth as surest basis of our living. Space and the sky contain us and our living. The water, the light and the wind form the essentials of our sustenance. This fact is imprinted in our minds right from childhood in a spiritual way. 

Every morning we are expected to invite the source of all light, viz., the Sun, having water in our hands and measured breath in our nostrils. We are made aware of the earth on which we stand and the sky towards which we look into. We are made to realise that we form part of the whole nature and as mindful creatures we should in full awareness hold these elements in gratitude and respect. All these are the physical faces of the self-same divinity that is in our hearts and the same divinity that is shining like the Sun and also in the Sun. The same Sun in midday is again remembered and thanked with water in the hands and mantras in the mind. The light removes our darkness. The water purifies us. And the wind in peace bestows long life. Every day we are made to vibrate in tune with cosmic movements. 

Again in the evening we give a thankful send-off for the day by pouring water to the setting Sun with mantras. And we invite the night. These junctions of night and day in the morning and the day and night in the evening, form important part of our daily life along with the midday salutations to the Sun. We ground ourselves to the cosmos thrice a day. These junctions are beautifully named as 'sandhya'. To salute during these junctions is sandhya vandanam. Becoming aware totally of the water, the light and the wind, we stand firm on the ground and look with love to the sky. When we make peace with our own breathing and do it as an art, it is called Pranayama. 

Srirangam Mohanarangan

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