Release of Renaissance, Volume V, Issue 4
Date: April 21, 2024
On April 21, we released our second issue exploring the theme – Divine in Nature. We hope our readers enjoyed going through the previous issue which dealt more with the philosophical basis for the topic.
In this issue we turn our attention toward how one can grow in consciousness through consciously connecting with Mother Nature, with trees, flowers, mountains, and more. One Must Try to Become Like a Flower features a most delightful conversation from the book ‘Sweet Mother: Luminous Notes’ – Conversations with the Mother as recounted by Mona Sarkar.
Gayatri Majumdar’s reflection titled Memory of a Seed (Self-remembering) is reminiscent of a story from the Chandogya Upanishad where Uddalaka shows his son Shvetaketu the Truth of the Self by asking him to break open a seed.
In our ongoing series The Upanishads Elucidated by Lopa Mukherjee, we feature another insightful story titled The Enigmatic Seed. Enjoy this beautiful retelling of how the Supreme seated Itself in all Manifestation – in a seed form, waiting to blossom in full.
In a piece titled How Flowers Brought Me Closer to the Divine, Runalika Roy recounts how flowers became the medium for the author to grow into a deeper relation with the Divine in her childhood. Chirasree Mitra, an ardent trekker, sees herself as a worshipper of the mighty mountains and the rivers and writes a beautiful account of her communion with Divine in Nature in a piece titled I Found My God on the Trail.
In Experiencing the Divine through Nature’s Mandalas, Jayashree Ashok shares a few contemplative practices involving mandalas, which she and her team at Creative School use regularly for both Education and Healing purposes. She describes how these practices help one go inward and get in touch with the innermost silence, the psychic presence within.
Nature mysticism and Romanticism in English Poetry go hand in hand. An example is William Wordsworth’s famous poem ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud’. Read some words of Sri Aurobindo on Wordsworth’s poetry, and listen to ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud’ in our feature titled Inner Awakening to Nature, featuring Wordsworth’s ‘Daffodils’
Deeply moved and inspired by the last month’s editorial, one of our readers, Dimple Chhabra generously offered to translate it in Hindi. She did it for her delight, and shared it with us. And we liked both the gesture and her translation so much that we have invited her to write for us in Hindi as and when she can find time. To which she instantly agreed. Read her translation titled वो जो ब्रह्मांड सजाता है, वही तो लटें संवारता है |
