Breath

"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you...whole cares will drop off like autumn leaves”. These words from John Muir describe why myself as modern urbanite desire to be in the natural world.

Deciding to follow a nature-based religion if you live in the midst of a city can be a challenge. People who live in farms or in jungles can often step outside and immediately be in contact with the Mother Nature. But those of us who are surrounded by concrete jungle and live shoulder to shoulder with neighbors must make hard efforts to ignore the daily business and routines to feel the rhythms of the Great Mother Nature pulsing throughout the years.

Despite living in one of Pune’s most urban area, I am fortunate enough to live close to what I consider one of the State’s most impressive "monuments": Sahyadri Mountains. Outskirts of the city. Mulshi and Velhe taluka. Each has a very special significance to me.

From my door, you can ride 40 Kms into a huge patch of (Proposed) Mulshi Wildlife Sanctuary…..an integrated part of Mulshi Backwaters.

There are many things I have been able to do and learn in this region that I never would have thought possible inside the city. I've sat beneath mango tree and used it to plot the path of the sun over the course of the day. I've wandered over the hills, finding vistas where one can see only an occasional house, and imagining how Pune was in the days when the land was owned by the wind and the rain. And I've explored flora and fauna: No of flowers, butterflies, insects, eagles, hawks, deer, rabbits, peacocks and—once—a red fox. I know the paths through the forest almost better than I do the streets surrounding my urban area. So I am more fortunate than any other urbanite—I do have a private wilderness that I can find any weekend.

Despite my bond with this particular piece of landscape, there is a huge swaddle of engineering occupation and business in my life which restricts me from visiting the region everyday. Ideally when I look for the natural world, my eyes look for the virgin places, untouched by the urban people. Furthermore, I do not have access to pristine natural areas like those shown in the pages of National Geographic. How can I connect to the natural word while being in the city? While being at the workplace?

The answer is, in reality, quite simple. I get connect with the nature that is present in front of my eyes. This holds true wherever I go and stay.

I Begin by grounding and centering myself. I close my eyes and begin concentrating on breathing, in and out. Realize that with each breath, the molecules that make up the air are moving in and out of my body. The small bird whistling on the tree above breathed these same molecules moments ago. Before that, the same tree had breathed them. Before that, they were carried on the wind from far away, where they had been the breath of mighty river in the remote mountains. Or perhaps, the breath of the ravine from where the river was originated. I continue tracing those molecules back…. and then the leaves or blades of grass the molecules have traveled through on their journey. I realize that I am, and will always be, inseparable from the natural world around me.

I open the eyes and look in the air. Watch the birds fly from tree to tree. Connecting downtown with suburbs, with outskirts, with remote mountains. I feel the breeze deep inside. It carries the joy of wilderness.
I've begun to understand my city in a new way. Instead of seeing concrete and glass, I notice the weeds along the road. I look out of my window at work and see, not the jammed traffic and shopping malls, but the distant mountains, Singhgad and Torna. I notice the sun and the clouds, the moon and the stars. And my struggle to see life through the eyes of the Earth Mother has, for me, transformed this city of concrete and steel into a life-celebrating, sacred wilderness.

The beauty of the visualization allows me to reconnect with nature wherever and whenever I happen to be. It also strips away all of the perceived barriers between the natural world and urban life. The only thing I can do is to breathe……