The craziness that begins and ends in God

The following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

At the end of a crazy moon night

the love of God rose.

I said, “It’s me Lalla.”

The beloved woke. We became That,

and the lake is crystal-clear.

~Lal Ded

Acharya Prashant (AP): There is nothing in nature that doesn’t take you closer to your center. This must be understood. Why is it said and heard that the Rishis would go to jungles for meditation? Why is it so that the distressed mind moves towards nature for peace? At the center, there is nothing except peace, and then there is the first layer; the layer of the physical universe. The layer of the trees, the animals, the moon, the rivers, the flesh, and the blood. And then, man builds another layer over it which is the layer of abstractions, ideas, concepts, social formulations, language. Distressed by all that, man wants to return to his center. And when you return to your center, what is it that you find?

There is a center, and there is a circle of physicality, which is not manmade. And then there is all that is man-made. From the man-made when you would go to the center, what is it that you would first encounter?

Listener (L): Peace and security.

AP: Yes, but before you reach that center, what lies in between? Between society and the center, what is it that you would meet?

The nature, the natural layer.

When you are going to the natural layer, you are going towards the center. From the external social layer, when you go to nature, you are actually not going to nature, but going closer to your center.

That is why the company of nature provides all of us with the peaceful experiences. There is nothing special in nature; it’s just that nature is closer to that which gives peace.

So you get peace by proxy. So you get peace in an indirect way.

The river reminds you of your origins; not in a conscious way, not by way of thought but in a very subliminal way. The forest…