Articles / Special

Article by : Sr. Sudha SU

“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have Peace. In the world you will have tribulations. But take heart. I have overcome the world." (John 16:33).

Introduction:

All seasons are beautiful and good for a person who is happy. As the saying goes “Success is not the key to happiness rather happiness is the key to Success”. In fact happiness is not only the key to success but also to good health, wealth, smooth relationships and longevity. Happiness leads to a peaceful life which enables us to profit the most from our thoughts, intelligence, commonsense, wisdom and good actions which help us to be at peace in this natural world in which we live till the end of our life.

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Good and Bad:

Life flows like water in the river with many unexpected twists and turns. As we move on from place to place we come across different types of people; good or bad, inspirational and uninspirational, appreciative and ungrateful. Life flows on with its ups and downs, bringing freshness in nature around. Good people give us good memories and bad people give us bad memories.

In this natural world basically we experience peace and happiness with the good people whom we meet. But on the contrary we do not experience peace and happiness when we meet bad people. Having analyzed the good people we say yes they are good. If the people are bad we say oh gosh these people are crazy, he or she is such a bad person. He or she is crooked. These people are terribly selfish and they are really thankless and lack manners and so on and so forth. This natural world is a mad world. What we should not forget is that this world of ours is made up of day and night. Sometimes it is cold, other times it is hot. This horrifying aspect of the world causes us to exclaim, "Oh my gosh!" I simply cannot bear this world any longer, and so on, leading us to lose peace and happiness in this natural world.

Non acceptance of self:

The common denominating factor in all these mentioned above is the non- acceptance and unwillingness to accept the world and all in it and also the way they are created and situated in different parts of the world. This can be a reason for not having peace and experiencing miserable feelings that many go through. It all happens because of non-acceptance and unwillingness to do what they are supposed to do. I also personally encountered many young men and women who are not happy and have no peace in their lives because they are born in poor families in villages. They say: “I am not beautiful or I do not have good looks, I am short, I am dark, I am like this and like that and so on and so forth. Therefore these people whom I encountered are somehow not happy and have no peace in their lives. So, based on my limited experience with these people, I can conclude that it is all due to non-acceptances, self-rejection, and an unwillingness to accept who they are in this natural world.

Nature heals self:

Self -rejection is the greatest source of unhappiness which takes away the peace from one`s mind. Self-rejection comes from having an idea or image of being perfect in this natural world and never reaching up to that level of being perfect. We as human beings try to be perfect always and when we do not reach there then we create a series of problems for ourselves and start hating this natural world and God Almighty who is the source of everything and our life becomes a battle of confrontation rather than that of joy and peace. As we sing the song ‘’great things happen when God mixes with His people’’ and that is true, we see great and good things in our lives in this natural world and we find joy, peace, and happiness on the journey. We only have to trust in God, have strong faith in Him and honour, worship and adore Him for His great and marvelous things that He has created in this natural world. God helps us always to accept ourselves when we are faithful to Him. In fact self- acceptance is the foundation of happiness and peace. Therefore we must believe in God and love and accept ourselves just as God has created us and then we will experience deep peace and joy in this world.

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Nature connects us with God:

All of us need peace and we strive for peace and happiness in this world. Peace is ever present in this natural world and even in us. To discover that peace we have to invoke blessings from God the Source of peace and try to practice meditation for peace in this pleasant natural world. The natural world is the body of our God. However we deal with the world, we deal with God. When we touch the world, we touch God, we breathe in the world and we breathe God. We look at nature, we look at God and when we smell the world we smell God, because God is the Creator of everything in this Universe. God becomes beautiful in his flowers, birds, and plants etc which add to the beauty of our natural world. This peaceful environment is there for us to enjoy and share the peace with others.
Conclusion:

We all know that to achieve something, it is not enough to aim but we must hit the target. God has blessed us with a beautiful and wonderful natural world which helps us to be at peace and to be happy. But as we grow in this natural world we tend to forget the great work of God and try to destroy this natural world that God has given us. To be at peace and happy is not enough to read books or watch some comedy shows or dramas. Peace and happiness does not lie in the amount of knowledge acquired but in the degree of its appreciation and application. To get peace and happiness we need to put some effort in the natural world. To be friendly with nature is very much necessary in this world. Therefore let us not expect peace and happiness just to fall from the sky but let us make efforts to see where I can be a source of joy and happiness to all around me and thus make this world a better place to live in.

I end with the words of Stephen Grellet: “I shall pass through this world but once. Any good, therefore, that I can do or any kindness I can show to any human being let me do it now, for I shall not pass this way again”.

About the Author : 

Sr. Sudha SU is currently pursuing BEd studies at St Aloysius Institute of Education, Mangalore.