Puri: A day after participating in the annual Rath Yatra of Lord Jagannath and his siblings in Puri, President Droupadi Murmu spent sometime at the sea beach of the holy city on Monday morning.
Later, she penned her thoughts about the experience of being in close communion with nature.
On her X handle, the President wrote, “There are places that bring us in closer touch with the essence of life and remind us that we are part of nature. Mountains, forests, rivers, and seashores appeal to something deep within us."
Murmu added, “As I walked along the seashore today, I felt a communion with the surroundings – the gentle wind, the roar of the waves, and the immense expanse of water. It was a meditative experience. It brought me a profound inner peace that I had also felt when I had a darshan of Mahaprabhu Shri Jagannathji yesterday.”
She continued, “I am not alone in having such an experience; all of us can feel that way when we encounter something far larger than us, that sustains us, and that makes our lives meaningful.
In the hustle and bustle of the daily grind, we lose this connection with Mother Nature. Humankind believes it has mastered nature and is exploiting it for its own short-term benefits.
The result is for all to see; this summer, many parts of India suffered a terrible series of heat waves. Extreme weather events have become more frequent around the globe in recent years, and the situation is projected to be far worse in the decades to come."
“More than seventy percent of the Earth's surface is made up of oceans, and global warming is leading to a rise in global sea levels, threatening to submerge coastal areas'.
The oceans and the rich variety of flora and fauna found there have suffered heavily due to different kinds of pollution. Fortunately, people living in nature’s lap have sustained traditions that can show us the way.
The inhabitants of coastal areas, for example, know the language of the winds and waves of the sea. Following our ancestors, they worship the sea as God."
She further said, “There are two ways, I believe, to meet the challenge of protection and conservation of the environment: broader steps that can come from governments and international organizations, and smaller, local steps that we can take as citizens.
The two are, of course, complementary," she said and called upon the people to pledge to do what they can do – individually and locally – for the sake of a better tomorrow. We owe it to our children.
