Verdant Wilderness

Dear Valley,

It is with much excitement and affection that we celebrate your birthday each year! Even as we wish you “Happy Birthday Valley”, one wonders who exactly are we offering these greetings to! Who is this entity that we call ‘Valley’ that we consider magnificently beautiful?

The image that instantly comes to mind in response to this question is the beauty that we behold of your verdant stretch of wilderness… Reddish brown path that goes around you, the majestic trees, the carpet of flowers, gurgling streams, the placid lake, the sprawling amphitheater, the aesthetic spaces and structures, the call of the birds, flitting butterflies, millipedes and hordes of insects, sleek reptiles, and so on… Is it to this that we offer our reverence and greetings? There is also the emotion, the sensation that one experiences while watching all these in you, walking or sitting alone or with a friend…

It has rained much last evening… This morning, the sun rose in a partly clear sky, and light sparkled on the dew drops settled on the leaf tips and margins of the bamboo. Young leaves on the honge tree seemed to dance rhythmically with joy in the breeze. The Asian koel was persistently meting out her sonata in a shrill and mellifluous tone. The croaking of a hundred frogs from the lakeside in a frenzy to celebrate last night’s downpour was audible across The Valley! One was intensely aware of the tremendous vitality and wonder of nature you manifest. There was delight within and the brain stopped working for a while.

Is it to this ‘feeling’ that one identifies with as your beauty, and greets with gratitude?

There seems to be one kind of beauty that one sees in things – a beautiful house with the lines, the space, the light, and shade that bathes it; a beautiful garden that is well kept and manicured, with resplendent flowers; a beautiful song, a skillful and precise action.

All these create a ‘sense’ within while watching… All these are tangible, perceptible objects or actions…but what about a sense of beauty that exists in the state of listening? Or the sense of beauty in direct observation? There seems to be a sense of beauty that seems difficult to understand, and yet it is there…it is real. Dear Valley, have you not invoked this in all of us?

Our sense of beauty in things are understandable and tangible...but there seems to be the other sense of beauty that has nothing to do with manifestations or expressions. It seems to arise out of a sense of deep harmony within. It is probably at the root of creation...and isn’t creation itself beauty? When one lives wholly, one brings both these senses into operation… Maybe this is what you have gently, subtly infused in us. And it is to that ‘Valley’ that we express our dear greetings.

Thank you, dear Valley, and Happy Birthday!

Jayaram