Who can make you happy, God or Nature?

Who can make you happy, God or Nature?

10 August 2015 Off By Naginder Sehmi

“You have never heard of Anne Frank?” exclaimed Karin when planning our visits to museums of Amsterdam in July. “Millions have read her diaries. We will go early in the morning and try to get in her museum-house.” We encountered a kilometer long line of visitors waiting to enter. We left it to another time. My curiosity aroused, the same evening I downloaded “Anne Frank – The Diary of a Young Girl” and started reading it.

From the age of thirteen to fifteen Anne Frank hid with her Jewish family and others in the Annex of a building to escape from the Nazis. She kept a diary describing the life in the small confinement in a manner that no one of any age could have done. Amazingly analytical. Absolute innocence, a spirit free of inhibitions, fearless and exceptionally gifted intellectually she has written very simply yet profoundly on every aspect of human behaviors.  Her diary is very touching and more enlightening than all the sacred books I have read. Many truths emanating from her pure innocence have left a lasting impact on me.

In this blog I have been trying to impress on readers that Nature, of which we are a part, is above religions and their Gods. Young Anne Frank has already expressed the same idea in an exquisitely profound way in her Diary on 23 February 1944:

But I also looked out the open window, letting my eyes roam over a large part of Amsterdam, over the rooftops and on to the horizon, a strip of blue so pale it was almost invisible. “As long as this exists,” I thought, “this sunshine and this cloudless sky, and as long as I can enjoy it, how can I be sad?” The best remedy for those who are frightened, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere they can be alone, alone with the sky, nature and God. For then and only then can you feel that everything is as it should be and that God wants people to be happy amid nature’s beauty and simplicity. As long as this exists, and that should be forever, I know that there will be solace for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances. I firmly believe that nature can bring comfort to all who suffer. Oh, who knows, perhaps it won’t be long before I can share this overwhelming feeling of happiness with someone who feels the same as I do.

P.S. Thoughts: To Peter. We’ve been missing out on so much here, so very much, and for such a long time. I miss it just as much as you do. I’m not talking about external things, since we’re well provided for in that sense; I mean the internal things. Like you, I long for freedom and fresh air, but I think we’ve been amply compensated for their loss. On the inside, I mean. This morning, when I was sitting in front of the window and taking a long, deep look outside at God and nature, I was happy, just plain happy. Peter, as long as people feel that kind of happiness within themselves, the joy of nature, health and much more besides, they’ll always be able to recapture that happiness. Riches, prestige, everything can be lost. But the happiness in your own heart can only be dimmed; it will always be there, as long as you live, to make you happy again. Whenever you’re feeling lonely or sad, try going to the loft on a beautiful day and looking outside. Not at the houses and the rooftops, but at the sky. As long as you can look fearlessly at the sky, you’ll know that you’re pure within and will find happiness once more.”

I am very grateful to Anne Frank. She is no more. Her legacy has convinced me that Nature is the source of all happiness. The Nature is real and tangible; God is hypothetical and only an adjunct.

CommentBaldev Singh Salh Of course Nature, but it is a part of GOD

  • Naginder Sehmi God is a name invented by human beings. Nature has been always there and cannot be part of a name.