“ Let Nature be Your Teacher ’’–William Wordsworth and Dattatreya
William Wordsworth was an English poet who lived from 1770 to 1850 in England. He was the first and the greatest of the English Romantic poets. He was born in Lake District .The region’s magnificent landscape gave him a love of nature that deeply affected his life. Wordsworth lived 200 years ago.
Dattatreya was an incarnation of Lord Vishnu and Shiva. Dattatreya must have lived at least 2000 years ago .We did not know when exactly Dattatreya lived. But his name was mentioned in Valmiki Ramayana and Mahabharata, the two great epics of India. Bhagavata Purana has Dattareya’s teachings in the form of Uddhava Gita. Both Dattatreya and Wordsworth advocated let nature be our teacher. So it is worthwhile comparing both of them.
The most interesting thing about Dattatreya is that he mentioned 24 natural objects or living beings as his teachers. Dattatreya was the divine child of Anusuya and sage Atri Maharishi.
One day a king asked him why he was so cheerful and asked him who his Guru was. When he mentioned he had 24 Gurus (spiritual teachers) the king was surprised because he was very young.
Wordsworth was known for his poems on nature. His poem on ‘Daffodils’ was taught at school level all over the world. In one of his poems Wordsworth asks us to throw away the boring books and get outside to enjoy nature. He is very confident that nature can teach us more than all the sages.
In his poem ‘The Tables Turned’ he says
“And hark! How blithe the throstle sings!He, too, is no mean preacher;Come forth into the light of things,Let nature be your teacher”
“One impulse from a vernal woodMay teach you more of manOf moral evil and of goodThan all the sages can.”
Let us now look at Dattareya’s 24 Gurus:
- Mother Earth,
- Water,
- Fire,
- Air
- and Space(Pancha Bhuthas/five elements);
- Then comes the Moon,
- the Sun
- the Ocean;
- later he lists many living creatures :Pigeons,
- Python,
- Bumble bee,
- Moth,
- Honey bee,
- Elephant,
- Deer,
- Fish,
- Snake,
- Spider,
- and a Bird with a worm……etc
Among the human beings it is very interesting that he even mentions a prostitute as his guru, the others being an arrow maker, a young woman and a baby.
What did he learn from the nature? Let us read the answer in his words:
The earth taught me patience and generosity.
The ocean taught me to remain calm in spite of storms.
The fire taught me to give myself so that I would shine brightly.
The air taught me to move freely anywhere and not to stay in one place.
The water taught me how much purity is needed for one’s good health.
The sky taught me to be above everything and yet embrace all things.
The moon taught me the Self remains the same even when the appearance changes.
The sun taught me that a luminous face is reflected by all smooth surfaces.
The flock of pigeons taught me that love and attachment mean entanglement.
The bee taught me to collect sweet wisdom from no one suspected it to be.
The arrow maker taught me to be purposeful and always concentrate to one point.
The fish taught me never to take the bait and so destroy myself.
The bird taught me to sit peacefully and be content with little food.
The moth taught me to plunge in to the flame of knowledge.
The python taught me how to be content.
The elephant taught me to be careful with my passions and desires.
If one has read the Indian mythologies and the fables like Panchatantra the answers will be clearer and easily understood.
Love for nature and kindness towards animals are two common themes that run through ancient Sanskrit and Tamil books. Kalidasa’s portrayal of Princess Shakuntala was beautiful when he says that Shakuntala was so careful not to disturb the birds when she watered the plants. Once again the poet describes the reaction of the deers and the plants when she left the forest for good.
A great Tamil devotional poet of modern era Ramalinga Swamigal, popularly known as Vallalar says he was withering (became very upset) whenever he saw withering plants ( “vaadiya payirai kanda pothellaam vaadinen”).
One of the anthologies of Tamil Cankam (Sangam) period is Natrinai where in a beautiful poem describes how a girl raised a Punnai tree by watering it with milk and ghee. Her mother described the tree as her own sister. When the lover comes to date her, the girl refused to date him and said that she felt very shy in front of her “ sister”- the Punnai tree! Nature was part of ancient Tamils’ life.
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