The Sunday Guardian I May 18, 2014

During a visit to Kashmir, I once was in an open valley outside Srinagar. Everywhere I could see streams flowing down from above. I then saw that at one point there was a huge stone in the way. The stream did not collide with the stone, rather it moved around and created another route for its onward travel.

At that time I was with some Kashmiri friends. I told them that you get provoked on listening to certain news in the media and then enter into confrontation with supposed enemies. But here also there is news for you in nature, that is, a stream which is flowing onward changes its path when it encounters a big boulder on the way. It doesn't adopt the way of confrontation; rather it adopts the way of avoidance.

When you take lesson from this "natural news", you will abandon all your confrontation. When the word "news" is used, people generally take it to be the news that comes in the media.

If man can observe nature and understand its language, if he is prepared to extract lessons from nature, then certainly one will live in peace and tranquillity.

Media is the source of selective news. Its criterion of selection is based mainly on two considerations, that is, the news should be either sensational or political. This pattern of news selection has made people negative everywhere in the world.

There is also some other news. That is, news present in the world of nature. Sunrise is news, the growing tree is news, rain is news, and the wind blowing is also news. These are natural news. The list of news in the natural world is endless. Every moment nature creates news.

If you can observe nature and understand its language, if you are prepared to extract lessons from these kinds of news items, then certainly you will live in peace and tranquillity. Because, all the news in the world of nature is positive. There is no negative news in the world of nature.