Nature as Vishvakarma
 As I was seated on the beach at Unawatuna on the South Coast, my mind
went back to an evening many years ago, on the beach near the border of
the Yala sanctuary. I recalled seeing before me a true work of art.
Today it reminded me that nature is the greatest creator of artistic
works, which no man could ever beat. A sadness came over me, with the
realization that in the name of progress and development we are
destroying most of nature's works of art all over the world.
Around me at Yala was not just a painting, but there was music and
dance. The painting was the multicoloured clouds spread across the blue
sky over a darker hued ocean. The music was of the birds, soaring over
the ocean before me, and behind me on the trees, singing to the
background music of the slowly beating waves. The dance was also by the
sea birds with the slowly floating clouds as the backdrop.
Undisturbed serenity
I could enjoy this serenity, undisturbed, surrounded only by nature.
It was so unlike sitting inside a theatre, however luxurious it could
be, but with artificially controlled temperature and humidity,
surrounded by other human beings, disturbed by their movements, their
whispering, breathing air contaminated by the breath and body ordours of
several hundred people.
On the beach at Unawatuna, crowded today with foreign and local
tourists, I tried to recall other great natural wonders, which I had the
good fortune to enjoy.
Kudiramalai point in Wilpattu used to be another of nature's
wonderful locations, disturbed occasionally by wildlife enthusiasts in
the bygone days. There were no buildings, and anyone who wanted to camp
had to take their own tents. In the night, I felt I was alone in the
universe, if I tried to ignore the lights from the few fishing boats far
away on the horizon, but I preferred to think of them as a few more
stars. Down below me, the waves crashed against the shore and the salt
laden cold wind blew towards me.
 Forty years ago the Casuarina beach in Jaffna was another wonderful,
peaceful place to be on a moon-lit night. On a weekend now, it is like a
beach in Goa. Only Dambakolapatuna remains almost untouched and
unspoiled because it is under the control of the navy.
Admiration jarred
Professor Bawa succeeded to some extent when he created the Kandalama
hotel, but still the concrete jumps out of it jarring our admiration.
The little natural pond and the small tank beyond it near the Neeraviya
temple off Galkulama was a setting that a commercial venture could never
achieve. Probably this rock was where the Buddhist monks in ancient days
sat down to contemplate. Buddhist monks, and the lay followers realized
the need of calm and serene places, as we find in the names of the caves
which were gifted to the Samgha “from the four directions, present and
absent”. Some of the names were, ‘Manapadasane’ (Pleasing View) a name
given to over twenty eight caves, ‘Supaditite’ (Well-Sited), ‘Manorame’
(Delighting the Mind).
Other than the beaches I tried to recall any other sites where
nature's creativity still remained. One such place was the ‘Fishing Hut’
tucked away inside a tea estate. It was a log cabin, by a stream, at the
edge of the tea estate. On the other side was the virgin forest. This
was before the place became popular and began to attract all the urban
elite.
We had the stream all to ourselves. We did not feel the cold, as we
sat in the small pools, with the soothing water flowing over us,
surrounded by the bird song, green vegetation, blue sky and the silence
amidst all this because of the absence of man-made noise of vehicles,
and machinery and most of all the idle chatter of man himself. Even the
most luxurious bath or a jacuzzi could never match these pools. The
night was so silent, we could hear the water flowing across the rocks in
the stream.
Virgin forests
Today we can only shut our eyes and try to imagine what it would have
been like, before our virgin forests had been destroyed to make way for
coffee and tea. Almost all tourist attractions in Sri Lanka or abroad,
may have been really beautiful in ages past, but have been desecrated by
man.
A few ancient poets scribbled on the mirror-like wall of Sihigiri,
not about the paintings or the man-made wonders, but about the natural
beauty of the place. Vira Vidur Bati, towards the late 9th century,
wrote on the Katbitha,
“Sihil pini-bindin ad savand pavan gena mand hamule
Kond kumund vasat-avhi mal susadi vi hebi mulule” (249)
The gentle breeze blew - (the breeze) which is wet with cool dew
drops - taking (with it) fragrant perfume; in the spring sunshine, the
jasmine and the water-lily, being adorned with flowers, shone all over.
(Sigiri Graffiti)
Masaru Emoto, is the man who discovered and shared the beauty of
water, the different forms of water crystals as it freezes, which he
managed to photograph. He believes, “the original idea of creation by
the creator of this universe was ‘the pursuit of beauty'....when some
vibration and the other resonate each other, it always creates beautiful
designs. Thus most of the Earth is covered with beautiful nature.” Emoto
found that water from rivers and lakes where water is kept pristine from
development, he could observe beautiful crystals with each one having
its own uniqueness.
It simply establishes that natural beauty, is created, persists, and
is created anew, only when everything is in harmony with our universe.
Such beauty is distorted, and often destroyed, when man interferes with
nature, disturbs the rhythm and breaks up the harmony.
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