There is an authentic tradition (Hadees) of Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) that says: “As shuf fe bahar ebadah.” It is a benediction even to look at sea.
Having lived the best part of my life near the sea shores in Bombay and Middle East I am familiar with the sweet sounds of waves as they wash and splash the beaches and shores. It reminds the immense beauty and strengths of mother-nature. Just close your eyes and think of a river or a sea. The scenery that emerges at the mind screen removes half of your worries, puts you at ease and for a moment you forget all that is bothering you. Ask your relatives or friends what associations arise in their mind when they think the word “sea”? Never a negative response I’m sure! The water bodies cool the mind, inspire, placate and palliate. The shores and riparian tracts remind the words like freedom, serenity, relaxation, fun and beauty. These are the words which waft like music in this strained life. Even those who had never seen the sea always picture somewhere deep inside the special feelings about it.
Let me quote here a dialogue from the Hollywood movie “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.” …. “You stand on the beach and taste the salty smell of the wind that comes from the ocean, and inside you feel the warmth of never ending freedom, and on your lips the bitter, tear-soaked kiss of you lover.”
There was a time when I would walk miles and miles along the Juhu Beach, Bombay as a bachelor and feel pity about my loneliness. I felt envy for the couples and families enjoying the brightness of the day at sea. To observe the high tide and majestic waves, standing at Mamallipuram sea coast at the outskirts of Madras, was a real delight. We all dream to lie on the beach at least for a while and listen to the sound of splashing waves and screams of sea-gulls. Did you ever notice that the sounds of waves come from afar, but the sounds of splashing water are close, near the stones, pebbles and golden sands.
Apart from the sea, rivers have always played an important role in human life. In religions around the globe, rivers are deified. Human race has made best to derive huge economic profits from exploiting the rivers and often devastating their natural riches. Water is the source of life. Flowing rivers are source and core element of many beautiful landscapes and natural sceneries, because they have unique ability to vivify the motionless pictures of nature. Furthermore, rivers form such natural phenomena, as waterfalls with their unrestrained power and unique beauty.
I’m blessed that my son has got a place near the river where I often walk down along its banks. It is so soothing to body and soul as the gentle wind caresses the face and scents of earth refresh like no other perfume. I hope and pray that our successors will, hopefully, make more efforts to save ponds, rivers and sea and help them regain their natural beauty, richness, and purity that our generation has so inadvertently destroyed. Let us remember that the calmness and tranquility of quiet rivers are divine.
Here is what an African poet Langston Hughes describes the river:
I’ve known rivers:
I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the
flow of human blood in human veins.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.
I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.
I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln
went down to New Orleans, and I’ve seen its muddy
bosom turn all golden in the sunset.
I’ve known rivers:
Ancient, dusky rivers.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
