Looking at the Sea

Looking at the calm sea about 6 years back at Ganpatipule, my father asked “What does the sea help us learn?” I couldn’t give a satisfactory answer as is the case when one is young (I am still young though). He later explained “It makes us leave our ego aside. A man thinks that he has conquered the world. He thinks that he can do anything. Yet in front of the large body mass of the sea, a man is just a small tiny creature standing helpless. So, whatever a man thinks of himself is just his brain doing the talking with absolute reality being that man is nothing in front of the sea. It has tremendous power to do things which he cannot even think. So, whatever ego a person has just dies away in front of the sea.”These thoughts didn’t leave me. From then on, I started to view the sea as something with a force to do anything. The Tsunami incident made these thoughts more profound.Now after so many years, I have come to realize the deep meaning of the statements made by my father. Not only did I understand the meaning of the explanation given by him but also I made up came up with my observation. I think that the sea is one of the most powerful forces the nature has created. It is spread over vast area and is all the time moving with waves always trying to expand its area. Yet despite all the turbulence within, it remains on the area it occupies. It doesn’t move out of the area it has chosen. (Tsunami is a time when an earthquake caused it to move. But at all the other times, it is in its own fixed area). It means the sea respects its existence and at the same time it respects the existence of humans and all the other living beings. Despite of all the forces within (waves and the high tides), it doesn’t trespass the area occupied by humans. This belief helps us understand we should respect each and every individual irrespective of our size and position, thereby, forgo the ego we have regarding ourselves.