From time immemorial regions in and around the Himalayas were liked by the sadhus, yogis and seekers of spiritual life. For the people of India, the Himalayas generally stand as the platform from where one may reach God. Actually, the most casual travelers also feel a subtle divine presence in the Himalayan regions. One feels elevated and even for a moment, though transitory and short-lived one gets inclined for spiritual life. This is not due to the natural beauty only of the Himalayas but for the spiritual atmosphere of the place thanks to the sadhana of the seekers and yogis that took place for thousands of years in these places. This is not the belief and feeling of Indians only but for many foreign travelers who have also felt the spiritual air of the Himalayas. Therefore, the Himalayas enjoy a special status as spiritual field. However, the spiritual seekers always sought calm, serene natural places for their sadhana. It is very difficult to practice yoga living in crowded, noisy urban places. It is very natural for man to go for secluded life whenever he feels an urge for higher spiritual existence. The human nature with its mind and restless life movements are required to be calmed and peaceful before taking a step in the path. Whatever the spiritual school –all seekers feel the need of secluded life first to discipline the gross human nature-or to get rid of it. Therefore, spiritual life was generally associated with calm natural places in India. Those who did not find the Himalayas convenient to their situation went to different places that were at least a little far from busy places. The riverside, the forests, the hills were most suitable places for living a calm life for practicing yoga. There were exceptions-but very few. The purpose of this writing is not about the seekers of spiritual life notwithstanding. The nature is inner breathing in man though man is not always aware of it. But always seek to rush to the nature for getting refreshed and touched with feelings that are vast, infinite, peace, silence and calmness and for this, peaceful natural places are most convenient and helpful. There was no dearth of such peaceful places in India and other places earlier. With the growing population, massive industrialization and destruction of nature along with change of an all-out system of social life with the support of the scientific developments, the world has become small and very cohesive organisation. In the modern world, man cannot live a secluded life psychologically and geographically ignoring his social involvement. The whole world has changed, with this is changed also our view of the outer world. The sky is not infinite –it is a relative notion. There remains no unknown place for exploration. The Moon is not the same moon; it is going to be a camp for further travel in space. The Ganga is polluted, the Everest has been desecrated. The birds and wild animals are being extinct. The crickets are not found chirping to silence the night. Man has landed in a small, limited and noisy place known conventionally as the beautiful green earth. He, in absence of nature and calm life-is detached from all the great feelings that were solace to his mind and life. He is constantly pushed with his back to the wall. He is now made a nut in a giant and automatic machine-called life. But he is still that man who aspired to go beyond everything, all limitations. But in this way he has lost the world, the natural world also that sustained and supported him. The old world of nature and living will not return for him. They are lost forever. But the basic urge within will push him to get all the great feeling that once nature gave him. But where shall he find the infinity of the sky, the vastness of the oceans, the silence of the forests…? For this, he will fall back on himself to find all that moved and thrilled him earlier. He will discover the world and the universe in infinite ways in himself. The world created outside will find its root in him. Then and only the then the purpose of God in man will be fulfilled.
