When people have evolved, they begin to use a still higher prayer. That prayer is the adoration of the immanence of God in the sublimity of Nature. If we read the lives of all the Prophets and Teachers from Krishna to Buddha, Moses to Muhammed, Abraham to Christ, we see how they dwelt in the jungles, and went into the forests, sat beneath trees, and there recognized the divine immanence in all around them. It is a prayer -- not to a God in heaven, but to a God living in heaven and on earth -- both.

What will praise of God, praise of His creation, praise of His nature, develop in man? It develops in him such an art that nothing can compare with it, a sense of music with which no music can be compared. He begins to see how natures are attracted to one another, and how they harmonize; he sees how inharmonious are produced. The causes of all such things become clear to him, once he begins to see into Nature, to admire the beauty of its construction, its life, its growth, as soon as he begins to study Nature and its causes.

Those who have praised Nature through their art appeal directly to man's heart. Those who praise Nature in their music become artists in music, and those who have expressed their praise in poetry and verse are seen to be great poets. All of them appeal to the heart of man because they have seen God. They have seen Him in Nature, and not alone in Nature, but also on earth. They have turned earth into heaven. That is the next step, the higher step.

Zoroaster has said, "Look at the sun when you pray, at the moon when you pray, at the fire when you pray."

People therefore call them sun-worshipers, fire-worshipers, when all the time this worship was merely a way of directing man's attention to all the witnesses of God which express His nature. The one who cannot see any trace of God anywhere, can see Him by looking at all these beautiful things, and observing the harmonious working of all these things.

From beginning to end, the Qur'an points to Nature, showing how by the sun that rises in the morning, and by the moon that appears in the evening, by the Nature that is over all -- there is God! Why does the Qur'an always express it this way? If you wish to have some proof of Good, look at Nature and see how wisely it is made -- or is it without wisdom?

"Mankind, with your wisdom you become so proud that you think there is nothing else worthy. You know not that there is a Perfection of Wisdom before which man is not as a drop to the ocean."

Man looks at the surface of the ocean. Yet he is so small that he cannot even be compared to one of its drops, limited as he is in intellect and in knowledge. He seeks to find out the whole creation, whereas those who have touched it, have bowed to God, forgetting their limited selves. After that, God remained, and spoke through them. Such are the only beings who have been able to give any truth to the world.

As Amir says, "He who has lost his limited self, he it is who has attained the High Presence."

Do we not forget ourselves when we behold the Vision of Beauty? If we are blind to beauty, we cannot see it, and then we cannot forget ourselves in the beauty and sublimity of the vision.

When we perceive the beauty of Nature, we bow our head in love and admiration. "I cannot study you, for you are too great, you are too beautiful. The only thing left for me to do is to bow my head in prostration at your feet."

If we could only see this perfect beauty around us, if we only had our eyes opened to it, we should at once bow the head in all humility before ever attempting to make a study of it. No pride could find a place in our heart. Without any doubt we should bow our heads before this beauty and wisdom of the Creator, the art of the Creator, and His skill in the flowers, plants and leaves; in the construction of man, his birth, and all other things in life.

It would suffice, did we but once ask how all these things have come.

That, as the poet says, "Where there are no teeth, milk is given. When the teeth come, the food suitable for teeth comes also."

The eyes are so delicate, and yet a delicate eyelid is formed for them, to cover them and protect them! How all the organs of man's body are fitted and suited for the purpose for which they are made! With all that, there is also the beauty of the art with which the things are made and the height of beauty is attained in the skill shown in the making of mankind.

Whoever has seen beauty, has found that beauty cannot exist without wisdom. Wisdom is behind creation. The one life which has created rocks, trees, plants, animals, birds and all things, is both one life and one wisdom. The flower, the leaf, the fruit and branches, all come from one root, even though they have different names. It is all one. It might be called He or She; yet it is both. When we see that Life with Wisdom is both He and She, we see that Wisdom is behind all things that we see. And then we say that that which is behind all things, is a Person Whom we call God.