What is the 'nature' of Nature?

We can easily imagine nature to be a detached, cold entity. It does not concern itself with the lives of so many that thrive in it. A sudden earthquake and a million lives lost, all to be seen blankly by the cold eyes of Nature. Important personalities, villages, humongous cities all turning to dust. A few good cultures survive for some time, then even they crumble before the strength of time. This is one species, entire kingdoms fall, none can be said to be permanent. All this is seen by the nature to be a mere passing of a flock of pigeons to us.

From this one infers that, the nature is a disinterested power, merely waiting for all the life to end. And not just life, all things to end. The only constant entity that exists from the beginning of the universe. It sits there, observing without interfering the mechanisms of the growth of grass, flap of wings of birds, to the explosions of supernovae. None seem to stimulate a reply from the nature. There seems no way from which we can formulate its desire. It is just existing, without blemish. Does that mean it doesn’t exist?

Maybe. Or maybe it does exist and will act after the universe ends, or some other specific point in time. Or maybe nature is just a set of laws made to govern the functions of the universe. We can never know. There is so little that we can call permanent. Absolute facts, ultimate truths have fallen to the test of time. A few centuries ago, we knew that the Earth was the center of the Universe. A few millennia ago, most of people knew for a fact, that the Earth was flat, even when some of the olden cultures, like the Sanatan Dharma, had proved it, but everyone loved the Flat Earth Theory. But all that turned out to be wrong. Newton said gravity was absolute, and then was subsequently explained by Einstein that it is not absolute and is a result of creases in the fabric of space and time. So that base was lost. Then, he inferred that to have something to be permanent, to be the basis on which we can rest our understanding, it was the speed of light; unchanging and universal. Even he could not comprehend this universe to be without a base. A particular something, which does not have exceptions. And the speed of light, upheld it for some time. But then came wormholes and blackholes. And all that basis of understanding was also washed.

You will see a pattern emerge. You find something and after some time, an exception to that rule is seen. There is no permanence in this universe; as soon as a permanence is established, an exception pops up. This is exactly how the universe behaves. This is the nature of nature. Change. It does not let anything be permanent. And this IS the permanence we are looking for. The nature of nature is not just to act as a medium to this constantly changing world. But it is to make sure that it keeps on changing.

It is easy to imagine Nature as a petri dish for all the life on Earth. But, it is also the observer and the bacteria itself. It is not only the one who watches over the world, but is itself the part of it. When things happen, nature is happening. It was this that the people of the olden times referred to as God and we know it as Nature. Maybe our future generations will understand it differently and call it something else. But it will surely change. What do you think?