i understand that as a hindu you should into the atman for peace, and not earthly desires here in the physical prakriti. but is it wrong to enjoy the sun? and nature? they are earthly but they are also living, so maybe the happiness comes from enjoying the atman in other living things? since the atman is essentially one in brahman? can anyone give their opinion on this
Is it wrong to enjoy sun? It isn't really a question of it being right or wrong to enjoy any part of the physical manifestation, it's more to do with the consciousness with which you percieve, and the attitude you have towards existence. If enjoying the sun led to problems - for instance if you over exposed yourself to it's rays thus risking skin cancer, or if you could only find calm and happiness on sunny days, then it would be a problem. But it's all down to attachment really. The thing would be to enjoy the sun while it's there, but not get attached to the experience. To be even minded come rain or shine. You get the experience of nature whether you desire it or not. It is different with desire in general. If you desire wealth for example, and spend all your time thinking of how to amass it, that means you won't have time for any path of divine realization, because you can't be concentrating on That if you're concentrating on this. The experience of the divine does not mean that we'll be in some kind of trance like state above the material world - such states exist, but there is also the realization of God here and now. If one comes to see God in reality, one can see that nothing exists outside of the divine being. God, the divine, the Atman, is in everything. Natural phenomena, people, animals - all that exists. In the Bhagavad Gita, Sri Krishna says that the illumined seer sees all beings as equal, because he doesn't see their separate identities, but the Atman within them all.
Only it is the pale man desiring the sun, because he has been starved. To enjoy the warmth and solace of the open sky you must first open your mind, and it is only through smoking charas and eating fresh chapati cooking on a hot fire can the mind be free. A wise man knows that you can see better when you are sitting under a banyan tree.
I am eating ice cream right now, this strawberry shortcake ice-cream tastes great. Its not "wrong" to enjoy things in life, the problem arises when there is attachment because attachment is what causes you to suffer. Thats why the sages say that one needs to develop a view of equality. Be free of your desires, if a desire goes unfulfilled don't go into a spiralling depression is all they are saying.
