Air is the Guru, Water is the Father, and Earth is the Great Mother of all. Day and night are the two nurses, in whose lap all the world is at play.
ਪਵਣੁ ਗੁਰੂ ਪਾਣੀ ਪਿਤਾ ਮਾਤਾ ਧਰਤਿ ਮਹਤੁ ॥ ਦਿਵਸੁ ਰਾਤਿ ਦੁਇ ਦਾਈ ਦਾਇਆ ਖੇਲੈ ਸਗਲ ਜਗਤੁ ॥
SGGS Ang 8
The same idea in other traditions
The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.
And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
As the bee collects nectar and departs without injuring the flower, or its colour or scent, so let a sage dwell in his village.
And among His Signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the variations in your languages and your colours: verily in that are Signs for those who know.
ALL this, whatsoever moves on earth, is to be hidden in the Lord (the Self). When thou hast surrendered all this, then thou mayest enjoy. Do not covet the wealth of any man!
There is the great Mass (of nature);--I find the support of my body on it; my life is spent in toil on it; my old age seeks ease on it; at death I find rest in it;--what makes my life a good makes my death also a good. …
Earth-lives are individual beings, so are water-lives, fire-lives, and wind-lives; grass, trees, corn; And the remaining, (viz.) the movable beings; thus are enumerated the six classes of living beings; these are all the living beings, there are no more besides.
The Master said, "I would prefer not speaking." Tsze-kung said, "If you, Master, do not speak, what shall we, your disciples, have to record?" The Master said, "Does Heaven speak? The four seasons pursue their courses, and all things are continually being produced, but does Heaven say anything?"