ashwattha here!

Silent Dialogues 332.

"O Arjuna!

I'm Ashwattha among all the trees..."

( Shrimadbhagvad-gita / श्रीमद्भगवद्गीता)

--

In this Jungle house on the left side of my room-cum kitchen, in the Geographical North-East side, IshAna ईशान  direction, there is an Ashwattha Tree. However, as the front side of my cottage is towards the South, I can hardly see this Tree but occasionally whenever I come across it, He casts a glance over me. Sometimes a bit reluctant as he used to do in Ujjain at  the place near planatorium where often I would go for my morning and evening walks, adjacent to Birla Hospital, behind Mahananda Nagar and before Jawahar Nagar.

Two days before I saw him and greeted with the words : Hello! 

He casts a fleeting glance over me and soon might have ignored me.

I know how he is always indifferent to all and everything in the in the world and I, just to tease him, asked a question :

"You remind me of those days when you used to talk to me sometimes at Ujjain."

He kept silent. The weather has been a bit rough and tough, and the thunder and storms have been harsh upon him. A few delicate branches were fallen on the ground and the leaves were withering and rotting. Still he was standing astute at the place.

"I know you are kind of stoic and ascetic so I can see the weather and the climates don't matter to you. From where you got this resilience of austerity, not minding the atrocities and cruelties of weather?"

A smile illuminated his face and only he and I are aware how he faces all the four directions like BrahmA.

His face on my side however replied to me :

"Let me narrate for you my Sanskrit composition."

and started to recite this stanza :

न दैन्यं नैव पलायनम् न युद्धं नैव भीरुता,

सहनं सर्वदुःखानामप्रतीकारपूर्वकम्।।

"Wow! Great, Wonderful!! This is why you and all your brethren are adored, honored and worshipped like a DevatA on the earth. Congratulations!!"

Without responding to my praise soon he withdrew in himself.

अश्वत्थः सर्ववृक्षाणां... 

Came to my mind. 

This brought before my eyes a memory when before 2016, I lived at Ujjain and would go for my walks where for the first time we met and soon an intimacy prospered between us.

***