In the Plant-kingdom

Silent Dialogues 333

This series of silent dialogues started in 1995, when I used to go on my morning and evening walks in a locality near and around Mahanandanagar, UJJAIN (MP). At that time I was living at the address :

LIG II A 18/15.

This address was published there in my Hindi Translation : अहं ब्रह्मास्मि 

of the English original I AM THAT,  :

The Talks of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, compiled and translated from Marathi.

After that much waters have flown in the Ganges and the Kumbha 2025 has told this all over the whole world.

After about 25 years I once again got in touch with my Ashwattha near a small village in Ujjain, while I was living in the Sethinagar area.

The same duo was there in the :

Hathi-Park,

Earlier in 1989-1994 also I was there.

This was the place where I had time to go through this world-renowned work of Maurice Frydmann - I AM THAT.

There was an inner impulse that I felt "This book needs to be translated into Hindi." 

This was indeed the inevitable internal urge that forced me to do this myself.

However after a short while I left the place and went to Omkareshwar where I started this great enterprise.

Within 10 years this happened and the first edition was published by Chetana in 2001.

It's a bit strange coincidence that at that time in the year 2000, I was thinking of living at Kashi and had a chance-visit to :

Krishnamurti Foundation, situated at - Rajaghat Varanasi. 

If my memory is correct, Kashi Railway-Station was at a walking distance from there.

Mentally I was in a state of leaving out the world and living in that area where old people often to pass their last days on the earth.

Providence / Destiny had something else for me in store. 

Now, after those days in 2000, have gone away, I find myself again in the same old situation.

In the Hathi-Park when I approached the Ashwattha, he was greatly pleased and as in the old days expressed His wish to hug me. I went to Him and clasped Him in my grasp.

Seeing me The Little was also overjoyed.

When the few long moments ultimately passed away, He asked me :

"Why did you returned  from Kashi? You could have taken a plunge into Ganges and passed the rest of the days there, leaving all concerns of your life at the hands of Shiva, Who always looks after you anyway, even if you forget or doubt Him.

I was taken aback.

He was a bit cruel - I felt.

Cruel but Kind too.

I realized.

This means He is hinting me to go again there. Instead I took my old devotion and passion for the Mother Narmada River and She too arranged my visit at a place where I can have a darshana everyday,  any time in Her shelter.

Ashwattha however reminded me of the following stanzas from the Gita :

आरुरुक्षोर्मुनेर्योगं कर्म कारणमुच्यते। 

योगारूढस्य तस्यैव शमः कारणमुच्यते।।३।।

यदा हि नेन्द्रियार्थेषु न कर्मस्वनुषज्जते। 

सर्वसंकल्पसन्न्यासी योगारूढस्तदोच्यते।।४।।

(अध्याय ६)

अश्वत्थः सर्ववृक्षाणां देवर्षिणां च नारद।

गन्धर्वाणां चित्ररथः सिद्धानां कपिलो मुनिः।।२६।।

(अध्याय १०)

अनपेक्षः शुचिर्दक्षः उदासीनो गतव्यथः। 

सर्वारम्भपरित्यागी यो मद्भक्तः स मे प्रियः।।२७।।

(अध्याय १२)

Sitting on a bench some 15-20 feet away from Him, I was listening to His words when my memory translated them in the above verses of Gita.

I've nothing to do now.

Watching the River flow before my eyes, I am now just passing my days in silence.

***

 

Historical Blues.

What Went Wrong?! 

In The East and In The West

Before the beginning of the millennium, two things happened that have greatly affected and upset everywhere the whole human destiny.

In the East, there was the arrival of :

Buddha The Great

Likewise In the West, there happened the arrival of 

Jesus,

Equally or far more or less than :

The Buddha.

Both are thought to have attained the Ultimate destiny, the Liberation or the Realization of Truth or God.

This can't be proved true or false either by the belief or the logic only.

But it's indisputable that both the above mentioned:

Great Super-humans

have greatly influenced all the coming generations throughout the history of the human civilization everywhere in the whole world.

The traditional Hindu view about The  Buddha - The Gautama Buddha who is referred to as ShAkya Muni also, differs whether He was an avatar of VishNu, or another altogether different a Person, as is believed and claimed too by all those followers of Buddha, all accept He was a One Who attained Nirwana through contemplation of and about the Life and Death, the suffering and such other core-issues.

Accordingly, even many in the Hindu Tradition claim that the inclusion of Buddha in the 10 avatar of VishNu isn't acceptable, to which the followers of Buddha too agree.

Those Hindu who agree to this point out that ShriKrishna and BalarAma together were the :

8th and the 9th avatar of VishNu.

So and therefore those Hindu are of the view that the : 

10th and the last avatAra of ViShNu will be Kalki, who shall arrive in the future at the time in the end, 

Who will destroy the adharma and establish the Rule of Dharma on the Earth.

This too can't be proved true or false as it's not debatable.

For the reasons better known to them only, the Jew and the Christians as well, don't raise doubt about the belief that the Birth of Jesus was born of a virgin -

(Immaculate Conception).

But (I think) both agree that Jesus was born to Parents who were of Jew origin.

Nevertheless, with the arrival of Islam, the three Abrahmic Religions got caught in the unending and unresolved dispute amongst themselves.

Politics however misused the three in the name of Religion and all the people are suffering the consequences.

In contrast and comparison to this, In  the East, Buddha's Teachings spread all over through the Buddhist Monks and the people were assimilated in this by no coercion or force whatsoever. Many a great scholars from the Vedika Sanatana Dharma renounced the Vedika point of view and turned into a Buddhist. There's however, hardly an example where one from the Buddhist tradition might have migrated back to the Traditional Vedika Sanatana Dharma.

It's not that Politics spared the Religions of the East.

Only after the arrival of the religions of the West in India, 

-the Islam and Christianity, the Hindu, either the Vedika or the Buddhists, the influences of those Abrahmic traditions, started to disintegrate and divide both the Vedika and the Buddhist people of India into castes.

The Religion in the East that was always a matter of personal choice and interest, thus got torn into the political clashes.

This too is again unending, unresolved issue in the East.

***

The Communication Blues.

What it means to have 

The Positive Communication.

This topic could be dealt in two ways :

The Positive and The Negative.

In both these ways, the foremost and the only most important point is :

The common interest.

When there is at least one conspicuous or inconspicuous common interest, one can hope communication may happen.

For example communication between an atheist and another one such an atheist. Between a monotheist and one another one such a monotheist.

Between a polytheist and such another one another polytheist. An agnostic and another one agnostic. Likewise between a believer and one another believer. One non-believer and another non-believer.

Between an idol worshipper and another one. Between an iconoclast and another one such an iconoclast.

Even between a vegetarian and another vegetarian. Between one who abstains from alcoholic beverages and like him. These kind of people who have at least one common interest can communicate with another to some extent. That too has limitations and this goes on well as long the their prejudices don't come in the way and the communication begins to break, fail or even leading to disputes. Most people try to accommodate and to adjust according to circumstances and the situation and in the long-run those who are cunning somehow by hook or by the crook become dominating either by means of the political power of the state or by religious influences, exploiting the sentiments of the ordinary people.

This is how a civilization turns into a cult and then into so-called culture.

This indeed has been so far the history of the human social, ethical, moral and the behavioural values and ideals too.

Historically speaking, Before the arrival of Islam, Christianity and Catholicism and even before the Jew belief system, there were those where people used to have different beliefs - all those as have been referred to in the first introductory paragraphs of this post. The historians call these variously different and similar traditional orthodox belief systems as -

Pagan.

These Pagans used to worship the nature and the spirit without discriminating if there were a single one or so many such entities who govern the earth, the whole human life and the whole animate and inanimate existence.

However all were lenient and generous in the sense that they hardly imposed their own beliefs on the others. The line of thinking was a porous wall between them and a man, any group or a society could and would easily transmigrate to any other according to circumstances or situations and there hardly was greed or fear behind leaving  a system of beliefs and accepting another set or a system of beliefs.

After and during the arrival of the three above described belief-systems the world has turned into a battle field of political interests of these three Belief-systems on one hand and the rest on the other hand. Sadly and Unfortunately this Reality has never been given attention to, addressed and even more deliberately ignored too by most of the political Belief-systems all over the globe.

This may be an example of how :

Communication between the people has took a negative turn during the last two thousand years history of the human civilization and culture.

As is evident we as the human being still continue the nurturing and fostering the same tradition even today.

--

किसी शायर ने कहा है -

दुनिया जिसे कहते हैं, जादू का खिलौना है,

मिल जाए तो मिट्टी है, खो जाए तो सोना है!

***