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.

***

 

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.

***

 

Three Pious Egoists.

A Parable Parabolic

----------------©----------------

In my room at the Ashram, there were the three. An earthen jar (kamandal / कमंडल), an earthen lamp (मिट्टी का दिया / दीपक) and also an electric lamp (बिजली का बल्ब).

They would always keep silent and served others in their own way. Living for long in such a religious and spiritual place, all the time they always just kept / observed silence, while listening to and imbibing silently only all the talks, debates and the discussions that happened there. Then gradually they knew somehow about the meaning, purpose and the sense of 'just being and knowing'. In a single word, we could say -- they attained a level of perception  / consciousness and could now express and reciprocate the same through their talks and the unspoken words.

(First of all, this was revealed to me by none other than the अश्वत्थ / Ashwatth, who always talked to me in the Same way.

(For details, you can see my posts :

Silent Dialogues. )

One mid-night, while I was just sitting on my कुशासन / cushion seat, I was a bit scared and wondered what was all that going on there,  all about!

Maybe I was kind of in a trans or whatever, I could listen to them and grasp very clearly the sense and meaning of what they were talking about.

The earthen jar said :

Just like all creatures I am too is made of the  earth, water, air, fire and space only. I am no more or less greater or smaller than all those other creatures who, in ignorance claim that they are conscious and sentient beings and are far more superior to others such like the insentient ones like us. They call us प्रकृति / nature, and hope in their stupid audacious ignorance that they could someday conquer not only us, but the entire, the whole  प्रकृति / nature as well. They are even unaware what they are talking about, If they are apart or not from the  प्रकृति / nature. I can say this much only and know nothing more.

Then the earthen lamp said :

"We are all created by a Supreme Power that is the cause - the potential and instrumental also in His this Act of the Creation. Really, No one knows Him but He alone knows all and everyone, everything. I have understood this much only. Like the earthen jar, I too do not know any more! I too have finally, ultimately concluded thus, submitted to Him and all my personal desires and fears are no more. I am happy in this simple understanding, keep on distributing and giving out this light of my understanding to all whoever come to me".

The electric bulb was switched off and I was curious to listen to what he might have liked to say! So I switched it on :

Lo and behold !

He first thanked me and than narrated his own point of view :

"Oh my dear friends! With all due regards, love and respects I would say thanks to you all who are so humble, honest and yet keep a low profile! Still I feel the assumed feigned humility is really another form of ego only. I'm not criticizing any of you, yet I do feel I am just unable to see how one could cast off this ego! You see, The sense of being itself is the ego. The knowing of being too is again the manifestation of ego only. So how the ego could possibly decimate itself?"

I was truly impressed by all these silent Gods who were indeed Divine in their own nature. I bowed before them in silence, for I had no words to express my gratitude / sentiments.

After having lost deep for a minute or two, I come to my own and lazily stretched out my hand to find and get the :

Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary.

I scrolled through pages without a clear idea about what exactly I was trying to find out.

Then I thought a little attentively and then searched for the word :

"Pious".

The result was like this :

 

Concerns :07/12/2014. 'Soliloquy'.

'Soliloquy'.
_____________

"I want to die"
"Do you know what this means?"
"No, ... Please tell!"
"Well, do you want to smoke?"
"Yes, I do want to, ... " 
Saying so he lit a cigarette.
"That means you wanted the experience of smoking."
"Yes,..."
"Now, if you say you want to die, could you experience the death in the same way as you knew the experience of smoking a cigarette, and went through this experience?"
"Yes, I see your point."
"O.K. Then let us see this way ;
Is it that really you want to forget all recognition only, but not to die, because you never had that experience in the first place. May be, though you want to live on, perhaps you don't know how to put aside your memory, and if it is possible!"
"Forgetfulness?"
"Yes, you want to go beyond memory."
"Yes, Precisely this only."
"What prevents you from doing this?"
"First, I am unable to do this, and  Secondly, I am scared of losing my memory."
"Is not this fear itself again only a part of the memory?"
"Oh yes, Thanks very much!"
"Is not this fear a by-product of the memory?"
"Yes, ..."
"Is not this fear irrational and baseless? And when you can voluntarily discard and disregard all the memory, isn't this also gets discarded with that? Are you then dead?"
"No, on the contrary I am immensely, extremely alive, ... I am the very Life only then! I can see this, but how to attain that state?"
"Well, Just see the absurdity and the limitation of the memory, and you have done."
"So there is a useful memory that spontaneously helps us in dealing with the day to day life, and need not be discarded, but at the same time there is the memory which causes irrelevant, irrational fears, doubts, conflicts, which needs to be scrutinized and should be got rid of."
-- 
© vinayvaidya111@gmail.com  


   


  

Silent Dialogues -329, 330, 331.

~~ Silent Dialogues -328 ~~

Ashvattha / 20-12-2012.

~~ Trees !! ~~

~~ Full Moon on Autumnal Equinox ~~~~

Where Are You There?!

~~ Independence-Day ~~

As I wrote on my Facebook status update To-day.

And my response to a question.

And my response to a question.

'ashwattha' ( अश्वत्थ ). and 'atharvaNa' ( अथर्वण ).

 'ashwattha' ( अश्वत्थ ). and  'atharvaNa' ( अथर्वण ).
___________________________________________

Last year, during April to September months I wrote-down my dialogues with 'ashwattha' अश्वत्थ. Then about my अथर्वण  'atharvaNa'-posts. This year the same vibes are beckoning me again. The holy month of 'ShravaNa' श्रावण  has begun. Today is the 9th of 'Krishna-pakSha'  कृष्ण पक्ष. This means the moon is less and less bright every night. on the 15th, she will be no more visible. Then there will be the 'new moon'. These are the times when though 'Gods' and 'ViShnu'  विष्णु  go to the back-stage and Indra and VaruNa  वरुण  come back on the central stage.  देवशयनी एकादशी  आषाढ मासे.  Air, Water, Fire, Earth, and Sky वायु, जल, अग्नि, पृथ्वी, आकाश keep beating the drums en masse, and everything goes haywire. I think the Chief Gods, sensing the mood of the times, hand-over the duties to these 5 'mahAbhUtas' ( महाभूत ) , which are entitled with the powers of Rudra रुद्र. So They do their utmost with a free-hand. Where do we mortals stand before them?

--

Random Notes:Felines are felicitous, Canine are Cantankerous.

Silent Transcendence

Once This Happened. (Poem)

Silent Dialogues 295 to 301.

Piesces

Silent Dialogues 277 to 286

Silent Dialogues 268 to 276

Silent Dialogues 262 to 267.