Benediction - I keep coming back to this word in the last few years. Perhaps it is a fitting word to use after a visit to the Banyans by the Valley school. I remember reading Krishnamurti as a teenager and often being moved by his use of the word. Sitting by this banyan and spotting a golden oriole in the tree across; being drenched in the warm glowing light of the sun resting itself on the ground through the canopy of leaves; immersed in bird calls and the strange silence that beckons one among trees, what could be a better word than benediction.
I have grown fond of these dry deciduous landscapes in the last three years. From Bandipur to Lepakshi, the land calls to me in its reddish golden hues. Full of surprises as the seasons change, the banyans are sanctuaries across this landscape, sanctuaries of form and space, of life and energy, of hope and conversations.
What are these roots if not our ancestors standing and watching us pass by! One is embraced in a million different parts and pieces by graceful rivers, lakes, mountains, trees, birds, animals... and all those parts and pieces, in all those fragments of human living, become a healed whole in this benediction of life. At this point, you know it is fine to let go and flow into that greater being and the multiple human selves within selves with their incessant noise cease to exist. Quietude unfolds and the mind stills.
What are these roots if not our ancestors standing and watching us pass by! One is embraced in a million different parts and pieces by graceful rivers, lakes, mountains, trees, birds, animals... and all those parts and pieces, in all those fragments of human living, become a healed whole in this benediction of life. At this point, you know it is fine to let go and flow into that greater being and the multiple human selves within selves with their incessant noise cease to exist. Quietude unfolds and the mind stills.
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