Saturday, July 4, 2015

Life and Times of a Lotus


My friend Bhavana Nissima writes and photographs with rare sensitivity, and her posts and photos always make you think for a long time.

This photograph of the lotuses growing in what can only be described as a swampy area or a pond loaded down with silt, mud and what-have-you,  made me think about why lotuses grow there, and say, not in your building compound next to the methi patch.

The lotus , called "Pank-aj"  in Sanskrit, is described as Pank (mud)-Aj(born).  An amazing creation of nature where the seeds get embedded  in the mud bed at the bottom of the water body, and stems and leaves happen , the latter floating on the water surface, mobilizing for the blossoming of a lotus. 

And when it does, the water stands in so much awe of it, that it never wets the petals, ever.

Like the coconut , this plant also has almost all its parts dedicated to solving human health problems.  From the seeds, the stem, the root, the leaves, and the flowers, every thing is used by us bipeds. 

And as is expected, we, the ones with a developed cortex, refuse to look beyond the petals in pink, when we think of  it......


Seeds sunk to the bottom
amidst a water bed
threatened by slush and mud,

they learn
to take what helps,
and absorb
and put in practice
the knowledge of growth.

Stems with a single mind
straight up,
and leafing widely across,
spreading support
on the surface,
as if to provide a cradle
for the flower
the "Pankh (mud)" to be born("aj" ).

Cheerful but independent
in the Sun,
respectful
yet untouched
by circumstances of birth,
offering every part
of its anatomical being,
for the benefit
of the health
of undeserving bipeds,
who see more
of the mud and the slush
in blind reaction.

The Goddess
of learning & knowledge
who seeks to
acquire the flower
as her seat,
hopes
that someday,
the bipeds
will see things with
minds open
even though
their eyes might be closed.

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