Realization of dreams

Our dreams contain numerous images, actions and scenarios that are filled with meaning. My dreams, likewise, present to me visions of joy that fill me with the hope of a fine future. I woke up with a sudden realization the other day, although I cannot recount the dream in detail- it fades away as the day progresses, that is, there’s a point in life when you get tired of chasing people. Although not one to give up, I've realized that there are some people that you can do without.

It is easy to hate and it is difficult to love. This is how the whole scheme of things works. All good things are difficult to achieve; and bad things are very easy to get. Sometimes God doesn't give you what you think you want, not because you don't deserve it, but because you deserve better. I disagree. When you give a lot of importance to someone in your life, you lose your importance in their life.

A strong relationship starts with two brave people who are ready to sacrifice anything for one another. Real love is letting a person be who they really are. A piece of advice to people who want to enter into wedlock- don't get into it, if you feel the giving up is one sided. You give out too many chances to people, and they start taking you for granted. There's a limit to how much you can deprive yourself and stand being humiliated. It is so easy for a marriage to fall to pieces and that takes a toll on not just your nd your spouse's health but of those around you.

Karma is known as the law of cause and effect and plays a central role in determining how one's life should be lived. Spirits are encouraged to choose how (and when) to suffer retribution for the wrong they did in previous lives. One has to withstand hardships for deeds that perhaps went unpunished. Religious scriptures try and explain why, when, and if God doesn't give some of us what we deserve, how to take the heartbreaks in one's stride. If you fell that God gave you something and then took it away, sometimes it's best to forget how you feel,  what you deserve. It is our duty to perform, and not expect results from our work. This life and afterlife will answer for our deeds.

If there are days that you wish you didn't wake up or wished that there was some way to undo some of the things that led up to the unhappy situation, remember this- “If one drop of rain can find its way to the ocean, one prayer can find its way to God."

How I found Boo-Boo!

Boo-Boo entered my life in October 2008 and this is how it happened...

I used to often go out and play with friends, in the fields and woods surrounding our locality. One of these evenings, I was crossing the road to get back home that I saw a very cute Tibetan terrier pup stranded on the footpath, looking lost and frightened. The poor puppy was whimpering. I looked around to see if there was anyone who looked like they had lost a pup. Finding no one I went up to it and picked up the little ball of fuzz in my arms. It was so soft and lovely and I suddenly started feeling very excited. "How I wish I had a pet like him at home?"

I crossed the road and started looking for someone who may have lost their pet. It was possible that this little thing had run away from between the gaps in the gates of one of these houses. A small boy came out to meet me eagerly and took me to his neighbor's house. But in that house, I saw another Tibetan terrier pup. The owner came out to greet us and said that the one I was holding wasn't his dog and there was nobody else in the area that had the same breed. Clearly the little kid mistook the one on the street for the one frolicking inside his neighbor's yard.

So I quickly made up my mind to carry him home and warm him up a little bit. He was petrified by his harrowing experience on the street. I thought I'll get the word around and whoever had lost their dog could claim it in the next few days. But no one called, no one came.

In the meantime, this little thing had found a neat little hiding place under the sofa set where he hid for the first four days, coming out only to drink some warm milk and going back to his little corner. By and by our bong grew stronger and I realized, happily, that this was to become one of our family members.

Initially, my parents were against the idea. The house was very small and we hadn't yet recovered from the sad demise of my first pet, Jimmy. "There is no way we can have another dog", they argued, but  finally, they succumbed to my pleas with the only condition being that the pup would have to stay inside my room and would not be allowed to enter the kitchen or create havoc in the drawing room.

A hectic discussion ensued about what we were to call the little one. My sister suggested the name, Boo-Boo, the name of a Tibetan terrier in one of my favorite movies, Ace Ventura, in which Jim Carrey's character rescues the lost dog. I thought that the name was perfect, and my Tibetan terrier was Boo-Boo from that day forward.

Overjoyed, at the thought of having my own puppy, I prepared a bed in my room made of thick sheep wool blanket and tried to make Boo-boo sleep on it. He refused to listen to me and promptly disappeared as he always did whenever he thought something was being imposed on him. My mother and I knew that he slept under the sofa that night, but I was sure I could get him habituated to my room in the next few days.

Then my mother decided to get involved directly. I am not sure what magic was done while I was out, but after I retired to bed, the next evening, I saw Boo-Boo willingly stroll into my room and go up to the blanket my mother had dragged closer to the bed. During the night, my mother got up to check on him and found him curled up on my leg. My mother quietly went back to bed, and the next morning, removed the blanket from the floor. Boo-Boo had slept on my bed and was now my baby boy. From that day till today, Boo-Boo sleeps on my leg where it is easy for me to reach and nudge him if he snores too loudly! I love him, oh, so much.

Here's Boo-Boo, playing with his best friend, Poppy, an albino mouse.

Is the 'cow' sacred or in reality, a taboo in India?

In India, since time immemorial, slaughter of the milk giving cow was prohibited. There are several verses in the Rigveda which refer to the cow as being divine and often compared to Aditi (mother of the gods) herself. Although, meat eating was permitted, vegetarianism was encouraged. A line from Manu's Smriti or The Laws of Manu (V/56) says, "There is no sin in eating meat... but abstention brings great rewards." 

Not preferring beef as food probably had practical reasons rather than just spiritual. It was very expensive to sacrifice an animal for rituals or feasts. And cows provided many important products, including milk, browned butter for lamps, and fuel from dried dung. 

Some people believe that vegetarianism was adopted from Jainism, another religion that had its birth in India along with Buddhism. The Jains believe in the existence of soul in all living and some non-living things  and practice very strict vegetarianism. However, the cow continued being revered, especially after the notion of cow killing being equivalent to the killing of a brahmin (those belonging to high caste, usually, priests) became popular in Indian feudal society after the Aryans took to agriculture and strengthened the varna or caste system. The importance of the pastoral element in the Krishna stories, particularly from the 10th century onward, further reinforced the sanctity of the cow. 

Hinduism still holds the cow to be a sacred animal and Hindus still refrain from eating beef. In most rural households, there is at least one cow, often treated as a family member, to provide milk which can be used to prepare curd, butter and ghee. Cows also help in supplying fuel to these households, where the animal excreta are made into dung cakes and used as fuel for fire in mud stoves. The animal's urine is used in worship as charnamrita. Indians do not get repulsed by cow excreta but consider it a useful, natural product, something which can even be used to fertilize crops. 

However, cows are often seen walking around in city streets feeding on garbage and sewers, neglected and uncared for. This is a surprise given their sacred status. But at least once a year, on Gopastami, cows are bathed and given offerings so that they may continue to bestow their life nurturing gifts to us.

The sacred Banyan tree

In India, some trees have a position that is more venerable than the tall redwood trees of California's national park. They sometimes, tend to be associated with a particular God or Goddess. Some scholars believe that it is the tree that was worshipped first, maybe for its medicinal or symbolic purpose, and that the gods and goddesses came later. Although, that may be the case, today trees are an integral part of a deity’s symbolism.

The mango tree, for example, is associated with the God of love, Kama; the Tulsi plant is to Vishnu, Bilva is associated with Shiva worship, blades of Dhurva grass is offered to Ganesha, Neem or Margosa is sacred to the mother goddess, coconut and banana is associated with Lakshmi. The Banyan tree is associated with Yama, the god of death and the tree is often planted outside the village near crematoriums. It is believed to be the abode of ghosts. Vetals and Pisachas are supposed to hang from its many branches. Indians knew the Banyan tree as the Vata-vriksha.

When the British came to India, they noticed that members of the trading or Bania community used to gather under a large shady fig tree, which they named the Banyan, from Bania. Technically, Ficus benghalensis, the Banyan belongs to the Fig family. There are various types of fig trees all over the world, some of these are sacred. The most popular one is the Ficus religiosa or the Pipal which became especially popular in Buddhist times because it was under this tree that Gautama Siddhartha of the Sakya clan attained enlightenment. It was the leaves of a fig tree that Adam and Eve used to cover their nakedness in Eden after they were tempted to eat the Forbidden Fruit by Satan.

The Banyan tree does not let a blade of grass grow under it. Thus Banyan tree does not allow for any rebirth and renewal. While Banyan offers shade from the sun, it offers no food. That is why it is not part of fertility ceremonies like marriage and childbirth where food-giving, rapidly renewing, plants with short lifespan such as Banana, Mango, Coconut, Betel, Rice and even grass, are included. Marriage and childbirth are rites of passage; they represent major shifts in life. They are all about instability and flux.

Banyan tree is the very opposite. It is stable and constant. It has a long lifespan and hence seems immortal. Its roots descend from the branches and then anchor the tree to the ground, transforming into trunks eventually, so that decades later it is difficult to distinguish root from stem. Things that evoke the notion of immortality become auspicious in India, for example the immortal mountain, the immortal sea, the immortal diamond, and the indestructible ash. This is because since ancient times, Indian seers were acutely aware of the transitory nature of things around us. Everything dies – every plant, every animal, even moments die, the present becomes the past in an instant. In an ever changing world, we seek constancy, permanence. The Banyan tree is therefore worthy of veneration; it is evergreen and shady, hence an eternal refuge for all creatures unable to bear the vagaries of life.

Thus, it emerges that in Indian thought, there are two types of sacredness – one that is associated with impermanent material reality and the other which is associated with permanent spiritual reality. The Banana and the Coconut fit into the previous category; the Banyan fits into the latter. Banana is the symbol of the flesh, constantly dying and renewing itself. Banyan is the soul – never dying, never renewing itself. Banana is the botanical equivalent of the householder while Banyan is the botanical equivalent of the hermit. The Banyan tree can be seen as a hermit amongst trees; just as hermit cannot raise a family, a Banyan tree cannot support a household. Banyan tree represents not the material aspiration of a people; it represents the spiritual aspiration of a people.

The Banyan tree is said to be immortal: it is Akshaya, that which survives Pralaya, the destruction of the whole world. Mahabharata tells the story of a woman called Savitri who lost her husband as destined, one year after her marriage, near a Banyan tree. She followed Yama to the land of the dead and through determination and intelligence managed to secure back her husband’s life. In memory of that event, Hindu women go around the Banyan tree, tying seven strings around it. This is imitative magic: by symbolically going around the immortal tree, the women are binding immortality into their married life. They are securing the lives of their husband, the pillar of their household. They are protecting themselves from widowhood which is believed by most Hindus to be the worst fate for a woman.

Under the Banyan tree sat the sages of India – those who rejected the flesh and the material world and aspired for the soul alone. This was the favorite tree of the sadhu, the wandering hermit. The greatest of hermits, Shiva, was often represented in its shade as a stone called the Lingam. Being an ascetic, Shiva was not part of the village; he was a hermit not a householder; he did not fear ghosts and so was comfortable staying in the shade of this immortal, never dying, never renewing plant. In iconography, Shiva is visualized as Dakshinamurti, he who faces the south, south being the direction of death and change. He sits under the Banyan tree, the botanical embodiment of the universal soul, facing the terror of death and change stoically, unafraid because of his profound understanding of the world. At his feet sit sages who are recipients of Shiva’s wisdom. In South Indian temples, Shiva’s south facing form, under the Banyan tree, is placed on the south facing wall of the temple.

Like Shiva, Vishnu is also a form of God. But Vishnu is not associated with the Banyan tree, perhaps becuase Vishnu is that aspect of God who is more associated with change. He goes with the flow – this attitude is called leela or playfulness; he does not fear change. Vishnu is therefore associated with the fragrant Tulsi plant or with flowering plants like Champa and Kadamba. But there is one time when Vishnu is associated with the Banyan tree – it is during the end of the world when flood waters rise and dissolve all things. Sage Markandeya who had a terrifying vision of this event, saw Vishnu as a baby lying on the leaf of a Banyan tree, cradled by the deadly waves. This form of Vishnu is called Vata-patra-shayin, he who rests on the Banyan leaf. The image is rich in symbols – the whole world may seem transitory like the waves of the ocean but all life can renew itself as a baby replaces the older generation because divine grace represented by Vishnu is eternal like a Banyan leaf.