The answer is in the air

We have a variety of flowering plants, shrubs and creepers in the grounds of our Home.  Some are so rare I haven’t seen the likes of it before. It is so good to go around the garden early in the morning with dew still on the grass and fog obscuring the mountain range completely and picking flowers enjoying the riot of colours in the sky and in the ground. The activity by itself is so satisfying. Sometimes I pick flowers of one colour, one type, sometimes of another.

I use these flowers to decorate my Krishna idol in the alcove in my front porch and the altar I have on the top shelf of my book rack with a picture and idol of Krishna, and other Goddesses, and an idol of Ganesha.  I enjoy arranging the flowers aesthetically around these, so meticulously, adding freshness everyday to the decor in the room.

Only recently I came across a delicate, pretty colourful flower with a very pleasant fragrance in a creeper. It surprised me that it has escaped my attention, even though it is in the area where I usually pick flowers from other creepers.

Then I realised that the flower blooms a bit later than my usual time in the garden. One morning I picked a bud and placed it in a bowl of water, but it did not open up. It dawned on me that the flower blooms only in the plant after getting enough warmth from the sun. I was told it is called Krishna Kamalam (Sanskrit for lotus). Being blue in colour it is associated with Krishna.

Couple of weeks ago I was at the banyan tree I go to worship on Saturdays. A devotee had come there with all the articles required to do a special pooja. I watched him do the elaborate preparations. Among the flowers he had there were two big lotus buds. As I watched him peel the petals one by one to open up the bud into a flower, it struck me that the lotus flower if plucked from its stem does not bloom and my mind connected it up with the Krishna kamalam. Though of different genre, the similarity in the name and its characteristics flashed. It was an awesome moment.

I realised that every knowledge is out there and when we least expect it the mind makes the connection spontaneously.