The plant that I longed for...

In Kerala during primary school days we used to carry our slates, slate pencils and twigs of a plant that was called ‘vedi pacha’ in Malayalam. This plant was primarily to wipe the slate clean after writing, as it was a juicy plant and provided enough moisture for the job.

The second use, from which its name came, was from the way kids used to play with it. A portion of the branch with a knot on one side would be separated, leaves removed and the portion except the knot twirled between the fingers to remove the water from inside. Now it became like a tube with the knot on the side to prevent escape of air. Air would be blown by mouth into the tube through the open end, close the end with fingers and hit it on the forehead, which would produce a ‘pop’ sound with the escape of trapped air, which we kids used to enjoy. This sound is called ‘vedi’ in Malayalam. Once one branch is made ready, it can be used to play for long time.

Moving away....

After marriage I moved out of Kerala, and used to miss plants like coconut trees,  vedi pacha and some others. Once we settled down in Belgaum, we managed to have many of those plants. But vedi pacha I used to miss. In 35 years of our stay in Karnataka, I have never seen that plant anywhere in this state.

Imagine my surprise when I saw one plant coming up by itself in one of the pots in our house. I kept searching for it in the areas around our house, from where the seeds must have come. But none could be spotted. It is beyond me to think how it could have come up.

Theories

I was contemplating various theories on the appearance of the plant. One is that  my intense longing for the plant helped to manifest the seed in the pot and it germinated. Second is based on the eternal truth that five elements can manifest and transform into  any physical form. So seed of some other plant must have morphed and germinated as this plant. Third assumption is that some bird from Kerala must have come to our compound and the seed came from its droppings and germinated.

Birds and animals do come to me for healing after I became a Reiki channel. May be the seeds can also follow a Reiki channel?

August 2020

Only now I came to know that this plant is called Peperomia pellucida and it is an edible plant, having many medicinal uses in treatment of headache, abdominal pain, acne, boils, colic, fatigue, gout, renal disorders, abscesses, and rheumatic joint pain. In the Philippines, it belongs to the 'preferred list' of medicinal plants, being studied for its use in the treatment of arthritis and gout. 

The leaves are sometimes harvested from the wild and used as a food, medicine and tea. The plant is sometimes cultivated as a medicine and food crop in parts of the tropics, and is sold as a food and medicine in local markets. Leaves and young shoots are eaten in salads or used as a potherb. We now use it as salad.

This plant has a strong mustard-like odour and pulling it up can cause asthma-like symptoms. 

References:

http://tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Peperomia+pellucida 

Along with free will comes responsibility

This year, in 2019, Belgaum witnessed torrential rain for continuous twelve days. There was so much destruction and some loss of lives. We had multiple leakage points inside the house, even above the cooking area in the kitchen. To add to that, the water filtration plant stopped working due to the accumulation of dirt from the muddy water. So, more than days (still waiting, as of 13^th August) there has been no water supply!

Lot of humanitarian work was also going on. Our friend who was marooned in his house with his bed ridden mother told us that they were being supplied with food and drinking water daily. It is then that I got this message from a friend:

“Beena, what is happening around you, does not disturb you? I have high fever cold and cough. I feel so helpless.”

I was thinking that she felt so helpless because she was ill. But her message told something else:

“For me anything that happens outside me, disturbs me a lot. I can’t bear to see anybody suffering. I don’t know when I’ll become emotionally strong. Do we have special prayers for the suffering? Some groups posted some mantra to stop the rains. Does that work?”

 I replied’ “Mantra to stop the rains, I don't know its effect. Why don't you try and see? Nature is managing everything wonderfully, we need to have faith in that. Happiness and suffering are both part of Maya, this basic understanding is very important for a stable life,” to which she commented:

“True, but when thousands become shelter less, no food to eat, then what is our duty towards them? Is this destruction God made? Why will God want good people to suffer?”

Me:  “Our duty is to help them, by donating things, going and distributing things to them, praying for them and sending Reiki to them. At the same time, keep our inner self clear and blissful. We need to understand we have no control over external incidents.

One saying helps me so much and that is ' God, give me the courage to change the things I can, serenity to accept things I cannot change, and wisdom to see the difference.' The sad fact is majority has lost that wisdom :( ”

She replied: “You believe this is God’s plan? How can destruction be God’s plan? Even in Mahabharata, Krishna could certainly change Duryodhana’s mind, but he didn’t do it. He gave Duryodhana choice. I think weak people should not be given a choice.

Tena vina tra na mapi chalati - without Krishna’s will, even a grass reed cannot bend.

My own experience- I lost so many good opportunities in life because of choice - I chose a wrong one. If God had to control my choice, I would have reached perfection now.”

My response was “If there is a story with only heroes, all doing only good work, will there be a readership for that?

God controlled all our actions when we had lives of animals. In human form, we are the images of God, he wants us to have free will and develop wisdom to make right choices.  Lord Krishna, after giving all the advice to Arjuna, finally told him that he was free to choose the line of action. Why, as humans, we want to run away from our responsibilities and dump the selection of choices to God?

If weak people are not given choice, how will they learn from their mistakes and become strong?”

If one is running away from the responsibility of making right choices in life, believe me, there is no escape (I know as a past life regression therapist). You will keep on incarnating till you learn your lessons well and graduate. In this journey, spiritual lessons and practices definitely help.

Are we eating what we are eating?

My grandfather was a very good Ayurveda physician and though he died very young, his assistant and my grandmother had quite a bit of knowledge on Ayurveda. Fortunately, some of her knowledge was transferred to me.

Ghee- from Ayurvedic view point

Ghee is a goldmine of nutrients and an integral part of Ayurveda and it is considered a premier rejuvenator. Cow’s milk is considered to possess the essence or sap of all plants and ghee is the essence of milk. Consuming ghee is like offering the finest fuel to the fire of digestion – Agni. Ghee makes all organs soft, enhances the aura and builds up the internal juices which are destroyed by aging. It also increases the most refined element of digesion – Ojas.

Increase in the qualities of Vata is synonymous with aging. Ghee gives longevity due to its opposite qualities- dense, soft, heavy, slow, oily and liquid- that pacify the light, dry and rough qualities of Vata.

Older, the more medicinal

As per Ayurveda, the medicinal properties of ghee enhances with time and old ghee has unique benefits in neurological and psychological disorders. Purana ghrita is cow’s ghee that is at least one to ten years old, a tonic which is extremely nourishing in nature, with age arresting, skin toning and smoothing qualities.

For our use I make ghee at home. In 2011, I decided to keep some ghee for aging and bought some cow’s ghee from a reliable source in Belgaum. To my horror, now I found that it was smelling different, tasted rancid and looked separated in two layers. The upper part is more whitish and the bottom layer yellowish. 

A search on the net showed us that boiled potato is commonly added to adulterate ghee. It made sense to me, seeing the superficial, sort of fluffy white layer.

And see carefully- the amount of actual ghee is less that the added component!

Praying for honesty

It is very saddening to see how dishonesty has percolated every aspect of life. Everything goes in cycles and I wonder whether this state of dishonesty has to still increase before the reversal happens! But at least some of us can try to do our best, by analyzing our actions and removing dishonesty when you see it entering. Secondly, by praying, or sending Reiki healing if you are a Reiki channel for wisdom (‘Sad buddhi') to prevail in humanity!

Read more at:
http://www.amritaveda.com/learning/articles/ghee.asp
https://www.forestessentialsindia.com/blog/ghee-a-goldmine-of-nutrients-for-skin.html

A bird in my balcony

Last week I noticed a small nest on the plant adjacent to my balcony. It was just at my arm’s length. I have some plants kept in the balcony, which I water daily and also dry clothes on the clothesline. Then I saw the small bird sitting inside. First time when she saw me, she flew off, but then onwards, she would just look at me and stay put.

The dry nest

It was monsoon time for us and during the last week of July, it was raining very heavily. When I go to sleep, I would think of the bird just outside the wall and send her Reiki healing so that she stays dry inside the nest. In the morning I went to check and saw that though the leaves were drenched in water, inside the nest it was dry. While sewing the leaves together, she had positioned the upper leaf in such a way that the rain water is kept away from falling into the nest.

I was discussing this with my husband. As per my knowledge, the bird may not have calculated the angulations of the leaf while stitching.  She just went by her instinct or intuition and made the nest. I think this capability is given to every living being.

Leaking house

Contrary to this, I have to keep five buckets in different parts of the house to catch the leaking water when it rains. There is leakage in our clinic. I think I can safely say that every house in Belgaum leaks during rains. And these were constructed by engineers who spent years studying to get their degrees. Our education system and the way we are brought up by our parents, no importance is given to acknowledging and developing the intuition and sixth sense, which we are all born with.

A serious limitation

I think this is a serious limitation. So much stress is given to rational and logical thinking that we miss out on a large beautiful aspect of life, which goes beyond logic. I see this as a serious problem in many of my clients. They just cannot go beyond logic, because that is what has helped them to reach this stage in life and they can’t imagine they can achieve anything without it.

Logic is just the tip of the ice berg. Underneath the water is the major part, that is based on the inner knowing and intuition, which when trusted upon, can make life so beautiful and every day a celebration. But it takes time and effort, which majority are not ready to invest in.

Mother, whither thee gone?

Another aspect that struck me while looking at the bird incubating her eggs was the dearth of motherly countenance in the current generation. The bird was totally involved in her noble mission of letting her chicks hatch. Today’s women are achievers. Bringing up children does not come under achievement. Even while caring for the kids, she is cursing herself inside for wasting her time, instead of saving some one’s life as a doctor or meeting that deadline in the IT industry.

For humanity to advance, our children need to be better than ourselves. For them to develop into balanced, good human beings, a lot of care and nurturing from the mother is required.

Sacrifice...

I listen to women from older generation saying, ‘I sacrificed my life for my children and husband.’ This is just a sophisticated way of blackmail. Decades back I heard one of the most important advices in my life that whatever you are doing, when you think deep, you will understand that you are doing it for your own sake. Not for anybody else. So I could tell my kids that I enjoyed bringing them up and I did it for my own sake. So they are not under any obligation to pay back for my ‘sacrifices.’ I have seen that this mentality from a mother can put serious strain on the kids, sometimes even without actually knowing the underlying reason!