BIG BANYAN TREE

I am fortunate to be living very close to agricultural university campus. The large open space and vegetation over there attracts lot of people to go for a walk throughout the day. I too take a stroll quite often and enjoy observing the plants and trees growing all over the place.

There is a huge banyan tree always playing host to a large number of birds. Though I had a desire to closely observe this huge tree and flock of birds, I used to move past with a quick glance more often. The set time frame to complete the walk was acting as a hindrance.

One day as I was walking past the huge banyan tree, I simply suspended the idea of completing the walk within the allocated time (set by me only).

I stood there observing the tree for a long time and it was an amazing experience;

The shape of the branches, the way they are spread out were all becoming clear and vivid. A flock of parrots with their sweet chirpings flew in. One of the parrots shooing away a myna bird was funny. Sparrows and other birds appeared as if they were flying in a slow motion!

Among these entire observations one turned out to be phenomenal.

 The tree though appeared very dense at first sight, the birds flying in and out of the tree manoeuvring through the branches and leaves with quite ease was an indication of  presence of space over there.

When our thoughts become dense, we feel we do not have any way out! But however dense it may appear, there is always a gap between them. 

Once we become aware of it, we start realizing the way out!

Space is present everywhere. Everything is contained in the space. So awareness of that space, stillness is nothing but meditation!