Thanksgiving 2007 - Pujya Swamiji's Thankyou to Pujya Naraharteertha Swamiji

[Guest guest]

Jaya Guru Datta ALL

 

Taking the cue from Pujya Swamiji - we could all do something special to

each of our parents on this wonderful Thanksgiving 2007

 

Sri Guru Datta

 

Ravi Renduchintala

 

 

 

'IT WAS FATHER'S INSPIRATION'

 

 

 

The story behind Swamiji's Bonsai Garden

 

Sri Ganapati Sachchidananda Swamiji is hosting a three-day mega Bonsai

exhibition at the Ashram from today. He recalls here how he developed

love for plants and how he realised the dream of raising a Bonsai

Garden, which is attracting Bonsai lovers from India and abroad. —Ed

 

By M.R. Shivanna

 

He was a young lad of four years when an incident inspired him to

develop love for plants which ultimately made him a Bonsai expert

leading to the present day Kishkindha Moolika Bonsai Garden at Sri

Ganapati Sachchidananda Ashram premises on Nanjangud Road.

 

Sri Ganapati Sachchidananda Swamiji's father was an expert herbal

medicine practitioner. He had invented a poison to eradicate the rat

menace at his home in Bommaparti, a tiny village in Ananthapur district

of Andhra Pradesh (now a shrine Jayalaxmipuram, named after the

Swamiji's mother Jayalaxmi Matha). Once eaten the honey-coated

poison, the rats would never venture into the house again.

 

The innocent lad, who unknowingly tasted the sweet poison kept on the

floor in a corner of the house, went into coma. The father, who knew

anti-dose, went to the forest, brought some green leaves and prepared a

medicine. The boy was administered with the medicine and he gained

consciousness after three days.

 

Habit

 

Gradually, the boy was attracted by small stems collected by his father,

which were kept in glasses in the house. The boy wondered how stems kept

in the glasses could grow into plants.

 

He also started looking after the plants watering them regularly as his

father did. " The habit made me to develop love for plants and nurse

them " , the Swamiji recalls.

 

It was during his China tour that he happened to visit Bonsai Gardens.

He also noticed villagers carrying medicinal plants from one village to

another.

 

The idea of raising a Bonsai Garden in the Ashram took its birth. The

Swamiji started to collect Bonsai plants wherever he went during his

subsequent foreign tours.v

Expert's view

 

Singapore Bonsai experts have admitted that the Bonsai Garden in the

Ashram is the biggest in Asia, not areawise, but by the number of

varieties grown in the available area, the Swamiji claims.

 

It is the only garden where along with other plants medicinal plants are

grown unlike other gardens in the world. 80 per cent of plants in this

garden are medicinal plants. Experts initially objected to it saying

that it was against the conventional Bonsai culture.

 

The Swamiji's garden has 400 species collected from 80 countries.

The Swamiji's visit to any foreign country is incomplete without

collecting a Bonsai plant.

 

The Swamiji's Bonsai garden also has a message: Protect the

environment by protecting trees. Felling of trees for making furniture

and construction materials should be stopped.

 

To this the Swamiji gives an alternative. Instead of felling living

trees cut the dead trees which are aplenty in the forests. Man can also

use the trees that are uprooted during natural calamities like tsunami,

floods and cyclones for his requirements.

 

" We can use synthetic wood also " , he advises.

 

" Thus you can prevent violence against trees " , he says.

 

The Swamiji says Bonsai is not new to India. Ayurveda scriptures mention

the bonsai culture.

 

Friendship tree

 

Plants play a vital role in human life, he says.

 

" Did you know after the nuclear attack on Japan, only plants

survived. The Japanese have gifted a friendship tree to the US " , he

adds.

 

Swamiji says he spends time in his garden talking to the plants.

 

" Many do not know that plants too have sentiments like human beings.

There are instances where plants wither if their care-taker is absent

for three or four days " , he adds.

 

The Swamiji is against felling of trees for the construction of houses

and buildings. The Government agencies should insist that any person,

who wants to construct a house, should plant at least two or three

trees.

 

" In London, the government agencies or builders allot sites which

already have trees. They construct houses without felling the

trees " , the Swamiji says.

 

Let a thousand Bonsais bloom !