The Udumbara flower

 What blooms rarely? Once in a thousand years?

The UDUMBARA flower. 

Any idea how it looks?

Like something you have never imagined - so beautiful, so exquisite! Like the Compassionate One!

But who actually is a Compassionate One, a Wise One? 

One who identifies with the Infinite.

Happy Birthday Sri Ramana Maharshi - the Compassionate, Wise and Infinitely Supreme and Eternal One!

The Buddha is an image of wisdom, serenity, compassion, inner discipline and spiritual practice. That is why his image is so popular as an inspiration for seekers, meditators and those who are on the path of seeking peace and inner wisdom.

Looking at the Buddha as a historical figure and going into arguments on philosophy take us very far from the purpose of his representation. And that i strongly recommend for the cynics and distractionists - not at all for those who mean true business with themselves - the purpose of finding out the why's, the how-come's and the therefore's of this birth that we find ourselves in as if on a railway track with a fast approaching train called death and a loud noise called time and a thundering fearful scream in our heart called desire to live on.

I am one who adores the countenance of the Buddha since childhood. I never knew why I was so attracted to the image wherever and whenever I saw it. A Hindi non-detailed subject class text book on the biography of Buddha happened to be one of the first books I read fully time and again and also preserved till date along with its brown wrapper and label with my name and grade 6 upon it.

My first sculpture that was cast into Plaster of Paris and again one which I cherish is one of Buddha done in my early (1986...)sculpting days at Kalakshetra studio after I joined to learn sculpture. I was inspired by the grace of the Sarnath Buddha, the robustness of the Mathuran Buddha forms and the other Museum images from across the world in the library at Kalakshetra where I first had a glimpse into the world of art and collections of art all across the world. I t was there that I also learnt that art was not related to a specific nama rupa - name form identity but a larger, more holistic ideology, spirit, intention and a compulsive inner call of either the sponsor, patron or provider  or the artist himself whether the idea of being an artist came to her or not. That explains the spiritual attitude of surrender in art, the anonymity, the melting away of tiny little personal details in the flood s of the movement of FLOW of creativity, of a higher or deeper inner calling. How similar it is to the expression of sage Ramana Maharshi when he says he was like a tiny driftwood in the strong currents that swept him from his hometown to the Holy hill town of Tiruvannamalai as a young lad of only sixteen years. 

Art, I feel, is like spirituality, if in the actual sense one is willing to give up all the known for an exciting and unknown and compulsively progressive journey towards the calling of the unknown, unidentifiable inner calling. 

Like with every other natural phenomenon like fire or flood, in any occupation or field, one can survive the event and emerge as a survivor coming back to tell a story - the story of the long night, of the tortuous phase, of the blinding darkness, the immense pain or the inexplicable bliss.

Of course, it goes without saying that one can encash the story, become known or notorious, emerge richer by the experience or let ruin upon herself. Many specialize in the art of making real good business out of it. And that is the difference between the truly great and the seemingly so. The wild flower is totally unconcerned of its uniqueness. The passerby takes note of it and it depends upon so many aspects whether she wishes to enjoy it for herself, share it with others, make a trade out of it, do all of these or do something else unimaginable too!

The Udumbara flower might have been the longing of a traveler, a researcher, a spiritual seeker, a botanist and a child. It is not the uniqueness of the shape, colour, form, properties or fragrance of the flower that is really important in the context than the rareness of its appearance, the relief from mediocrity, for commonplaceness and yet it is for certain that the Udumbara flower would be very simple, very humble, very natural and very very down to earth in all its means and manners, for otherwise it cannot be representative of the Buddha - the Wise and Compassionate One!

And so I decided to discover my own Udumbara flower, not in the wild, in the forest, in the woods or hills, but right here, within me, in my heart, closer to me than even my breath and my mind, in my self, as my self - something I don't have to seek as it is my very self, that which I can never lose as I never had a moment when I had to identify it as apart from me.