Bliss in the form of a flower – The Brahma Kamal

I am delighted to share my friend Brig. Chowdhry’s wonderful experience which I feel is nothing less than a miracle and as said by Einstein ~ “There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle”. On my request the Brig. asked me to go ahead and spread the happiness with all my blogger friends. In his own words –

“It was 16 Aug 12, a day before the Amavasya*, as I got out into the garden early morning, the air was charged with tremendous energy and I could feel that something very special was going to happen that day. One had potted, very reluctantly a cacti looking plant that Amole, the Gardener, brought some six months or so ago, saying that it was lying around nearby, evidently thrown and discarded by someone. He said it was quite a unique plant and bloomed just once a year and that too only at night.

I hadn’t quite taken to the plant initially but as time went by I did make a connection with this plant and it started responding beautifully. The first indicator is generally the leaves and they really started glistening. And then something quite unusual happened. It was from the edge of two leaves that a branch each emanated culminating in an elongated bud.

To cut the story short, the miracle took place within a period of an hour. You can see the buds at 8 pm and then the flowers in their full glory at 9 pm. The experience was so overpowering that it left you totally mesmerized. In short the time interval between the bud stage and the full blown bloom was just an hour. Mind you it could have happened in a matter of just a few minutes for I had come inside the house, not being able to handle the very empowering energy prevailing. It was a gardener’s thrill of a life time.

Brahmakamal in full bloom

Brahma Kamal

Only God could have created such a beauty and I am also told it is very lucky to be able to witness the bloom. For one, you have to make a special effort to watch the flower bloom since it occurs only at night and then, very sadly the whole thing is over by the morning the flowers totally fold-up recalling Edna St. Vincent Millay famous saying:-

“My candle burns at both ends, it will not last the night.
But ah my friends and oh my foes, it gives a lovely light”

Cheers and thanks 🙂

Excerpts from Wikipedia:
1. * Amavasya means Moonless night when there is a natural upsurge of energies in the human body on these days. As a result, in the tradition, Amavasya (New Moon) and Poornima (Full Moon) days are held as special days for the spiritual seeker.

2. Brahma Kamal is the mythical white lotus that has dominated the imagination of mythological experts from generations. The Brahma Kamal is supposed to grow in the highest parts of the Himalayas and that holds true even today. This flower indeed grows in the Himalayan forests.

The fact that the above event happened in Pune located in the plains is by itself unique 🙂