banyan tree

Here in India, there are many banyan trees. The banyan trees are particularly revered by Indians. They often tie coloured cloth around them and use such trees as shrines. They are remarkable trees. From the branches, long thin tendrils grow towards the ground, dangling from the branches, and if they reach the ground and take root, they grow into new trunks. So although a banyan tree will normally have a big trunk in the middle, it will also have several other trunks. And in fact, with time, the old central trunk might die back completely, leaving a ring of interconnected trees, which are really still but one tree. And this is why in India, the banyan tree is held to be particularly sacred. It reminds us that, although we think of ourselves as separate, although we appear to be individual trees, we are really interconnected. We are really but one tree: the tree of life, the tree of god. And this is what these remarkable banyan trees remind me of: our interconnectedness, the oneness of all that is. We are god, nothing more and nothing less.