The Day's Early Meet
Mayapur, West Bengal
By 5:30 I've already made the rounds, a circumambulation around the samadhi of our guru. It's a good walk, a safe one. By then I've attended a mangal arati worship and a vigorous dance and chant in the main temple room.
Then it's a daily ritual to see the two young ladies, Visnupriya and Laksmipriya. They are elephants. Monks have no business visiting the women folk of course. It's a short jaunt to get to their home amidst gum trees and where they are looked after by a trainer and his family who also live on site with the two giants. The family is not bothered by the fact that I arrive with a walking companion or two to see the elephants at their rising or breakfast. It seems they like to be rubbed on the nose. They are long strokes as you can imagine.
This early greeting with the elephants comes natural to me. In fact I got a flash back. When a teenager at a 5:30 rising I would be greeted by an animal of magnitude. It was our family milk cow. Dad would wake me. I wouldn't see him, but hear him with a knock on my bedroom door. I would rise, dress, put on coveralls and leave for the pasture, there to trudge through the early morning dew laden on the alfalfa and grass. I would look for her, the Holstein cow through the mist, have her rise and dutifully she would rise to routinely make it to the barn.
I would tie her inside a stall, rope her hind legs, feel her warmth and her good smell and then milk her udder empty.
Being with the elephants brings me home here in Mayapura. It's a peaceful and pleasant experience amongst so many other pleasant experiences.
5 Km
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