Krishna. New seeds. Devotion.

 I feel like I should include a picture to conclude the saga of the plant, though I think I already gave away the (unsurprising?) ending:

It DEAD.

However, I have a larger species of the plant that is growing right outside my window. Most of it has been weeded but one plant survives. I gently touched some of the flowers, looking to see if there were seeds inside and ripe, and they fell right off, so I caught some more in my hand and brought them back.

I'll try growing from seed this time, and hopefully won't have the aphid problem, or the transplant shock problem. Though I may have the wrong soil type, as mostly I see them growing between rocks and such. Maybe my soil is TOO good, and they won't like it. In any case, the experiment continues. Maybe I should actually do some research, but who writes about how to sprout weeds? 🤣

Answer: apparently, me.

I should probably also use my plant id app to figure out the name of the plant, to facilitate searching.

I had to pause for a while, because I wasn't sure what else to talk about, and there was something I had specifically wanted to talk about. I remembered:

The quote from last time, about suffering if it meant constantly remembering God. My father sent me an email about it (he's not fond of suffering as a spiritual practice) which made me try to find the original quote, and thanks to Devala's encyclopedic knowledge about all things Hindu, I was able to locate the actual source. Thanks Devala ^_^

It is something Kunti said (the mother of Arjuna, Yudhisthira, etc.), in the Bhagavata (Which I believe is a bunch of stories mostly focused on devotion to Krishna.) The actual sentiment is more this (just taking his words from the email): 

"She thanked Krishna for helping her and her children in many calamities, and said may there be many more such calamities if it means Krishna will keep coming to help them so they can see Him."

Which is a slightly different sentiment. It's not asking for suffering, or even calamities, but more saying, I'll accept anything gladly, even calamities, if it means getting to be in your presence (Krishna's presence.)

If you're interested in looking up the quote for yourself, Devala kindly provided that as well:

Shrimad Bhagavata Mahapurana,
skandha 1, chapter 8, shloka 25

I wrote a bunch more about this, but it was kind of heady, and I don't think all of you are here for that. Maybe I'll turn it into a seperate post with a informative heading so you can skip it easily.

Love and warmth to all of you,

Isaac