Gaura's Trumpets and Radha-dendrons.

Daffodils? No, no - they're Gaura's trumpets!

A few years ago, at one of our temple gardening-days, we sat around at lunch-time, musing about the names of flowers and trees. There are many flowers and plants named after Christian saints, or biblical scenes, such as Jacob's Ladder and Solomon's Seal or St. John's wort. And several after Our Lady, the mother of Christ, such as marigolds (Mary-golds) and the Madonna lily. There's also a Pasque flower which blooms at Easter, a Christmas rose and a Passion flower.

In our country, centuries ago, the Bible was the only book which most people knew of, and hearing, or reading only stories from the Bible, they naturally saw the world around them in terms of those stories.

This seemed to us such a nice thing to do - to name things around us in such a way that our thoughts will always be led back to God. It would help our meditation on Krishna, to see everything connected with Him in this way; Why not be inventive, and rename the world? Well, maybe not all of it, but we could start with a few flowers: daffodils immediately became 'Gaura's trumpets', because they always bloom around the time of Lord Chaitanya's feast-day and look like golden trumpets heralding His arrival. The Rhododenrons became 'Radha-dendrons'; and the marigolds we grow for making garlands for Radha-Madhava we call 'gopi-golds' after the cowherd girls of Vraja - who love Krishna the most. And the idea works; these flowers now seem more intimately a part of Krishna's world.

One thought, dear to our hearts, was to have a rose named after Srila Prabhupada. It's possible to ask a rose-breeder to do that, but you have to pay several thousand pounds for it. Maybe one day! We think it should be of a delicate saffron colour, with a strong, sweet fragrance.

I wonder if any of our readers from more distant places would tell us of similar traditions in their own countries. We'd be very interested to know. I've heard of an Arjuna tree in India, and there must be many more such folk-names relating flowers to Krishna and His friends.

Photos: " Radha-dendrons" and "Gaura's Trumpets" blooming now in the temple garden.

Final BBC Prayer for the Day.

And here's the final transcript of the BBC Prayers for the Day. Nice one, Shaunaka!

Friday 9th March 07 - Peace.

"Good morning. The news can be an odd phenomenon – for many of us it is a 24-hour, all-pervasive obsession.
We pick up stories from all over the world and practically spontaneously begin to comment on them. In some countries our ability to openly discuss any subject we wish on the planet is a great freedom, even a luxury.

But I suppose what disappoints many of us is the nature of the beast itself: the unfortunate fact that bad news travels so much faster than good news. To our shame we seem to have a distasteful appetite for the horror and conflict in the news. We can’t blame our journalists for feeding us the platter we have ordered. We can’t even blame our politicians if they sound lame or scandalous. We elected them. We have even elected the reality TV celebrities we love to hate.

But we do have a desirable aspiration for peace, harmony and love. I meet the only person I can blame for the lack of these attractive qualities every morning – when I look in the mirror. As much as we get our daily dose of world news, we should also take some time to feed our aspiration for the spiritual, and grow in goodness. Here is a beautiful prayer from the Bhagavat Purana, an ancient Hindu scripture that can help nurture this aspiration:

“May the entire universe be blessed with peace and hope. May everyone driven by envy and enmity become pacified and reconciled. May all living beings develop a biding concern for the welfare of others. May our own hearts and minds be filled with purity and serenity. May all these blessings flow naturally from this supreme benediction: May our attention become detached from the mundane and absorbed in the rapture of pure love of God.” Hare Krishna. "

Another Prayer for the Day Broadcast.

Here's the next BBC Prayer for the Day broadcast, by Shaunaka Rishi, which went out on Wednesday 7^th March. I hope you are enjoying them!

Purity.

"Good morning. The dentist has become an indispensable person in most of our lives, and indeed, for some of us an inspiration for prayer. It’s a sad fact that the dreaded whirr of the drill and the clinical smells of the surgery has caused much anxiety.

But the course of dental hygiene is running more smoothly and improvements have been made to the extent that even a reformed dental coward, such as myself, can relax under the glare of those big lights.

And dental hygiene is a serious business. We can bleach our teeth until we look celebrity-esque, we brush and we floss and we massage our gums with an array of implements never before available to mankind.

In Hindu culture, as in many religions, purification is considered important, but more important than dental hygiene, for a Hindu, is mental hygiene. How clean are our thoughts? How pure is our intention? How pure is our heart, our feelings or our motivations? The bad breath of selfishness is certainly pungent but what can we do about such subtle impurities?

Among Hindus prayer, or “vandanam”, is considered a very powerful method of self-purification. And prayer is available to all of us, as much as, in fact even more than our local dentist is.

This leads me to a beautiful and very ancient prayer originally spoken in Sanskrit but translated it goes: “Whether we are pure or impure; if we are beginning our spiritual path or are the most qualified; if we simply remember the Supreme Lord, whose beauty is without comparison, we will become purified both inwardly and outwardly.” Hare Krishna."

BBC Prayer for the Day No.3

Another Prayer for the Day from Shaunaka Rishi Das.

Namaste

"Good Morning. There’s a wonderful gesture that pervades the culture of hospitality in India: people put both palms of their hands before their heart and slightly bow their head as they say to us ‘Namaste’.

In its simplest understanding it’s accepted as a humble greeting straight from the heart and should be reciprocated accordingly – ‘Namaste’. It means “I offer my respect to you”. The gesture itself is called a “mudra”, a form of non-verbal communication and is considered to be powerful and prayerful in itself.

On a deeper level of meaning namaste also has emotional and spiritual significance. A good basis of all our social interaction is respect. Namaste physically shows respect and confirms it by word. Beyond that, by playing with the syllables in the word namaste we find that it also means “not me but you”: symbolically giving up our pride in front of another. And the most profound meaning being, “the Divine within me offers respect to the Divine within you”. A recognition that we are all spiritual in nature.

So this simple and ubiquitous greeting has a prayerful meaning on many levels of understanding: a simple social interaction, an affectionate well-wishing and recognition that everyone is touched by God.

As a prayer, it honours the sacredness of each of us and recognises our equality. By sharing this prayer with you today I offer you respect, I recognise that I am not more than you, and I praise God within you. In saying this prayer you’ll miss the mudra of me joining my palms together, but at least I can say: “Namaste”. Hare Krishna. "

BBC Prayer for the Day No.2

I've just realised that after posting "Lord Chaitanya on the BBC", I forgot that there were more of Shaunaka's broadcasts to follow; five more. I'll post one a day, so you can read them all. I think you can also listen to them here on the BBC website.This was from Monday 5th March and is about "Holi".

"Good morning. All over the UK Hindus are celebrating the festival of Holi. Traditionally this festival takes place just after the crops have been harvested and the community becomes very jolly. At Holi all social convention breaks down and during the festival everyone is covered in gulal, coloured powders of greens and blues, yellows, reds and purples. A friend throws a bag that bursts on you and then you are squirted with water. Everyone is fair game. Equality practised at is terrible best.

And, as with all festivals there are the stories that give them life. One of the most interesting is that of Holika, the sister of an evil king, who is employed to force Prince Prahlada, her nephew to renounce his great love for God. Holika was a great yogi and she had the benediction that she could not be burnt by fire, so she carried Prince Prahlada into a blazing fire to rid the kingdom of his goodness. The story goes that in agreeing to act against the universal benefit Holika forfeited her benediction and she was burned to ashes while Prince Prahlada inherited her power and survived. It’s a story celebrating the victory of love and integrity over hatred and greed.

Uncomfortably, I always feel more like Holika than Prince Prahlada after hearing that story. Prince Prahlada is an emblem of goodness and peace. Yet, if I’m not a peaceful person myself, serenely controlling my desires, my anger and my greed, I can’t feel that I can credibly promote peace. So I need help. “My dear Lord! I am my own worst enemy. I don’t have a peaceful mind or a peaceful heart. I depend on your enthusiasm and your confidence so that I can begin to become a worthy example of your peace.” Hare Krishna."