AtmaJyoti.org is a service of Atma Jyoti Ashram (Light of the Spirit Monastery), which is located in Cedar Crest, New Mexico, USA, presenting the path of meditation and practical spiritual life.
In India the elephant is King of Beasts because of its intelligence. Although elephants are often used in forestry, they can be taught amazing skills. Only recently I reread Mooltiki and Other Stories by Rumer Godden. The last story was about Mooltiki, an elephant that showed amazing intelligence and had a very definite (sometimes difficult) personality.
Mooltiki was living in a hunting camp on the border of Bhutan. It was essential that a fire be kept burning all night to keep away the many tigers and leopards that lived in the area. Mooltiki was the fire tender. Three times a night she brought small tree trunks, made a pyramid shape of them on top of the low-burning fire, and got them to blaze up, even moving the hot coals around with her foot. In the day she gathered the fuel, but if it ran out she went into the jungle in the deep of night and got more.
She never ripped leafy branches off trees and waved them about the way other elephants do. Rather, when she saw a particularly beautiful flower she would delicately pick it and carry it in her trunk. When she crossed a river she loved to put her trunk under the water and blow bubbles–another thing elephants do not usually do. Though Mooltiki was cantankerous and often unkind to Rumer Godden, still she liked going for jungle walks with Mooltiki because she knew she was with a real person, not a “beast” at all.
The photo above is Andar, the temple elephant of the Sri Rangam Temple in Tamil Nadu in South India, together with his mahut. Monks from Atma Jyoti Ashram met Andar during their visit to the Sri Rangam temple in 2003. Andar especially enjoyed the gift of cookies which the mahut gave the remarkable elephant for our monks. See Andar eating their cookies in our video of Temple Elephants which they filmed during that trip.
Some friends emailed us photos of an amazing incident which happened in India recently. This happened in the Kalika Mata temple in Ratlam, in the state of Madya Pradesh in Northern India. The pictures tell an amazing story.
At a recitation of the Ramayana, the Indian scripture recounting the story of Rama and Sita, and the monkey devotee Hanuman, “Hanumanji” appeared in the form of langur! The langur first went and sat near the singers and listened to the kirtan, and held the microphone of the Swami doing the recitation.
The monkey then approached the Swami and was blessed in the traditional manner as the Swami placed his hand on the monkey’s head. Then the langur blessed the Swami himself, as is seen in the photo!
After this he sat in front of the picture of Sri Rama and took some of the flowers which had been offered before the picture (note similar position to Shri Hanumanji in the framed picture) and left quietly.
A friend sent us the following image from an Indian newspaper which we thought worth sharing with our readers. The caption from the photograph reads:
“Two blind people wanted to drink water at the RagiGudda temple, Bangalore. When they were unable to operate the tap, this mother monkey opened the tap for them, allowed them to drink water, drank some water herself and then closed the tap before leaving the scene.”
Over the past two and a half years, Atma Jyoti Ashram has had a number of unexpected visitors from the adjacent Cibola National Forest in New Mexico. Deer, foxes, rare tufted ear squirrels, and other creatures of the wild have nonchalantly wandered onto our ashram property. The other day a flock of 16 or more wild turkeys scoured our lawns for food for hours. Luckily we have yet to encounter bears and cougars like our neighbors have.
A pair of foxes have recently taken up residence near Atma Jyoti Ashram, and are often seen outside the ashram building inspecting their new home. Neighbors have said that they are kit foxes.
One of the foxes walks on the wall outside the Ashram office.
Monks from Atma Jyoti Ashram awoke this morning to find the results of a surprise overnight storm of over half a foot of snow. This is the view toward Santa Fe at eight o’clock in the morning.
"Come here every now and then. A brass pot must be polished every day: otherwise it gets stained. One should constantly live in the company of holiness."
—Sri Ramakrishna
In India the elephant is King of Beasts because of its intelligence. Although elephants are often used in forestry, they can be taught amazing skills. Only recently I reread Mooltiki and Other Stories by Rumer Godden. The last story was about Mooltiki, an elephant that showed amazing intelligence and had a very definite (sometimes difficult) personality.
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