Late Night Gunda Leaf Action

---

Dear Diary are not the right words to start a blog entry. So what really makes something appropriate for a Blog Topic? When you live on an oil rig, a submarine or in an Ashram, you really are living in close quarters. Your self awareness is enhanced along with your awareness of others. So everything becomes appropriate in it's own time.

Mahaprabhuji summarised his wisdom into 50 Golden Teachings. Two of these are 'To be truthful' and 'To be kind'. The thing is, sometimes it is not easy to be both of these. Is it others who don't want the truth so we keep it from them to spare them the pain or is it ourselves with some inhibition about the truth? Well, I guess so far the majority of the teachings I have received have ingrained in me the 'Need to Know Basis' and there was never too much kindness to give. It is the reality existing as it is without interference from the self.... without putting labels on things, the truth is always there. Moving on through the Peaks and Valleys....

We had a big Leaf Action to help out our Gunda Trees. The Gunda Tree is a native desert plum here in Rajasthan. Due to the extreme lack of water here, helping these trees shed their leaves, means they now lose less water to the leaves and can channel the conserved water into the new buds that will grow. Removing the Gunda leaves is quite an art. Peeling the leaves in a sweeping action, something similar to removing peas from pods. When you perfect the action, it becomes effective! 😊

Although it is debatable as to whether cows actually like such leaves, they are very nutritious and will be fed to our Ashram cows. The tree climbing, ladder moving, leaf collecting, bag filling, laughter and contemplation went late into the night under an almost full moon. Another successful team building exercise.

---