om gate gate
paragate
parasamgate
bodhi svahi!
(om gone gone
all the way gone
gone completely to the other shore
enlightenment aha!)
In Hindu mythology, Ganesh is the elephant-headed, Buddha-bellied god who removes the obstacles to our endeavours. He is a fearsome yet huggable god, who loves sweets and for whom no task is too daunting or too small. I wish I had told my friend, Kimber when I spotted the face of Baba Ganesh up in the pittosporum outside my window one morning.
Kimber could see things. She would have had something intuitive and insightful to say about Baba and all that is happening right now. She would have understood how Baba peers out at me through three deep-lidded eyes from the leaves of the slender tree. How he listens to me chant. How he fixes the laser beam of his third eye into mine, locking me into equilibrium as I stand on one leg like a brilliant pink flamingo at the water’s edge.
But Kimber is no longer here
And I am not brilliant.
And I am not at the water’s edge.
I am not at the edge of anything.
I am chanting from the comfortable envelope of my redwood-panelled bedroom and not from the streets.
I am balanced in a cool cocoon of deep green carpet and many-coloured quilt and down pillows.
What words can I present to those on the hard, hot pavement?
To those who will never read them?
That there is something bigger than all of this.
That the sky is as blue for you as it is for me.
That I will not be afraid.
That I will listen with both ears
And try to taste the colours of your experience.
That I will hone the golden focus of this third eye,
Which dissolves all difference and disparity
And pray that you could and would do the same,
So that we might someday remove all obstacles
And reach that opposite shore together.