Free The Cauliflower by Nicola Barker Page A

sadhana (or spiritual journey). Peel your eyes! To the left! Quick! Quick! That’s the site of Ramakrishna’s small, thatched meditation hut, and just beyond it he will (in 1868, after a pilgrimage to Vrindavan) plant his famous panchavati . He will collect some dust in that most holy city—the site of the ancient forest where Krishna spent his happiest childhood days—and scatter it here, in this spot. The word panchavati refers to the forest home of Rama (seventh avatar of Vishnu), but in plain English, it is a small grove of five trees—the banyan , the peepul , the amalaka , the asoka , and the bael —and is considered to be a perfect, peaceful, shady venue for spiritual pursuits.
    Oh. To the right. That’s the other ghat  … the second ghat , the Bakul Tala Ghat, which is very close to Ramakrishna’s corner kuthi room, and also close to the northern nahabat , or music tower (there are two, one situated on the northern and the other on the southern side of the main courtyard; they play holy music there during various phases of the day’s worship). Ramakrishna’s mother, Chandradevi, and then later on his wife, Sarada Devi (aka the Holy Mother—yes, he did marry, and the union was blissful but unconsummated), would live for many years (in considerable discomfort, I imagine) in the tiny storeroom at the base of the northern nahabat .
    Um … There seems to be something … I don’t really like to mention it, but you may have noticed a certain amount of, of breakup in the visual transmission…? Some kind of dark … black … a shadow, almost, in the top right-hand corner of the…? I’m just hoping against hope that if we continue moving forward for a couple more seconds we may actually get to fly past the small room just beyond the northern nahabat , which is situated at the end of the northern wall of kitchens/stores/offices et cetera, with its wonderful southeastern verandah looking directly into the main temple compound, and its other northeastern one with views of the gardens, the kuthi and the nahabat , not to mention its grand semicircular porch to the fore which looks straight across the holy Ganga.… This was to be Sri Ramakrishna’s second main residence during his long stay at Dakshineswar. It’s now open to the public in its original state, virtually untouched—although they upgraded the floors, which is a great shame—and a site of pilgrimage for many thousands—nay, millions—of loyal devotees from all across the …
    No. Nope. Sorry about that. The swift has suddenly doubled back and is rapidly returning to the panchavati . If you glance to the left you’ll be able to feast your senses upon the farthest reaches of the extensive and perfectly heavenly flower gardens which the Rani has planted to run along the riverbanks either side of the main ghat and the chandni , and which fill the humid air with the heady perfumes of rose, hibiscus, and Arabian jasmine. Just close your eyes for a second and imagine inhaling the intoxicating perfume of …
    Ouch!
    Thwack!
    Crunch!
    Eh?! What the—?! I think we may … it—it seems like … We were heading on our way back to the panchavati , minding our own business, when that persistent black shadow which had been dogging us for—for quite some time now suddenly grew darker … more intense, and then—then it appeared to collide with … to tangle with … Brace yourselves! I’m going to turn the audio back up again to try and identify what on earth might be—
    Gracious me! What a dreadful—! I think that’s the ground. And I think that’s a claw. And a giant beak. Just jabbing and jabbing at … And the sounds! And the blood ! And the feathers! Those heart-rending squeaks  … And in the distance a deafening and victorious caw-caw-cawing. But how could—? Why