With gratefulness I am looking at a new flower next to my office table – an audumbara plant. I would like to tell you the story of its background.

2015-16, when I was translating the biography of Srīpāda Srīvallabha to German, I came to know about the spiritual importance of the audumbara (ficus racemosa), which is said to carry the energy of Lord Dattatreya. In the book there are many mentions of the audumbara and in one part a saint is quoted saying:

“When the period of death approaches a sadguru may subject His disciple to terrible mental agony, horrible dishonours, unbearable troubles and losses and erase accumulated karma and grant him rebirth. An incarnation may subject His dependant to slight trouble and grant him rebirth. However, Srī Dattatreya attracts the life force of His dependants to the audumbara tree where He always lives and rescues the body of the dependant from the life force released from the audumbara tree. The ignorant dependant thinks that he is alive from the life force in his body, but the fact is that the life force emanating from the audumbara tree is conducting the bodily functions of the devotee uninterruptedly. The moment the period of death elapses the life force issuing forth from the audumbara tree firmly establishes in the devotee and the devotee lives for some more time. The audumbara tree will remain perfect however much the life force may be released from it. The reason for that is Srī Dattatreya remains well established at the base of every audumbara tree in a subtle form…
Whenever any difficulties arose in our house we used to solemnly go round the audumbara tree and present our troubles to that great tree. Our suffering was reaching Lord Datta. Our troubles were solved in an unanticipated way. The audumbara tree was acting like a bridge of friendship between us and Srī Dattatreya.
Sir, worship of the audumbara tree is a very important duty of Datta devotees. If an audumbara tree is in the house, it is as though Srī Dattatreya is verily in our house. However much the efficacy of the audumbara tree is described it amounts to an understatement only.”

When in January 2017, I presented the book to the temple at the birthplace of Srīpāda in Pithapuram, South India, I received some small fruits from the audumbara tree at the temple. I later gave them to Elli; she is a group member from Germany and regularly participating in the online study groups I am organising. Elli can make plants and flowers grow; she has a “green thumb” and a deep inner relation to plants. Two weeks ago, she brought 60 pots with audumbara plants for the members of the May Call celebration in Germany grown from these audumbara fruits (and she will distribute about 40 more plants at the seminar with Sri Kumar end of July in Billerbeck, North Germany). Their entire apartment had been filled with pots containing the saplings, and her husband had managed to store all the 60 plants in their camping bus, without accidents… I spoke a bit about the importance of the audumbara and Elli asked the members to chose their audumbara trees. Thus, the 60 saplings started their journeys to several parts of Europe – and one came to my home.

Audumbara trees on the window sill at the May Call celebration

When a member from Miami wanted to get seeds, Elli said to me that growing the audumbaras was not so easy: “I opened the small figs and put the tiny seeds, like yellow sand, on kitchen paper. And I sprayed water over them, several times a day. Over two months, nothing happened. Then 7 seeds started to sprout, and suddenly the entire paper was filled with green sprouts.”

Now, after more than a year, beautiful little plants have developed. Elli was very enthusiastic: “They were spreading such a lovely atmosphere all around. And when by accident a leave fell down, I rubbed them a bit and they emanated a wonderful smell.” And she felt the healing powers of the plants and described them to me. I was wonderstruck by her great love for the plants.

She then wrote a care sheet for those who got a plant:

Please note that the tree is growing in the tropics !!!! It cannot stand frost. The plant needs a lot of sun and heat.
Water: Test: Touch the earth with your finger to see if the earth is dry or damp.
Only water the plant when the soil is dry. The amount of water the plant needs is very varied.
If the leaves roll or hang down, the plant gets too much water. Please check if there is water in the planter. Pour the water out.
Place the tree, only in the plant pot, on a saucer 2-3 days in the sun. The audumbara tree does not like wet feet.

Plant mantra: OM Srim Hretaja Namaha
(Please contact the Devas for this plant to be beautiful.)

From July on every tree needs a bigger pot. The audumbara tree also requires a special soil: tub plant soil for “Mediterranean trees.”
If a leaflet is accidentally broken off by the audumbara tree, put the leaf on the spot causing pain or just on the forehead. If the leaf has dried for more than 2 days, it smells wonderful and the healing powers are more intense. Just try it.

My flower is now already in a bigger pot, of course with tub plant soil for “Mediterranean trees.” And with a little Dattatreya statue in front of it.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 13th, 2018 at 12:30 pm and is filed under Experiences, Spiritual Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.