Before Sunrise

October is special this year as I wake up to a carpet of flowers everyday. Parijat, with its divine energies has made me fall in love with mornings. I know this new found love isn’t forever but would last only as long as the blossoms do, for the month of October. With the tree shedding all of its flowers every morning, dew drops clinging on to them, as if to say their final good-byes, it is a sight that leaves me happy and sad at the same time, every single day. An exotic fragrance lingers on, long after the dew evaporates, leaving me craving for more each day. As I pick up the flowers( as many as I can) I fall in love, all over again with these pearl-white blossoms that the tree of sorrow sheds, baring open it’s own heart and soul.

Early morning romanticism comes alive with the sight of flowers kissing the earth, utilizing the last of their breaths in a divine act of love. This romanticism is bound to be translated into legends of love, and I was not surprised to find out that many are associated with the Parijat , with each one as interesting as the night-flowering tree itself. It is believed that the tree is sad, because it can’t keep its flowers during the day. Parijat is believed to be a tree from the heavens, brought to the Earth by Lord Krishna. A quarrel over it ensued between Satyabhama and Rukmini, Krishna’s wives. But Krishna planted the tree in Satyabhama’s courtyard in a way that when the tree flowered, the flowers fell in Rukmini’s courtyard. The legend goes on to tell that he did this to punish Satyabhama, who insisted Krishna brings the tree of heaven to the Earth in the first place. The tree doesn’t belong here, so it flowers only during the night, and sheds off all the flowers before sunrise.

Some legends talk of the flowers being tears that it sheds. It is the story of a princess called Parijakta who fell in love with the Sun God. Sadly, that love was unrequited and she took her own life to survive a heartbreak. But then l guess love cannot die, so a Parijat tree sprung up at the spot where the princess died. Unable to stand the sight of the Sun God who didn’t love her back, the tree flowers only at night and sheds the blooms like tear-drops before sun rise.

As a passionate night ends, a new light beckons, to the other side of life…But we must kiss the earth one last time before letting go. It takes a special kind of a courage to let this love bloom in our fragile hearts, knowing that there isn’t a happily ever after. Forever isn’t even a distant dream, a night is all we got, to live…to love…to last.