Where Have All the Lotus Gone?

Lotuses once filled our ponds with leaves and flowers

Recently we received a gift of a special lotus from China

There was a time that the lotus was so dense you could not see the water in this pond.

Sprouted seeds of ther lotus flower

We are creating a minature lotus pond near the Stone Bell.

These are tiny lotuses growing from sprouted seeds from Ebay.

The leaves are just an inch in diameter.

This morning a pink water lily gave five blossoms!

Often mistaken as a lotus, it is a beautiful water lily.

It seems Siva is calling for lotus flowers to once again grace His Sacred Garden.

Recently, the Prajapati family gifted the monastery a rare and exquisite lotus from China. That offering rekindled our deep love for this sacred flower. Inspired, we began preparing a 100-gallon aquatic pot—not only for the gifted lotus but also for a new collection of sprouted seeds we found through a dedicated vendor.

If you’ve ever tried to sprout a lotus seed, you know it’s no simple task. These seeds are encased in a hard shell that can preserve life for centuries. The oldest recorded viable seed, discovered in a dry lake bed in northeastern China, was over 1,300 years old—and it germinated successfully in the 1990s. In this same spirit of renewal, we brought 20 young lotus sprouts to the monastery. They now bask in the sun, growing in a warm pot that receives 4–6 hours of bright sunlight each day. They will later be transferred to our large pot.

Years ago, we had an abundance of lotus—so many that one 60-by-200-foot pond was completely carpeted in green leaves and pink blossoms. But in time, bottom-feeding tilapia devoured them all, and our attempts to regrow them have failed—until now.

This time, our approach is different. We’re planting the lotuses in large, protected pots, safe from fish, and placing them around the monastery grounds. One such pot—a 100-gallon black tub—is being buried near the Silpi Pavilion, where devotees can once again marvel at the sacred beauty of Nelumbo nucifera.

As Gurudeva once said:

“Visualize within yourself a lotus. Have you ever seen a lotus flower? I’m sure you have. Now visualize this lotus centered right within your chest, right within your heart. You have read in the Hindu scriptures that the Self God dwells in the lotus within the heart. Let’s think about that.

We all know what the heart is, and what happens when it stops. Now try to mentally feel and see the heart as a lotus. Within the center of the lotus, see a small light. You may have read that the Self God within the heart looks like a brilliant flame the size of your thumb. That light—call it your inner effulgence, your atomic power—is what motivates and illumines the mind.

The Self God is deeper still. The lotus is within the heart, and the Self God dwells deep within that lotus of light.”

Let us cultivate these sacred flowers once again—not just in the soil, but in the soul.