Friends from across the pond

What are you doing, Spotty? asked Stripes stifling a yawn and sneezing.

Dusting up! said Spotty, Go back to sleep.
I wasn't sleeping, I was practicing self-enquiry, answered Stripes, a little annoyed at being disturbed.

Little six-month old Spotty was removing layers of dust and cobwebs from the tables and chairs and furniture.

What has possessed you? asked Stripes really surprised.

Some devotees are coming over, from far far away.

How far, enquired Uncle Stripes, almost awake now.

Spotty dusted and turned the globe on the table. Here is where we are, and there, across the pond is where they are coming from.
Thats a huuuuge distance, son. It's not exactly a pond, its a huge ocean, I believe. It would take them ages to reach here.

They land tomorrow morning!

Tomorrow! Land! said Stripes, aghast.


They are flying in by dragon, and should be in time for iddlies and saambaar. I am getting some lassi ready in case they find the saambaar a tad hot for their western palates.

Stripes looked around the cave. Apart from the desk on which Father's photographs stood, and the other pictures on the cave walls, the rest of the cave looked quite ... like a cave should look ... dirty and dusty.

See, I have written a little poem for my lion bwuthers.

Lions did you say, asked Stripes shivering. (Lions frightened him.)

Stripes read the poem slowly:

Lord, people find their joy in things of this world
What they see in it, i do not have eyes to
I find my joy in You, You are my love,
my eternal love.
Your eyes are my favorite jewels,
my eyes see only You.

I hope Mum Lioness approves, asked Spotty nervously. It's my forst poem.

Balanandaswami reminisces

That evening, Bala submitted the second report (on Aunt Lioness) to Jags. Jags was impressed with the report but skeptical on how highly Bala had rated her. Did Bala not know his divine powers?

Bala quietly retreated to the other room.
Watching the cubs had unsettled him in a way he could not put his finger on.
First there was this that watching the cubs play had reminded him of his childhood and how he and his brother pranced around.

Bala and brother in cubhood

Then there was this delightful game they played, jumping on one another by surprise.


Then his memories moved onto his mother. How Mum fox looked after them. And played with them much like Mum Lioness played with the cubs. Slowly more memories came to him. The tail pulling, the loving bites and sleeping together.

Mum Fox and Bala

They had been four to start with. But the forest was unforgiving. Two cubs didn't survive the tough life. Mum Fox took it in stride. The two survivors grew up, playing with each other, and other animals. He felt a heaviness in his chest as he remembered Mum Fox come home one day with dinner to find only two cubs. The memories began flooding him and he forgot about Jags and Kracks and the meaningless, selfish present.

Where is my brother, Bala thought? We fought and seperated over some small treat one day. Never to meet again. Oh, he would give anything, he thought, to find his brudder again, and play with him, like the lion cubses did.

His thoughts came back to the four cubs. What was it about them that unsettled him?
Was it just the memories of his family that came back? Or was it the way they looked at him. Yes that was it.

The look in their eyes

It was a look of, perhaps, love for all others. How could he, he thought, harm them when they had this look in their eyes. He had never seen such a look before. Even when they cast a charm on him on the tree, it was the same look. No malice. He almost felt they might have been wondering why Bala did not come down to play with them.

There was a lot working inside Bala. He realized that after all these years, he really did not know who he was. How much he longed to go back to Mum Fox and Brother.

Thinking thus, he fell asleep.

Divine entanglement - the sleepover

Latecomahs have to forst read this.

So the good behavior of the cubses who were not "asleep" resulted in me (Spotty) being allowed to sleepover at my cub brudderses cave. Out of politeness, Stripes got an invite too. Which he assepted cos he can't sleep without me.

Which was quite a bad idea, cos i really was instradid in squinching between my cub brudders. Or else sleep on their chests, in rotation, each getting equal time.

Cuddlesome Crew

I really don't know how it is to sleep with lion cubs, at all. And to smell lion cubs all night. Its one matter smelling them when tracking them or spying on them. But quite another to have lion cub smell wafting through your leopard cub nostrils all night.

Tiru-cub falls asleep

And the feel of baby lion cub mane against one shoulder, and ones head resting gently on another lion's paw. And a third lion cubs legs carelessly flung across perpendicular to me . That sounds like heaven to me.

Om: can someone toarn the lights out, pleeeease!

So to cut a long story shoaht, I got to snuggle in with a grown up tiger all over again, yet another night without a single break in sikz months. A sleepy snorey tiger. Like we barely hit the cave flaw, and he was farst asleep, using me as a teddy bear.

Spotty with eyeses open, looking at brudders entangled blissfully

I had my eyeses open watching three lion cubs get entangled with each udder in sleep, wishing i could have been scrambled and jumbled between them. And with those thawts in mind, and some heavenly food digesseding in my tumick, I wafted into slumberland.

Divine entanglement

I awoke to some divine brekkfuss aromas, finding myself on the udder end of the cave room, nicely entwined with my lion cub brudders, like a piece of a jigsaw puzzle, all three purring away contentedly.

I had a dream that I was sleeping in front of Bhagavan and he was touching my ears, then my neck, then my shoulders, unable to resist, knowing i could wake up, but completely unable to withhold his love. Humans were standing around wishing they could be in my place.

Suddenly Tiger's tumick began making growly rumbly sounds (meaning he's hungry) hearing which the cubses woke up startled. Guess they aren't used to such unculchahed sounds.

I hope to hear the cubses angle to the sleepover. And what they were thinking. And how i got to the udder side.

I like went in disguise !!!

Yesterday when we like went over for Iddlies, we made it poafikly clear that we had just dropped by, and had absolukely no idea that we were invited. How were we suppost to know anyway? So now the Lionses really have no idea that they were being tailed by me.

So like today I got into a Lion cub outfit that fits me to a T. Tiger had to zip me up and pinch in the velcro in sortan parts. And then we were off.



Of coas we had to make up a story of how he had found me walking around lorst in the hills crying and he picked me up. And oh Spotty, well right now he's farst asleep, snoring cutely and all that. And so he thought being a lion cub, i might want to meet up with some others of my type.

Now, Spotty, you be a good lion cub today

Of coarse, Auntie Lioness was only too unnerstanding. Altho she did give me one suspicious sniff, and then after that she was warm and friendly. She said i was most welcome to live with them, and she would adopt me, which freaked out Stripes. He said, no we can't possibly impinge upon your already vastly over-streched resoases, and it was Bhagavan's will that the cub be taken care of by Tiger.

And Auntie Lioness kept insisting that it was no boahden at all. If she could take care of three, she could take care of four. Just one more kaupinam to wash, that's all. And a tiny one at that.

Tiger didn't know things would take this kind of a toahn. As it is we have encroached upon your kind hospitality so often, and wiped off a week's worth of iddlies in one evening, we possibly cannot, and we mean it, encroach on you nice people any foarther.

But Auntie Lioness would not listen. She musta really believed I was a lion. But i cant figger why she would look at the cubs and give them a wink whenever she saw Tiger squirming and sweating.

So finally Tiger said only for today. Auntie Lioness finally agreed and didn't press any foarther. Just imagine what would have happened when I would have had to go to peepee and asked her to help me out of the outfit! She would have fainted with shawk upon realizing that I am not really a lion.

Anyway, here are some pics taken by Auntie Lioness of Stripes playing with us four "huge terrifying" cubs.

Tiger played 'Hide n Seek' with us, and hockspotch, 'I Spy' and 'Cat n Mouse' too.
It was tough for Stripes to hide in the small designated playing area, but we pretended not to see him till the last moment.

All the cubs shout 'I spy'

Can you tell me apart, betcha can't.

-- Spotty the Leopard

So cute it hurts !

Could that be Spotty watching us?

Soul sorching queschyuns from Spotty for Mum Lioness ...

How did she make them sooo cute ?
Anudder one is: How on oarth does Mummy Lioness tell them apart?

p.s. could the three huge terrifying cuddlekins see Spotty watching them from atop the tree?

Latest Harry Potter book very boring

anonymous said...
We did not say so.
Just judging by readers reactions.


On Arunachala Hill, one reader of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, just cannot suppress a bout of yawning.

Are you really shoooa you are only three

anonymous said...

i sweaah that looks more than three.
Moah like three and a half lionses.
-- Spotty

Huge Terrifying Lionses ... well, not quite !

anonymous said...
greetings little fellers
just wanted to tell you that Spotty tha Lepurrd has installed a web-cam on the hill, so it has a clean view of your uptays cave room where the darshans are a-happening.
He's connected it to our cave, so we can sit here and watch you folkses.



Also he reports that the huuuge lions are ackshly terribly cutesy cubs, a tad larger than hisself. And not the least terrorfying.
--
love, Med Tiger

July 19, 2007 9:31 AM

Sum advice for Spotty's spotses

ramanamayi said...
Oh Med Tiger, Go ahead and get him the binoculars. But when he sees any kind of animal darshan going on, he should come RIGHT over. And you should too.

As far as Baby Spotty's spots go, one of the little lionses says he can cover them up with vibhuti. But, the littlest lion has been known to put all sorts of markings onto his lovely fur using markers of all types -- so Spotty will not stand out at all in his spottiness.

love, the lionses

July 17, 2007 9:42 PM

Beware of huge terrorfying lionses

anonymous said...
Hi frens

today Spotty reports to me after his moahning toddle, that there is a butifool sign outside your cave saying "The Lionses". He surmises that the sign was painted by the little ones, cos there were several corrections and overwriting on the sign.

Then he says he saw another sign saying "Bewear of hyuj terrifine lineses". The sign was still wet. But he was smiling, not afraid.



Then he was like askin me what does it mean "raining catses and dogses". he peeped out saying i cant see any cats raining down. i told him, i dont know, praps you should ask Mum Lioness, they are ejicated people, they will know. Anyway, it aint rained since yesterday, its dry as a doggy bone here.
--
Med Tiger
p.s. thanks for the house-trainnig answer. i am afraid he may go around yooah house marking his territory too. he says its heredickory.

July 15, 2007 9:03 PM

Tips on house-training for Leopards

ramanamayi said...
Dear Med Tiger,

The cubs are all nicely trained -- but you must remember, they are a little older than Spotty who is really just a baby. The cubs just grew out of some of their baby ways -- but they are still VERY naughty and wrestle in the cave when told to only wrestle outside, and they take each other's toys and hide them behind bushes and then get into big scuffles and want me to take a side.



Hold the kaupinam out as a treat for Spotty for when he is totally trained. You can't be doing all that laundry! And when you get it, bring it over to me and I will put the spots on it with some kaupinam markers we have at our cave.

love, Mummy Lion

July 14, 2007 8:57 PM

The truth about the red stuff

ramanamayi said...
Dear Med Tiger and Med Lep,

We are glad spotty is not scared of us any longer and we are glad you think we have love eyeses.

That red stuff is a very very special kind of kumkum and it was the littlest cub who was wearing it. He is not supposed to put it on all by himself, but he always does.

love, the Med Cubs

July 14, 2007 8:18 PM

We used up all the Vibhuti, HONEST !!!

ramanamayi said...
Dear Med Rhino and Med Rhino Junior,

The reason we had no vibhuti on in that photo was becos we (the cubses) had gotten INTO the vibhuti when Mummy Lion was making our breffast and we put it on so thickly that we used up every speck. We even put it on our earses and a bit got in our eyeses. When we were going for darshan later, that was when Mummy Lion discovered it was ALL GONE. There was no time to get in a fresh supply.

love, the Med Cubs

July 14, 2007 8:12 PM

So like where's the Vibhuti, anyway?

anonymous said...
Hi Kids,

Me and my son, Med Rhino Junior have been going thru your amazing blahg. Junior (aka Jumbo) shooa is an observant lad.

He's like asking me how come all those lionses in this piccher do not have ANY Vibhuti on them? Not a single one ???

i asplained that praps Mummy Lioness just bathed them.

They don't look wet, he observed foahther.

Jumbo, cute as a button

Praps they've just come in from play. So its like worn off.

They don't look doahty, he said wonderingly.

Well, Huge terrorfying lionses, you have some asplaining to do!!!

--
Med Rhino
(sorry we slept thru the entire week and missed out on a lot of action on your blahg)

July 14, 2007 3:46 AM

Spotty told me ALL about the love-eyeses

anonymous said...
I see Spotty ("The Great Leopard" haha) was up aahly today and he's posted on your blawg before me.

Spotty's love eyeses

Did he tell you that he woke up aahly and went to roll in the rain puddles. And that he saw one of you lionses who had come out to have a peepee.

Yes, he saw one of you, altho not shua which one.

Our convoahsashun went something like this:

Stripes! Stripes!
Me: What is it?
I just saw one of em today! Peepeeing.
Me: Oh.
He has those eyes, you know?
Me: Eyeses, you mean. The plural of eyes is eyeses.
OK. Eyeses.
Me: What eyeses did he have ?

The eyeses of one who has looked into Bhagavan's eyeses.

Me: and what zackly are such eyeses like?

Little Lionses photographed (secretly) by Spotty

They have that compassionate, loving everyone
look, that eyeses have when they have peered into the depths of Bhagavan's Heart. Seeing everyone as Bhagavan, seeing Bhagavan in everyone.

Me: Oh. And where did you lorn about all this?

Well, if you just see his eyeses you will know.
Love eyeses are unmistakible.

Me: Oh there is even a name for them: Love eyeses? That's news to me.

Yup, them lions look like Love Guys to me.
Well, if you wish to validate what i said, look at the pictures of the cats in the pic they jest posted. Look at the eyeses of all the animals. They are unmistakibly Love Eyeses.

Me: Hmmmm. they shua have a look in their eyeses!

Which means they won't gobble us up. They won't harm us. We can go over for Iddlies anytime!!! I am ready!!! An i can't wait to play with all those little animalses they have.

--
btw, which of u was it? Spotty also said that the lion had a lot of red markings on him. I asked whether it was kumkum and he seemed purrty sure it wasn't.

Med Tiger.

July 14, 2007 1:19 AM

We is vegetariuns

ramanamayi said...
First off, we is vegetarians (and we are catchin your waya talking).

Do you really think that we could be eating creechurs?!??!!

We are lions (somedays) till we get hungry, and then we switch to being something else. Today we were turtles (vegetarian turtles) ... we might even post a pickshur of us sunning ourseffs.

By the way, have any of the tigers and lepudds you hang with realised the Seff? We very much hope so.

love,
the meditator-changer-creechers

July 9, 2007 9:10 PM

Brothers, we are like watching ya!

anonymous said...
Lepudd comes to me today waking me up saying :
Hey Tiger dude, i know all about the whateverses. They are lions, man. Huge terrifying ones.

(Now i hate being addressed as Man, cos thats like being degraded for us Tigers)

And they live over at the ashram with access to the kitchen.

I said, like o yeah, the kitchen. How often do we raid the kitchen?
Lepud says, like daily we do.

I says: do we like see any huge terrifying lions there?
Lepud says: like, no we dont.
I says: Then ???

He thinks a while and says: yeah, something smeld fishy. it was written on their blog.
I: on their Blog !!??? show me. We saw the blog.

I says: look Spotty (he hates being called Spotty). The last time we hurd of anything huge and terrifying over here was like those rhinose long back.
Lepudd says: that was grandma's tale.

Yup, i says. We have no proof whether there really were those two rhinos anywhere here. Just grandma and gramps tellign that to us at night to get us to sleep.

Yeah, we got no proof at all of those rhinoses. But gramps tole me that they ran away from Africa cos people there were hunting them for their horn.

I laffed and laffed: for that one stupid hoahn. Would anyone, even a human hunt a rhino for a silly hoahn. What for? To have a nice large back-scratcher. Yeah, said Lepudd, it did smell like quite fishy to me. But gramps told me that he had tears in his eyes when he heard that story from them. and he hugged them both and they felt better.

He hugged them? I asked. I could hardly control myself now. Do you now what happens when you like hug a rhino. You'd get poked in the side and die laffing!

Well, you could hug him sideways so you dont get poked in the side. ... Well. i guess you're right. Even the hugging part smeld fishy to me.
Then what do you think they are?

Me? I said, looking wisely. Whom do they write most about.
Lepudd says: Chimps. And Cows. ... ummmm.
Me: so there you are. they write about chimps, so they could be chimps. We seen a lot of them there at the ashram, haven't we?

Lepudd says: Could they atleast be peacocks?

So i says: lets like end the specklation. and ask them. And ask them if they are vegeteranean too, cos we don't much care about hanging out with lions who hurt udder creatures.
Lepudd: lets check them out from a distance. if they are huge and terrifying, then i ain't going over to meet them.
I says: Cool then.


Mummy Lioness and Ombaby


So brother Lions, we shall be watching from a distance. If you look life-threatening to us, then we are calling it off. We are vegeteranean cats and therefore not huge and frightening. we are gentlecats.

Added Later: Spotty feels you are telling the truth. He thinks you could be big 16 foot tall lions from some udder place like Africa. Praps you visit here once in a while looking like monkeys or bunnies. For once i agree with him.

--
M Tiger.

July 8, 2007 10:16 PM

WE are huuuuge, terrorfying lionses !!!

ramanamayi said...
Meditator Tiger! Bhagavan didn't kill that tiger!!! That tiger was killed by a North Indian prince, not by the Lord of Gentleness. We will put the full story on the blog for you.

Soon we will answer more of your questions ....

love to you two

July 7, 2007 11:27 AM

ramanamayi said...
We are big huge terrifying lions, though there seems to be some dispute about this in our den, with shouts of : I am a PIG! I am a huge elefink, sixteen feet tall!



Whatever azackly we are, we have full access to the ashram kitchen and will meet you near Mother's shrine to deliver many dozen iddlies, some sambar, a gallon of buttermilk (very fresh), and of coas the rasam and the chutney. A European prince (one who has not shot any tigers) has just sent a shipment of chocolate and we will bring some of that too.

And,like, Tiger dude, where didja learn to talk? It ommst sounds like you were raised like in a California valley ... please tell us about your cubhood ...

see ya soon, and lots of love to like botha yaguys,

the Meditator Lions (there are four of us -- one mother and three cubs)

July 7, 2007 11:42 AM