Roots in the Sacred Rudraksha Forest

“In 1984 Gurudeva planted 108 trees with his own hands. He dedicated this forest to pilgrims and all Kauaians, inviting them to sit among the sacred trees to rest, meditate, have a picnic or tell stories to their children. Today the trees are fifty feet tall and produce hundreds of thousands of fruits each year. The English name is Blue Marble tree, since the one-inch diameter fruits are a rare cobalt blue. Their unusual color was written about in a Scientific American article. It seems there are two, and only two, living species on the Earth that create color using refraction and not reflection: a deep-sea crustacean and Eleocarpus ganitrus, the Rudraksha tree. Underneath the blue skin is a thin layer of flesh which is edible, but not too tasty. In Ayurveda, Rudraksha seeds, ground with healing herbs, are given to patients of heart disease to strengthen the cardiac muscle. The wood is also unusual. Almost white in color, it is said to have been the wood of choice in World War I for making airplane propellers; and in India the trees practically became extinct when they were chosen as the timber for railroad ties.” Excerpt from www.himalayanacademy.com/monastery/about/rudraksha-forest
In Nature. Taken: July 31, 2021