Kāla in the Banyan: Witnessing Time
I took this photo in Goa, zoomed in eight times on my iPhone, capturing a deep red sun slipping through a small opening in the branches of a banyan tree behind my hotel. In the distance, visible between the large banyan leaves, stood one of man’s temples, in this case a church. The entire scene lasted less than a minute at that magnification. You could literally watch the sun move across that narrow frame of leaves until it vanished. I have watched sunsets in Madeira, on the plains of Africa, and outside my yoga studio in Orlando overlooking a lake. I never grow tired of it. The ritual of light appearing and disappearing has followed me across continents. But this morning in Goa was different. Because the branches of the banyan tree created a window. A small aperture through which I could literally see time passing. When the horizon is vast, the sun’s movement feels slow, almost abstract. But when you constrain it to a narrow frame — a gap in leaves — you watch it move. You watch ...