In the Indo-European Gujarati language, banya means "grocer/merchant," not "tree." The Portuguese picked up the word to refer specifically to Hindu merchants and passed it along to the English as early as 1599 with the same meaning. By 1634, English writers began to tell of the banyan tree, a tree under which Hindu merchants would conduct their business. The tree provided a shaded place for a village meeting or for merchants to sell their goods. Eventually "banyan" became the name of the tree itself. *
Ancient scriptures use the analogy of the vine to talk about the role of man in relation to God. References to vines, fruit and pruning all point to a cultivated spiritual life. Many of those references conjure a grapevine or a fig tree, which is essentially what a Banyan tree is. A banyan (also banian) is a fig that starts its life as an epiphyte (a plant growing on another plant) when its seeds germinate in the cracks and crevices on a host tree (or on structures like buildings and bridges). When you see a Banyan vine up close, the analogy takes on a whole new meaning.
The vines are interconnected and deeply rooted. The tree cannot be easily moved. If you saw the movie Avatar, you witnessed a tree that served as home to a whole community. The roots were interconnected throughout the forest with other living plants. For some, this takes the analogy too far. What you cannot discard is that many things in life are interconnected this way. Your holistic well being is a perfect example.
You can care for your heart and neglect your soul. You can discard both in favor of physical fitness. Either way, your life is half full. (Or half empty, depending on your world view.) To tend your heart, soul, mind and strength like a garden, or a Banyan tree, is the center of living fully alive.
*Quotations from Wikipedia. Though not a valid research source, still a good repository for general information.
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