Meditation on Niagara Falls

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna. And the whole chapter is essentially about how we can see God in this world.
And Krishna gives a list of impressive names in this world. And he says that all these, and he sends a spark of inspiration. In 10.49 he says that Shreemad-Bhagavad-Gita So everything attractive is a spark of Krishna’s renderings.
Krishna gives a list over there. It’s indicative, not exhaustive. So the beauty of nature, as you can see, the falls has two parts of it.
You can see what is called the Canadian fall. And that side, we have what is called as the American fall. That is in the American countryside, which is in the southern Canadian countryside.
And it contains thousands of gallons of water continuously falling, continuously, endlessly. This is a place for enormous electric power generation through hydro power plants. And the sheer amount of power, apart from the beauty, both of them are extraordinary.
The beauty of the falls, if you see closely over there, you can see some of the water seems to be white. Some of the water seems to be greenish. It’s almost as if two distinct kinds of waters have merged together and are flowing together.
This side the water seems to be more white. Here it’s actually, water looks greenish. Some people were throwing stones from here down.
And here they get into the water. Actually, not even a splash of water. Because the water is so huge.
So the beauty and the power, both are extraordinary over here. And whenever we see extraordinary things in this world, there are basically three approaches that we can have. One is that you may see it as something which points towards God, which is what the Bhagavad Gita teaches us.
Otherwise you can see it as something which is unconnected with God. And you can see it as something which disconnects us from God. I’m just satisfied with this, I don’t need God.
I don’t know God. One of the most well-known metaphors in the Upanishads as well as the Bhagavatam is about how a river flows towards the ocean. So here you see, we have the same river going just down to the ocean.
And as the river is going towards the ocean, it creates a dramatic sight. Similarly, all of us, Kunti Marani prays that, let our consciousness flow towards Vishnu. Let’s say the Ganga flows towards the ocean.
Our life, our life also we are constantly flowing towards Vishnu. That’s what our consciousness should be, flowing towards. Whatever it is flowing towards right now, it is a manifestation of Vishnu.
But we are not realizing it is a manifestation of Vishnu. So when we realize, then the flow comes straight towards Vishnu. And during the flow of our consciousness towards Vishnu, sometimes wonderful things happen.
Just like when the water is flowing, it creates a spectacular sight. Like that, in the flow of our life towards Krishna, sometimes spectacular events may happen in our life. Something wonderful happens to us.
Something wonderful we are able to do. But in the Bhagavatam, the water remains the same. The water flows down, creates a spectacular sight, but it is moving on and on.
Similarly, for a devotee, sometimes at Krishna’s arrangement, at Krishna’s mercy, some wonderful things happen. A devotee does wonderful things. And the devotee accepts that, as the way Krishna is using them.
But after that, the water keeps flowing towards Krishna. Just because the fall has been created, there is a beautiful sight, the water will stop there and think, Oh, now I want to be a part of this fall. The water just keeps flowing.
Like that, whatever we see in this world, you know what is called the tragedy of the Nagara fall? They prayed to Krishna. Because now, the water at the fall is flowing towards the ocean. Let our consciousness keep flowing towards the ocean.
We see also in the feature that, as I said, the same river is divided into two parts. And we humans may label it, that is the American Niagara Falls, but it is completely a Niagara Falls. The same river, which has got divided physically, divided politically, and after that division, it again unites.
Like that, in this world, we all may get divided by different material situations. And those divisions may be necessary for functional purposes. But if we keep our purpose of flowing towards Krishna constant, then those divisions won’t divide us permanently.
They may separate us temporarily, but our common purpose will unite us. So, nature demonstrates how amidst the irreducible diversity that characterizes this world, there can still be harmony and unity in the commonality of purpose. Ultimately, we all can share the common purpose of raising our consciousness, rising to a higher level of spiritual spirituality, then that common consciousness can unite all of us irrespective of whatever difference is, may separate us circumstantially.
And that ultimately is the aspiration of a devotee, to be united with Krishna in love and to be united in harmony with all living beings