Thursday, 8 September 2011

Sunday, September 4th, 2011

She Rivers

Winnipeg Manitoba

The two rivers flowing through the city here, the Red River and Assiniboine River are on an overflow, unusual for late summer. Dout, Daruka and I collected muck under our feet by their bank, not by choice. It got to the messy point where we decided to move up to the street level and take to the sidewalk. I guess everybody likes to be close to the river. There’s a Huckleberry Finn in us all.

When I see such rivers I think not of the Mississippi, but of the Ganges, that most sacred of all. She is an enraging personality. In her personified form as outlined in Puranic stroies, she comes across as a relentless character. She saves lives, however, with her pure waters, and paradoxically claims lives through accidents. It sounds duplicitous of her.

Our local rivers here claim bicycles and shopping carts. Sometimes the occasional corpse is cast adrift, something seen on the Ganga from time to time.

Now enough of goddesses as rivers. We had today the time to reflect on the feminine side of God though, which goes by the name of the ultimate goddess – Radharani. For Her, Krishna devotees around the world honour a half-day fast. I was asked to speak on the topic of the top-most goddess, first at the home of a god-sister, Racitambhara, and then the home of Vrnda. In fact, these two aforementioned persons are goddesses in their own right. They carry the line of service in the city of Winnipeg in an extraordinary way. Kindness and compassion runs through their veins as they demonstrate the caretaking nature of Radharani Herself.

To say something of compliment about Radha is difficult because it is hard to know where to begin and where to end, but one thing is for sure, She offers so much mercy which tends to flow like many rivers. Those who claim allegiance to Krishna must also show the same loyalty to Radha. When we utter the words, “Hare Krishna” we are actually saying, “Radha Krishna”

10 Km

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