Letter # 6: "Water"

The Sanskrit verse "'Santustah va rajanna vartetapi varina..." of the Srimad Bhagavatum C7, Ch15, Text 18 means: "My dear King, a self-satisfied person can be happy even with drinking only water..." [Translation by Srila Prabhupada C7;15:829].
It's November and rainy in Vancouver, BC, Canada. I look out my window at the rain. Raindrops are water, which is essential to life. Scientists tell us that water is composed of two gases: hydrogen and oxygen. Scientists also tell us that the universe is mostly space and gas. Water seems to be scarce in outer space but is abundant on earth. The Bible mentions water in it's second paragraph: Genesis 1:2 "Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters." The Bible provides a synopsis of creation. The First thing was the "Word": John 1.1: "In the beginning the Word was, and the word was with God, and the Word was God ... All things came into existence through Him..." (From the New World Translation of The Holy Scriptures 1981).
The Vedic description of creation yields more detail. You can read it in the Srimad Bhagavatum in Canto 3, Ch 26 "Fundamental Principles of Material Nature" [Translated by Srila Prabhupada]. The Vedas state that water comes about after the creation of the elements that precede it. First there is the Supreme Soul, which has no beginning or end. The Supreme Soul is self-effulgent (has its own limitless energy) and is transcendental to material nature.
The Supreme Soul's pastime is to create the material, when it so Wills. The first "glance" brings forth three qualities that will imbue all of material nature that is to come. The three qualities are called the Tri-guna - the qualities of goodness, passion and ignorance. These qualities are three threads that will weave into the fabric of the universe that is to come.
Then is created the Ego or Ahankara, more correctly called the False Ego. The False Ego has the quality of arrogance. The False Ego will be penetrating the other material elements that are to follow. The False Ego becomes so engrossed in the material that it forgets where it came from.
The material elements are all produced simultaneously, and include all of the following: the five gross elements, the five subtle elements, ten senses, contaminated consciousness, the mind (source of desire), intelligence, and false ego. - 24 in all. The mixing element is time, the 25th element. It is the latter that is the cause of temporariness in the material world. The time factor is the causes the fear of death in the False Ego.
Let's get back to the gross material elements, as I want to return to the subject of water. Space is created from the Sound or Shabad, akin to John's "Word". All else is formed by a combination of the other elements. So from the "Shabad, space comes about. From the mixing of space and the quality of touch, air (gas) is created; from the mixing of air and touch is created fire (think of lightning); the gas and lightning interact with the quality of taste to produce water (remember your basic science - hydrogen, oxygen, energy and lo and behold -water!). All these elements combine with olfaction to condense into earth. And so forth - the details are too numerous to mention here. Suffice to say that all these universal reactions are present in each of our bodies. Our bodies are thus little duplicates of the universe!
Water: It's needed for life, for sure. And you might know that it's wet out here in BC. We live in a rainforest. I look out of my window and see that it's raining water droplets. It's not raining droplets of whisky, nor droplets of cocal cola nor wine nor Red Bull. It's raining refreshing water. Let's not pollute it. Let's enjoy water as it is.
Remember today's message: "... a self-satisfied person can be happy even with drinking only water..." Let us turn water into a spiritual wine. As we drink it, let's remember its source. Lord Krishna says: "Rasa aham apsu ...: O son of Kunti, I am the taste of water..." Bhagavad gita 7:8 (Translation by Srila Prabhupada] And let us appreciate the holy water or Jal that is dispensed to us with love from our Spiritual Teacher.

God Bless; Allah Hu Akbar; May The Forces Of The Universe Bring You Harmony; Hare Krishna; Radha-Swami; and Nanak Naam Chardi Kala Tere Bhane Sarbat Dha Bhalla.

I wish to express my gratitude for your comments, which inspire me to carry on writing. Please forgive my fallibilities in presenting this material. Also, feel free to send this message on to someone that you might think would like to receive it. If you do send it on, my only request of you is that you send it as it is, in its entirety, and to not alter or modify any of the text, references or authorship information. Thus you will help to give credit or liability to where they are properly due.

Jas Bhopal
Copyright© 2007
“Practicing goodwill makes for a good life."
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References: "The Holy Bible" Online version; "The Koran" as translated by SV Mir Ahmed Ali 2005 ISBN 0-9761870-0-0); "The Bhagavad Gita As it Is" as translated by Srila Prabhupada ISBN 0-89213-268-X; The Srimad Bhagavatum as translated by Srila Prabhupada ISBN0-89213-259-0; "I Am That. Talks With Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj” ISBN 0-89386-022-0; The Dhammapada ISBN-10:1-84483-344-5; The Sacred Sukhmani ISBN 81-7205-098-4; Wikipedia.