Wednesday 26 May 2010

Thursday, May 20th, 2010

Rivers & Parks

Winnipeg, Manitoba

Daruka, Doug and I took more than a stroll along the Assiniboine River and its juncture with Red River. This place is called the Forks where the two rivers meet and for hundreds of years the Sioux and Assiniboine tribes met here for trading goods. How things have changed since those times! you have to imagine how everything had its natural green growth. Now, thanks to the city, a great effort has been put out to revive the waterfront with decent trails smartly marked with interspersed quarry stone from the area. It's all a mix of manicured and wild nature pleasant to walk through. They have created trails of mental peace.

Interesting is a huge constellation dial in a depressed portion of earth. There on the side of this structured wall is imprinted the story of Vamana, a form of Vishnu, who as a dwarf was offered in charity from the demon-king, Bali, three steps of land covering heaven, earth and finally the last step, the head of Bali. This meant Bali's surrender.

There are three engraved images rendered so artistically and set into the brick. Just seeing that became an inspiration for further walking along the Red River.

Again, nice job done on the river parkland. One observation is that although pretty, parks in most places appear to be underused. Our guru, Srila Prabhupada, made a remark about that; a rat burrows a hole and the snake comes to live in it. A city designs a park and sadhus (mendicants) come to walk there.

5 KM

No comments: