On the Himalayas - Swami Ashokananda
Swami Ashokananda, one of the preeminent monks of the Ramakrishna Order was the editor of their journal, the Prabuddha Bharata in the 1920s before he went to San Francisco where he lived the rest of his life at the monastery there. In the editorial of the January 1927, he has a wonderful passage on the Himalayas which evokes not only the beauty of the mountains but the spiritual significance it has for Hindus no matter where they live. He writes: As we write these lines, the snows are falling, falling steadily around us in the midst of a preternatural silence. The hills have become all white and the plants are covered and overladen with white flakes. There is not the slightest breath of wind, and the silence is so profoundly deep that we seem almost to hear the whispers of the gods, and to gaze on the effulgent white form of the Great God Shiva in the inner-most depths of meditation. We are no longer on the earth, we seem transported into the very heart of the Absolute! Wonderful ...