I am so saddened by the news coming out of California. Such a tragic loss for so many. Beautiful homes and forests, lives lost, lives disrupted. Our hearts go out to all who have been affected by the utter devastation.
This morning as I was singing the morning prayers:
.samsara-dāvānala-līḍha-loka-
tranayakarunakarunya-ghanāghanatvam
prāptasya kalyana-guṇārṇavasya
vandegurohsri-caraṇāravindam
“The spiritual master is receiving benediction from the ocean of mercy. Just as the cloud pours water on the forest fire to extinguish it, so the spiritual master extinguishes the blazing fire of material existence. I offer my respectful obeisances unto the lotus feet of my spiritual master.” (Śrī Gurvaṣṭakam, Verse 1)
I was again reminded of the California Fires and how this material world is often compared to a forest fire in Srila Prabhupada’s books. From the small paperback book entitled “Elevation to Krsna Consciousness” we read:
This material world is often compared to a forest fire which takes place automatically. No one wants a forest fire, but there is often lightning, or carelessness, or friction, or whatever, and the fire immediately takes place. Similarly, this material world is beset with a blazing fire of problems. Everyone wants to live here peacefully, but situations develop in such a way that this is not possible for anyone. We struggle very hard to adjust things in so many ways, but nature’s laws are so cruel and dangerous that in spite of our hopes and plans the blazing fire of the problems of material existence continues.
In this century, for instance, we have attempted to put out the fire of war, but it has not been possible. There was a First World War, and then a League of Nations was formed to try to prevent a second, but despite their attempts a second took place. Now a United Nations has been constructed to help end war, but war is going on in Vietnam, in Egypt, in Pakistan and other places. No one wants a Third World War, but it seems imminent. It is not possible to send a fire brigade, a few men with buckets of water, to extinguish a great fire in the forest. To extinguish a roaring forest fire there must be volumes of water; in other words, there must be an arrangement that is beyond human endeavor. When there is a merciful cloud over the forest fire, the cloud bursts, rain pours down in torrents, and the blazing fire is immediately extinguished. As a cloud collects water from the ocean, similarly the spiritual master collects water from Kṛṣṇa’s ocean of mercy and pours it over the blazing fire of material existence. Thus one who bestows or distributes the merciful rain of Krsna is called a spiritual master or guru.
The chanting of Hare Krsna, extinguishes the blazing fire of material nature.
The Hare Krishna Movement 