“Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls. (Psalm 42:7)
Deep in my childhood memories the soothing, showering sound of a mini waterfall still echoes. It was caused by a gentle stream that ran through our ancestral property, and flowed steeply from a cliff down to some 25 feet below. We children enjoyed playing under its refreshing shower of crystalline water. In quiet nights I could sleep listening to its somniferous humming. Ever since that early experience every waterfall, big or small, from charming Athirappally to roaring Niagra continued to enchant me.
In fact, Waterfalls are an eternal fascination for anybody anywhere . Still, we do not know the secret of its universal allurement. Although the multifaceted Leonardo da Vinci, engineer, artist, poet and scientist, initiated the study of fluid mechanics, he never ceased to be puzzled by the mystery of the waterfall.
When the psalmist sings that the “deep calls to deep in the great roaring of the waterfalls” he must have experienced a very profound mystical sensation of the depth of existence where the levels and means of communication are far beyond our sensory and verbal exchanges. Some would interpret it as the quest of the individual soul for realization and union with God.
It seems the Zen Buddhist tradition has some insights into the enigmatic charm of waterfalls. Their teachers point to both the impermanence and the authentic nature of the element of water. If you look at the steadily falling water threads they look stable, but in fact they are flowing, and so they are impermanent. Also, the falling water shows its true nature, that is, it always flows to lower levels, and never flows up.
These characteristics are very important in the Buddhist spiritual tradition of one seeking one’s genuine identity. The waterfall, therefore, becomes a crucial image in Zen Buddhism.
Whatever be the interpretation, the common people love to see the dazzling spectacle of sparkling silver threads, the misty aura of water droplets, the de-stressing melody and the occasional glow of some rainbow colours around a waterfall. A gracious touch of heaven in the cleansing, refreshing showers from above!
(10 March 2026)