Solidarity with All Life

Dear friend,

This month is the month when Swami Vivekananda proclaimed his message of universal brotherhood at the World Parliament of Religions at Chicago. Underlying this message of universal human brotherhood is the larger message of solidarity with all existence - not just humans. This month we present an excerpt from Swami Vivekananda's lecture at Jaffna. Here Swamiji says among other things:

 

In India it has been preached, "Love all beings as yourselves"; we make no distinction between men and animals. But no reason was forthcoming. No one knew why it would be good to love other beings as ourselves. And the reason, why, is there in the idea of the Impersonal God; you understand it when you learn that the whole world is one — the oneness of the universe — the solidarity of all life." You can read a larger inspiring excerpt in our newsletter.

The Rameshwaram Teertham project is progressing and we are envisioning now a concept of participatory eco-pilgrimage where the pilgrims are asked to take a green environmental oath at the Hanuman Kunda Teertham. At Mangala Teertham and Runa Vimochana Teertham the water has started sparkling and aquatic flora and fauna have started increasing. In this newsletter you will also meet the team that is toiling to make the pilgrimages of generations of Indians a spiritual and eco-friendly experience. In the other happenings this month we have various programmes including

  • the sustainable agriculture workshops,
  • the workshops on bio-methanation plants
  • workshops on ethnic-medical system and also
  • biogas plant installations

You can read about all that in our newsletter along with excerpts from our publication 'Akshaya Vikas' along with eco-toons on spiritual basis of sustainable development with instances of how age old wisdom can help guide modern society towards sustainable development. In our wisdom section we have excerpts on cultural ecology by Kapila Vatsyayan, natural education by Sri Aurobindo  and eco-friendly economy by JC Kumarappa.

You can download the entire newsletter here