What can I do as a citizen of this world towards helping minimise the impact of climate change?
For those of you who read the articles on Climate change and Armageddon and think to yourselves ‘now what?’, we have provided some practical information on what each of you can do to help the situation. The basic aim is to reduce the Raja and Tama in the environment and to increase the subtle basic Sattva component in society.
We have separated the plan of action into 4 quadrants:
Note: Each quadrant needs to include solutions at a physical, psychological and spiritual level. For the purposes of the physical solutions, such as efforts to reduce carbon emissions, we recommend visiting other websites such as climatecrisis.net. The below solutions are written mainly from a psychological and spiritual point of view.
Quadrant 1: What can I do at a basic level?
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First, please take the time to familiarise and understand the articles on Climate change, Armageddon and Good Versus Evil. Also do study the related articles as it will give you a more well-rounded understanding of the issue.
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Spiritual practice that is according to the six basic principles of spiritual practice is a sure way to increase the Sattva in oneself and also to gain a higher level of protection from God.
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If you are not doing any spiritual practice, we have provided you with some simple spiritual practices to get you started on your spiritual journey. There is no better time to start than today. Each one of us starting spiritual practice that conforms to the six basic principles of spiritual practice helps the overall increase in the Sattva component and concomitant decrease in the Raja and Tama components.
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If you are currently doing some spiritual practice, check if it conforms to the six basic principles of spiritual practice. Do ponder deeply over the six basic principles of spiritual practice. Though they may seem deceptively simple, it is in the application of these principles that most people stumble.
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Spiritual practice has to be complemented with an open minded study of spirituality. The study has to be without cultural bias such as we study in a university or college. Only when we are clear about spiritual principles can we make decisions about how to guide and direct our spiritual practice. To facilitate a seeker's spiritual understanding, we are conducting various lectures worldwide and have provided some of these lectures in our SSRF classroom.
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If you have any questions please e-mail us by clicking on the 'contact us' link.
Quadrant 2: What can I do at a basic level to help others?
No man is an island, and we are all a part of society. No man can remain unscathed when the entire world is severely affected. Hence, it becomes imperative, that we take steps to positively influence the world because it consists of our loved ones, relatives, friends, associates, colleagues, etc.
- Pass this article on to your friends, family, acquaintances and interested groups. Every one of us needs to know about the root cause of these events. What we do then is up to each one of us.
- Once you learn, practice and understand a spiritual principle do tell others about it. Do not wait to be proficient yourself before you start sharing it with others. Remember, when you learn 'A' share 'A', do not wait until you go to 'Z'.
Quadrant 3: What are the next steps at an individual level?
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After we start spiritual practice, we need to progressively improve the quality and quantity of our spiritual practice. For example, if one is able to chant the Name of God for one hour a day, in the next month one can try and increase it to two hours. In short, we need to become a seeker of God. We define the stage of seeker as one where:
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One does spiritual practice with a definite goal of God-realisation.
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Spiritual practice and spiritual growth take centre stage in our life even when going about our everyday life.
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One does spiritual practice daily.
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The spiritual practice conforms to the basic principles of spiritual practice.
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One remains in regular contact with other seekers with the objective of being in the company of the Truth and learning spiritual principles.
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One aims to make definite spiritual progress regularly and is alert to stagnation in his or her spiritual practice.
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One makes efforts to reduce personality defects and ego.
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One conducts the ritual of Agnihotra to reduce pollution.
When one is at this stage, one can begin to contribute more effectively to increasing the Sattva component on Earth.
Quadrant 4: What are the next steps to help society?
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Once we have gained the qualities of a seeker as described above, we become more efficient instruments to do God's work.
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Helping spread spiritual awareness that is of a universal nature in society, is the fastest way to earn the grace of the Teaching Principle of God i.e. the Guru.
