Newspapers, media, the internet and social networks are reminding people that on 31st March 2012 it’s Earth Hour day, aimed at raising awareness about the unfavorable climate change on our planet.
When I received a text message from my mobile phone provider to shut down the lights for 1 hour in the evening, a thought came that with spiritual practice we can take this effort further. We have shared in our article on climate change, that the spiritual practice of chanting assures an increase in spiritual purity in us. In the long run, this changes both us and our environment as chanting is far more subtle (and therefore more powerful) than any gross means we resort to in order to prevent unfavorable climate change.

Just a few days ago, a massive earthquake of 7.2 magnitude shook Turkey, in which hundreds of people lost their lives or suffered injuries. Like in many rescue efforts after an earthquake, in the Turkey earthquake too, the rescue workers found survivors – a baby and adults, alive in the rubble after being buried for as many as 4 or 5 days.

It is very heartening that they survived, and while reading such news one cannot but ponder – what makes or breaks the odds of people’s survival beyond the life expectancy of humans when left without food or water? Generally, when something is beyond the limits of being easily explainable by modern science, it has its root cause in the spiritual realm.

In today’s times when selfishness is rampant and there is a general degradation of social unity, ethics and even family structure it sounds very unusual to hear stories of heroes who are doing unselfish acts for others. The last such incident that we have seen, when the Japanese firefighters willingly exposed themselves to high, even deadly levels of radiation in order to protect their fellow citizens is quite inspiring and admirable. We immediately wonder if we would have been able to do the same in their situation? It also makes us wonder how much these people gained spiritually with this act, because it is quite a high sacrifice to make and one would guess it is a valuable one in the scope of universal law. A similar level of sacrifice is often expected from some other professions such as the police or the army, where one has to sacrifice life for the sake of duty, nation, etc. We can look at this act from two angles…

This Halloween, we report on one other malpractice observed during the festival – that of denigrating religious figures, God or deities. In New York City, supermodel Heidi Klum dressed up in a costume resembling the Hindu Goddess Kali. This type of stunt displays disrespect towards the aspect of the God principle represented through that form, especially when it is done to attract public attention. A basic law of spiritual science states that ‘The word, touch, form, taste, smell and its related energy coexist’. This means where the form of God is present such as in the form of deity Kali, God’s attendant divine energy is also present. Hence that form is something to be revered, rather than used for fun, entertainment or publicity.