Multiply the effect of Earth Hour

We can. We will. Will you?

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.

If all the people who are willing to participate in Earth Hour day chant for 1 hour tomorrow, we can only imagine how much impact this could have on our planet!

So let us switch off the lights tomorrow for 1 hour and even better, let us chant for 1 hour tomorrow.

In case you like chanting and start experiencing it’s numerous psychological and spiritual benefits you can chant for at least an hour every day. That could not only help avert further climate change but would help our inner growth as well.

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Read more:

• Occupy Wall Street and the way forward
• Prayers for the Gulf Oil Spill
• The real pollution
• Global warming – causes and facts

Turkey earthquake survivors rescued alive from rubble – miracle or destiny?

Turkey earthquakey survivor baby (Image by: Reuters)

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.

Death is one of the pre-destined events in our life. This means that when one’s death is to come, it will come, and if the person’s death has not arrived, that person will remain alive. This is the case of survivors of any accident, natural disaster, plane crash, etc. For the survivors of the earthquake in Turkey too, their destiny played a major role in keeping them alive.

When one undergoes pain such as that inflicted by a major disaster like the Turkey earthquake, it also means one has that much severe destiny to undergo. However, it is possible to face our destiny by doing spiritual practice based on the basic principles of Spirituality. SSRF recommends chanting the Name of God according to one’s religion at birth. One should also chant for overcoming ancestral problems.

Read more:

• What is destiny?
• Why do natural disasters happen?
• Near Death Experiences

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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.

(AP Photo/Tokyo Electric Power Co. via Kyodo News)

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 which are also the two reasons we are born: the angle of karmic law, and the angle of spiritual growth on the path to God-realisation.

The karmic law is quite complex, and there are numerous parameters which influence the quantity of merits or demerits which are created. Of all of these parameters the most important parameter is the intention behind the act and that defines which benefit one gains from sacrificing life.

If the intention of the person is to sacrifice his life in order to save one person, or his family members, a karmic account is created, that is, that person he is saving or the family members he is saving will be in his debt. The only case when they will not be in his debt is if through this act he is just repaying the debt from a previous life to that person or to his family. In that case the karmic account gets settled.

If on the other hand the intention of the person is to sacrifice his life for the collective, for the society or the nation, then he gains merits which he will collect either in heaven or in his next life. From the angle of spiritual progress however, in both these cases karma is being created or completed, so the person is not gaining spiritual progress from the act.

We may wonder why would the person not gain a full spiritual benefit from such a big sacrifice? In order for the embodied soul to reach God-realisation one must imbibe Divine qualities and purify all the bodies, including the physical body, mental body, intellect and ego. Sacrificing life is akin to sacrificing attachment to the physical body, but one also needs to sacrifice attachment to all the impressions in the mind, the intellect and one’s own ego. Only then can we experience our inner Divine nature.

We undoubtedly gain by striving to work and sacrifice for the benefit of others. The person doing work or sacrificing for society or his community with the right intention gains merits. However when our sacrifice for others is coupled with spiritual practice such as chanting, performing service to the spiritual cause, developing spiritual love, imbibing seekership qualities and developing spiritual emotion, it brings us added spiritual benefit and brings us closer to the Divine.

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Read more:

• About Karmayoga
• Sacrifice as one of the steps in spiritual practice

[Photo via ONTD. Protective border to minimise the effect of distressing frequencies that emanate from the photo.]

During the Halloween preparations, Heidi Klum reported her husband asking her: “Why don’t you do an Indian goddess? Like a scary Indian goddess?” Klum goes on to say: “I loved it because she [Goddess Kali] is so mean and killed all these different people and [had] fingers hanging off [her] and little shrunken heads everywhere.”

According to spiritual science, female deities like deity Kali are generally associated with one or more of the three basic aspects of God – creation, sustenance and dissolution. Deity Kali is one of the deities that is associated with the principle of dissolution, and each of her features such as the weapons in her hands, the garland of severed arms, etc. carry a spiritual meaning. For example the severed head she holds in one of her hands is that of a demon, and it signifies destruction of ignorance or attachment.

It is therefore best to refrain from commenting on the gross aspects of a deity’s form without familiarizing oneself with their spiritual significance.

Similarly, designing, producing, buying or using dress up gadgets like the ones designed by Normal Bob Smith amounts to denigration of the Jesus Christ principle. Several years ago, this person launched a website, allowing users to play with a dress-up doll by placing movable layers of clothing on top of a crucified Jesus. Outfits available on site for dressing up the model include red devil pyjamas, a skeleton, a wizard and a pink female corset. The author had also produced a companion refrigerator-magnet set, which was picked up by retailer Urban Outfitters, until citizen’s protests drew the sale to a halt.

One should be alert towards such forms of irreverence, and where possible, prevent or oppose them. This is for the benefit of both those, who are – consciously or not – agents of the denigration, as well as for the benefit of society at large. God’s presence will be experienced on a larger scale only when respect towards His forms is expressed and protected.

Do you know of any other denigrating Halloween practices? Have you protested against such types of Halloween denigrations? Tell us your story.

Atul Dighe

Editor

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Read more:

• Spiritual Perspective: Halloween
• Halloween Increases the Probability of Attacks by Ghosts
• Definition of a deity