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• Personal Growth

May 2015

By Life Positive

Everything which nature provided freely and abundantly has been abused by human beings, water being one of them. The situation has become so alarming that it is bringing together people from diverse fields to deliberate on ways to conserve water.

Swami Chidananda Saraswati, head, Parmarth Niketan, Rishikesh, played host to the World Water Day Celebration on March 22.

“From the fluid nectar which nourishes us for nine months in our mother’s wombs, to the waters of our sacred rivers that irrigate our fields and quench our thirst, to the water that forms most of our bodies, water is truly life and truly sacred,” said Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati on the occasion, highlighting its critical importance.

Uplift, Unify, the Shift Network, and Global Interfaith WASH Alliance (GIWA) joined hands to celebrate the significance of water. It started with a beautiful live Ganga aarti ceremony on the Ganga ghat. The event connected over 300 locations all over the world via webcast live to celebrate, honour and love water through a sacred havan and water blessing ceremony during sunrise the next day. The sacred ceremony and global synchronised meditation was beautifully led by Swami Chidananda Saraswati, President of Parmarth Niketan, along with Satish Kumar, reverential ecologist and editor of The Resurgence, Bharat Mitra, founder of Organic India and Uplift, Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati, President of Divine Shakti Foundation, and many other luminaries from around the world.

People from all around India and over 20 countries, including Israel, America, China, Japan, Europe, Denmark, Venezuela, New Zealand, and Indonesia, came together on Parmarth Niketan’s Ganga ghat to offer prayers, and pledge to protect and preserve the life-sustaining element. Featuring a tele-summit, a global webcast, and a synchronised meditation, the event included scientists, spiritual leaders, environmentalists and artists sharing their perspectives on water. From the banks of the Ganga to the shores of Lake Merritt in Oakland, California, to Los Angeles’ Venice Beach, the global link up and free webcast united a massive global audience and sent out a powerful wave of intention across the planet.

Said Mahatma Gandhi, “There is always enough for everyone’s need but there is never enough for every one’s greed.” Today our greed and our neglect of finite natural resources are causing preventable diseases and death. “Let us combine our energy and efforts as a collective community to catalyse a major revolution so that all our brothers and sisters across the world have access to life-giving water,” concluded Sadhvi.