A Tale of Grace

Dearest Friends and Family,

After posting URGENT! SOS! Yesterday, we went to talk with Holy Mother Amma, Mata Amritanandamayi about this.  She was giving darshan.  There were about 50 people crowded around her on all sides, and hundreds more sitting jammed around them, and a line of people left and right coming to meet her…the music was very loud, making it difficult to hear anything. In the midst of all this conflagration she indicated we should come near, and Link went up to her, while I stood back, and asked her to stop the oil leak…She expressed sadness for the Nature that is going to be destroyed, and hope that the human beings will think and do fast, then later spoke about the necessity of conserving water…that in Singapore they are relying on desalinating the Ocean, that she has wanted to see rain water harvesting here in the ashram on the hostels…I think we should understand the gravity of the situation from her hesitant words, and realize that we need to move forward with the utmost caution for water…

I saw one Bri. (Amma’s Nun) rinse her face with part of a mug of water, over a potted plant.  That’s conserving….lets try to think like this.  I need to get some non-plastic pans that I can wash dishes with…. The Brahmacharinis (Nuns) here always try hard to follow Amma’s restrictions and advises in resource use…I often see them turning off or tightening  dripping taps, checking that the electricity is off if not in use, etc….

Its hot season, here, March was the hottest on record since 1880,  Amma has said, 1 bath a day, max, as by our water use now, we are killing the future generations….so, we are all stinky and sticky with oily looks…but, at least we get that one bath…and maybe the children who will inevitably come to their inheritance here, will have some water…We haven’t come here to posture to each other, but to be a participant in the goings on of the whole planet, not to be in synch with  sick people’s minds….but we get so confused….

Meanwhile the press has stopped using innocuous words like, ‘leak’ and ’spill’, and is now saying ‘geyser’ and ’spew’….I really wish the media would go for honesty rather than political and corporate  popularity!  I suppose many of you have seen the photos of  the beautiful creatures in peril  in the Gulf….

Today an American Bri. ( Nun) came by and talked about the simple measures they are taking in the residences on top the temple building, to save all laundry rinse water for the toilet use, collecting rain water, etc.

If we can begin to think that we need to be charitable to Nature as well, we will immediately put these things in place, much water can be saved….in the future we may have oily rains…if oil covers large parts of the ocean, those places will not evaporate water easily.

We have got to stop plastic production. We can spend to send plastics to where they can hopefully be re-used…the miserable fact is, that even there, that process is totally polluting as well, it can only be done once, and again, we have another toxic item…we have no choice on the plastic but to completely stop…we can use rubber as was done before….and glass….

We have gotten feedback from many people, and its good to know how many of us, from so many different backgrounds are united in our thinking!  Jai Ma!

Lets go forward in an all round corrective to the scene – lets teach our kids what they need to know to be able to LIVE on this damaged planet….Lets give them the skills, common sense and simple techs to be able to survive and the ethics to be happy…..

We don’t have to go backwards, except to common sense…we can move forwards, once we have returned to common sense, for then it will be a real forward movement….

Here is an essay from Peter Maurin (1877-1947), co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, an wise philosopher and visionary for human civilization as well:

A New Society

To be radically right

is to go to the roots

by fostering a society

based on creed,

systematic unselfishness

and gentle personalism.

To foster a society

based on creed

instead of greed,

on systematic unselfishness

instead of systematic

selfishness,

on gentle personalism

instead of rugged individualism,

is to create a new society

within the shell of the old.
From Peter Maurin’s Easy Essays: http://www.catholicworker.org/roundtable/easyessays.cfm

You might like to keep tabs on 350.org as well….

Loving you,

Aunty Kamala