Nature Care

“The creation and the Creator are not two,” Amma constantly reminds us. It is this principle that informs and motivates the various environmental programs and ‘green initiatives’ of Amma’s Ashram. For when we see Mother Nature as the embodiment of God, we will automatically serve and protect her.

When we see Mother Nature as the embodiment of God, we will automatically serve and protect her.

– Amma

In India, the sun is not considered some inert ball of gas, but Surya Deva—the Sun God. The earth is Bhumi Devi—the Earth Goddess. Similarly named are the rivers, mountains and trees. India’s culture is one wherein everything one sees serves as a reminder of the all-pervasive nature of the Divine. At its heart, this perspective is not polytheistic, but an acknowledgement that all names and forms are but various manifestations of the one all-pervasive consciousness that serves as the substratum of creation.
When we come to see a river as God, how will we dump toxic waste into it? When we see trees as manifestations of the Lord, how will we disseminate our forests? When we see the very air itself as Vayu Deva, how will we allow poisonous fumes from factories to fill it?

Through the planting of hundreds of thousands of saplings each year, through seminars aimed at fostering ecological awareness and through the environmental group GreenFriends, Amma’s Ashram is offering service to God through serving Mother Nature, reawakening the world to principles that protected our environment for millennia.

“Nature is our first mother,” Amma says. “She nurtures us throughout our lives. Our birth mother may allow us to sit on her lap for a couple of years, but Mother Nature patiently bears our weight our entire life. Just as a child is obligated to his birth mother, we should all feel an obligation and responsibility towards Mother Nature. If we forget this responsibility, it is equal to forgetting our own self. If we forget Nature, we will cease to exist, for to do so is to walk towards death.”.

GreenFriends is an organization established by the Ashram for the preservation and protection of the environment. Below are the main projects undertaken by GreenFriends.

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• World Environment Day to foster harmony among humans, animals and nature
• Vishu: A call for water conservation and sustainable living
• 50,000 seed balls airdropped in joint effort with Indian Navy
• Vishu gives us the message of seeing everything and everyone as equal
• Amma’s Nature care activities
• Planting one lakh seed balls in the forest, in just 6 hours

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