Humble Pranams and My day at Presbyterian High

Om Sai Ram and Hari Om

Salutations to the perfect Lord
who has been watching over me
and providing my everyday needs.
Without Thee there is nothing,
I pray that you do not take away my yearning for You.

My Day
Today at PHS, i had the chance to sit in for a Normal Technical class. They are a rowdy lot and the teacher had trouble trying to calm them down. They hurl abuses at each other and one of them almost got into a fight. He was later sent for detention. Later, Miss Rita Kumari came in and the whole class was pin-drop silent. The lessons went on after that. This was the first time in my life that I ever step into a N(T) class and it was a really eye opening session! I had chapel service today in the morning and i really enjoyed it. However i find that their "bhajans" is abit monotonous. The songs were not very catchy so the students were not very enthusiatic in the singing. There was story-telling from the bible and she related a story about Sammon. He was the son bornt to a childless couple and he led israel. The story depicts faith in God and that God gives hope.

I came across the article sent by Uncle Ananda

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Straits Times Singapore Online Forum July 11, 2007

Saving Earth - a tale from Hindu culture
I CANNOT help observing from the Live Earth blitz that the message is as ancient as the hills.
Let me share how Hindu culture values the environment and exhorts its followers to preserve the sanctity of nature.
In a very milestone episode of Lord Krishna's incarnation, He observed His village chief and the village folk preparing to worship the god of rain.
Lord Krishna then enlightened them that it is not the rain god who brings showers on Earth, but the mountain, the merits of the trees in the forest and good deeds of men on Earth.The story goes that the villagers began worshipping the mountain, and how the rain god expressed his wrath in the form of torrential rains, and how Lord Krishna delivered them from this catastrophe.

The critical point here is that by giving sanctity to the mountains and trees, common folk (who had no access to education then) would learn to revere nature and not unduly abuse it or exploit it for personal benefit. The 'merits of the trees' here refer to the merits brought about by the existence of trees and forests. Clearly a message here to deter deforestation.
Planting trees is also considered an act of merit. What we are investing a lot of time to promote!
That 'good deeds of men will ensure rainfall' was the surest way to motivate the common folk to heed ethical values in their day-to-day lives.
I'm sure that every faith will have some passage or reference in its scriptures that calls the faithful to preserve the sanctity of nature, and promote ecological balance.
Knowledgeable followers of every faith could do well to highlight these messages for the benefit of their followers. And faith, as the world knows, can move mountains.
Prema Jayakumar (Mrs)

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