781. Om pratyag rupayai namah: I bow down to Amma who is the indwelling self.
The following is from an article in The Guardian:
A Hindu spiritual leader has donated $15m to build thousands of toilets in villages along the Ganges in an effort to cleanse India’s holy river from the pollution caused by the country’s open defecation crisis.
Mātā Amṛtānandamayī Devī, known as Amma (“mother”) to her followers, made the donation to prime minister Narendra Modi’s stuttering push to ensure all Indians are using toilets by 2019, saying it was “one of the most important tasks of the hour”.
In Hindu spirituality the Ganges is a source of purification, the holiest body of water on Earth. People living on its banks bathe in it and drink from it every day. This month during the Kumbh Mela, tens of millions of Hindus will cleanse themselves in its waters. But Amṛtānandamayī told the Guardian these acts of necessity and devotion expose people to danger.
“The river is a symbol of the ancient Indian culture. But only some of what is called the Ganges today is the original pure water. The rest is sewage and factory waste,” she said. “People still have the faith that the Ganga is the Divine Mother herself and has healing properties. As such, millions go there to bathe and drink the water. Due to pollution, this can cause sickness.”
More than 600 million Indians have no access to a toilet. This exposes them to disease, indignity and danger. More than 200,000 children under the age of five die each year from diarrhoea and almost half of under fives have stunted growth (pdf) as a result of exposure to faecally transmitted infections.
On accepting her donation, India’s finance minister Arun Jaitley said: “Every poor person on the banks of the Ganga must have a toilet so that we can keep the environment clean and the pollutants of the households don’t get into the Ganga itself.”
Embracing the World has just completed cleaning up the Pampa river in Kerala. With Amma's very generous donation, finally the Ganges will also be cleaned out. And this is what Amma does. Uses every bit of the money that comes to Her through donations to the Math, by channeling it to every possible humanitarian activity. That's all Amma cares about. Wiping away our tears and putting a smile on our faces. Thank You Amma!
Om Amriteswariye namah!
A Hindu spiritual leader has donated $15m to build thousands of toilets in villages along the Ganges in an effort to cleanse India’s holy river from the pollution caused by the country’s open defecation crisis.
Mātā Amṛtānandamayī Devī, known as Amma (“mother”) to her followers, made the donation to prime minister Narendra Modi’s stuttering push to ensure all Indians are using toilets by 2019, saying it was “one of the most important tasks of the hour”.
In Hindu spirituality the Ganges is a source of purification, the holiest body of water on Earth. People living on its banks bathe in it and drink from it every day. This month during the Kumbh Mela, tens of millions of Hindus will cleanse themselves in its waters. But Amṛtānandamayī told the Guardian these acts of necessity and devotion expose people to danger.
“The river is a symbol of the ancient Indian culture. But only some of what is called the Ganges today is the original pure water. The rest is sewage and factory waste,” she said. “People still have the faith that the Ganga is the Divine Mother herself and has healing properties. As such, millions go there to bathe and drink the water. Due to pollution, this can cause sickness.”
More than 600 million Indians have no access to a toilet. This exposes them to disease, indignity and danger. More than 200,000 children under the age of five die each year from diarrhoea and almost half of under fives have stunted growth (pdf) as a result of exposure to faecally transmitted infections.
On accepting her donation, India’s finance minister Arun Jaitley said: “Every poor person on the banks of the Ganga must have a toilet so that we can keep the environment clean and the pollutants of the households don’t get into the Ganga itself.”
Embracing the World has just completed cleaning up the Pampa river in Kerala. With Amma's very generous donation, finally the Ganges will also be cleaned out. And this is what Amma does. Uses every bit of the money that comes to Her through donations to the Math, by channeling it to every possible humanitarian activity. That's all Amma cares about. Wiping away our tears and putting a smile on our faces. Thank You Amma!
Om Amriteswariye namah!
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