August 6, Chandigarh: A senior citizens' roundtable conference was organised under Divya Jyoti Jagrati Sansthan's flagship campaign My Earth My Responsibilty in collaboration with SIOLI(Lawyers' Initiative for Social Responsibilty) at the Pratap Singh Kairon Hall of Kisan Bhavan. Participants included eminent residents of the tricity who came together to address crucial questions about the environment.
Initiating the discussion, Sadhvi Aditi Bharti, a dedicated preacher of Shri Ashutosh Maharaj ji and global in-charge of the organisation's envronment campaign Sanrakshan asked the participants to go back in time and imagine how different Chandigarh was 25-50 years ago. This question both triggered nostalgia and brought some interesting observations to the fore. The majority pointed towards the manifold increase in the population and the consequent tranformation of lifestyle of residents. These, together with rapid urbanisation and burgeoning consumerism were sited as the most dominant changes the city has seen in the last few decades. Sadhviji,who is also a qualified environmentalist then quoted a scientific study which postulated that at the rate at which most of the world is trying to imitate and embrace the 'American' or 'Western' lifestyle which is synomimous with luxury articles and satisfaction of unecessary wants as opposed to necessary needs, we may soon need five planets similar to the Earth to accomoate that lifestyle.
In a short address that followed, Sadhvi Manendra Bharti ji, also a dedicated preacher at DJJS highlighted the grave fallouts of unmitigated modernisation which is being pursued the world over. Along with warning against unsustainable exploitation of resources, she also emphasised the need to look back to our timeless principles which put the greater good and social and natural harmony before individual greed and endorsed a balanced lifestyle.
Shri Ashutosh Maharaj ji's vision of an empowered and enlightened society is centred around Brahmgyan, the eternal science of self realisation as the mainstay of complete self conciousness and the manifestation of fundamental and basic human values which ironically seem elsusive today. Through his vision, Shri Maharaj ji has enabled millions, including prison inmates,those marginalised due to disability or gender and those misled by false claims to find peace and realsiation within themselves and lead their life with a heightened sense of goodness and well being.
In the end, a Peoples' Convention for an environmentally responsible Chandigarh was signed by the participants who resolved to make nature conservation a priority.
MEMR was launched in December 2015 and various 'nukkad-nataks', lectures and conferences have been orgainsed since. The initiative will continue to spread awareness among citizens.
