KOLLAM:Mata Amritanandamayi stressed the importance of employing a spiritual approach to check global warming, in her message to the summit of Conscience for the Climate in Paris. The spiritual leader had a word of caution for the countries for their deeds against nature.
“Ignoring the current environmental situation is like a man on the top floor of a apartment being indifferent to the fire on the ground floor,” Mata Amritanandamayi said in the video message sent to the Summit. She could not make it to the venue as she was concluding her seven-week American tour.
Her audio-visual address was delivered by her senior-most disciple and vice-chairman of the Mata Amritanandamayi Math, Amritaswarupananda at the Summit.
He extolled the expertise of Amma’s global organisation, ‘Embracing the World’ (ETW), in sustainable development and its longstanding history of interfaith cooperation. “Embracing the World’s expertise has made it an important partner and voice in the conversation on how faith organisations may assist in modelling a pivot towards sustainable decision-making for the faithful, as well as for corporations, governments and society as a whole,” said Amritaswarupananda.
The world’s major spiritual, religious and moral leaders emphasised the urgent need for a strong universal appeal and support for effective policies prior to the COP21 conference taking place in the French capital later this year.
The French Government is preparing to host the UN Conference on Climate Change in Paris from November 30 to December 11, 2015.
Among other leaders who attended the summit were Bartholomew I, Archbishop of Constantinople and Ecumenical Patriarch; United Nations former secretary-general M Kofi Annan; Nobel peace laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus; actor-philanthropist Arnold Schwarzenegger; Buddhist leader Thich Nhat Hahn; Sheikh Khaled Bentounes, who is the spiritual guide of the Alawiyya Sufi brotherhood (Algeria); Philippines Senator Loren B Legarda; UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova; Pontifical Council for Justice & Peace President Cardinal Peter Turkson; American Jewish Committee Director (Interreligious Affairs) Rabbi David Rosen; Brazilian politician Marina Silva; former Ireland president Mary Robinson, who was a Special Envoy of the Secretary General of the United Nations for Climate Change; and M Janos Pasztor, who is Assistant Secretary-General of the UN on Climate Change.
Recently Amritanandamayi was invited by Pope Francis to sign the Faith Leaders’ Universal Declaration against Slavery at the Vatican in December 2014.
