Globalization fails to connect our hearts and minds - Amma's birthday message

Globalization fails to connect our hearts and minds « Amma, Mata Amritanandamayi Devi @ amritapuri.org: "

Delivering her 57th Birthday Address, Amma spoke about how despite the connectivity created via globalization, the world is still suffering. “Where have we gone wrong?” Amma asked those assembled. “By connecting the external aspects, the entire world is being reduced to a small village. However we’ve failed to pay enough attention to uniting the inner aspects, to connecting all of our hearts and minds.” Amma also spoke on the importance of cultivating respect for Mother Nature, the perils of alcohol and drug abuse, the need for abidance in dharma, the role of meditation and many other topics.

Amma delivered this speech at her home base in Kerala. But she might as well have said it on the floor of the 49th Congress in Castoropolis. By voicing opposition to globalization, the Amrita-led Positive Possibilities coalition has found some common ground with the Patria-first SRM and the Diet Coke Party gang who slammed free trade and globalization all through the 2010 election campaign.

Video Blog Sept 23, 2010 Parvati Trek to North Pole (Arctic Bay)

Not quite the North Pole, but about as far north as you can get in Canada and still have internet access.

Back to work in Congress

After the post-inaugural summer recess, Congress is back in session. The First Session, 49th Congress (1·XLIX 2010-11) kicked off yesterday and will sit until June 2011. Patria's 2010 election transition is now complete. The 49th Congress was elected on April 17, inaugurated on June 30, and finally gets down to official business on Sept. 20, the two-day Special Session on July 1 and 2 notwithstanding. Almost as fast a turnaround as the US Congress election cycle.

The struggling economy is high on the new Congress' order paper. The recession is over. Allegedly ended in June 2009. But it still feels like a recession in Patria and in many of the First World macronations. A double-dip recession is still a very real possibility.

Today, Sept. 21, has been designated by the UN as the International Day of Peace. As one of Parvati's songs goes, "if I want peace in the world I know it begins with me".

Go North! For healing the planet. For Amma's love.

As the First Session of the 49th Congress is about to get down to business after the post-inaugural summer recess, three dear friends of Patria, Parvati, Rishi and Sunanda, are journeying to the North Magnetic Pole in Canada's far north (about 200 km from the actual North Pole at 90ºN). They are making this trek in order to create awareness about the environmental devastation there - particularly the melting polar ice caps - and the effect that this is having on all of us.



Parvati, Rishi and Sunanda are going to the North Pole to help create awareness and to do some prayers for the restoration of the health of Mother Earth. Their mission is based on the fact that we can create positive change. It is not doom and gloom and focused on the negative. The approach is hope-based. Positive possibilities all the way.

If you are a devotee of Amma (in Patria, aka the Hon. Member from the Precinct of Arboria, House Leader of the Amrita Party), note that they have passed the word along to Amma via Dayamrita Swami and she has given her blessing. :) They will be celebrating Amma's 57th birthday on Sept. 27 way up north.

To learn more, and to follow their journey, please visit Parvati's web site.

The following is a press release from Rishi:

Canadian Musical Artist and Yoga Teacher First to Perform at the North Pole

Toronto, Ontario - Sept 16, 2010

*** For Immediate Release ***

Parvati, a Canadian musical artist and yoga instructor, is taking a courageous journey to the most northern Canadian soil: a small, desolate island in the Arctic Ocean known as Ward Hunt Island. The location is just kilometres from the Magnetic North Pole and 200 kilometres from 90 degrees North.

Parvati’s mission is to bring awareness to the urgent ecological effect of melting polar ice caps. Charged with purity of heart, clear intention, and the willingness to serve, Parvati will become the first artist to ever perform this far North. There she will offer her songs to help raise awareness of just how quickly the ice caps are disappearing and the devastating effect this is having on the entire planet.

Born in Montreal and now living in Toronto, Parvati is an internationally acclaimed singer, songwriter, performer and producer of electronic dance pop. Her music celebrates the gift of life and her debut album and multimedia show, Yoga in the Nightclub, has had people from Toronto to Berlin shaking to its joyful rhythms. After a summer of increased signs of environmental distress, Parvati decided to postpone her Canadian tour to trek to the North Pole. She says she simply cannot turn away from the effects climate change is having.

“I feel the global ecological crisis is a wake up call for us all, a call to awaken I AM consciousness, the magnificence of who we are,” says Parvati.”The planet reflects how we collectively treat ourselves, each other and our environment. A collective is only as strong as its individuals. If we want to change our environment, we need to transform ourselves.”

Parvati will be joined on the trip by Satish Sikha (www.ourearth-wewill.com), another environmental activist. In Resolute, Canada’s most remote city, Satish will unveil the world’s longest piece of woven silk. Each segment is signed by a celebrity, politican or international dignitary who shares their thoughts on climate change.

Parvati leaves Toronto on September 23, 2010 to meet with city council in Iqaluit andperform for school children in Nunavut. She will sing at the top of the world on September 26th.

The timing of Parvati’s trip is significant. Recent news reports that many ice shelves in Greenland and Canada have cracked. At the end of August, NASA reported an ice crack on Ward Hunt Island that is 40 metres deep and the size of Bermuda. Meanwhile, the sea ice levels are at an unprecedented low land as such wreaking havoc on our fragile ecosystem.

More information about Parvati’s trip is available at www.parvati.ca.

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For more information, interview arrangements, video, or photographs, please contact: Rishi Gerald - 416-890-5878