Dear Fellow members,

A very Good Morning to you,

I woke up this morning and picked up the newspaper to realize that today is the world World Environment Day. Flipping through the paper I came to know about so many success stories about these little people in the corners of our country doing their bit to save and preserve our planet. One of the stories that caught my attention was a small group in Vikasnagar (Uttrakhand) making environment friendly cremation systems.

Did you know that when we die 400kgs of wood is used to creamte us?! According to their statistics ten million people die in India every year and about 84% are cremated and this ritual (of cremation) distroys 50 to 60 million trees and deforest about 1500 to 2000 sq.km. land.

We the Hindus have been raised up with this saying that "kan kan mein bhagwan" then by that logic the god exists in these trees as well right?so by that logic we should treat them with equal respect and sensitivity as we expect for ourselves. In my personal view the religious belief system of any religion should reflect the sensibilities of todays need of the hour. Having said that I hope this statement will not be judged or interpretted in a hurry as I make this statement in the context of cutting of the trees and destroying the environment for the sake of age old rituals.

By setting up this echo friendly cremation system this group helps saving wood by 300kgs (this system uses only 100kg of wood). And ofcourse we always have our electric creamtion systems as well.

The point here is that in our busy lives we like to make the right noises about saving the environment and all that and few of us must already be activly involved in that task, but by and large we don,t do enough to make an impact, atleast we can pledge to save the environment by dying in echo friendly fashion, I am sure we will safely reach in heaven and attain nirvana!!

So lets all pledge to die in (green) peace.

Amen

Neena Wagh