Humanitarian Aid for flood victims of Sri Lanka
Due to recent floods in Sri Lanka hundreds of people died and more than 200.000 lost their homes. The head of "Yoga in Daily Life" organisations worldwide, Mahamandaleshwar Paramhans Swami Maheshwaranandaji appealed to the international YIDL community to collect donations and support the suffering people of Sri Lanka.
On this occasion a fundraising event in Vienna/Austria was organised by the International Sri Deep Madhavananda Ashram. The prominent guest and key speaker was the excellent lecturer, former Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir and present member of Indian Parliament, Dr. Karan Singh with his wife Maharani Y. R. Lakshmi. His topic on this evening was Vedanta.
Dr. Karan Singh pointed out that the concepts of Vedanta are still valid and important within the contemporary issues of globalisation. Economy, science and technology are unifying our world outwardly and Vedanta shows us the way to unite humankind inwardly. Since centuries India has been a precursor of broad-mindedness. It is the cradle of spirituality, ethics and human values, and its philosophy shows the world a true and practicable concept to grant peace and welfare to all.
In his lucid talk Dr. Karan Singh highlighted six key-concepts of Vedanta:
- the all-pervasiveness of the Divine
- Divinity inherent in all creatures
- Yoga as the act of joining the Atman with Brahman
There are four main paths of Yoga:- Gyan-yoga, "way of wisdom", way of discrimination between reality and unreality
- Bhakti-yoga, "way of the heart", devotion to an individual form of the Divine
- Karma-yoga, "way of the hands", to do work dedicated to the Divine
- Raja-yoga, "the royal way" of self-discipline, contemplation and meditation
- Vasudeva Kutumbhakam – the whole world is one family
- the essential unity of all religions
- the welfare of all beings
Numerous dignitaries attended Dr. Karan Singh's lecture: H. E. T. P. Sreenivasan, Ambassador of India to Austria, H. E. D. L. Mendis, Ambassador of Sri Lanka and his wife, H. E. Dr. J. Stefan-Bastl, Ambassador of Austria to India and her husband, who are spending holidays in their home-country, furthermore Dr. K. Preisendanz, head of the Institute of South Asia, Tibetology and Buddhism at the Vienna University as well as several religious and spiritual leaders and representatives of the Hindu and Sri Lanka community in Austria.
Dr. Karan Singh as well as the Ambassadors of India and Sri Lanka emphazised the immense humanitarian work which International Sri Deep Madhavananda Ashram Societies of "Yoga in Daily Life" are doing worldwide for humanitarian aid, environment protection, world peace and unity of religions by following the three essential points of Paramhans Swami Maheshwaranandaji's teachings: Tolerance, Respect and Understanding of Religions, Cultures and Nations for the sake of World Peace.
Fundraising lecture in Vienna
