By Sahadeva dasa

Our leaders were told that good planets are hard to find, dont blow it, but they did it anyways and now they want to fix up the Earth in big big summits, just like the proverbial village fella who fixed the moon up long ago. Story goes like this. A villager went to get water from the well at night. When he looked down in the well, he saw the moon’s reflection in the water. Thinking that the moon had fallen from the sky, he ran to get a rope with a big hook on it. He pitched it into the well so hard that the hook snagged on a rock. The fella gave a huge tug and the hook came free, flying up and out of the well. It knocked the fella right over. As he fell, he noticed the moon in the sky. Standing up, he said, “It’s true that I strained and struggled, but thank God, I got the moon back in its place.” Similarly, our world leaders are trying to tug the Earth out of the well of despoilment. Earth is God’s property and living here in accordance with God’s ways or natural ways wouldn’t have created all this mess. But we, especially our leaders, think that they are the controllers of nature and the universe and if they want they can blow it and if they want, they can set it right. It is all theirs and it is under their absolute control. This foolish arrogance will cost us dearly. Now the latest attempt to “tug the moon out” is being made at Copenhagen in December 2009. Leaders of over a hundred nations have confirmed their participation. Known as ‘Climate Summit’, this gathering has been organized by United Nations.

The leaders would try to cut the carbon emission and save the planet, of course without creating a fundamental change in the life style and consciousness. But that would only mean , ‘resolutions, dissolutions, revolutions… and no solutions’. We are not alone in thinking like this. James Hansen, a leading U. S. NASA scientist who helped alert the world to dangers of global warming, told the Guardian newspaper that the planet would be better off if the forthcoming Copenhagen climate change talks ended in collapse. As per him, any agreement likely to emerge from the negotiations would be so deeply flawed that it would be better for future generations if we were to start again from scratch. Hansen is strongly opposed to carbon market schemes, in which permits to pollute are bought and sold, seen by the European Union and other governments as the most efficient way to cut emissions and move to a new clean energy economy. Hansen adds, “I would rather it not happen if people accept that as being the right track because it’s a disaster track, Tackling climate change does not allow room for the compromises that govern the world of politics. This is analogous to the issue of slavery faced by Abraham Lincoln or the issue of Nazism faced by Winston Churchill. On those kind of issues you cannot compromise. You can’t say let’s reduce slavery, let’s find a compromise and reduce it 50 percent or reduce it 40 percent.” Therefore solution lies in making a fundamental shift in the way we think or creating a change of consciousness or heart or as suggested by Hansen, ’starting from scratch’. All our actions flow from our consciousness or the way we think, feel and will. As told by Einstein, “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.” Believe it or not, that consciousness, which is lacking, is Krishna consciousness and is found aplenty in Srila Prabhupada’s books. Therefore reading and distributing Srila Prabhupada’s books (BBT. info) tantamounts to changing the world’s consciousness and thus saving it.

Sahadeva dasa sahadevadasa@gmail.com

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