SOLAN: Spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar advocated the use of organic farming in the hill state of Himachal Pradesh, where, he said, farm practices were still saved from the menace of pesticides.
The founder of Art of Living Foundation sent out a strong message to use spirituality to remove the growing lack of trust among people and also root out social evils.
"Dhayan and pranayam can be effective tools to bring us closer to each other," he said. He also made an appeal, particularly to doctors, to take a pledge to put an end to female foeticide and effectively contribute to empowerment of women. Citing the example of southern states where alcohol is not served at weddings, Sri Sri said this needs to be propagated in Himachal as well where drinking is common at such occasions.
He also underlined the need to curb corruption, especially at the grass root level and said people at large can play an active role in achieving this objective. Sri Sri, who always teaches spirituality that enhances human values such as love, compassion and enthusiasm and is not limited to any one religion or culture, kicked off his week long tour of Himachal from Solan and would be holding teaching sessions in Shimla, Sundernagar and Dharamshala in the coming days. He asked Solan residents to take out at least two hours every week to keep their city clean and doing their bit to save the environment.
There was a huge crowd of devotees not only from all over India. Many foreigners also participated in the 'mahasatsang'. Excitement was quite evident among the devotees to have a one glance of the saint. "It feels great after meeting Guruji. We came so far just to meet him. After meeting him its feels that life is complete now", said Dr Kavita Maria, devotee from Chandigarh. A song recital by HP folk singers with more than 100 musicians, directed by veteran local singer, K L Sehgal was also held. On Tuesday, over 500 village women, accompanied by 800 musicians will perform 'faag' as part of the event.