Portugal
In August 2014 an incredible group of 53 volunteers repeated an adventure that started in 1998, selling vegetarian food at music festivals in Portugal: Andanças Festival and simultaneously at the Boom Festival. Funds were raised for the development of Ananda Kalyani Master Unit in Portugal, plus donations to other AMURT/AMURTEL social service projects around the world.
Prout Convention
In the beautiful Danish countryside, 170 people attended the 2014 Global Prout Convention at Ananda Gaorii Master Unit, Vig, Denmark.
Jaya Brekke opened the conference, as she has for several years, with a report on the impact of austerity measures in Greece, Spain and the Ukraine and resistance movements to them, screening the documentary she made, Future Suspended. Dr. Ed McKenna, Professor of Economics at Connecticut College in USA, gave three inspiring classes: Spirituality and Finance, Causes of the Economic Crisis, and The Way Forward. A video about the movement Future Tasmania ended with a videoconference interview of Liila Hass. Dada Madhuvidyananda gave a talk about sadvipras and a class about the Prout political party he has started in Germany. Ramesh Bjonnes and Govinda gave classes about four interconnected crises: finance, inequality, resources and the environment. Satya Tanner organized duty co-ops and presented Organizing Effective Teams. Hiranmaya from USA gave a workshop on Integrating Prout with Local Food Movements. Divyajyoti presented The History and Potential of a Nordic Union. Frands Frydendal and Martin Wozniak gave workshops on Sociocratic Decision-Making and The Dragon Dreaming Method. Candela Vargas gave a workshop on non-violent communication.
The most inspiring part of the conference was amazing news reports about Prout work around the world. Dada Vandanananda gave news of 14 active samaj movements in India. Didi Ananda Devapriya and Diipanii told about the inspiring work they are doing with the European Roma Movement and the NGO community in Romania. The Prout Research Institute of Portugal and the PROUTugal Movement are doing great work. Other great news came from Prout work in Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Italy, UK, Ireland and Germany. Dada Maheshvarananda gave a workshop, Strategy Ideas for Implementing Prout and news about the Prout Research Institute of Venezuela.
This interview on Prout was shot at the conference:
Meanwhile, Prout Blocks are being established all around the world. This one in Manchester!
Prout presence at Bilderberg 2014:
Ireland
Dada Maheshvarananda met President Michael D. Higgins of Ireland at Áras an
Uachtaráin, the president’s official residence, in Dublin on 12 February, after
President Higgins read Dada’s book After Capitalism and invited him to meet.
Here’s Dada’s account of the meeting:
The military attache who showed us into the beautiful historic reception
room set up with tea and coffee explained where I should stand and greet
the president when he entered. When Niall asked him how long the meeting
would last he said, “That completely depends on the president, but I would
expect between 10-20 minutes.” In fact the meeting lasted almost an hour.
The president had invited Ruairí McKiernan, a young social entrepreneur
and self-described community troublemaker who had organized the Dalai
Lama’s visit to Ireland, to attend. After the photos were taken, the
president asked the reception assistants to bring orange juice for me, and
his attache to bring in his Prout books. The copy of After Capitalism that
Niall had mailed him had several book markers.
He said, “I’ve marked up my copy a lot. I know Marcus Arruda who wrote the
preface. We met during the Earth Summit in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro when
I was minister for the environment. We made a documentary together.”
President Higgins repeated several times, “This book is remarkable. It
needs wide circulation.” He expressed his gratitude to “this wonderful
person, Niall,” who had sent it to him. He explained that he had tried to
find Niall’s telephone but it wasn’t listed, so I joked that he wasn’t as
“efficient” as the NSA. Then he suddenly asked Niall, “Why haven’t you
made this book available to the public?” The president then suggested
various publishers and trade union leaders that we should approach this
week while I am here in Ireland.
The president opened his copy of the book and read to us one paragraph:
“The International Monetary Fund in 2009 estimated the total value of the
world’s economy to be US$70.21 trillion. And yet the total world
derivatives market in the second half of 2009 has been estimated at about
US$615 trillion, more than eight times the size of the entire global
economy!” And now it is even more than that, he emphasized.
He felt the second Prout book that Niall had sent him, Principles of a
Balanced Economy by Roar Bjonnes, is also very good but it’s more a
handbook for cooperativists.
He talked about the discourse on language, how it has been subverted by
the neo-liberal agenda. He said that the media throughout Europe now talks
about “the tax burden” as though it should be avoided completely, not that
it is part of our social responsibility. He asked me, how to change the
discourse of institutions? How to get this into the discourse?
He recounted his experiences in Nicaragua and El Salvador with international
human rights delegations. He said he knew one woman who was killed. He later
stood with the woman’s grandmother at the Monument to Memory and Truth in
El Salvador that has the names of 47,000 people who lost their lives during the
Salvadoran Civil War (1979-1992). Sadly, he said, the children who were
refugees always made drawings of helicopters.
He said at the World Economic Forum that takes place each year in Davos,
Switzerland, all the people “have ashes in their mouths.” The politicians
keep going, but they keep mouthing the same thing because they haven’t got
any vision.
I gave President Higgins a copy of Notes and Recommendations on the Irish
Economy by the Institute for New Economic Futures (INEF). I explained
that seven Proutist economists in different countries had contributed to
this 13-page proposal on how to make Ireland more self-reliant and resilient
to global financial crises. That 400,000 Irish, mostly young people, have left
the country since the 2008 crisis looking for work in other countries is a tragedy.
He feels there is a great misunderstanding in Europe about Latin America.
He talked about the different religions that depend on “the book” and
about the fatalism of India. I agreed that there are dogmas in both the
West and the East that are dogmatic and divisive, and how spirituality, on
the other hand, is all-inclusive.
He was very impressed about Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar and said, “Anyone who
can fast for five years on only two cups of yoghurt a day must be very
strong!”
After a pleasant hour of charming conversation, President Higgins graciously
apologized for taking so much of my time. When we said farewell, he embraced
me.
Also in Ireland, the Sunrise Farm has turned into a hive of activity:
Spain
Download Suryaprabha, the newsletter of Ananda Marga in Spain and Morocco.
UK
Download Satsaunga, the quarterly newsletter of Ananda Marga in the UK and Eire:
Spring 2012
Winter 2011
Autumn 2011
Summer 2011
Spring 2011
Winter 2010
Autumn 2010
Summer 2010
AMURT Italy
Download a summary of AMURT Italia.
Venezuela
A meditation flash mob was held in Caracas the day before the elections…
Centro Madre, located two hours drive from Caracas in Barlovento, Venezuela, dedicates itself to a variety of educational and agriculture projects for personal and community transformation.
Centro Madre is a National Model of Small-Scale Sustainable Agriculture by local publication Venezuela Analysis
Prout features in the Daily Journal
The first Global Conference on Neohumanist Education to be held in Caracas, Venezuela concluded with much inspiration and positive interactions among educators, social activists and project coordinators from South and North America and Europe. It was co-sponsored by the Prout Research Institute of Venezuela and Ananda Marga Gurukula. On Monday, April 14, more than 180 participants came to the science faculty auditorium at the largest and oldest educational institute in the country, the Universidad Central de Venezuela, for an all-day program, to hear dynamic speakers from around the world. Presentations included cutting-edge holistic educational initiatives that are taking place in Brazil, Colombia, Denmark, India, Venezuela and the United States.
Following this one-day program, 50 people attended the three-day intensive seminar held at the Quinta Prout. Seven Brazilian Neohumanist schools in Sao Paulo and Porto Alegre sent representatives to this meeting, plus the preschool in Lima, Peru and of course the preschool in Caracas, Venezuela. The conference presented a unique opportunity for them all to meet and share their experiences. Much inspiration was shared during the closing ceremony. Here is one of the comments: “One month before the conference I had a dream in which many people were dancing in an auditorium with the colors of the rainbow. When I saw the poster for this conference with the colors of the rainbow, I was very happy. And when at the end of the conference in the university auditorium we did circular dancing on the stage and then together sang the song Venezuela, I realized that my dream had come true.” Complementary programs during the week included a trip with 70 people to the local Botanical Gardens where Ananda Marga guru Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar had visited. Dada Shambhushivananda gave a public talk to 70 students and teachers at the International School, and to 50 students and professors at the Pedagogical Institute. A bus trip to visit Centro Madre had 30 participants. Ole Brekke gave a one-day clown workshop to 40 very enthusiastic participants. And four radio interviews took place before the event, two on Venezuelan National Radio.
Chile
Ananda Marga Chile continues to run its yoga instructor courses as intensives during the summer, and throughout the year as well. They have become well recognised in Chile for their spiritual depth and non-commercial flavour. Costs are kept to a minimum in order to give a chance to everyone to participate in this special experience.
Our yoga teacher training has became well-known in Santiago city for its spiritual content and affordable cost. At the summer course at our rural retreat, 23 people shared the mystical experience of the 15-day training, with spiritual philosophy, asanas, kiirtan, workshops and vegetarian diet. The city course started in April with 35 students. These students also go to our rural retreat every second weekend for theoretical classes.
The course is unique in Chile because our yoga system is complete, including all aspects of traditional yoga, and this holistic approach is very popular. It’s a great experience to be trained in our wonderful retreat center near the great Rapel lake. People really experience a special grace there. After intensive spiritual practices for 15 days they feel a deep change in their soul and only return home with great difficulty!
A new yoga teacher course started in the port of San Antonio. It’s a collaboration between Ananda Marga and the municipality. 34 students joined and now are taking the annual course, Dada Mokshananda and two other asanas instructors are traveling there regularly to give the classes. Two more courses, Ayurvedic medicine and herbal medicine, will start in June.
Also this year, on the occasion of Ananda Purnima a full moon kiirtan with delicious vegetarian food was attended by 130 members of the public.
New Zealand
Our awesome kiirtan group was performed at the VoSe festival in February 2014. Groups such as Shakti, Amma, Sahaja Yoga, Hari Krishna and Sufis as well as Ananda Marga performed kiirtan on the Willow stage as part of the multi-faith akhanda kiirtan. Our Ananda Marga kiirtan group performed twice and we were the only ones to include dynamic lalita marmika dance in the kiirtan performance.
Various other activities have been taking place on the scene in Aotearoa:
Local AMURT (Ananda Marga Universal Relief Team) volunteers responded to the Christchurch earthquake by distributing rescue remedy to psychologically traumatised victims.
Download the response reports here:
White Skin Black Spirit
Acarya Narada Muni recently produced a documentary telling the story of a white-skinned Aboriginal woman discovering her roots. The documentary was aired on Australian TV ABC’s Message Stick program.
