Vrindavan, 2016. 09.06 (VT): The Green Warriors of Vraja Bhumi were felicitated on Sunday in a ceremony organized in the auditorium of the Rama Krishna Mission Sevashram . The Vrindavan Green Awards are given to the organizations and individuals that play a significant role in restoring the ecology of the Vraja Bhumi. The 4th Vrindavan Green Awards Ceremony organized by Friends of Vrindavan in collaboration with the Vrindavan Today Foundation.
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Varah Dev dancing
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worshiping Lord Varaha
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Varaha and the awards
Friends of Vrindavan has been celebrating the appearance day of Lord Varaha as Vedic Earth Day for last four years. This year its allied organization ‘Vrindavan Today Foundation’ also joined hands to celebrate the event when the Earth was saved by Lord Varaha.
Every year the Green Awards are given on the occasion of the Varaha Jayanti – Vedic Earth Day. In a meeting of the Selection Committee, chaired by Dr. Chandra Prakash Sharma, the nominees of the Green Awards were announced last month.
Five Green Awards were given in this year. The deity of Lord Varaha was worshipped in the beginning of the event. The traditional Varaha dance of Vraja, wearing the Varaha mask, was also performed by a local artist to commemorate Lord Varaha’s incarnation to save the earth.
Shri Radha Gopinath Mandir, one of the Sapta Devalaya Temples, was chosen for the Green Temple Award. Shri Gopinath Lal Dev Goswami, the sevait of the temple received the award on behalf of the temple.
In his address Shri Raja Goswami said, “Living in harmony with nature has been an integral part of the ancient temples of India. This has been abundantly reflected in a variety of traditional practices, religious beliefs, rituals, folk fore, arts and crafts, and in the daily practices lives of the temples from the time immemorial. But with the changing times, all these practices have been gradually stopped in the modern temples. The traditional system of water harvesting of well, bawari, ponds are no more visible in the temples anymore. They have been filled and paved.” “These water structures should be restored, upgraded and productively combined with modern rainwater saving techniques. This may be a far more sustainable approach to alleviating the water scarcity crisis. We have restored the water – wells and store the rain water in it. The saline water of our temple has become sweet,” said Goswami.
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Green Temple Award
Dr. B.K. Nangia received the Green literary Award for his work through writings in preserving the Swaroop of Vraja. Dr. Nangia is the editor of the monthly magazine ‘Shri Harinam’. In his address Dr. Nangia said that every author, who is writing on the pastimes of Shri Krishna must write about preserving the ‘swaroop’ of Vraja. The pastimes of Shri Krishna can’t be seen differently than the environmental conservation.
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Green Literary Award
MRC Vrinda Charitable Trust received the ‘Green Campaign Award’. Dr. Abhishek Sharma, the president of the trust received the award on its behalf. More than one thousand trees have been planted by the MRC. It is also campaigning against the growing number of the monkey population, which has not only become threat for humans, but destroying the existing trees of Vrindavan and killing the peacocks and other small animals.
“The monkeys are themselves suffering. We have been asking the government to contain them by sterilization and displacement. The government has agreed in principle to our suggestion of establishing a natural sanctuary for the rehabilitation of the monkeys,” said Dr. Abhishek.
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Green Campaign Award
Shri Gopeshwar Nath Chaturvedi received the ‘Green Award for legal intervention’. Shri Chaturvedi has been fighting the legal battle in the Allahabad High Court to stop the sewer effluent going into Yamuna. He has recently filed litigation against the burst boring of the sewer into the ground, polluting the ground water table.
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Green Legal Intervention Award
The GLA University received the ‘Green School Award’ for 2016. Prof. A.M. Agarwal, the Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University received the award on behalf of the institution. Prof. Agarwal said, “The GLA University has been working with Friends of Vrindavan to dispose its waste scientifically. The waste is segregated at the source and the organic waste is recycled into organic manure. The paper is being recycled into handmade paper at FoV. We have adopted the policy of zero discharge of sewerage in our campus. We have our own ETP, where the sewer is recycled.”
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Green School Award
Shri Bhakti Vedanta Madhusudan Maharaj, Dr. Chandra Prakash Sharma, Anurag Goyal, and Bihari Lal Bashishtha presented the ‘Green Honor’ to the nominees on behalf of the organizers.
The award ceremony followed the cultural program of ‘Gotipua’ dance by the students of the Bhaktivedanta Gurukula and Odissi dance by the students of the Venu Nad Kala Kendra, Vrindavan.
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