LONDON :

 

THOUSANDS gathered on the banks of the River Thames on Sunday for the first-ever Ganga aarti, a ceremony of light and thanksgiving in London. ‘Ganga Aarti on the Thames: A Ceremony of Light’ was organised by Chinmaya Mission UK in collaboration with the annualTotally Thames festival as part of the global celebrations marking 75 years of the charity. Recreating the ethos of the world-famous aarti by the River Ganges in India, the event in London was conceived as a symbol of the life-giving flow of nature, knowledge and consciousness.

 

“The whole idea was that we come together, remembering that spirit of Mother Ganga, the spiritual flow of tradition, culture, knowledge and here, which is the very centre of London, that we can invoke Mother Ganga in the Thames and remember her and her divinity and beauty,” Swami Swaroopananda, Global Head, Chinmaya Mission UK, told PTI. “When we have a common altar of devotion, dedication, we all leave aside our differences and come together to express what lies deep in our heart, and that is the spirit of oneness, spirit of love, spirit of harmony which Guru DevSwami Chinmayananda, inspired by Mother Ganga, brought as the knowledge from the heights of the Himalayas,” he said.