MASS ARRESTS AT COPENHAGEN RALLY

DENMARK POLICE: NEARLY 1,000 PROTESTERS DETAINED
AFTER A HUGE CLIMATE CHANGE RALLY IN COPENHAGEN

COPENHAGEN (REUTERS/EP) - The move came after youths threw bricks and smashed windows as more than 30,000 demonstrators marched to demand action at the UN climate change summit. A police spokesman said "almost all" of those arrested have now been released with just a few facing charges. Similar marches have been held in cities around the world, calling for decisive action on global warming. Meanwhile, ministers have started arriving to join other delegates at the UN summit which runs for another week. Danish police estimate that some 30,000 people joined the march while organisers put the number at 100,000.

They marched 6km (four miles) across the city to the conference centre where negotiators and ministers are meeting. After violence erupted, large numbers of mainly young people were detained. "The police rounded up protesters in a pre-planned manoeuvre," he told the BBC. "It was unprovoked. They rounded up a group, including women and children, and pushed them into a store, before splitting them into groups and handcuffing them." A police spokesman said just four or five out of 968 arrested would be charged and appear in court. The police put the demonstrators in seated lines on the street with their hands tied behind their backs. The spokesman said that their intelligence had suggested a small group of people had planned violence. He said most of those who had been arrested had been part of an organised group which had been throwing fireworks and stones and he rejected claims by climate protesters that some of those being held had been mistreated and denied access to basic needs. Activists are arguing for an ambitious, legally binding agreement on emissions cuts to be signed by world leaders at the summit's conclusion at the end of next week. The march closed with protesters spelling out the message "Safe Climate - Do It!" on the ground.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

Actually, the world is not shown to us by the sun, but by the soul. What really gives us perception and allows us to see gross things? It is not actually the sun that helps us to see; we see with the help of the soul. This is found in Bhagavad-gītā 13.34 (yathā prakāśayaty ekah kritsnam lokam imam ravih). The soul reveals this world to us just as the sun does. The sun can show color to our eyes, the ear can reveal the sound world, and the hand can reveal the touch world. But really in the center is the soul. It is the soul who gives light to this world, who gives us an understanding of the environment, the world of perception. All perception is possible only because of the soul. Here, in the brahmā-gāyatrī, the word "savitur", which generally means "sun", can only mean "soul", like the sun, shows us everything.

Śrīla Bhakti Raksaka Sridhara Maharaja:
"Brahmā Gāyatrī Bhāshya"
Bhaktivedanta Memorial Library - www.bvml.org/SBRSM