Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Are we Sun-ready ? An Interview with Surya Green, Writer-Journalist, and Inspirer-Founder of non-profit foundation Sun Conscious.org




“Modern science has accumulated a treasure house of scientific knowledge about the Sun. Advocates of ‘renewable’ or ‘sustainable’ energy, also now called ‘green energy,’ have long recognized the Sun’s great positive influence on earthly society. Energy entrepreneurs with environment-friendly technologies are enabling more people and nations to access clean and safe solar power. Yet most people, including renewable energy pioneers, are not yet acquainted with that energy of the Sun which is even mightier than "green solar power”: the Sun's subtle energy.

Sun Conscious is a non-profit planetary service foundation, established in 2000 by legal statute in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to promote the use of solar energy of both physical and subtle levels. Sun Conscious is working towards the Global Age of the Sun, an age in which the global use of solar energy, in the form of heat, light, wind, and wave, will be complemented by global attunement with the Sun’s subtle energy. The subtle energy of our Sun has the power to inspire, uplift, and transform human consciousness and behavior. Sun Conscious came into being through the efforts of solar pioneer Surya Green and a small circle of Dutch people inspired by her Sun-vision.

Surya Green completed her formal education with a B.A. from New York’s Barnard College of Columbia University and an M.A. in Communication from California’s Stanford University. In India she spontaneously received a “post-graduate degree in sacred knowledge,” so to speak.

The Government of India, Ministry of Tourism, invited Surya to India in her function as a professional writer-journalist. After finishing her journalistic assignment for a Dutch travel magazine she -- then still called by her birth name Norma -- stayed on longer in the land of ancient solar heritage. During her independent travels, without warning she underwent mystical experiences with the Sun. She experienced, from within, that all is truly One under the Sun. The inner discovery of the Sun’s powerful energy of subtle level dramatically, and authentically, transformed her life forever. She became “Sun-conscious.” Norma was reborn as Surya, Sanskrit for “the originator; the Sun, the Source.”

By the time she returned to her writing home in Amsterdam, Surya was a transformed person both inside and out. A transition period followed as she integrated her solarized vision into her daily functioning. She wrote farewell letters to the magazines she represented as Holland correspondent and resigned from the Foreign Press Association. Her new career as a “journalist of the spiritual” began when a Dutch journal asked her to write about her personal meeting in India with the Mother of Pondicherry, the French-Indian spiritual leader.

In line with her new writing focus, one by one Surya met and interviewed leading spiritual personages who gave themselves generously to her tape recorder, camera, and notebook. Before long her interviews and articles on spiritual themes appeared in magazines, newspapers, and journals in Europe, USA, and Australia. After traveling to Stockholm to attend events held in connection with the world’s first international environmental conference, the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, she had also started publishing transformational articles on the up-and-coming socially-responsible people-and-planet friendly lifestyle. Surya Green is a member of three professional writers’ organizations -- Dutch Association of Journalists, International Federation of Journalists, and the Society of Authors, UK.

Surya lived for six years in Asia as a pilgrim with journalistic shoulder bag. She gained knowledge of Eastern lifestyles, religions, philosophies, and consciousness-raising systems not through book learning but by everyday practice. During this period she interviewed and spent time with a broad range of social, cultural, and spiritual leaders and visionaries from all backgrounds and attainments. Their wealth of wisdom, along with her own inner discoveries, she continued to share with the readers of her magazine articles.

Finally Surya Green was ready to speak publicly about the wider identity of the Sun. To share her transformational experiences, she wrote the book The Call of the Sun, published by Element Books of UK/USA/Australia. After publication of the Dutch edition (Als de Zon spreekt, Uitgeverij De Ster, the Netherlands), Surya and five of her Dutch readers established the non-profit foundation Sun Conscious.

Since its founding, Sun Conscious has carried out diverse activities which include: distributing Surya Green’s books introducing Sun-consciousness, offering the website www.SunConscious.org, writing public service reports and articles on socially-and-spiritually responsible issues including renewable energy and socially responsible entrepreneurship, organizing educational gatherings on Sun-knowledge and socially-and-spiritually responsible lifestyle, participating in Sun-related gatherings and events, organizing cultural-educational visits to Sun-related people, places, and events; and offering public talks, seminars, and retreats on the Sun’s subtle energy.”

For more information, please see: www.SunConscious.org


1.Do we think we are moving towards a solar society where we will depend more on energy sources above then energy sources below?

“’From below to above’ is in line with the evolutionary movement from dense to subtle, from darkness to light.”


2.Can solar energy solution give an alternative profitable solution vis-à-vis fossil fuel?

“Against the backdrop of accumulating environmental pollution, the alarming rise of the global temperature, oil supplies used as a main fuel for war, and worldwide poverty and inequality, a strategic element in any international effort aimed to bring planet Earth back into balance is green energy. The need to reduce the use of fossil fuel energy and carbon dioxide emissions has never been greater.

Over the years it has become clear that the cleanest, most sustainable, and least politically sensitive energy source to meet humanity's future energy needs is solar. Solar energy encompasses a range of technologies that include: photovoltaics, solar hot water and air systems, passive solar, solar hydrogen, and forms of solar such as wind and wave.

More and more scientists as well as lay people are optimistic about the future of solar, especially solar electricity. Increasing numbers of people believe that the transformation of solar light into electricity is the key technology for durable energy in the 21st century even while the efficiency of solar panels needs to be increased and prices brought down. Solar panels contain photovoltaic cells that turn light into electricity without releasing any greenhouse gases.

According to “Solar Generation IV,” a report released by Greenpeace in 2007, solar energy produced by photovoltaic cells can meet the energy needs of more than 3.5 billion people around the globe by 2030. Further, solar electricity can deliver more than six million jobs worldwide. These are only two of the positive conclusions contained in the report brought out jointly by Greenpeace and the European Phovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA). The report describes the enormous potential of solar electricity and presents a practical blueprint for realizing that potential.

As Solar Generation IV points out: the aware¬ness of renewable energy has never been so great. This awareness has been triggered by a number of landmark events. These include the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which warned more strongly than ever about the drastic consequences of climate change. The Stern Report of 2006 pointed out that every dollar invested in climate change mitigation will pay off by avoiding more drastic negative economic impacts at a later stage. The European Commission has put forward an ambitious target for 20% renewable energy in Europe’s overall energy mix by 2020, and the USA and other countries have also started to green their energy policies.”


3. Can implementation of solar economy solve the present global financial crisis? What are your views on these?

“A solar economy would help solve some of the social problems we humans have created in this current age. The increased use of solar energy, which in principle is available to all, can help remove some of the inequalities at the root of many conflicts in the world today.

But the global community needs more than solely the implementation of a solar economy. The present financial crisis seems not to be just a temporary downturn we are undergoing en route to a new upturn. The present financial crisis seems, in fact, not to be a “crisis” at all but a total collapse.

We are witnessing the end of an old, unfair, and unjust social order which grew up out of long-term human greed and selfishness. What is required is not only a solar economy and the rebalancing of power that a solar civilization will bring, but the growth of awareness among human beings that we are all traveling together on an evolutionary spiritual journey called Life.

To reverse the current downhill trend that is evident on various levels, including economic, environmental, and moral, we all have to become aware that humanity needs a more just, fair, and spiritual way of living together on planet Earth. Humanity will be wise to embrace a more natural and simple lifestyle based on caring and sharing. In short, we need to simplify our lives, learn to share, and remember our mutual spiritual source and destination.”

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