About Us
We aim to transform the lives of underprivileged people,
providing them with education, health and support.
WHAT WE CARE FOR
All activities of the Shanthimalai Trust are the expression of the living compassion realised by the founders of the Shanthimalai Trust, Dr. Hugo and Anne Maier: “Oppressed by misery and sorrow, enfeebled by suffering and want, man is paralyzed through his hopelessness. He can‘t think of anything but of his survival. In this situation, how can he turn to the higher values of life? Even the memory of them has disappeared. Having lost all faith in himself, he flees into the abyss of disbelief and superstition. The true meaning of financial help is to enable man to find out of this dull state, with its inherent fatalism. When man finds back to himself, he finds also back to his fellow beings, through re-awakened love for his neighbor! He is, once more, capable of living up to a real community life.
Only when a man knows himself as a self-confident individual, will he be able to make efforts by his own initiative to grow into his true spiritual identity. This is the ultimate aim of our material aid – that man rediscovers who he truly is, not that he loses himself once again in newly-found material well-being. When money dominates man‘s life, he is enshrouded in darkest ignorance. When it is shared, it becomes a blessing for both the helper and the helped – for the giver, as well as for the receiver. In life, it often seems that the spirit of complacency, passivity and despair, is the mightier power. But the spirit of truth, commitment and compassion has always the longer breath. To help the people here truly requires the longer breath, which can only arise from this spirit of truth, commitment and compassion. This spirit alone can bring up projects which are of lasting value.”
OUR GOALS
- Relief of poor or distressed persons without any distinction of community, caste, creed or religion.
- Giving medical relief, including the establishment, maintenance and support of hospitals, clinics, dispensaries and educational institutions to serve the poor and the distressed.
- Research and training in the method of self-enquiry and ways of reestablishing harmony, well-being and individuality.
- To venerate and emulate the spiritual teachers, exemplars and friends of humanity who have shown the way of disinterested service to the whole of humanity, and kindred spirits of all faiths.
- To develop new avenues of alternative healing for mind and body (especially psychosomatic distresses).
- Spreading the specific understanding of ancient methods of healing that disease is an expression of a separation of its original basic harmony of mind, body and soul.
- To support and nurture the cultural and spiritual heritage of India, its institutions, temples, monuments etc.
- To establish Ashrams, groves and hostels wherein men and women may seek through work and living to exemplify judications proportionality (Sophrosyne) and ethical fidelity in their relationships with others, in daily self-examination and in the fulfillment of self-chosen obligations (Syadharma).