WORK FOR THE DIVINE IN ALL

The veneration for all life is the basis of deep ecology and Swami Vivekananda points to this core aspect of all existence - its innate divinity. In continuation with our newsletters providing the vision of Swami Vivekananda that forms the spiritual substratum of the work of VK-nardep towards sustainable development, we provide this month an excerpt from the lecture of Swami Vivekananda where he dwells on the Upanishadic declaration 'isavasyam idam sarvam' - Divine permeates all existence. The statement is also rightly the motto of VK-nardep.. Swami Vivekananda says : "So work, says the Vedanta, putting God in everything, and knowing Him to be in everything. Work incessantly, holding life as something deified, as God Himself, and knowing that this is all we have to do, this is all we should ask for. God is in everything, where else shall we go to find Him?"

And that explains the works of VK-nardep.

At Rameshwaram the water teerthams project is progressing in a wonderful way. In a wonderful display of synchronicity, the union minister has said that there are efforts to make the temple at Rameshwaram an UNESCO heritage site. The sacred geography ofTeerthams shows that not only the temple but the entire island can become an UNESCO heritage site. The Rameshwaram Teertham project which has been making the local as well tourist population aware of this spiritual-ecological aspect of the pilgrim island, is also making the pilgrimage a green pilgrimage. The progress in the work for this month can be read at the newsletter.

In this newsletter we are gladly sharing a case study of a farmer Sri Rai, in a village in Jharkhandtaking up Azolla backyard technology, which was brought to him through BAIF which in turn was from VK-nardep. Azolla has made a synergy jump in the health and productivity of the cattle which in turn has made the extended family of the farmer which includes his cattle a happy family. As Dr. Kamalasannan Pillai the brain behind this innovation used to say “Azolla once in homestead shall find its way to the field as well.” For Sri.Rai it is a journey of love – his love for his cows made his search for a good feed which took him through BAIF to Azolla which in turn has come there from Kanyakumari the southernmost end of India through directorate of animal husbandry, Govt of Jharkhand.

Also read about the interesting happenings in VK-nardep - from green health home to Bio-methanation plant training to exposure visit of the farmers to Gramodaya. We also have had workshops on ethnic medicine and Dr.Ganapathi has given an impressive demonstration of the local medical wisdom in the neighboring state of Kerala in a two days workshop on local healing traditions and martial arts there. There has also been a grey water treatment workshop in which Er.Ramakrishnan explained to the villagers the principle and methods of effective grey water treatment. In our publication section we deal with eco-democracy with eco-toons. And in our wisdom section we present three visionaries on what constitutes true economy, true education and true nature.