Renovated the Sahadeva and Nakula teerthams at Rameswaram

The traditional water bodies of Rameshwaram are finding a new life. Already Vivekananda Kendra-nardep has renovated the Sahadeva and Nakula teerthams. We have renovated vitally the Arjuna and Bhima teertham. But the remaining one Pandava prince and eldest of them all -Dharma : teertham in his name has been missing. After months of search we at last zeroed in on the spot. We conducted the initial ceremonies, involved the local people, removed the thorny bushes encroaching upon the teertham which was completely lost and now the teertham is coming up. Read about it in our newsletter.

This month we give you further details about the Green Rameshwaram project. It has started already to have an impact with green awareness meetings been conducted for special interest groups and stake-holders, clean-green awareness campaigns taking place and green health camps being conducted. We present in this newsletter the continuation of the core-group activities and deliverable goals fixed for each of the core-groups.

We also have happenings at different sections of our work: sustainable agriculture workshops, workshops on bio-methanation plants, workshops on traditional medical systems etc. In our publication section we continue the eco-toons : this time we emphasize the importance of combining values of sustainability with science and technology in order to achieve sustainable development.

In our wisdom section we share how the food culture has to be sustainable: we need to move towards 'slow food' from 'fast food'; about the need for preserving cultural traditions of sustainability and also how the essence of everything connects us all together. Surely you will enjoy all these aspects of our newsletter. We have the solar technologist Jagadish Kapur's passage where he says: The understanding of the perennial cultural streams, and nature-based tribal cultures;and myths; with their reverence towards nature or ecology becomes the bridge between science and spirituality. We also have the passage from the interview of famous sustainable food culture guru who says: Today we have less biodiversity, we waste a big percentage of the food we produce, and we have millions of people dying of hunger. Those are real problems that we choose to take on. And we have a mystic who speaks about perceiving the unity of all that can be perceived, all that can be seen, at all levels of reality, including all beings and everything.

Vknardep June 2014