Vivekananda Kendra-NARDEP Newsletter each month brings you not just VK-NARDEP monthly activities but also many aspects of Environmental philosophy behind our work.
Gaia - or Mother Earth : How to understand the feeling of belonging to one earth? Not as an intellectual exercise but as a part of our very being and existence? Just read this quote As you experience this dynamic, ever-shifting reality, you may suddenly find yourself in a state of meditation, a state in which you lose your sense of separate identity, and become totally engrossed in the life process being contemplated. A mystic? No. This is from a computational scientist, Stephen Harding, who is working with James Lovelock on Gaia systems approach. In an excerpt we have published, he explains how our biology curriculum should make the children tune in with the heart pulse of the planetary organism.
We continue our series. The second part of how to arrive at a sustainable building technology, explains how to calculate the embedded energy or emergy of various building components and also various building activities. Such an approach leads to diversification of technology. We cannot have the same uniform building technology but different technologies based on the particular region, taking into account the local materials, human conditions, environment and climate as well as local cultures. Do not miss this wonderful second part of the article on sustainable building technology.
This month we have conducted a series of workshops on water democracy for children, rural women as well as college students. The green health home has been active. Our medical team consisting of Dr. V.Ganapathi and others have documented the traditional Vaidhyas system of anti-venomn practices. Five bio-methanation plants have been commissioned. Azolla as well as Shalthi Surabhi training camps have been conducted. You can find info on all these in our newsletter.
Ultimately future belongs to the children. With what value system we bring up our children shall determine the future of the earth. Who is in a better position to realize this than our school teachers? And how well are they aware of the ecological problems that humanity faces and also what solution our cutural heritage and value system offers? You can find that out in an exemplary Tamil book written by a teacher of Vivekananda Kendra Vidhyalaya which has been reviewed and shared in this newsletter.
In our visions of wisdom section, we also share with you, what a famous writer, a spiritual monk and a eastern anthropologist talk about compassion, meeting of science & spirtuality and also human condition respectively.
You can read them all in February newsletter available for download here. Do write back to us conveying your feelings and suggestions.
Download VK-NARDEP activity by clicking here.
For more information about Vivekananda Kendra Natural Resources Development Project (VK-NARDEP) please visit the website http://www.vknardep.org
