This month newsletter brings out how Swami Vivekananda was one of the earliest modern thinker-seer to challenge the man-centric vision of nature that was responsible for the vast destruction of the environment. No other idea has played a central role in ecological devastation than the idea that the entire planet is designed for human greed to plunder.Today this is very much recognized as the basis of ecological thoughts : the recognition that the world is not made for the enjoyment of man but that humanity owes its existence to the planet and the varied life-forms in it. We find this foresight in Swami Vivekananda which makes him a pioneer in modern ecological thinking and provides a Vedantic basis to Indic ecological movement. In his characteristic forceful and penetrating way Swami Vivekananda states:
"If the world is created for us, we are also created for the world. That this world is created for our enjoyment is the most wicked idea that holds us down.This world is not for our sake. Millions pass out of it every year; the world does not feel it; millions of others are supplied in their place. Just as much as the world is for us, so we also are for the world…"
We are reaching new heights in the renovation of sacred waterteerthams at our Rameshwaram project. We have come out with the 'Green Pilgrim Oath. The newsletter will tell you what a Green Pilgrim Oath is and also the renovation work that has been achieved : the twoteerthams which had been polluted and lay abandoned on either sides of the road that enters the holy island are today renovated and are ready with nice sparkling water. The kind of fresh water management that has been achieved by the traditional water harvesting structures in this small island surrounded by the sea is a marvel that needs to be studied by water conservationists everywhere.
The other happenings include ethnic medicine documentation workshop, construction technology workshop, various workshops on sustainable agriculture technologies including Azolla and Bio-manuring.Jharkhand farmers were among those who attended the Azolla workshop. In our publication section we present an excerpt from 'Akshaya Vikas' where we explore some policy recommendations for water conservation and management at different levels of community organizations.In our wisdom section we explore the relation between the inner and outer in the words of quantum physicist Subash Kak; the relation between our awareness in our activities and the planetary events in the words of Mata Amritanandamayi and the relation between humanity and Gaia - the meta organism that earth is : in the words of bio-physicist James lovelock.
