Natural Resources Development Project

We lost a great Gandhian, environmentalist and a water warrior Shri.Anupam Mishra on 19th Dec. 2016. All his life he strived for water democracy.  His two books (i) Aajbhi Khare Hain Talab (the ponds are still relevant – published in 19 languages and sold one lakh copies) and (ii) Rajasthan Ki Rajat Boondein (The Radiant Raindrops of Rajasthan) are guides for all the stakeholders including Govt. Shri.Anupamji’s Hindi was so sweet and poetic that after listening one will fall in love with the language.  Attending his talks or slide presentation was a treat to everyone.

"Once in a lifetime, everyone gets an inspirational call from God. In a flash, this reveals to us the purpose of our being born.

Sir Albert Howard was the founder of the Organic farming movement. Incidentally, he worked for 25 years in India as an agricultural investigator. His 20 page booklet ‘An Agriculture Testament’ covers everything you need to know about organic agriculture. In this issue, we have given a few of his quotable quotes on the subject.

Shri.N.Krishnamurthi covers the related topic of ‘Food, Diet, Nutrition and Food security’ by way of dialogue between the Ostrich, Parrot and Swan. 

In 1854 Chief Seattle gave a stirring speech about the sanctity of the land and the need for careful stewardship of it.

“I want to know God’s thoughts. The rest is details”. This quotation by Albert Einstein puzzled many. However, Einstein  was pantheist – worshiper of all Gods. He may not have believed in any conventional notion of God. But believed that “a spirit is manifested in the laws of the Universe – a spirit vastly  superior to that of man, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble”.

Albert Einstein has talked in his own style of real liberation.

Green Rameshwaram” is an initiative of Vivekananda Kendra under its Natural Resources Development Project (NARDEP) activities. As a catalytic agent, Vivekananda Kendra has brought the stakeholders together through networking to join hands in this transformation. It reinforces the belief that true development happens only when it is holistic and sustainable.

The sufi mystic Ibn-al-Arabi wrote that God is essentially in all things.

Dreams in the plant,
Stirs in the animal,
And awakens in man”

Lyton K.Caldwell an American political scientist as well as principal Architect of the 1969 National Environmental Policy Act, the first of its kind in the world writes:

“The environmental crisis is an outward manifestation of a crisis of mind and spirit. There could be no greater misconception of its meaning than to believe it to be concerned only with endangered wildlife, man-made ugliness, and pollution. These are part of it, but more importantly, the crisis is concerned with the kind of creature that man is and what we must become in order to survive”.

27th July, 2016 was the first death anniversary of Dr.A.P.J.Abdul Kalam. In his poems “Phoenix of Life” he writes