Echoes of Eco Water Conservation

In this issue:

Water Conservation

The Happenings

Green Rameswaram

From our Publications: Green

Rameshwaram Books

Visions of Wisdom:

Harmony and Equal

Vision

Evolution

Carrot Revolution

May Heaven and Earth be gracious

unto you, may those two splendors

set you free from suffering! May the

Sun warm you with blessings! May the

Wind waft its propitious breezes to

your heart! May the heavenly

Streams, rich in milk, flow within you

auspiciously.

May the herbs of the earth be to

you a propitious aid!

- Atharva Veda (VIII, 2,14-5)

Hymn for Nature

October, 2015 Vivekananda Kendra- nardep Newsletter Vol:7 No:8

Service to humanity is the highest form of worship – Swami Vivekananda

In the object-lesson the child is to be brought into living communion with Nature as a

whole, that Nature which is the mother of life, the life of the plant and the life of the

animal alike, and also of the stone and metal. ... Reverence, even more than sympathy,

should be the fruit of the object-lesson. – Sister Nivedita

Echoes of Eco - Newsletter, Vivekananda Kendra – nardep, October 2015, Vol. 7 No: 8

One of the aims of ‘Green Rameshwaram’ is to make the island water sufficient. Towards

this end ‘Green Rameshwaram project has taken into account the traditional water

harvesting structures in the ancient island which have been lost in time. The project has

today discovered apart from the 24 Traditional water bodies (TWB) widely known, more

than 40 TWBs and are renovating them. The above two panels from Gramodaya Park

present the principles behind the system.

For more information on Green Rameshwaram please contact: Secretary, Vivekananda

Kendra-nardep, Vivekanandapuram, Kanyakumari -629702

Email: vknardep@gmail.com Phone: 04652-246296 www.vknardep.org

We’re never going to have respectful and reverential relationships with the planet- and sensible

policies about what we put in the air, the soil, the water – if very young children don’t begin

learning about these things literally in their houses, backyards, streets and schools. We need

to have human beings who are oriented that way from their earliest memories.

–Elsie Boulding

Happenings this month:

SUSTAINABLE

AGRICULTURE

Dr.Sunder, Koodankulam Project Director

giving felicitation address at the seminar.

Echoes of Eco - Newsletter, Vivekananda Kendra – nardep, October 2015, Vol.7No: 8

Happenings this

month:

Renewable Energy

Sri.Balakrishnanji Vice President Vivekaannda

Kendra inaugurating the seminar

Happenings this

month:

Networking

18 Students of Agricultural

college, Killikulam Tirunelveli Dist

(TNAU) learned Enriched Bio-

manure, Vermi composting and

Azolla technology during their study

tour to Vivekananda Kendra on 9th

of this month.

Training programme on “Mineral rich

Bio-manure – Need of the hour”

was organized for Sneh Samruddhi

Mandal, Ratnagiri, Maharashtra at

Vivekanandapuram on 5th of this

month. 15 farmers attended and

benefited and the resource persons

were Smt.S.Premalatha and

Shri.S.Rajamony

Training programme on “Bio-manure

plant” was conducted at VK-nardep,

Technology Resource Center on 24th

of this month for 2 persons and the

Resource Person was

Shri.V.Ramakrishnan

Construction of Bio-Methanation

Plants:

IFAD - Fixed type 1 cum – 25

General users - Portable type 6

cum – 2

Rameshwaram - Fixed type 1

cum – 20

National Seminar on 'Traditional Siddha

Varma Therapy for Joints and Nervous

Disorder' was conducted on 27th and 28th

of this month at Vivekananda Kendra,

Gramodaya Park Auditorium.

Sri.Balakrishnan Vice-President of

Vivekananda Kendra inaugurated the

national seminar. 288 eminent Vaidyas

and medical professionals participated

and presented papers. Project Director

of Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant

Dr.Sundar felicitated the conference.

Dr.Ganapathy and his team conducted the

event.

Training programme on “Mineral rich

Bio-manure was conducted at TRC

Kalluvillai on 24th of this month. 1

farmer attended and benefited and

the resource persons were

Smt.S.Premalatha and

Shri.S.Rajamony

Happenings This Month:

Holistic Health

Kitchen Organic

waste based Bio-

Methanation Plant

(Sakthi Surabhi) was

reported in the

vernacular news

media:

On 1st of this month

Puthiya Thalaimurai

(Madurai) edition

On 20th of this month

theTamil newspaper

Dinamalar (Madurai

edition) published a

news story on the

same.

21 Students of TDMNS

College, T.Kallikulam, Tirunelveli

Dist.learned Enriched Bio-

manure, Vermi composting and

Azolla technology during their

study tour to Vivekananda

Kendra on 23rd of this month. Green health home worked for 6 days

and treated 168 patients

Echoes of Eco - Newsletter, Vivekananda Kendra – nardep, October 2015, Vol. 7 No: 8

The natural world is the larger sacred community to which we belong. To be alienated

from this community is to become destitute in all that makes us human. To damage this

community is to diminish our own existence.

-Thomas Berry

‘Green Rameshwaram’ aims to realize one of the last dreams of Dr.APJ Abdul Kalam for his own native island

This national seminar has brought

together the professional and

traditional Vaidyas who are

repositories of traditional knowledge

and have created an ambience where

indigenous knowledge, experiences and

case studies are exchanged.

On October 25thThiru.Nanthakumar,

IAS the district collector of

Ramanathapuram, visited the

Mahabeer Dharmasala where he

inspected the progress of the

renovation works being carried out

under 'Green Rameshwaram'. The

renovation will result in making the

heritage building become a knowledge

center for the residents as well as

pilgrims. It will provide information

on archeology, culture, natural

history, biodiversity, green

technologies etc. It will also house

related exhibitions.

The whole of the universe is built upon the same plan as a part of it. So, just as I have a mind, there is a cosmic mind. As in the individual,

so in the universal. There is the universal gross body; behind that, a universal fine body; behind that,

a universal mind; behind that, a universal egoism, or

consciousness; and behind that, a universal intelligence. And all this is in nature, the manifestation of

nature, not outside of it.

–Swami Vivekananda

National Seminar on

'Traditional Siddha Varma

Therapy for Joints and

Nervous Disorders

Training programme on “Sanitation

and Hygiene” organized by NIOT,

Chennai was conducted at

Vivekananda Kendra, Rameshwaram

on 6th and 7th with 15 participants.

The resource person was

Sis.V.Saraswathy and her team.

Vettiver plantation at Nandavanam as a

part of phyto remediation of Grey water

– part of “Green Rameshwaram” project

Newly discovered? – Yes. It was totally

buried in the sand – Parashurama

teertham after renovation

Politicians need a better understanding of global ecology. We need to be freed from our

species-specific arrogance. No evidence exists that we are 'chosen', the unique species

for which all the others were made. Nor are we the most important one because we are

so numerous, powerful and dangerous.

– Lynn Margulis

From our

Publications

Echoes of Eco - Newsletter, Vivekananda Kendra – nardep, October 2015, Vol. 7 No: 8

These books are published as part of Green Rameshwaram drive. For more

information on Green Rameshwaram please contact: Secretary, Vivekananda

Kendra-nardep, Vivekanandapuram, Kanyakumari -629702

Email: vknardep@gmail.com Phone: 04652-246296 www.vknardep.org

Other books in this

series that might

interest you.

Books on Green Health and Basic Hygiene

This Tamil book is a part of the

Green Rameshwaram project and is a

manual for good hygienic practices

that should be followed in both

individual households as well as in

public places. The book is a must to

impart hygiene education which is

part of ‘Green Rameshwaram’

campaign. The author of the book is

Er.V.Ramakrishnan.

This Tamil book is a part of the

Green Rameshwaram project and is a

treasure chest of indigenous medical

knowledge based on locally and

commonly available herbal resources.

This provides exhaustive medical data

from Green health to facial beauty to

a herbal first aid treatment kit. The

author is Dr.Ganapathai and the book

is richly illustrated.

All life here is a stage or a

circumstance in an unfolding

progressive evolution of a Spirit that

has involved itself in Matter and is

labouring to manifest itself in that

reluctant substance. This is the

whole secret of earthly existence. …

This gradual becoming of the Divine

out of its own phenomenal opposites

is the meaning and purpose of the

terrestrial evolution….. From the clod

and metal to the plant, from the

plant to the animal, from the animal

to man, so much has she completed of

her journey; a huge stretch or a

stupendous leap still remains before

her. As from matter to life, from life

to mind, so now she must pass from

mind to super-mind, from man to

superman; this is the gulf that she

has to bridge, the supreme miracle

that she has to perform before she

can rest from her struggle and

discontent and stand in the radiance

of that supreme consciousness,

glorified, transmuted, satisfied with

her labour.

The awareness that we are alive

thanks to all of nature surrounding us

led to the principal of “banbutsu

seidou,” which means “everything is

equal.”...The foundation of Eastern

thinking is “enlightenment,” as seen in

the name of “Buddha,” which actually

means “enlightened person.” Simply

put, the truth is not something that

exists outside or something that

needs to be brought in from outside,

but already exists within each person.

Eastern thinking has the concept of

“yin and yang.” “Yang” refers to the

flow of energy developing, expanding,

or going outward, whereas “yin” is the

inward flow or the flow toward inner

contentment. Responding to

situations from the “yin and yang”

perspective is a way of living in

acceptance of these forces of the

universe. As Laozi said: “Everything is

based on harmony between yin and

yang; harmony is the origin of

creation and the most important key

to innovation.”

Harmony and Equal Vision Carrot Revolution

Evolution

Well over a hundred years ago the

painter Paul Cézanne said, “A time is

coming when a carrot, freshly

observed, will trigger a revolution.”

Has this revolution taken place, is it

slowly taking place or is it about to

take place? And what is the revolution

to which Cézanne referred? How could

something as insignificant,

inconsequential and ordinary as

observing a carrot trigger a

revolution? Cézanne meant that if we

could see even a simple everyday

object such as a carrot, as it truly is,

our experience would be

revolutionized. But what does it mean

to see an object as it truly is? The

key is in the phrase ‘freshly observed,’

which means to see clearly,

unobstructed by the concepts that

thought superimposes on our

experience. In fact, most of us are

completely unaware that our

experience is filtered through a fine

mesh of conceptual thinking that

makes it appear very different from

how it actually is.

Junko Edahiro Eco-Journalist

Vivekananda Kendra – nardep, Kanyakumari-629702 Phone:91-4652-246296 www.vknardep.org

You would have thought that our first priority would be to ask what the ecologists are

finding out, because we have to live within the conditions and principles they define.

Instead, we've elevated the economy above ecology..

-David Suzuki

- Sri Aurobindo - Rupert Spira Potter-Artist