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Echoes of EcoInfinite Indivisible Oneness and Love In this issue:

Infinite Indivisible Oneness aLove

Rameshwaram Project :DraupadiTeertham

The Happenings I

Our Publication: Bio-Diversity

Visions of Wisdom: The Unity

When Breath of Life with itsthunder roars over the plantsthen, pregnant with pollen, th

flowers burst forth in abundancWhen Breath of Life in due seasroars over the plants, all thingsearth rejoice with great rejoicin

When Breath of Life the broadearth with rain bedews, the catexult: We shall have plenty, th

say.The plants converse with this

Breath, drenched by its moistuOur life is prolonged, for you ha

made us all fragrant.

-Athar Veda XI-4:3-6

Hymn to the Breath Life

April, 2013 Vivekananda Kendra- nardep Newsletter Vol:5 No:2

Just as this body is a portion of theuniversal body, so this mind is a portionof the universal mind, and the soul ofman a portion of the universal Soul.Now, we know that the universal Soulis infinite. How can infinity have parts?How can it be broken up, divided? Itmay be very poetic to say that I am aspark of the Infinite, but it is absurd tothe thinking mind. What is meant bydividing Infinity? Is it somethingmaterial that you can part or separate itinto pieces?Infinite can never be divided. If thatwere possible, it would be no moreInfinite. What is the conclusion then?The answer is, that Soul which is theuniversal is you; you are not a part but

the whole of It. You are the whole ofGod. Then what are all these varieties?We find so many millions of individualsouls. What are they? If the sun reflectsupon millions of globules of water, ineach globule is the form, the perfectimage of the sun; but they are onlyimages, and the real sun is only one.So this apparent soul that is in everyone of us is only the image of God,nothing beyond that. The real Beingwho is behind, is that one God. We areall one there.

As Self, there is only one in theuniverse. It is in me and you, and is onlyone; and that one Self has beenreflected in all these various bodies asvarious different selves. But we do notknow this; we think we are separatefrom each other and separate from Him.And so long as we think this, misery willbe in the world. This is hallucination.We see that fear comes with the ideathat there are two in the universe. Wehave always heard it preached, "Loveone another". What for? That doctrinewas preached, but the explanation ishere. Why should I love every one?Because they and I are one. Whyshould I love my brother? Because heand I are one. There is this oneness;

this solidarity of the whole universe.From the lowest worm that crawls underour feet to the highest beings that everlived all have various bodies, but arethe one Soul. That universalsympathy, universal love, universalbliss, that never changes, raises manabove everything. It has no reactionsand no misery can touch it;

[Excerpt from the lecture of Swami

Vivekananda]

Service to humanity is the highest form of worship Swami Vivekananda

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The moment you isolate yourself everything hurts you. The moment you expand and feel forothers you gain help. The selfish is the most miserable and the happiest is the most selfless.

.-Swami Vivekananda

People have been using this water body as somethingbetween a gutter and a sewage tank. The place was morelike a place breeding all sorts of disease causing organisms.The desilting operation was started by Kendra andcontinued with a lot of efforts. After weeks of toil anddedicated labor it became possible to remove the pollutants

to a considerable extent.

A lot of thorny shrubs have taken root around the structureswhich have been built later to contain the Teertham after itwas reduced for road construction. Totally neglected andalso completely polluted, the structure has been slowly andsteadily collapsing. Gigantic cracks have started appearingin the basement of the enclosing walls of the Teerthamwhich have been hidden by both polluted water and thethick thorny bushes growing over these cracks furtherdeepening the fissures.

So the renovation work has actually identified a majorproblem in a timely manner and has rescued the Teerthamfrom a total collapse. The work is of course still going on.There is much work to do. However now the Teertham hasbeen cleared from the pollution and all the impurities havebeen removed and de-silting has been done. With furtherprogress the work will also make the Teertham an importantplace of veneration and water conservation.

For more information about the project and how you cancontribute, contact: Secretary, VK-nardep, Vivekananda-puram, Kanyakumari-629702.

Echoes of Eco - Newsletter, Vivekananda Kendra nardep, April 2013, Vol. 5 No: 2

Second Teertham : Draupadi Teertham

Swami Vivekanandas 150th

birth anniversarycelebrations are making ecological footprints in the sandsof Rameshwaram. Even as the work on HanumanTeertham is progressing, the second Teertham to betaken up was Draupadi Teertham. Draupadi is the maincharacter in the epic Mahabharatha. She is the consort ofthe Pandavas and is the motivating force for the greatwar.

Draupadi has a special significance for the state of TamilNadu. In Tamil Nadu she is worshipped as a Grama-Devata (Village Goddess) in many villages. She is seenas both fertility Goddess and also related to fire rituals.

This combination of localised village spiritual traditionwith a pan-Indian epic also symbolises the nationalintegration of India as a natural phenomenon reinforcedat various levels. Thus this teertham is named afterDraupadi as a confluence of both national as well aslocal spiritual and cultural traditions. The teertham haslost much of its water retaining area to the roadsconstructed by its side and today is a much reduced selfof its previous grandeur. Even this diminished water bodyhas been neglected by the society so much that thewater is stagnant and putrid and is filled with all sorts offilth.

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This Month

There is no motion in a straight line. Everything moves in a circle. A straight line infinitely producedbecomes a circle.Everything must complete the circle and come back to its Source.

Swami Vivekananda

Learning Organic Farmingtechnologies in a hands-on sessionduring an exposure visit.

Workshop on Sustainable Agriculturewas organised by Dept. of Forest, Govt.of Tamilnadu Aralvoimozhi,Kanyakumari Dist. at the Forest Dept.Office Aralvoimozhi, Kanyakumari Dist.on 9

thof this month. 123 persons

attended and the resource person wasShri.S.Rajamony

Done with DST core supporWater was tested from 14 wells inKanyakumari Dist programme of Central

Ground Water Board, Chennai.

Green Health Home in 7 days treated 134patients and offered them indigenous healthsolutions.

This Month

Holistic Health

One day Workshop on Kitchen W

based Bio-Methanation Plant (SSurabhi) was conducted at Kalluvillai on 23

rd. The programme

supported by DST Core suShri.V.Ramakrishnan was the resource person.

siting Gramodaya Park during anxposure visit: Students eagerly looking ate panels and getting the eco-awareness.

Pasumai Vikatan a popular agricumagazine in Tamil brought ouextensive coverage on Acultivation technology of VK-narde

the usages of Azolla as a bspectrum bio-feed.

Energy :Happeni

This Month

Workshop on Azolla Cultivationechnology as broad spectrum feed waseld at Vivekananda Kendra NARDEP,RC, Kalluvilai on 20

thand

r.P.Kamalasanan Pillai was the resourceerson. 4 persons received intensiveaining.

VK-nardep organised workshop onAwareness and Documentation of Ethno-

Medical Science (Nadi Chiksha) on 8th

ofthis month at Technology Resource CentreKalluvillai. 66 persons attended andDr.Ganapathy was the resource person.

A section of the students attending thesustainable agriculture workshop : gettingexposure to green-agricultural techniques.

Extensive coverage on AzollPasumai Vikatan: Farmers enabout Azolla answered.

Media Coverage

This month

Documentation of the Nadi medical system an ancient diagnostic science beingpresented to the dignitary at the Nadiworkshop. This is part of a series ofworkshop organized by VK-nardep toconserve, revive and popularize thespecializations within the ancient Indianmedical system.

aining on Azolla Cultivation Technologys broad spectrum feed was organized byrishi Vigyan Kendra, Ambalawayal,ayanad, Kerala on 30

thand

r.P.Kamalasanan Pillai was the resourceerson. 120 persons attended.

Following Bio-methanation plants suto College of Agricultural EngineerPost Harvest Technology, RaGangtok, Sikkim:

1 cum 4 nos.

0.5 cum 3 nos. 0.25 cum 3 nos.

Echoes of Eco - Newsletter, Vivekananda Kendra nardep, April 2013, Vol. 5 No: 2

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From our

Publications

Echoes of Eco - Newsletter, Vivekananda Kendra nardep, April 2013 Vol. 5 No: 2

Why do we need Bio-diversity? : Today conserving and promoting bio-diversity beginning to be recognized as an important and vital element of sustainable developmenHowever reductionist view of development views bio-diversity more as a luxury than need. Why should we preserve the species bio-diversity even if they do not seem to be apparent or immediate use to humanity? There is an inherent innate worth in all forms life. This is an excerpt from our publication: Akshaya Vikas Sustainable Development

The One has become the many. When we see the One, any limitations reflected through Mayadisappear. But it is quite true that the manifold is not valueless. It is through the many that we reach

the One.Swami Vivekananda

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My ethics not only permit me to clbut require me to own kinship withmerely the ape but the horse andsheep, the lion and the leopard, snake and the scorpion. (Not so nthese kinsfolk regard themselves.I do not want to live at the cost oflife even of a snake. I should let bite me to death rather than kill hBut it is likely that if God puts methat cruel test and permits a snakassault me, I may not have courage to die, but that the beasme may assert itself and I may sto kill the snake in defending perish-able body. I admit that belief has not become so incarnatme as to warrant my staemphatically that I have shed all

of snakes so as to befriend them would like to be able to. I belthat all life is one. Thoughts tdefinite forms. Tigers and snahave kin-ship with us. If I wanrid the earth of venomous beasts reptiles, I must rid myself of venomous thoughts. I shall not doif in my impatient ignorance and indesire to prolong the existence ofbody I seek to kill the so-cavenomous beasts and reptiles. not seeking to defend myself aga

such noxious animals, I die, I shorise again a better and fuller man.

Even today the world is a pure divinething. When it passes through our mindby "My terms and my experiences", wepoison it with our own false thinking, falseideas and false values. Think, all livingorganisms are responding and reacting tothe world around us. This is called Life.There is not a single moment when youare not responding and reacting to theworld. These responses and reactions atthe body level in the world are called"work" or "action".

We are all active, dynamic peoplebecause we are alive. But your actionsare totally different from anotherindividual even when the conditions arethe same. Under the samecircumstances, threats or joys, the

environment remains the same and eachindividual responds differently. Why?

Responses to the world are ordered by,determined by, guided by my thoughts. Itis subjective. All actions are expressionsof our minds. If we smile, that is yourthought. If you growl, it is your thought. Ifyou punch his nose flat, that is a thought.Good, bad or indifferent, all actions areexpressions of our minds, our thoughts.We have to move into a process ofreaching out to that greater state of

consciousness. Or call it God-stateconsciousness..

Discovering the Unity Living the UnityExperiencing the Unity

----MahatmahatmMahatmahatm

GandGandGandGand

You are aware that, in the West, theprevailing tendency at the moment is,after a period of synthesis, to returnupon the excessive sub-division oflearning Such a caste-system inscholarship, undoubtedly helps at first, inthe gathering and classification of newmaterial. But if followed too exclusively,it ends by limiting thecomprehensiveness of truth. The searchis endless. Realization evades us. TheEastern aim has been rather theopposite, namely that, in the multiplicityof phenomena, we should never misstheir underlying unity. After generationsof this quest, the idea of unity comes tous almost spontaneously, and weapprehend no insuperable obstacle ingrasping it

It was following this quest that Isucceeded in making the dumb plant themost eloquent chronicler of its inner lifeand experiences by making its ownhistory There is a great gap betweenthe living and the non-living, and I wasexperimenting on the responses onplants to make a connection betweenthe two. Just now I got the amazingresults; Same, Same, all are the Same!.... The barriers which seemed toseparate kindred phenomena was found

to have vanished, the plant and theanimal appearing as a multiform unity ina single ocean of being

----JagadishJagadishJagadishJagadish

Chandra BoseChandra BoseChandra BoseChandra BoseScientist

----RabindranathRabindranathRabindranathRabindranath

TagoreTagoreTagoreTagoreMystic Poet

The whole Universe is One Existence. There cannot be anything else. Out of diversities we are all goingtowards this universal existence. Families into tribes, tribes into races, races into nations, nations into

humanity- how many wills going to the One! It is all knowledge, all science the realization of this Unity!-Swami Vivekananda

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