We wish every reader a very happy festival season of light and seek the blessings of Goddess Earth!
In this newsletter we pay tribute to one of the greatest daughters of Mother Earth - Wangari Maathai! This African Nobel Laureate led a people's movement towards the greening of Kenya and inspired women across Africa and entire planet to reclaim their right over the natural resources so that the planet will not be exploited by the greed of humanity. This brave woman died this September after a prolonged battle with cancer. VK-nardep humbly dedicates this newsletter to her memory and work. We have in this newsletter her eco-fable of a solitary humming bird that fights to save the forest fire.
This newsletter also brings to you our series on the work VK-nardep has done on the revival of traditional water harvesting structures. As a prelude we have in this issue the civilizational wisdom that goes into the creation of temple tanks and Oornis. Azolla technology has been taken to Andra by Dr.Kamalasanan Pillai. Dr. Ganapathi has given a series of lectures on the need to conserve traditional medical knowledge systems. Gramodaya for Right living - the sustainable technologies exhibition housed at Vivekananda Kendra Kanyakumari has gone to Italy. All these you will learn about in this newsletter.
Wisdom knows no boundaries and heart does matter. We have three savants in our 'Visions of Wisdom'. An African eco-feminist, Swami Vivekananda and an economist. They all talk about the need to have heart and dedicate our lives for healing the wounds of the poor and downtrodden. Wangari Maathai says "... the people at the bottom sometimes can make themselves extremely heavy. You try to lift them out and constantly they go back to the same depth. So we need to commit ourselves to raise them, to not give up." What she states is the echo of the clarion call Swami Vivekananda gave to the youth of India, " Feel, my children, feel; feel for the poor, the ignorant, the downtrodden; feel till the heart stops and the brain reels and you think you will go mad --then pour the soul out at the feet of the Lord, and then will come power, help, and indomitable energy." Even our technology and economy should re-orient towards the poor and downtrodden says E.F.Schumacher, "What the poor need most of all is simple things—building materials,clothing, household goods,agricultural implements—and a better return for their agricultural products." Such a convergence of savants in different fields and different climes and times, shows that the eternal wisdom is the wisdom of the heart!
You can read them all in this newsletter! You can download the newsletter here
You can also download an attractive books catalogue from our website by clicking here
For more information about Vivekananda Kendra Natural Resources Development Project please visit http://www.vknardep.org
