A Life of Balance Graced By Nature
three years ago
destiny brought together a small group
of folks with a common seeking
they have been dismayed and
disillusioned by the consumptive and
wasteful modern lifestyles
and the alienation from nature and we’re
seeking an alternative life
to explore the possibilities about 100
acres of completely barren and degraded
land was acquired the land was then
allowed to heal it was fenced off with a
few small earthquakes
and then it was allowed to rest and
revive what happened
however was beyond anyone’s expectation
or imagination
slowly a forest planted itself back its
scrub jungle emerged in 10 years
and over the next couple of decades a
vibrant forest established itself
with the seeds brought in by the birds
and the animals and perhaps the wind
today it is home to over 200 species of
birds a host of wild animals
including the deer wild boar and then
wandering elephants and bison
with the miraculous transformation of
the land as an inspiration
an overarching vision statement was
formulated this was going to be the
place
to explore how to live in ecological
balance and spiritual harmony
a place where we tread more gently on
the planet while yet leading fulfilling
lives
the foundation was to be what we call
inner work a set of practices that would
give us a sense of centeredness
and then put us closer to our true and
essential nature
while ensuring that our actions emerge
from the sense of centeredness
externally we set out to explore
experiment
learn and share our learnings in the
areas of alternatives
in energy buildings water waste
farming and food and health now each
decade had its own unique struggles and
challenges
it was by no means easy or
straightforward bit by bit the
infrastructure was built up
the campus has been off the grid the key
point here though
is this was not an attempt to copy paste
an urban lifestyle onto an off-the-grid
rural setup
instead this was to reduce that this is
an attempt to reduce our needs
and then meet those reduced needs with
predominantly local sources
of renewable resources we support our
limited needs with rooftop solar pv
systems we have solar hot water heaters
we try to use
biogas firewood and solar cookers
predominantly for cooking we have a
shared community
kitchen and we have extensive rainwater
harvesting grey water systems black
water crossing
we try to grow a lot of the food that we
consume in the community
and our farming practices employ
sustainable agricultural practices
and finally as part of our social
outreach we’ve established a local
organic food cooperative
which is owned and operated by the local
village community but
it is guided and supported by the values
and the volunteer energy of naval
nursing
the initiative provides sustained
livelihood to the local village
community
and among other things helps directly
connect farmers
with urban consumers of organic produce
now there’s nothing unique about all of
this there’s lots of little
communities all over the world that are
exploring
wonderful ideas the key point is the
transformation that occurs
when we do this sort of the thing and
there’s two things that are worth noting
one is the sense of liberation that
starts to build up
as we shed our dependence on what is
otherwise supported
by vast infrastructures whether it is
energy or sewage or water or food
we just unburden ourselves and the
system of all of that
and the second is the idea of
localization
taking care of your own stuff where it
is a manageable problem
and perhaps with appropriate technology
it ends up
being the most efficient way of handling
the needs
the structures are built using local
material mostly
we use local sources of energy we have
local source for water and your food is
very close to the source
now overall we end up leading lives
that keeps us in touch with the
ecosystem
that supports our lives and to that
extent we begin to value it
and to that extent we begin to act more
responsibly
as well as derive pleasure from the
process
we’re a small group doing small things
we’ve blended along made some mistakes
and
made some course corrections along the
way but for us
it has always been about trying to
create a space
which reminds us of the
interconnectedness of all things
a space where we can recapture our sense
of intuition
about what is good for us what is good
for the planet
and eventually get to the source of
sustainable happiness
now this is in contrast with modern
lifestyles
where things are so far removed from our
true and essential nature
that we’re beginning to lose this
connection with nature
when most things we touch are
non-natural materials when most things
we smell or artificial smells when most
things we
see are non-natural things most sounds
we hear
artificial sounds and most of the food
that we eat and this sense of taste that
we have
is derived from artificial flavors and
synthetic foods and highly processed
foods
then we slowly start to develop this
discord with nature which over time
were likely to descend into something
that can best be described
as nature deficit disorder in fact
sometimes it feels like it is a form of
human derangement now perhaps this is at
the heart
of why we approach things in the way we
do completely against nature now let’s
look at a few examples
if you look at agriculture now we all
know that agrochemicals
are one of the main contributors to
environmental degradation
and climate change if you look at
farming models
typically the the way that farming
occurs is we use
vast amounts of toxic chemicals that get
into the soil get into the water
and then we plant seeds that somehow
resist this toxicity
and then we harvest the grains and the
crops that come out of this toxic soil
and we consume them now the science
can clearly establish the bad things
going on in the cycle of cropping
but forgetting the science for a moment
what about our own
sense of intuition if we reflect on this
why on earth would we consume the food
that comes out of
such toxicity but isn’t it sad that
somewhere
we have bright minds in great
universities
work and labs coming up with these sorts
of solutions
to perceive problems of yield and pests
and then
bright minds marketed in bright minds
and governments that are
being tasked to regulate and protect us
from these toxicities
in fact promoting these sorts of
practices
and then we have bright farmers using
these methods to grow the food
and then finally we have uh bright minds
that
are consuming this food and
participating in this whole chain now
why on earth
would every participant in the chain
play their role
rather than such large scale monocrop
industrial farming
we all know that on a smaller scale
multi-crop
farming using principles of permaculture
and natural farming
can tap into the wonderful arrangements
of nature
the natural cycles that restore the
carbon the nitrogen the phosphorus and
the potassium
mediated by symbiotic and asymbiotic
relationships with
microbes in the soil that have been
going on for a billion years on the
planet
of course the usual follow-up question
is
can we scale this up and can we meet the
needs of feeding the entire planet and
the answer is yes we can meet the needs
of the planet
but not by scaling up it is by using
these core ideas and applying it locally
in wherever it makes sense
now let’s take the example let’s take
another example let’s take the example
of animal farming
which globally is perhaps the second
biggest contributor
to climate change and loss of
biodiversity increase in carbon dioxide
and reduction in oxygen
what we have happening in front of us is
large acreage of forest being cleared at
an extraordinary rate
for livestock pastures causing huge
pollution and large-scale destruction
of habitat for animals and plants while
at the same time now
we have on the planet over a billion
cattle
a billion sheep billion pigs a billion
goats
and 20 billion chicken
now while there’s supposedly been a 60
drop in wildlife
during the same time we have humans and
their livestock have simply exploded on
the planet
now it’s paramount that each and every
one of us reflect on that
no matter what nation what tribe
what religion we belong to it is
paramount that we move to a plant-based
diet if we want to sustain life on this
planet
examples are endless they’re staring us
in the face
and yet we seem to be insulating
ourselves from these
and wishing them away now it is time to
pause and internalize these issues
so that we can recapture our intuition
of what is right living
there is no question that from the
perspective of our current lifestyles
we’re heading into times of great
hardship
we’ve all developed the highly wasteful
habits
of consumerism and it’s almost an
addiction that deep down
we knew that we could not sustain our
very idea of economic growth
and prosperity is founded on the idea of
rapidly expanding
non-renewable natural capital now the
bad news is
we’ve reached the end of the line our
survival
as humans as a species still connected
to the natural world is in great peril
and it calls upon us
to urgently make strategic shifts
grave sacrifices and exert extraordinary
restraint
in the way we utilize resources if we
are to continue to inhabit this planet
indefinitely
then we need to use the remaining
resources on the planet judiciously
to transition to a sustainable lifestyle
it’s like we’re on this island and we’ve
been wasting away all the resources on
the island
until we realize that the island is
growing underwater
and it is going to take every last
remaining resource
including the people to work together to
build a bridge
to the mainland and save ourselves
now there are many staggering changes
that we need to
bring about at the planetary level redo
our entire energy infrastructure our
entire transportation infrastructure
or food growing systems with renewables
and perhaps deconstruct
the cities as they exist exist today and
so on
but two key notions to keep in mind as
we work towards
sustainable human habitation one is the
idea
of regenerative ecosystems an ecosystem
that is in dynamic stability
and our actions don’t disturb the
balance of resources
and second is the idea of localization
whereby localizing we automatically
bring more awareness
more accountability traceability to the
resources being consumed
and also to use appropriate technology
for the solutions that we do come up
with
now all that stuff the dramatic shifts
and sacrifices
from the perspective of our current
lives that we were talking about
is the bad news now the good news is
that these are ultimately just mental
switches our lifestyles
tastes and habits are ultimately
fashioned by the values that we embrace
and so if we really
internalize the issues in clean air and
clean water
non-toxic food frugality wilderness and
forest
conservation and compassion towards all
beings become
the core values then they trump the old
ideas
of wealth and prosperity as well as any
other emergent desires
that we may have and we automatically
start to derive pleasure
from the values from the activities that
fulfill these core values
now while we need to think at the
planetary level our ideas and actions
and solutions
need to be at the local level so things
that become important
are localizing a resource base or food
or energy or water cooperative learning
becomes important
community level initiatives become
important and local support structures
become important
to make it easier perhaps we can
surround ourselves
with like-minded family and friends and
acquaintances
that life has given us along the way as
we embark upon this tough phase of our
lives
now everything that we have talked about
until now
is in the physical realm and there is
another realm
that’s vastly more important and
transcends
all of this i started off by talking
about
the inner work that we all regard as
very important here
at nava darshan our deep inner
reflections
that make the ultimate connection with
our true and essential nature
now to me this is the most important of
all as we navigate the planetary crisis
developing the inner strength in
resilience
by discovering the living presence
within us that is timeless
beyond change and beyond death
it is eternal and remains untouched
by this crisis let us make that
connection
and let us be the instruments of actions
that emanate from within
and be at peace thank you