The signals have been out: Slow down. Do not stretch. No multi-tasking effort. Limit meetings. Be on the feet, ambulating. Cut-off e-world as much as possible. Diversify. Be with people at large. Find young cohorts to work with. Younger teams can take charge. Have more conversations, for passing the stories, experience, lessons, slipped and missed, messages from ‘legends’ in vaanaprasth.
Yes, at best,I have some 250 months, 1000 weeks; 100000 wakeful hours, may be slower, but thoughtful, meaningful, useful, happy-joyous. May be bonus. May be spiritual. And a thousand of us, or a million of us, or its multiples of us. And N is with us, inside us, our minds, our thoughts, our dreams; our hearts, our affections. Deep inside, and all over us, all the time. If we let N care, N cares. And we live caressed by N, alternating inside, outside laptops.
Are we free? Are we free when we are hungry? Do not the poor need freedom, rights, entitlements delivered? Do we have right to express? interact? learn? teach? research? Within the bounds of right to privacy and local, national, universal integrity.
Will Justice NV Ramana guard these our rights? 48th Chief Justice of India, for about 16 months, since 24 April 21. A farmer’s son with several landmark judgments – woman’s work at home, internet freedom et al.
We need to bring ‘knowledge output’ accessible to all easily, free and open access/creative commons. We need more Alexandras and more Sci-Hubs. Let us share what we appreciated, made sense. Let us be available to review, edit. Let us have our ‘associations’. As much as possible. We need to move out of the narrow bounds of controlled ‘science, research, academic’ writing. Still, we need to remain within unbiased independent quality check centric peer reviews, within the philosophical mooring – let thousand flowers bloom; and we do not have all methods, tools and details fully.
Came across a rare book: Somadeva’s Kathasaritasaagara (The Ocean of Story, translated by NM Penzer). A smaller adaptation of legendary Gunaadya’s Brihatkatha.
Lessons from Uruli Kanchan and Balkoba (Vinoba Bhave’s brother) included: Practice, what you ask others to do; Cow milk is complete food – one can live on just cow milk and spinach for several days, weeks.
CoVID year(s) gave lessons of lifetime. Appropriate technology matters. It can be made appropriate, customized. Digital world is a reality to last a very long time to come. Digital literacy matters. Financial literacy matters. Liquidity, Cash, cashable liquidity in hand matters. Needs should be the priority. Wants can wait. We need to have portfolios, no solo dependencies – livelihoods, assets, activities, so on. Keep going matters. Some recurring activities in the portfolio help. Insurances help. Basics, Fundamentals, crunch items do not change.
We are experiencing isolataion, restrictions, loneliness – probably the longest, most tiring kind, in our life time. We are foregoing social contact, and cognitive stimulation. We have continuous ‘news’ and ‘uncertainties’ leading to chronic stress, anxiety and depression, with serious effect on our brains. The way out may be, to be disconnected from social media and news. We need to be engaged otherwise fully. It is not easy. Otherwise, mental stress causes physiological responses altering blood sugar, pressure, chemistry, hormones, nutrient utilization etc. Brain itself suffers sharpness and ill-health, unless we work on this.
These include: keep the brain active; explore; read different things; work on mental imageries; get out, even if it is for a brief while; walk, jog, run, cycle, seeing around; play learning games; try puzzles; number work; music; dance; write; craft; converse; teach and learn….
Also, eat whole foods, proteins, healthy fats. All natural. Sleep well. Do reflect, meditate, and stretch. More importantly try and be kind, understanding, compassionate.
On the natural farming, we are progressing. Across zones – tribal areas, dryalnds, uplands, irrigated drylands, irrigated plains in coast. Across principles – no chemicals, 365-day green cover, mutiple-layered crops, local seeds, seed-soil inoculants, aachchaadana, waaphasa, knowledge-based plant management, local value-chains. Input-value-addition-output architecture – processing, storage, transport. Nutrition. Towards Individual, Soil and Planet’s Health. Towards increased nutrition-immunity, incomes with increased share of consumer rupee, improved livelihoods portfolio of dignity.
World is gearing up. AP’s million farm families and farm worker families have begun moving. India’s 2 million. World’s 3 million. AP is moving with a mandate to universalize, all villages, all families, all farms, all practices in a decade. AP will reach all Gram Panchayats in a year. 10,000+ champions; 10,000+ educated young practitioners; 100,000+ lead farmers; 10,000+ NF Hubs; 10,000+ input centres; 1,000+ farmer-entrepreneurs, farmer producer organizations, SHG-VO enterprises; 10,000+ local custom models; 10,000+ producer-consumer links, anganwadi-school nutrition units; 100+ Bio-villages, 50+ Resource GPs, 25+ Fully reached out mandals, towards ‘verified’ source areas and Rs.10-100 Million local natural farming economies in 3-5 years. Communitized planning, capacity, extension, collective action, architecture, accountability, mobilization, tracking, verification, endorsement. Participatory community endorsed data, analytics.
Work NF Digital platform(s) and hard-soft-wet architecture is being intensified. NF Vision in AP and outside for RySS is emerging. A global centre for agroecology research and learning is taking shape.
Three engagement landscapes are chosen to seed three exemplar landscapes. AP will have more of them in a year or two. More Land Degradation Soil Framework locations soon. More sensitivity exeperiments.
Further, AP is evolving a comprehensive organic farming policy.
Amarender confirms Farmers’ Collectives, may be as cooperatives, or producer companies that follow cooperative principles, are important for farmers, and may be for consumers too. A la Amul. For comprehensive natural farming value-chains, as Amrit. Yes, we need to invest time, energy, technology, capital and patience, over a long periods of time in a sustained manner. They have to meet farmers’ all significant needs. We need spearhead teams. We need leaders, professionals. We need business plans around sound business model(s), with reasonable scale. Rs.50+ Million. We need higher-level federations too. We need to treat existing SHG federations as Collectuves of Farmers and work with them. These need to be integrated with the digital platforms and architecture. Tax exemptions, interest subventions, working capital linkages, prior commitment linkages etc., help.
Yes, we also need an NF Institute(s); specialist courses in Leadership-Management institutes; integrating NF, NF learning, NF Value-chains, NF Enterprises into curriculums in schools upwards.
Human beings, may be because of the relatively large brain size vis-a-vius their body size, transcended survival, to thriving to domination. Through data processing – quantity, speed and complexity. This improves with use. With quality use. Quantity use. Otherwise, brain becomes dull and shrinks. Intoxicants let this happen too. Overuse wringly lets this happen. Age too leads to this end. The user of the brain is the mind. Mind has to be sharp, using the brain for enhancing intelligence, mental faculties, to observe, grasp, sense, interpret, connect dots, see patterns, reflect, intuit, project. This happens through seeing, listening, sensing, feeling, experiencing, reading, doing, planning various aspects, variety of aspects, in several circumstances. Space, time, nuance, depth, scale dimensions. In this, reading, conversing, reflecting, thinking, experiencing, responding widely are of critical significance. The cycle that is in operation here is – gather data-information widely-from-multiple-sources (screened sources), assimilate, absorb, reflect-think critically, contextualize, conceptualize, try and practice, write-speak-articulate, and so on. Variety. Starting early. Lifelong.
Are we aware of shortcomings? Our strengths can be our shortcomings and vice-versa. Patience-Passivity. Active-restless. Compassion-dominated. Calm-slow. Discipline-rigid. Spontaneity-inadequacy, for example. How do we have two opposing qualities coexisting within us, in a balanced manner? Can we list our top 2-3 great qualities – and see what opposite virtues we need to have? Can we plan to develop them to exist with our great qualities?
When we think of the suffering, pain and needs of the world, and help, the universe conspires with nature to care for us, strengthens us so that we do the world’s work. Can we think and help others, other life, the world?
Yes, we can. If we coexist in the womb of N, on the laps of N, caressed by N in N’s myriad ways. Keep flowing. For 7L.
Join us in the world of yoga of useful joyous coexistence – pariyoga for 7L.
G Muralidhar