Navadarshanam

12th to 16th Aug, 2009 - Program on Science and Spirituality

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 08:13:09 +0530

An Intensive Study Program on the theme "The Emerging Confluence of Science with Spirituality: with specific reference to the Quantum Enigma" was organized at Navadarshanam. It was a fully residential program, and was attended by 26 persons from different academic backgrounds. "Notes on the Science-Spirituality Confluence" gives an overview of what was covered. Please find the notes of the program here: Science-Spirituality Confluence Notes...

The Road Less Travelled

Sat, 23 May 2009 07:09:30 +0530

I offer my greetings and salutations to all of you who have been associated with Atma Nirbhar - Ek Challenge, a great and inspiring adventure for the soul, for so many years. Kaushik Das has labelled me as An Industrialist with a 'Difference'. Let me begin with an apt verse from Robert Frost's famous poem to weave together some episodes of my life's journey:

New Residents at Nd

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 05:27:23 +0530

Nagarajan and his wife Padmini have joined the Nd team as new residents. Both have taken voluntary retirement from their careers in banking so that they can lead a life closer to nature, where they can explore the meaning and purpose of life at leisure...

Gandhian Economics

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 10:58:43 +0530

On 22nd December, 1916, Gandhiji delivered a talk to professional economists gathered at the Muir Central College Economic Society in Allahabad. The transcript of this lecture is a very useful input for anyone trying to fully understand Gandhi's approach to economics. It is also full of humour, as evidenced in his opening remarks:

Hind Swaraj

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 09:15:26 +0530

This booklet is a reprint, with slight modifications, of a research paper I wrote way back in 1982. It deals with the struggle that I went through in trying to understand what Gandhi stood for, culminating in a realization that his small booklet "Hind Swaraj" written in 1908 contained the essence of his approach to life. "Hind Swaraj" is not an easy book to understand, especially for people used to logical reasoning. That is perhaps why Nehru and other followers of Gandhi were aghast at what he had written, and rejected it as a panacea for India's problems. But serious students of Gandhi would be making a blunder if they ignored its contents and message.

Ethical Business at Work – A Personal Experiment

Mon, 12 May 2008 06:42:31 +0530

I would like to take you back to 1972, to a far away place called Tinsukia in Upper Assam where I had already completed a decade of my career as an engineer in a tea machinery company employing 750 people. My management colleagues, our union leaders and I watched helplessly as—after almost a decade of bitter conflict—the situation with our workmen was turning into an all-out war. Production became a trickle; go-slows and tool-down strikes were the order of the day. Effigies of management men were burnt. Home life was affected. All our armchair criticism got us nowhere—the darkness kept getting darker. We were in the grip of a crippling crisis.

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 22:55:29 +0530

Gopalan and his wife Shobha joined Navadarshanam as Resident Trustees on 2nd April, 2008. Both of them have been teaching at the Krishnamurti Foundation schools for the last 25 years. Gopalan is a Chartered Accountant by background, and was the Controller of a Company in Hyderabad but preferred to opt for a life of service and dedication to spiritual values along with Shobha, who specializes in and enjoys teaching little children.

Jyoti Ananthu

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 22:52:08 +0530

Jyoti Ananthu, one of the Founders of Navadarshanam, breathed her last on March 8, 2008. Even though she was suffering from a rare lung disease for several years, she continued to play an active role in running Navadarshanam till the very last day. On 22nd March, 2008, a fellowship meeting was held in her memory at Navadarshanam - about 150 persons came from Bangalore to pay homage to her. On the next day, all the villagers were given a feast in her memory, with handmade wooden toys (Jyoti's favourite) being gifted to each child in the village.

Picture of Jyoti in the Navadarshanam kitchen

Nd in the News

Sun, 10 Jun 2007 22:13:29 +0530

The magazine Better Interiors has written about Navadarshanam as part of their series on rural architecture. The article is titled 'An Eco Tech Township' and appeared in their April 2007 issue.

Real Diwali

Fri, 27 Oct 2006 21:47:58 +0530

This is the festival season all over our country – we have just celebrated Vijaydashmi, and are moving towards Diwali. Why exactly do we celebrate these festivals? What is the deeper meaning behind them? Vijaydashmi is often seen as the victory of an angel representing the good (Rama) over a demon representing the evil (Ravana), and Diwali as the return of Rama to his birthplace Ayodhya. But are these just historical incidents whose anniversaries we celebrate?

Wind Generator

Mon, 09 Oct 2006 10:56:17 +0530

Navadarshanam recently installed a new wind generator that provides us with an additional source of renewable energy. See a picture of the new generator in our virtual tour.

Hind Swaraj - Its Relevance Today

Thu, 27 Jul 2006 18:10:56 +0530

The quintessence of Gandhi’s thinking was contained in his little booklet “Hind Swaraj”. Its import is so revolutionary, so different from what most of us are used to, that a real paradigm shift is a basic pre-requisite to grasping what he had in mind. As Gandhi himself explained, anyone who wants to understand Hind Swaraj has to view the world “with my eyes”. That is why even close followers and admirers of his, such as Jawaharlal Nehru, just could not stomach what he had said in Hind Swaraj.

Most Important Know-How

Thu, 27 Jul 2006 18:01:53 +0530

These days, everyone talks about environmental damage and the need to preserve the ecology. This was not the case 50 or 100 years back. But there were a few honourable exceptions. Way back in 1910, reacting to an earthquake that shook Paris, Gandhi had blamed it on our foolish efforts to try to conquer nature, and had predicted that nature would strike back, leading to the kind of problems we are facing today. In the 1960s, one of Keynes’ foremost students, E.F.Schumacher, a well-known economist, broke ranks with the establishment and began to echo what Gandhi had been saying. In 1966, he predicted the oil crisis that later shook the world in the 70s, and also pioneered the appropriate technology movement.

Development and Success - Is a New Perspective Desirable?

Thu, 27 Jul 2006 17:58:03 +0530

Is it desirable that we re-examine our notions of development, progress and success? To illustrate what I am trying to get at, let me take the example of Bangalore. For the last 15 years, I have been volunteering for Navadarshanam, which operates from a small village, not too far from Bangalore. Therefore, I have had a chance to watch Bangalore grow from a medium-sized city to the most prominent IT center in the world. It has been fascinating to note the changes that accompanied this growth. Bangalore’s citizens have become much richer, a vast variety of new goods and services is available, its skyline is becoming prominent, its traffic is becoming chaotic, its population is skyrocketing, its crime rate is increasing, its residents are no longer the easy-going, helpful people they used to be. These are changes that accompany any modern development effort, and are well known. The positive changes, especially the ones relating to increased income and availability of goods and services, are seen as a justification for the negative ones – and there are many well-meaning efforts to alleviate the suffering caused by the latter.

New kitchen at Navadarshanam, and how Chyawanprash is made

Thu, 30 Mar 2006 05:51:03 +0530

See photographs of the remodeled kitchen at Navadarshanam! Also, see how the entire Navadarshanam team makes chyawanprash, a spicy, healthy jam.