"My meditation lies in planting trees"

Maneka Gandhi is a politician, animal rights activist and environmentalist
What does spirituality mean to you?
It is what allows me to find satisfaction from within, rather than needing reaffirmation from without. It brings the realisation that I own nothing yet everything is mine—the air, the earth, trees, animals, you. For me, the essence of spirituality is the ability to recognise the oneness of all life. I know why I have been put on earth and I know I am protected by all the gods that reside in each stone and ant. So I feel no fear at all.
What do you mean by “the gods”?
All the live energies that exist in every animate and inanimate creation. Do you think I would have come through such a life of turbulence with all my values intact if I were not protected by them? 

So is there such a thing as a guiding or protective force in your life?
I have felt blessed and protected all my life, with my mother intensely protected by the gods, with a guru constantly accompanying me, with leaves, grass, air and animals caressing me — all this protects me.
Besides, I have been given the greatest gift of all —the inability to recognise any form of danger until I am past it. I look back at my life and see lots of really frightening bits. I wonder how I came through them, without even recognising them, or consciously navigating them. I simply bathed in them like one does in the ocean and when the waves reached the shore, I came out.
But what about all the setbacks? Did you never “revolt” against the gods?
Where would I go after revolting? I am not a temple-going person, so I cannot stop doing something I do not do anyway. I can stop talking to them but how does one stop talking to a lotus? If there have been setbacks in my life, look at its achievements.
Do you have a strong sense of purpose and destiny?
I have a very strong sense of why I was created and what is the job I have been given. There is no other way to explain my life. I grew up in a completely apolitical army family even though my maternal grandfather was advisor to the government and like a son to Mahatma Gandhi. Our summer holidays at the Bhopal family home were a haze of picnics, books and lakes.
There is nothing that can explain my meeting Sanjay (Gandhi) at a cousin’s wedding and our instant recognition that this was meant to be. His integrity, strength and wisdom taught me courage and the ability to see beyond both flattery and criticism. Long after he is gone, I still draw upon his strength to see me through. Losing him killed a part of me but it also increased my compassion and understanding. Since then, I have felt impelled to reduce the suffering in this world to the maximum of my ability.
Would you say that all things are pre-ordained?
What happens to you is pre-ordained. How you react to it is perhaps your choice. Life after life you will be given the same sort of challenges until your responses are right. Then you get a ‘get-out- of-jail’ card!
As a child, what did you think you would become when
you grew up?
I was always like this, perhaps the ultimate existentialist, because I absolutely never think of the future. Until I was 30, I used to think of the past, till I realised it was too heavy a burden for me to carry. So I put it away and carried on with my journey.
Does prayer or meditation play a particular role in your life?
Absolutely. I wake up thanking the gods, I thank them about a million times each day and I sleep thanking them. My meditation lies in planting trees.
What were your spiritual inspirations?
I have met so many gurus —just knowing they are there, knowing that India is so amazingly blessed with so much readily available magic and thousands of enlightened people fills me with joy.
Was religion part of your childhood?
My mother’s family has always been close to gurus. But my childhood was simply going to gurudwaras. I am not sure I would call this religion but perhaps it gives one time to think in a harmonious, music-filled atmosphere.
If you could ask God one question, what would it be?
Not a question but a command —just keep Sanjay till I get there and extract an apology from him for checking out so early!
If you were to be reincarnated, what would you choose?
Reincarnation happens till you wear out all your attachments and desires, both of love and hate. I’ve reached a place where I do my duty, work for as much good for all creatures as possible but without any expectation of a reward or even attachment. My temper is legendary — but it has never manifested related to personal hurt or ego, only when I see pain being caused elsewhere. So, I want the ultimate gift from all the gods that look after me —not to be re-born.
What is your idea of happiness?
My heart lifts with the scent of raat ki rani, the koel and peacock’s cry, the taste of a mango, my feet squishing into wet grass, the dolphin leaping, the dog nuzzling my hand, the bees hovering on the bhang plant’s flowers, sunlight on a puddle, tamarind fruit, children shouting while they play, the hands of my guru when I kiss them, the diya on the puja table, the smile on my mother’s and son’s face… What else is important?

SOURCE : INDIAN EXPRESS
LINK :http://www.indianexpress.com/news/my-meditation-lies-in-planting-trees/493636/0

Stalin inaugurates Green Tirupur Movement

Deputy Chief Minister M. K. Stalin inaugurated the Green Tirupur Movement of Isha Foundation by planting a sapling on the Corporation Town Hall premises here on Sunday.
The Isha Foundation volunteers with the involvement of different stakeholders in the conservation of environment planted as many as 25,000 saplings of 34 plant species across the city.
The Green Tirupur Movement has been mooted under the Project Green Hands, an ecological initiative of the Isha Foundation aimed at reversing environmental degradation and increasing the green cover in the State.
At the inaugural, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, founder of Isha Foundation, called upon the people to joins hands with the Foundation’s efforts to keep the earth habitable to future generations.

Display responsibility  
“Each individual should display responsibility to maintain the trees and take steps to plant at least a few more saplings,” he said.
Ministers M. P. Saminathan, K. Ponmudy, Pongalur N. Palanisamy and Poongothai Aladi Aruna, Mayor K. Selvaraj, Collector C. Samayamoorthy, Inspector General of Police Pramod Kumar and District Revenue Officer K. V. Muralitharan, among others, were present.
A ‘Green Marathon’ was organised soon after the inauguration, to spread the message of importance of trees for sustainable living.

 The run was flagged off by film stars, Prakash Raj and Shreya.

SOURCE : THE HINDU
LINK : http://www.thehindu.com/2009/08/25/stories/2009082551470300.htm
LINK :http://www.projectgreenhands.org/home
LINK :https://www.ishafoundation.org/index.php?option=com_newscomponent&Itemid=242&act=view&id=2564

"Why Trees are Special"

It is so easy to take trees for granted, but in fact they are essential elements for the ecological balance of our environments. Trees are instrumental in offering a fertile basis for most land based-ecological processes. A healthy green cover can in fact regenerate even the most highly degraded eco-system. It is under green cover that plant and animal species thrive and brooks and rivers start flowing again.
Trees provide us with much required resources like food, fuel and oxygen, and they combat pollution of the atmosphere. The beauty and tranquillity of trees also nurtures our intuitive sense of a deep connection to nature. It is for this reason that ancient cultures designated trees as sacred. In fact, the Indian sub-continent has an established tradition of growing sacred groves in every village.
Specific examples of why trees matter:

• Trees alter the environment in which we live by moderating climate, improving air quality, conserving water, and preserving wildlife.
• Trees prevent or reduce soil erosion and water pollution
• They act as a wind barriers during cyclones
• During monsoons trees intercept and store rainwater and reduce the possibility of flooding
• They cool temperatures during hot summers
• Regenerate lost flora and fauna
• Act as carbon sinks, absorbing air pollutants and improving the air quality thus mitigating the effects of global warming.
• Add beauty and grace to any community setting

Particular Repercussions of deforestation:

• Leads to soil erosion or impoverishment, especially in tropical areas where soils tend to be thin and nutrient-poor.
• Results in habitat loss, which is a leading cause of species endangerment and biodiversity loss.
• Affects the hydrological cycle through changes in evapo-transpiration and run-off. This frequently results in the creation of arid landscapes that are prone to fire.

SOURCE :http://www.projectgreenhands.org/our-work/raising-awareness/why-trees-are-special
LINK:http://www.ishafoundation.org/

"French MNC sponsors 900,000 trees"

French multi-national Yves Rocher Group, world leader in botanical beauty care, is partnering with Isha Foundation in the areas of environmental protection and development in Tamil Nadu.

As corporate partner of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), Yves Rocher Group pledged to plant one million trees towards UNEP’s ‘Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign’, launched in 2007. Yves Rocher Group has now teamed with Isha Foundation’s Project GreenHands to execute this pledge. Project GreenHands is a large-scale initiative to increase the green cover of Tamil Nadu by 10 %, create nature awareness and establish sustainable living.
The collaboration will spread over awareness campaigns, nursery development, planting and nurturing of the saplings, and the partners will leverage their respective strengths towards accomplishing the above. While the Yves Rocher Group will provide financial assistance, Isha Foundation will undertake fieldwork through its wide network of volunteers.

In the partnership spanning over a period of three years, Rocher will sponsor 900,000 saplings in total. In the first phase to be executed this year, 250,000 saplings will be planted in Gobichettipalayam taluk. Farmers from twenty-six panchayats in Gobi will participate. The localized intervention will facilitate a close partnership between the company and the village communities who plant and nurture the saplings, and also help monitor growth.

The partnership will fillip the ‘25 Million Trees Campaign’ of Project GreenHands, planned for this year. The total project target is 114 million trees. Last year, the Project set a Guinness World Record for planting the maximum number of trees on a single day. On 17 October 2006, 852,587 saplings were planted across Tamil Nadu by 256,289 volunteers.

India Visit
A group of representatives from the Yves Rocher Group, including Jacques Rocher, President of the Yves Rocher Foundation and Director of Sustainable Development and Prospective, visited India from 21 - 24 September to witness the inspiring work of Project GreenHands. Project GreenHands’ intervention in Gobichettipalayam and elsewhere serves as a model for restoring the environment and improving the quality of life in rural areas without compromising that of future generations.
Yves Rocher Group, the world’s number one brand of botanical cosmetics, stands for life in harmony with nature, as a basis for human well-being. With a presence in over 80 countries, Yves Rocher works towards spreading this message to its 30 million women customers and encourages them to preserve this planet for future generations.

LINK:http://gramotsavam.ishafoundation.org/isha-gramotsavam-2007/french-mnc-sponsors-900000-trees/
LINK:http://www.projectgreenhands.org/news-stories/78
LINK:http://www.ishafoundation.org/

chief minister M.Karunanidhi urges ascetics to follow Jaggi Vasudev's lead

SHOWING THE WAY: Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi planting a sapling in the presence of Jaggi Vasudev of the Isha Foundation at Anna University in Chennai on Sunday. Kanimozhi, MP, is in the picture.

CHENNAI: The nation and the world would be better off, if all the ascetics follow the path shown by Jaggi Vasudev, founder of Isha Foundation, in environmental protection, Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi said on Sunday.
Addressing a function organised by the foundation to mark its 25th anniversary, Mr. Karunanidhi said he always held in high esteem the religious leaders such as Kundrakudi Adigal and his successor for their service to Tamil. He respected Sri Jaggi Vasudev for his effort at planting of saplings.
He preferred ascetics who strove for social uplift to those who focused only on religion.
Those who talked of religion alone issued fearsome threats and imprecation, the Chief Minister said, presiding over the launch of a campaign for planting of 2.5 crore saplings.
Green cover Highlighting the importance of green cover, he said Chennai did not have so much green cover as New Delhi and Bangalore; it was dotted with hoardings.
He called upon the people to realise the importance of green cover and work for planting saplings and maintaining trees.
Mr. Karunanidhi, who distributed prizes to winners of rural sports contests, said that: “by nurturing trees, we will nurture humanity.”
D.R. Karthikeyan, former Director, Central Bureau of Investigation, referred to the agrarian crisis in different parts of the country and said insurance cover and remunerative prices would solve the problems of farmers.
Launching the green campaign, Kanimozhi, Member of Parliament, said religion was meant for elevating people, not to divide them.
Sudha Raghunathan, musician and devotee of Sri Jaggi Vasudev, welcomed the gathering.

SOURCE : THE HINDU
LINK : http://www.hindu.com/2007/09/24/stories/2007092460431000.htm
LINK :http://gramotsavam.ishafoundation.org/
LINK:http://www.projectgreenhands.org/news-stories/78

"Saturday night fever"

The whole world is going through a unique kind of neurosis, which was not there in the past. One of the major causes is simply because modern man has stopped using his body to a large extent. In the past, when you intensely involved yourself in physical activity, a lot of your neurosis was worked out. Your nervous energy got spent. I know many people, especially young people, who had psychological problems. They were started a physical activity like swimming or playing some sport daily and everything became okay; because of enough activity, the energy was expended.

Today, man has become physically inactive like never before – he could not afford to be so physically inactive before, he had to do so many things physically, just to survive. So he has become more neurotic than in the past. As a general phenomenon, there were neurotic people then also, but not in these numbers. Today, it has become a common phenomenon in society that too many are in some level of neurosis. This is simply because your energy is not worked out; it’s trapped. You have not transcended your madness and at the same time you’re not working it out. The therapy also is not there. If you went out and chopped wood for the whole day a lot of your energy would be spent, and life would be peaceful; but today it’s not like that. You are not using your body the way it was used, so you go on generating all kinds of diseases, like never before.

This builds up in your system over a period of time. 

Then your physical and emotional energy need some outlet. That is how your bars, your clubs and your discotheques have come into place. People have to work out their neurosis somewhere, somehow. These discos look like madness, you can’t even breathe inside. They are full of smoke and sweat but people are just going wild. You can’t even dance, everybody is bumping into everybody else, but it doesn’t matter, you have to work it out, otherwise you will go crazy. So on Saturday, you go work out your neurosis for the week. Then the piling up starts once more and once again the Saturday night fever comes.

There is another way to drop this madness and go ahead. Completely leaving it behind and going ahead where you are no more a part of it. This is what meditation is all about. Now, if you dance, you simply dance for the joy of it, and not because there is something to work out. If you’re dancing to work out something, maybe it is therapeutic. It is good therapy all right, but there is a certain ugliness about it. It is lusty; you cannot dance out of love. You can only dance out of lust.

Do you know the difference between love and lust? Lust is a strong need, love is not a need. When you love, you settle down, nothing more is needed. You can just sit here for a lifetime. With lust you can’t sit anywhere, you either get into some mad action, or you are bound to go crazy. When there is a certain neurosis, certain madness within yourself, you can only be in lust. Your lust can be for sex, for food or for some particular activity or some hobby, it doesn’t matter what it is, but you develop lust for something. Without that lust you cannot live. Even your work is an effective way of throwing out your lust. It’s just that it is the most popular and accepted way in the world. Today, people just go on working, working and working. Not because they are creating something fantastic, but simply because they have to work, otherwise they don’t know what to do with themselves.

You have to guard that madness cautiously. Nobody ever knows that you have this within yourself and you yourself would like to forget it. You do everything possible to forget it. All the entertainment in the world has come just to hide your madness. If you were perfectly sane, you would not need entertainment. You need entertainment just to cover your madness. If we take away your entertainment, you will go crazy. Man needs entertainment simply to hide his madness. If he was perfectly sane, he would not need entertainment. He could just sit and watch this bamboo grow. If the need for entertainment is gone in you then you will become available to the magnificent exuberance of life. Every moment becomes a phenomenon of immeasurable depth.

Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev

source : chennai online 
link :http://archives.chennaionline.com/health/yoga/2006/11yoga112.asp
link:http://www.ishafoundation.org/