India is the land of sages. From the times when history is not even recorded to the present times, in nooks and corner of this punyabhumi, several persons realised very early in their life that the sole purpose of human life is to realise God and then help others to do so. This happened time and again. In the words of Swami Vivekananda, ‘The sages of India have been almost innumerable, for what has the Hindu nation been doing for thousands of years except producing sages?’

The earliest times when the Vedas and Upanishads were seen by the seer rishis, there is a peculiarity of this culture. That we do not even know the names of those seers and their lives, but we do have a long legacy of some mahavakyas, not utterances, sayings and writings, but the nuggets of truth seen and heard by the seers. It is thus called Shruti, the perpetual truths heard. On the other hand ‘ to save noble people, to destroy evil, to reestatblish Dharma,’ there were sages and great men appearing almost organically and reinterpreting as well as proclaiming the truths in the format suitable to their time and place. They are known by names and much is known about their lives as well. Whether it is Chaitanya, Kabir, Dadu, Shankara, Ramanuja, Madhwa, Nanak, Jnaneshwar, Ramdas, Mira, or innumerable others, there was never a shortage of sages. There are several paramparas of sages like Bhagvata, Vaishnavas, Alvar, Naynar, Sufi, Tirthkaras, etc. However, they all told Smriti or time bound truths which have to have a final sanction of the perennial truths of Vedas. Most of them are said to have done pilgrimages across India and during that process visited Rameshwaram.

Ramesvaram the holy of the holiest places of the Indian sub continent is having the vital key to understand the cultural directory of the ancient India. The tiny island holds many feature and customs practiced in all these thousands of years by the entire community irrespective of their caste and creed. For perceptive approach and to assimilate various facets of this culture it is essential to probe into the backdrop of the factors that molded this Island as the great bridge of spirituality in all these millenniums. In fact our journey will unearth not only the archaeological remains but the mannerism out of which our culture was warped.

The atomic theory of Science holds good for the philosophy of the origin of the universe. Indian logic also accepts that the world is made of same substance in different chemical combinations and distinguishes five basic rudimentary elements as base for all substances of different quality. Vedas indicate that life and substances were originated in water which the Geologists name as Glacier period.

The last article described the issues involved in improving the efficiency of electric motors. Electric motors account for a significant portion of the overall electricity consumption. Generation & utilization of electric energy itself is a major contributor to the pollution, accounting for as much as 40% of the total green house gases produced globally. As the country progresses further on the development path, the per capita electricity consumption will go up on an ascending manner. Even to catch up with the rest of world, our consumption will increase around four fold. Unless we learn to use energy more efficiently our pollution levels will go up significantly and will not be sustainable. India is already the third biggest polluter of the world, after China and USA. With a lot of emphasis in getting a faster growth for the country to lift millions of people out of poverty, it is to be expected that our electricity consumption has necessarily to go up.

Our well-wisher Shri.Asit Nema from Delhi Wrote in his latest blog – “The MSW Rules 2016 and the GoI policy consider 'Reduce' (Reducing consumption - one among the 3Rs) as one of the main pillars of solid waste management strategy ! However, other sections of the same establishment want 'growth'/ 'development' and 'urbanisation' at a rapid pace. When we are aspiring for sustained double digit GDP growth through internal consumption, then how this 'Reduce' thing will happen? As per the recent article in The Guardian, across the globe solid waste quantities are projected to double from 3 million tons/day to over 6 million tons/day and most of this is going to take place in East and South Asia. When we are going to lead the race in waste generation in the world (never mind losing the races in the Olympics) (!), then like an ostrich why are our policy makers burying their heads in the sand”?

It is a beautiful large evergreen tree with sweet-scented flowers and the spreading crown attains a height of 12m. The tree is native to southern coastal India, East Africa, Malaysia and Australia. It is a low-branching and slow-growing tree with a broad and irregular crown. It usually reaches 8 to 20 m in height. The tree supports a dense canopy of glossy, elliptical leaves. The very fragrant white flowers are 25 mm across and occur in racemose or paniculate inflorescences consisting of 4 to 15 flowers. The flowers have snow-white petals with a thick centre of yellow stamens. The fragrant flowers have been prized as an adornment and as a perfume. The fruit is a round, green drupe reaching 2 to 4 cm in diameter and having a single large seed. When ripe, the fruit is wrinkled and its color varies from yellow to brownish-red. This tree grows in tropical, dry evergreen regions of the Coromandel Coast. Ferrolittic sandy loam and farm soil are suitable for its growth.

Alexander Walkar, Resident at Baroda, wrote (around 1820): “The practice of watering and irrigation is not peculiar to the husbandry of India, but it has probably been carried there to a greater extent, and more laborious ingenuity displayed in it than in any other country. The vast and numerous tanks, reservoirs, and artificial lakes as well as dams of solid masonry in rivers which they constructed.. show the extreme solicitude with which they had to secure this object. These systems need to be rejuvenated with equal ingenuity with which they were initially built and maintained. Over 500,000 of the old tanks still survive to this day. It has been calculated that tanks resorted or built over 3% of India’s land area could store one quarter of the nation’s rainfall”. Keeping this in mind, we are Renovating and Reviving all the 42 Teerthas which are outside the temple.

Building a Social Capital alone will ensure the sustainability of the Green Rameswaram project. Vivekananda Kendra is trying to bring all the stakeholders including Schools, Colleges, Institutions, Local stakeholders such as traders, hoteliers, auto and taxi drivers, line departments as well as pilgrims coming from all over India to work for ‘Green Rameswaram’ project. In fact, it is not a project but a movement which should culminate in Swatch Bharat.