Essence of Srimad Bhagwatam - Pujya Ekkirala Krishnamacharya

"What the heck are you doing with your life?"! is a common refrain we
heard from our parents while growing up. At Nagole, our Guru Kutumbam
who have taken on themselves the role of being parent, mentor, friend
and philosopher, often ask, 'Why have you come here?'. 

Strange question that. Not a question that you would hear at other 'Guru' type
conventions and retreats, I guess. The idea is to remind us of the
objectives or ideals which brought us to their feet, regardless of the
circumstances which vary from person to person. Some have come here
because their spouses are devoted, others for children, others to heal
from some physical illness or mental misery. Our problems vary but after coming here the problems are solved or resolved. ie. The problem may
get a solution or more often, the 'problem' as we understand it, no
longer exists through right understanding. Then what? 

Do we then pack up our bags and head back to our lives the way we lived earlier? Or do we try to take up this thread of hope, this
glimmer of right understanding of

 i) the nature of our mind 

 ii) the nature of the universe

 iii) our relation to the universe and therefore

 iv) what is life, its goals and how to live it

and get to the crux of this new learning and understanding.....

Or even worse, we live on here in a limbo, creating more pressing 'problems' with our problem oriented thinking.

Ammagaru, Smt. A. Vedavathi garu and Babugaru (Ekkirala Dwarakanath Jnaneswar)has spared no efforts in giving us this light, the perspective in which
we are to understand Pujya Master's books and teachings. But the choice of the path is ours.

Last month, Babugaru shared with us this invaluable speech in Telugu by Master
Ekkirala Krishnamacharya garu, Master garu's elder brother, which
encapsulates the essence of Srimad Bhagwatam and the essence of what we
are learn by practice here at Nagole.

Essence of Srimad Bhagavatam

Permaculture - Spirituality - Relevance to today's world

In today's post-post-modern, post 9/11, post Vietnam (or the whichever country is the lastest victim, post-existential crisis of identity, we are really so conforming and blindly West-driven (i.e.headless driven) that it is shocking. Now the West has some genuinely good things to offer us but few people take those up. My non-Indian friends agree. And if you don't agree with me, good. Let's now talk of being a bit more self-aware.
From clothing to choice of careers and homes we live in, we have moved beyond creating 'Little India's' in California or Sydney. We are creating 'Little America (as if there is only One America)' while in India!!
It doesn't occur to us that most of our current clothing (yes, trousers, collared shirts, jeans, closed shoes ...) is genuinely unsuitable to our climate or what it is costing The Earth to provide us with the granite counters and floors which cost the earth!

If you brought the ingredients from a regular store, this is inedible

We think we are choosing our own meal but sadly we are not. We are not eating baby carrots, crisp cabbage or lettuce and spinach with cubes of cottage cheese and dash of lemon, in our 'healthy' salad dinner. We are eating  nephrotoxic hard metals (http://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/11/2/2125) and carcinogenic pesticides ( see http://indiaforsafefood.in/farminginindia) to name a few.

We believe we are educated, hard-working, ethical, aware, upstanding global citizens but we close our eyes and noses at the our own toilets and garbage and 'delegate' this personal responsibility to the less unfortunate or the nameless workers of municipal corporations.

We go to great trouble to find the one great love of our live, our future spouses. Then go to greater trouble to refrain from coffee, alcohol etc to deliver healthy babies and then promptly 'schedule' their arrival into the world as per Leaves offered by our faceless corporate giants and modern medicine. We then promptly find 'Child care' facilities with people and establishments doing so clearly as a business to make money. And our consciences are salved. If we even believe such a thing as a conscience exists. After all has it been scientifically proven? Can you see it? (sure, just like you can see the oxygen you breathe).


So what can we do about it? Should we stop eating altogether?, should we rip off our clothes and hold candle-lit dharnas at India Gate?, should we go off into almost extinct Wild with our families, eat roots and berries and live like primitives?...

On an aside, that last primitive bit is very interesting. I don't know if I can identify anything edible in a forest or make my own swiss knife and underwear!!!

What we can do, while we continue with our lives is first change our thinking, change how we do the little things (like what we first do on waking up), then our children's education, along with growing herbs and so forth to what we dream of. Discussed not so long ago by Pujya Saimaster in this unique Speech for children given at Mahanandi in Telugu.

Acharya Ekkirala Bharadwaja Enlightening Listeners

Mahanandi Speech by Pujya Acharya Ekkirala Bharadwaja Part A

Mahanandi Speech by Pujya Acharya Ekkirala Bharadwaja PartB

Anyone who does listen to these is missing something in life!
So that was Permaculture being discussed by Mastergaru!!!
As Babugaru (Dwarakanath Ekkirala Jnaneswar) puts it, the basis of spirituality (as in 'living life correctly') and Permaculture are the same. It all begins with the Three Ethics  of

1) Earth Care
2) People Care
3) Fair share or Return of Surplus

Unless and until we understand these completely and make that it it our  prime directive as one founder of Permaculture, Bill Mollison says, '...to take responsibility for our own existence and that of our children', we do not live. We exist as parasites and the world has no Future.

________________
P. S. so many gems and all in Telugu!!! What a loss to us English speaking world. Praying for the day when these will be available in English transcript.