'Science and Spirituality' and Permaculture; Fritjof Capra

On one of Acharya Ekkirala Bharadwaja Master's visits to our house in Delhi, he introduced Fritjof Capra's The Turning Point (1982) to my father, Dr Guda Venkatappa Rao. It appealed to his and other people of 'modern', educated mindset. It appeared too vast and deep a subject for us to grapple with but we grew up knowing its value. In Mastergaru's  Delhi speech, He addressed scientists and Professors from the prestigious Indian Institute of Delhi and floored them by speaking about spirituality in their scientific idiom. 

One of Acharya Ekkirala Bharadwaja's most significant contributions to the post-modern era was his advanced and well-researched scientific exposition of the basis of spirituality. In his iconic book, Edi Nizam (What is the Truth?), he delves into the question, that has had philosophers over centuries pondering and debating, with hardly any reference to the word 'God' or any religion. In His Vignana Veechikalu (Essays on Science and Spirituality, 1981), He elaborates using the works of several prominent scientists in his argument. One of them is Professor Fritjof Capra. The 78-year-old physicist who is now Director of Centre for Ecoliteracy in Berkeley, California, is best known for his first book, The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism (1975), which has sold over a million copies worldwide. 

Here is a link to his recent interview which appeared in The Hindu, Sunday, 19th November, 2017.

What would have Mastergaru done today, is a question to ponder.  It is said that great minds think alike and we can see this in what Professor Fritjof Capra says in the above interview:

" ...What we have been writing about for decades is now happening: climate change, for instance. I wrote about global warming in 1989. For decades, no one listened and made fun of us, but we are now in the midst of a climate catastrophe. Now I think the situation is changing because businesses which don’t have ideologies — they want to invest money, to flourish — are turning away from fossil fuels. If they had listened to us then, we would have had a different world today. It’s almost too late, hopefully not."

"...We have to build alternative communities and do things that don’t depend on global capitalism. In the energy field, we can have independent solar power: in California, for instance, I don’t pay for electricity because I have solar panels on the roof and California is such that I don’t need batteries to store electricity. The energy I produce is sold to the grid."

How similar he sounds to Bill Mollison, the founder of Permaculture and author of 'Permaculture: A Design Manual'. 

With all his courses on Permaculture especially to the Nagole devotees, where he is fostering a community spirit, we can see how, Babugaru, Ekkirala Dwarakanath Jnaneswar, is doing immense service to the Earth and the future of humankind.

 #Fritjof Capra #Acharya Ekkirala Bharadwaja # Science and Spirituality # Spirituality and Permaculture # Spirituality and community life #alternate communities