Tuesday, April 26, 2011

National Conference on Nai Talim Sevagram April 23-24








National Conference on Nai Talim was held at Sevagram on April 23-24 which was organized by Nai Talim Samithi. More than 250 people from across the country participated in this Conference.


Sarva Seva Sangh Meeting in Sevagram April 22, 2011









Sarva Seva Sangh, the National Apex Gandhian Organization had its Karyasamithi meeting in Sevagram on April 22, 2011. Sri GV Subba Rao and Sri Prasad attended this Meeting. Sri Prasad was entrusted with the responsibility of Training and International Relations of SSS.

In the Pictures, SuSri Radha Behn Bhutt who took over as the new President of Sarva Seva Sangh, Sri Prasad, Sri GV Subba Rao and Sri Lavanam Felicitating her, A section of the meeting, Sri Mahavir Tyagi, President of Haryana Sarvodaya Mandal Spinning, Sri Prasad with Sri MM Gadkari, Radha behn in the meeting of Sevagram Ashram Pratishtan, and team from Andhra Pradesh who visited Sevagram from April 20-25.


Report of Sarvodaya Workshop in VIT University and Discussion

1st time in VIT
Sarvodaya ideas in the modern society

It was a pleasant Sunday morning on 17th of April when a workshop had
been arranged by the VIT Sarvodaya Chapter. The workshop was conducted
by Sri Sarvodaya Prasad (from Andhra Pradesh Sarvodaya Mandal) and Sri
D.K Oza. Although only 10 students turned up for the workshop,
Prasadji pointed out that atleast these people were enthusiastic and
focused to bring a change. The session started and what followed was 3
hours of introspection, thought-provoking questions and overwhelming
facts and figures.

What was most astonishing was that Prasadji applied Gandhian
principles smoothly into the modern society and he was able to solve
many problems.

1. Starting with Corruption, he stated that corruption is not the work
of one man, and it cannot be eradicated unless man can remove the
basic feeling of “greed”. Thus, he advised that whether we dream of
earning 8 lacs or 10 lacs a month, we should stick to that and not try
to amass more wealth. If we dream of having a Benz and a BMW car, we
should be contended when we earn these two.

2. Then telling us about how to earn wealth, he said that there are 2
ways. One is hard-working, another is capturing the wealth of others.
He said capturing the wealth of others can be done by various methods
like stealing, robbery, adulteration of goods, gambling, hacking,
cheating, and other scams. Then telling us about scams, he said that
today, for a scam to be famous it has to be worth about some thousand
lac crores, such is the level of “greed” in society. Thus he advised
us to do hard work to earn money.



3. Then talking about villages, he said that about Rs.125,00,00,00,000
worth of money is squeezed by foreign commercial companies from the
poor villagers. A girl may not have enough money to drink milk, but
she can be applying ‘fair and lovely’cream. A family which cannot
afford 2 square meals is having 'coka-cola' and brushing with
‘colgate’. Thus Prasadji said that India should aim to be
self-sufficient and rely on indigenous or “swadeshi” products. Instead
of brushing with expensive ‘colgate’ a villager can brush with
‘goamrit’ toothpowder, a really good herbal toothpowder.

4. Then saying the media advertisements are a bane for the society.
Nowdays T.V is available in almost every household. And the moment we
here “washing powder Nirma” advertisement, we are tempted to buy
“Nirma”. This is also the case with tea and coffee. Modern man has
become so dependant on it, that he cannot even go to toilet in the
morning without having tea. All this is addiction and the media is
mostly responsible for it.

5. He said all these advertisements, cosmetics, events like IPL,
costly tea & coffee, foreign clothes..are a part of “LOOT” system. But
Sarvodaya propogates “Anti-Loot” system. Sarvodaya means “prosperity
of all” and this is possible by anti-loot only.He advised that we
should definitely try to be on the “Anti-loot” side. If we all join
the anti-loot side, the corrupt government will collapse.

6. Lastly, he pointed out that “Khadi” is the symbol of Indian and a
national pride. It symbolizes self-sustainance of India.

He ended the meeting with informal interaction with the students. Sri
D.K Oza-ji also gave his advice and point of view. He told us students
that we have “option” to do anything in life unlike other
auto-drivers, bus-drivers, security guards, maids etc who can only do
that work. So he told us to think about the society and be more
sensitive to the people like stone-quarry workers, coal mine workers,
sewage cleaning people etc. He told us to think how to alleviate their
poverty.

Thus, it was a wonderful and extremely rich experience of interacting with such
great leaders. We students got to learn so much. We also came to know
how sarvodaya ideas and ideas of Gandhi can be applied to the modern
life. Thus understanding the concepts of Sarvodaya is very important
to lead a healthy life.

Thank-you

-Ayan Datta
VIT University

Dear Ayan,

I have to thank you profusely for summarizing the discussions in the workshop. You have done it so well and captured the essence.

By way of fine-tuning, I would suggest some changes that you may bring into your writing:

People's greed will not find a limit. If someone thought of having say, Rs. 10 lakhs as his annual income today, he would look for a higher amount next year. The wants, desires are so unending and the possibilities are too many that any amount of wealth would not satisfy a man. Same is the case with expensive cars and other possessions. It is this selfishness, greed and desire for unlimited accumulations that forces a man into theft, corruption etc. This will invariably deprives others of what is their normal due. Hence Gandhi's advise: live simply so that others may simply live. Hence he undertook voluntary poverty.

My suggestion was that each individual should understand the limits of his existence and relate with other human beings in a responsible way. In this process he would impose a voluntary ceiling on his wants and the standard of living. Today's desire level of an individual is not a standard for him to reach. I did not suggest that if they think/dream of 10 lakh mark or a Benz Car they should get it and stay at that level. These are purely individual choices.

We do continue further on these and you are welcome to share these with other friends that participated.

Best Wishes,

Prasad.

Visit to Kala Ashram April 20, 2011








On way to Sevagram, Sri GV Subba Rao Sri Prasad and others visited Kala Ashram in Adilabad and had discussions with Ravinder Sharma. Sri Sharma has an amazing grasp of People's Knowledge systems, culture, heritage and village systems. He offered to provide training inputs for Sarvodaya Programmes.


Sarvodaya Workshop in VIT University 17th April 2011









Sarvodaya Workshop was organized in VIT University on 17th April. Dr. Subbulakshmi, faculty member of VIT University organized the event and Sri D.K. Oza, former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Tamil Nadu and former Vice Chancellor, Gandhigram Rural University and Sri Prasad conducted the workshop. Sarvodaya Chapter was started in VIT University and many students took active part in the workshop.


Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Meeting against Cool Drinks in Uppuguda






Jana Vignana Vedika organized a meeting against use of Cool Drinks in Uppuguda in Hyderabad. Dr. Kranthi was the Chief Guest and addressed the women in the Arundhatinagar area. Smt. Swarajya Laxmi Presided over the meeting. Sri TV Rao, Convenor of JVV explained how the cool drinks harm people's health.

Sri Prasad explained how Cool Drinks are a medium to drain our wealth from our society to outside world. He included Cosmetics, Confectionery, Tobacco Products, Liquor and such other products which are not only not useful but harmful. Massive advertisements on these products influence our purchasing decisions and people become addicted to several of these products.

Sri Vikram and others participated in the meeting which is educative and the children took a vow not to use cool drinks but would use butter milk and such other natural drinks.



Prasad visits Vavilala in Karimnagar District on April 12









Sri Prasad visited Vavilala village in Karimnagar District and interacted with the Khadi Institution of Vavilala. Sri Narasimha Reddy, Manager of the Institution organized the Programme. Sri Prasad and Sri Sampath Rao visited the Khadi Institution which is one of the very good institutions. This organization participated in the Charkha Yagna in Delhi on February 22 which was inaugurated by the President of India.

We visited Hind Kusth Nivaran Sangh Rehabilitation Centre near Vavilala.


Prasad Addresses International Youth in Henry Martin Institute in Hyderabad






Sri Prasad Addressed a Group of Youth representing Srilanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and India who are in a workshop on conflict resolution and interfaith at Henri Martin Institute in Shivarampalli on April 10, 2011.

Sri Prasad introduced to the group the Gandhian concepts of

Truth & Nonviolence
Sarvodaya
Swaraj
Swadeshi and
Satyagraha

The participants and organizers took keen interest in Sarvodaya philosophy and work.


Thursday, April 7, 2011

Dhandi March Celebration,Hyderabad 6th April









Meeting was Organized on Dhandi Salt March on 6th April in Gandhi Bhavan.