origin of padubidri

a natural collage
as own environment

By Kulamarva Balakrishna

Vienna,Wednesday,February 13,2008:I am
being asked how I came to choose Padubidri
for my farming work.Why I am against
fencing? What do I mean by social and
environmental engineering? My one single
integrated answer is my autobiography of
egotism. Egotism in Samskrit is described
as =asmita= or =ahamkara=, the basis of
which is an individual´s birth,following his
individuation in mother´s womb. Individuation
is natural to every one. But not every one
is aware of this.When every one is aware
of his individuation, he enriches the democracy
that we cherish so much.This individuality
is nursed by the individual himself drawing
on his environment, where he takes and gives
just as in the process of breathing.According
to time and space individual´s environment
keeps changing making way for new give and
takes.It was during the course of giving and
taking process I got from the great socialist,
pacifist,good life guru couple Scott and Helen
Nearing in the late sixties when they came to
India as guests of the Government of India´s
Indian Council for Cultural Relations.During
their stay in Bombay, the saintly American
couple were put up in Viceroy´s Suit at the
Taj Mahal Hotel.I met them just for about
half an hour for an interview.Prof.Scott
Nearing spoke to me about his espionage
trial of 1919 for writing and publishing the
pamphlet =great Madness= of war. Although
he was acquitted by the grand jury the publishers
of the pamphlet were fined.Then his dismissal
from university jobs denial of four new
opportunities as a teacher. Withdrawal of
insurance cover that was his, just for being a
socialist,communist,pacifist and being an anti-
establishment non confirmist.He never showed
any sign of regrets for his views or expressing
them openly.As a practicing vegetarian,friend
of India he became a valued guest.He had
then already moved to Harborside,Brooksville,
Maime opposite Spirit Cave to work in a smaller
what we today call =sustainable= farm house
living frugally like a modern sage of the ancient
classic style = a good life=.The place later became
an inspiration to the generation which opposed
Vietnam War.It impressed me.When I was
incapacitated by abdominal operation for the
removal of pancreas, I set out looking for a
sea shore plot.When I arrived at Padubidri,
I heard a young woman greet me in my sub-caste
dialect,which she heard us speak among ourselves.
Then she told me that she was a child
of a traditional princely house,where the
manager was my brother in law´s, uncle.That
helped me to make the choice.So it was Sujatha
Acharya, who influenced my decision on the
plot of land, bare sand some 8000 sqare metres
bordering on the west the Arabian Sea and on
the east small rivulet that flows into it about
two kilometers south.

Now who were Helen
and Scott Nearing?

(1904-1995 Helen and
1883-1983 plus 18 days Scott)

Photo:Abbie Sewal Schultz, 1978:

I quote:= In 1932, at the height of the Great Depression,
Helen and Scott Nearing moved from their small apartment
in New York City to a dilapidated farmhouse on 65 acres in
Vermont. For over 20 years, they created fertile, organic
gardens, hand-crafted stone buildings, and a practice of
living simply and sustainably on the land. In 1952, they
moved to the Maine coast, where they later built their last
stone home.

Through their 60 years of living on the land in rural New
England, their commitment to social and economic justice,
their numerous books and articles, and the time they shared
with thousands of visitors to their homestead, the Nearings
embodied a philosophy that has come to be recognized as a
centerpiece of America's "Back to the Land" and "Simple
Living" movements.=unquote.

Prof.Scott was joined by Helen Knothe, who was a theosophist,
had been with J.Krishnamurthy for some time, as secretary
in 1928.She was also a musician.She had met him as she was
just over grown her teens by 1928.But her dedication to him
commenced there.Prof.Scott lived until he was 18 days after
celebrating his hundredth day of birth.She was 21 years younger
but lived only 12 more years after his death fasting for 45 days
in 1983, because he lost interest being unable to work according
to their plan of four,four four hours a day bread,civic work and
profession routine.She continued to live the three tier plan
covering 1. nature,2.labour,3.profession,4.society, and finally
5 .spiritualism.

Now when go searching I found a letter addressed by Prof.
Scott, in 1917 when a mother, named Mary who had lost
her son working for the air force as fighter wrote a book on
her sorrow to send him a copy.Prof.Scott had written a frank
letter to Marry just as Buddha had advised the mother who
came to him carrying the dead body of her child. Mary was
away, her husband John saw the letter to think that the
contents would not reduce her sufferings.He wrote to Prof.
Scott seeking permission to destroy the letter and requesting
for a letter of conciliation.The following response from Prof.
Scott Nearing was forthright more unpleasant.I did not know
this but I think,I am the type there I quote:

Dear John:
We live in a society of butchers and murderers.
we butcher fellow creatures for food and for sport,
and murder fellow humans for pelf and for power.
Years ago you and Mary decided to go to work for
the plunderers and killers who run our social system.
In return, you got considerable comfort, a measure
of recognition and some power. Then they murdered
your beloved son. That was part of the price you paid
for living in a world run by plunderers and killers. No
use blinking the facts. You know them as well or
better than I do.

When I wrote Mary, I did not put it quite so baldly
as this, but I stated the issue clearly enough so
that she might get the point, learn the bitter lesson
and profit by it. You asked me to cancel that letter.
I agreed.

Now you ask me to tell one of our conventional
social lies, --to write and say it is a nice book and
thank her for sending it. Destroy the letter? Yes,
if you wish. That is a negative lie--dodging the
issue by saying nothing about it. Write a socially
correct note, pretending to express a sentiment I
do not feel? No. That is a positive lie and I will
have no part in telling it.

You and I (and Mary) are getting on in years.
We should have learned to face the music. I am
all for facing it here and now. I either say what
I think or I say nothing. I think we live in a
community built on lies, robbery, butchery
and murder. There is no dodging the issue.
I also think that the lying, robbery, butchery
and murder will continue till we face the facts,
turn about and reshape our lives. Again there
is no dodging.

Also, I say it is time we stood up and told
each other the truth, without fear of favor …
This is grim doctrine, but we live in a grim
world where millions of young victims are
paying with their lives for ignorance, stupidity,
greed, hypocrisy and connivance. Maybe it
is wiser to tell Mary, after all. ( Quote from
Scott nearing´s autobiography Making of a
Radical.1917)

I think this letter written almost 17 years before
I was born speaks for me as well.

Masanobu Fukuoka,1914, Shikoku,to the right:A learned microbiologist until he was 25,he took interest in Natural Farming, and advocated natural farming as if leaving the land like unattended forest which gave the maximum quality yield of almost 300 grain in a rice stalk.His message that diversity of species and time cycle in nature gave the field its interactive strength of supporting one
species another.I accept this.I was
made aware of this by his book presented to me by my cousin Mythili.
Under the prevailing circumstances,I have tried to adapt the principle. I have also learned from the experiences of senior Cherkadi Ramachandra Rao, who worked as a Khadi weaver some time before settling in a dry two acre plot near Bramhavar, and lives there entirely on the dry farm.He has given a portion of the plot to his elder engineer son Manjunath Rao, who made there a herbal garden.

left to right: Bala and Cherkadi Ramachandra Rao

It was by chance, I heard about
Cherkadi Ramachandra Rao.When I went to visit him with Eva and we made friends at once.He lent me some plants and guided me to yet another place near Kundapur,where a protect the children school uses his method of gardening.Cherkadi´s whole education was limited to a single year that,his sixth year of life.

Later, he was harnessed to the yoke, as a weaver then as dryland farmer.
That is all.The rest hard life´s learning, a pathway for others.As for me,
I do not think these are any miracles.The experiences cited are rooted in
classic yogic path.My contemporary commentary series on Patanjala yoga
sutras is intended to show how we no more than siblings of the Siberian
birds that come to Chiklia Lake in Orissa for breeding or millions of turtles
that swim into the Oriyan coast of Bay of Bengal, year after year to breed
their future generations.

One more point why I do ot have an expensive, almost rupees ten million
additional worth, erected around my unobtrusive garden.The intention
is to be part of the environment,which co-operates.Not so humans because,
they suffer from corruptive influences.I was offered a fencing almost natural.
I would not buy it.I was a shown a hill garden near Sulya, a copy of European
Alps,without its cleanliness and purity.We assimilated from others digest
them to grow.We can not transplant outright others´ property,which is to
say the least when it is transplanted.An interactive individual integrates
himself by give and take being a part and parcel of the whole without being
a thief.It is almost two years now, I have not been in Padubidri.But I came
to Padubidri in 2000 that is almost four years before Tsunami paid a visit
to us India´s Eastern Coast.Immediately I set on planting suitable species
of plants on the sea shore for protection of the land.In Tamilnadu,they
have learned the lesson after the Tsunami experience.In my own west
coast my cousin goes about preaching Vishnu Sahasranama prayer
as protection against Tsunami waves!(end)