Vedic Agriculture for a Resurgent India
Vedas are eternal truths discovered by different persons in different times, and we call them as sages. Sages discovered various things related to human life, which are both Paramarthika (spiritual) and Vyavaharika (worldly). Many sages described about agriculture in their books, which is one of the important source for the Human Existence.
Based on the same theme, a webinar was organized by Vivekananda Institute of Human excellence on 18th Oct 2020 focusing on the Vedic literature on agriculture, food habits and their scientific evidence. Swami Bodhamayananda ji, Director, Vivekananda Institute of Human excellence delivered the welcome address and gave a brief introduction about Vedas. He narrated the insights Swami Vivekananda gave on Vedas and recited some verses from the Vedas with meaning. There was a mesmerizing performance by Karthik Raman ji from Bangalore, a renowned musician and singer who sang a beautiful song on Mother Sarada Devi.
The speakers for the day, Mr. Kautilya Krishnan and Mr. Balaji Sukumar shared their experiences on Vedic and Organic farming which helped the audience to know about traditional farming and its applications to modern life.
Kautilya Krishnan ji, the founder of Krishi Bharatam who is pursuing Vedic agriculture, gave a brief evidence about the Great sages who contributed to Agriculture domain. Some of Sages, Sage Parashara, Sage Kashyapa and Sage Parashurama had written books on agriculture such as Krishi Parashara and Vrikshayurveda in which the methods of farming and the characteristics of plant are clearly explained. Aspects in farming such as Bija Sthapanam (planting seed into soil), Bija rakshanam (protection of seed) and Bija vardhanam (development of seed) are exposited in those books. In his book, Sage Parashara described on how to plant a seed, when to plant a seed and explained that a plant needs peaceful environment, love and care to grow, which is now facing troubles because of urbanization and pollution.
In Vedas, there are some suktas to be chanted for agriculture, water, and fire and even cooking. Bhojana kutuhala, a book that depicts food habits is also available. Kautilya ji explained about the verses from Ramayana and Mahabharata, which reminds us about the importance of agriculture. Lord Rama himself told, “The country will be prosperous and wealthy only because of Krishi which means agriculture”. Our sages understood about cattle and their protection but modern people call it as Natuvaidya. Kautilya ji explained that now a days people are going to a veterinary doctor. Nevertheless, ancient farmers managed everything by themselves.
Kautilya ji narrated his own experiences while travelling around villages of India. Particularly, In Assam, people are still following methods that were mentioned in Vedas. They still utilize ducks for removing weeds from the fields. He showed us Krishna Vrihi, black rice cultivated by him that has wonderful nutritional values. He narrated real life examples on how Agnihotra can affect pathogenic bacteria. Many universities all over the world are now performing research on Agni hotra and its impact, which was discovered long back by our Rishis.
Kautilya ji advised youth to study Vedas, Upanishads and Puranas and apply them with modern scientific approach. He told that Youth also could choose agriculture as a career and apply modern innovations without missing our Vedic base. He explained about Vrishabhotsavam he initiated all over the world, which happens in Kartika masa to promote the importance of bulls and cows in agriculture. His words reminded the delegates how many cows and bulls are being slaughtered these days and how agriculture is impacted by these actions. He traversed in the remote areas of the nation to bring awareness among the youth and farmers on Vedic farming. Due to various reasons, farmers adopted chemical farming as it gave them huge output with less quality. Some of the farmers are now realizing the importance of traditional farming and applying ancient techniques to get optimum output. People like Kautilya ji are much needed for our country and we all are proud of him! Hope the coming generations will understand the importance of Vedic farming because of people like Kautilya ji.
There was a wonderful musical performance on Tabla by Anirudh Sharma, volunteer VIHE and a musician at the Indian raga. He sang a song on the divine mother kaali, which was wonderful and unexplainable.
Mr. Balaji Sukumar, who is a faculty at Vivekananda Institute of Human excellence, Hyderabad too visited various places, did research on traditional farming, and got optimum output in a practical way. He narrated his own experiences from being a civil engineer to being an organic farmer. We should change our approach towards farmers and farming. He also advised everyone to think on how to improve agricultural sector and apply scientific methods to agriculture without neglecting traditional values. He explained about poly crops, which is a wonderful innovation though which we can grow two crops in a single field. He advised us that to “Staying Healthy” should be one of the motto in life because the food we take is a major component in “Healthy body and Healthy mind.”
The speakers answered various questions asked by the participants on Vedas and agriculture. Finally, the webinar ended with a beautiful song on swami Vivekananda "Bhuvane Mandale Navayuga Udayathu" by Sricharita and Deepshika, volunteers of VIHE. The Webinar enlightened all the participants and volunteers to rethink, re-analyze and reform themselves. It reminded about the great ancestry of India and excellence prevails when we can imbibe the spirit of Vedas applied with modern innovation.
JAI KRISHI BHARATAM!
Victory to agricultural Bharat!
Here is the link to the archive of the webinar !