CULTIVATION AND KARMA

Dear friends,
Looking up my latest postings (also in Face Book)  , you all may be wondering about my newfound fondness for agriculture. There is a possibility that I carry such ‘vasanas’ from previous births . Or to satisfy moderns, such tendencies, potential may exist in my ‘genes’.

Agriculture is considered to be a basic human activity. It results in the optimal way of getting food from nature, sustaining populations throughout the year. (at least for tropical countries).

I was trying to analyze such a basic activity as agriculture, by bringing it under the lens (umbrella) called KARMA. We are sitting over a pile of ancient wisdom, which also contains ‘The Law of Karma’, which clearly states that the range of human activities is limited. Or stating in a brusque manner, "The Law of Karma" limits our activities. I am reminded of a sentence from a speech of Gandhiji , given at Univ. College Tvm on 17th Sept. 1927 “ You will at once then see that nine-tenths of the activities that are going on throughout the world and which are engrossing our attention would fall into disuse.”

Kerala’s experience in agriculture, commercial plantation and Green Revolution in the past just 60 years, drives home the effect of The Law of Karma. As we are wakefully experiencing, Nature has imposed a limit on our unbridled pursuit of productivity and profits. If you had followed my postings , starting with Shi Subash Palekar (The lies we learn at College), a host of modern activities connected with ‘agriculture industry’ is not at all necessary and can be discarded. Starting with the manufacture of fertilizers, pesticides, tractors, other agricultural machinery etc , we can also dispense with Agricultural Universities. If we have to have peaceful co-existence with nature, each other and other beings, these modern institutions and the products and services they offer has to be re-considered.

Finally we are forced to draw the conclusion,that  pre-modern people had a more superior & emotionally stable intellect than our own. They knew how to sustain themselves with minimum exertion and minimal interference with nature.