By Lavanya Maheshwari, Ashoka University. 19 March 2023

I’m a student at Ashoka University. My usual routine and schedule in college – like, I’m assuming, everyone else’s – rarely, if ever, involves anything to do with the natural world. It seems to revolve mostly around relationships with screens – the screen I’m currently typing on, the screen of my ostensibly essential mobile phone, the screen of my classroom projector, and so on. There is time in between for relationships with friends and people around me as well, but a relationship with nature … I don’t think I’ve ever actively or deeply even thought about that. I don’t think I’ve ever had the time to, nor the space to, because the life I have been living has been completely disconnected from, and in fact, a lot of times, at complete odds with nature. Other than some occasional walk on the grass, or some longing stares at the stars, my life simply does not include nature. The natural world, as a great thinker put it, is “no longer a part of [my] consciousness”. 

But my recent visit to Aman Bagh has put nature at least in the periphery, if not at the absolute center, of my consciousness. It has made me gain some level of awareness into what I am missing – and what, more accurately, we, as a society, are missing in our lives. My consciousness, which has otherwise been full of only man-made ideals—ideals of “success”, of “growth”, and of thriving in today’s market economy—now seems to want to create a space for the natural world.

But this single fact—that nature has not been a part of the life I’m leading—is so telling in and of itself. We have built systems that run almost completely on the exploitation of natural resources, and which have, at the same time, completely distanced themselves from any real connection with nature. And this has happened at such a level that today, this way of life—disconnected from and exploitative towards nature—is what has started feeling “natural” to us. While it is no secret that this “natural” is not doing us a lot of good, is leading to widespread dissatisfaction and disharmony, and is putting dangerously tremendous pressures on the earth, it is also true that we are almost completely entangled and enmeshed in this structure of living.

In such an environment, where we have become stuck and fixed in a certain pattern of living, a place like Aman Bagh serves to unfasten and open us up to different possibilities of life as a whole. 

My trip to Aman Bagh took place on 19 March, part of one of my courses in college at Ashoka University. I was accompanied by 8 other classmates and the journey took around 3 hours from our campus. To say that the time spent was worth it would be an understatement. There’s a lot that this visit to Aman Bagh made me question and reflect upon. Here, I wish to discuss 3 interrelated things: education, nature, and stillness. 

The Tour

As we entered the place, we were greeted by a beautiful sight of colorful flowers and greenery all around. There were huge radishes growing on the left, and rich green turai along with bright pink flowers on the right. As we moved forward, we were introduced to 6 big, healthy cows and bullocks and 3 young calves, who were all enjoying the pleasant weather. We then met Harsh Lohit ji briefly, who introduced us to his 4 other co-workers and asked us to be taken on a tour of the farm. We split into two groups and Sattar bhai (one of the co-workers there, and also an inhabitant of Mangar village) took me and 3 other classmates for the farm tour. 

Sattar bhai shared with us interesting things about the farm while showing us around. There were more than a 100 varieties of seeds planted in the bagh, and he knew everything about all of them, and more. We saw oranges, nashpati, mulberries, jamun, and almost every other fruit you can think of. There were vegetables and spices of all sorts, including potatoes, tomatoes, peas, haldi, basil, coriander – you name it. Seeing this variety of seeds was definitely fascinating, but what was even more so was listening to Sattar bhai explain how the farming actually took place. The natural systems farming implemented at the farm revolves almost completely around true sustainability, self-sufficiency, and localization. There are very limited inputs from the external world, all actions are taken based on the local knowledge passed down from ancestors, and whatever is taken out of the soil is put back in to ensure actual sustainability for future generations.

This way of farming at Aman Bagh is what makes it so unique, and natural farming here is seen as not just a way of growing crops, but as “a way of life”, a way of being truly connected to and in sync with the rhythms of the natural world. 

It is a shame though that the person who told us all of this—Sattar bhai, someone who is so informed and connected to the earth—would be labeled “uneducated” in our current definition of the word simply because he has not been in the formal education system. And at the same time, the youth of the village, with their enrollments in educational institutions and zero knowledge of their lands and farms, would be labeled as “educated”, and even be seen as signs of “progress”.

Is there a need for us to radically question and reflect on our perceptions of education and progress? Looking at Sattar bhai’s extensive knowledge of the land, I would say there definitely is. 

The Meal

After returning from the hour long information-rich farm tour with Sattar bhai, we had some delicious mattha, made freshly from the farm cows’ milk. Lunch was then served and everything, every single thing used in the food—except salt and sugar—was cultivated on the farm itself! It was mind-blowing. 

This lunch provided us with so much food for thought, that it was as nourishing for the mind as it was for the body. Imagine living in a way where you are holistically aware of every single thing you are feeding your body, where you are absolutely mindful and conscious about the food you are eating because you have literally cultivated it with your own hands! The complete experience felt so wholesome and unimaginably healthy. 

And this is part of what constitutes, I believe, a truly connected way of living with nature. When you are so deeply aware of how your food is reaching your plate, there is no chance that you would disrespect—let alone exploit—the source of that food. Living in the Aman Bagh way, therefore, automatically creates a world where we truly value and respect nature. 

And this is a major part of the problem: we are no longer connected with the sources of things. Items we consume—food, drinks, clothes, appliances, everything—are just served to us as final products. There is no understanding of the multiple steps and the ultimate sources through which we are able to avail these goods and services. 

If we are to truly create a sustainable world, then this has to change, and it has to change from the very roots, in the kind of education given to us in our childhood. Instead of being taught just about some war in Europe or some scientific discovery in the US, if we were maybe also taught about the local cultivation processes, the processes through which our consumption items are actually produced and brought to us, maybe it would help create a much more aware and connected generation of citizens. 

And Aman Bagh, I believe, is doing its part in sharing exactly this kind of rich knowledge with its inhabitants and visitors: knowledge of the processes of nature, of production, and thus, of conscious consumption.

Introspection

We then spent the afternoon having stimulating discussions (satsang) with Harsh Lohit ji, and then proceeded to the chowk to engage in a collective meditation. 

Meditating there, guided by Harsh ji’s voice, in the fresh and breathtaking air of Aman Bagh, we experienced something that’s an extreme rarity in the world today: stillness. While meditating, there was a sense of calmness and peace in my mind, and I was completely present in that moment, feeling the natural world around me. 

This presence and stillness is what we desperately need more of in the fast-paced global world of today. To quote Harsh ji himself, “modernity comes at such a frightening pace,… that we lose the plot even before we comprehend where we are.” I don’t think I have heard a truer and more relatable sentence. We are living at such frightening paces in this modern world today, that most of us do not even understand what is happening, let alone why it’s happening or what to do about it. And I think this makes it absolutely urgent for us—both as individuals and also as a community—to pause and to reflect. To introspect. On so many aspects: 

Individually, to reflect on the ways in which we are spending our days, the ideals we are running after, the things we are feeding our body, our mind, and our soul. And as a community, to introspect on the kind of society we have created, the worldview we are propagating and aiming for, and the paths we are choosing to get to that worldview. 

These are huge, perplexing questions with convoluted webs, but we need to get entangled in those webs. But in order to do that, we will need to detach a bit, whenever possible, from the webs of modernity in which we are currently entangled. We will need to pause and introspect, and I think Aman Bagh provides the perfect place for that introspection.