________________
1961
Monks 'Dilemma
Monks' Dilemma
|
197
delighted that her parents had been liberated so easily without any effort. She did not lose any time and left with her parents immediately. They also could not utter a word, no resistance as earlier because now it was an order of the Acharya.
When Shree reached the project site at Jhadol, Deepak, Deepti, Vibha and all others were surprised to see Shree's parents in household attire. Deepak got up and ran and touched their feet, embraced, wept and wept, not out of pain but out of immense pleasure. He today saw his first and foremost desire fructifying. Deepak asked everybody to accompany him to their ancestral house. His parents were really very happy to see their old house renovated and modernised without any significant architectural change. They thanked Deepti, the main motivating force to dissuade Deepak from becoming a monk as penance for his parents' forced conversion for the sake of his education. Tears rolled down their eyes in immense happiness seeing Shree and Deepak married. Deepti said, "They must be tired and let them rest. We shall celebrate tomorrow."
Vibha made explicit her concepts, "The project planning should be such that the life style of all connected with it should be close to nature and forest based. There should be minimum dependence on agriculture which is not at all environment friendly. Ever since the birth of agriculture some ten thousand years ago there was a crusade against forests and vast areas of forests were cleared and burnt to extend agriculture and the process is continuing. Agriculture can be done only on onetenth of land surface whereas forest can be grown on more than ninety percent of land area, on good and bad soils, on plains and slopes, on dry and wet lands, on saline and alkaline soils, in desert and salubrious climates, in tropical, subtropical and temperate zones. There are over ten lakh varieties of plant species which can provide food, fodder, fibres for cloth, various chemicals, gums, resins lac etc, a variety of wood, bamboo and other raw materials for cottage, small, medium and big industries. Forests once planted are everlasting if scientifically managed, unlike agriculture for which ploughing, sowing, watering, manuring are required crop after crop, requiring recurring input costs which are rising every year and as a result of which agriculture is not economically viable anywhere in the world and is being sustained by heavy subsidies. The productivity of polyculture forests is more than most modern high-tech agriculture. Forests serve as most efficient safe guards against natural calamities of storms as wind velocity is reduced substantially, erosion is checked as roots of trees bind the soil, floods are prevented as forest cover checks runoff and increased infiltration of rain water takes place in soil to provide subsoil water to streams and wells etc, and makes famines disappear as edible products from forest are available even during droughts. I have planted all available
Deepak and Deepti decided that they would not stay at the project site and return to Jhadol every evening and spend maximum time with their parents. Shree and Vibhu stayed at Jhadol to look after their parents and went to the project site only with them as and when they so desired. Vibha was at the site and doing hard work to prepare the prospective twenty year plan. She was a naturalist and a staunch conservative environmentalist. Deepak and Deepti were trying to integrate modern science and technology in Vibha's scheme of things.
