I think for this blog post, just this picture will suffice…Sundar Singh Ji, one of our caretaker who plays local instrument (similar to ektara – one string instrument) trying his hands on the acoustic guitar right after some rains…
The race of making it “big”
You must make it big in life. Be a big business tycoon, be a terrorist like Osama – be anything as long as it’s big. Farming ? You’ve taken to farming ? Damn ! Never mind, be big in farming too. Be the one who earns 10 lacs from an acre !
Oh ! you are into natural farming ? Then you must be big like Fukuoka ! You got to be big else what worth is your life and so useless are you.
Your life is wasted if you can’t get featured on a national tv or magazine at least once in your lifetime. The race of making it big or rather should we use word “disease” has caught on everyone around including us. Even when we “alternative” folks talk about making it simple and small – there is an emotion of making it big somewhere deep down. Becoming big outside is only an expression of our emptiness inside. We feel distressed if we are nothing outside. We feel great if the world considers us big and worthy.
Those will be mad who care not to make it big. Those will be lazy and idiot folks if they are happy living in their small farm, doing almost nothing ! Happiness doesn’t count. Infact, people don’t believe that you are happy unless you are big.
Imagine if we can take this disease out of our minds and cherish being extremely ordinary ! Ain’t this true Zen ? true spirituality ?
So what really happens at the Farm ?
Your website looks good, we have heard little bit about the farm from some friends. So, what exactly happens there ? What do you do ?
So often, we have been asked this question. Recently, we met few Osho Sanyassis and as we shared that the name “Sadhna Path” is inspired from first few discourses of Osho and this ashram/farm is a place where his vision of “Zorba the Buddha” is being realized everyday. They asked “oh ! great , there must be everyday osho meditations taking place there ? “, No, we replied. “Oh ! then at least the morning and evening meditation or 3-day camps ? ” . No, as we replied again – we could see them frown.
We got into a strange position when we tried to explain them that actually all that happens at farm is simple and joyful living. That’s our meditation, that’s our solution, that’s our contribution.
In another event we attended, everyone was looking forward to some big organic farm success story. We had none. We are doing what we are doing because we feel that’s going to be good for us and for our earth. We do not intend to prove the mainstream foolish or wrong.
The farm is not against anything or anyone, just that it is in favor of life. We believe in doing simple and normal things. Everyday things. We want to learn from nature, learn to live with it in harmonious way.
We feel the pain of social conditions that prevails, we feel sad about environmental issues, we feel frustrated about mainstream conspiracies against sanity – but we have chosen to not to succumb to war against them and instead follow the path of joy and sanity. That’s our answer and we don’t know and don’t care if it’s the right one.
One lovely year at the Madman’s Farm
We have finally completed one year at farm and it has been memorable to say the least. The best part of last year was to realize that reality is way different from imagination and plans.
We keep going to so many so called “alternative” forums and listen to great plans to change the world and save the planet. We keep coming across inspiring stories of individuals who are doing something different. At farm, in last one year we are realized that the road to simple life is not simple.
It is not as rosy as we imagine it to be from the conference hall. We surely meet challenges we anticipate and hear about but we more surely meet the challenges we never dreamt of. Handling them with no one to acknowledge or appreciate – that’s reality.
There’s not a slightest piece of regret for choosing this life, though during the hard times we wonder if any other place than this would have made our life easier !
The joys of village life and farm life are innumerable. Just to see that butterfly drink nector from a plant you seeded is no less satisfying than winning a noble prize. A firefly in night flying in the sky as you fall asleep looking at the stars, where else do we look for heaven ?
A lovely year indeed ! Thank you. We are really grateful to all our well wishers, friends, family who have supported as and inspired us. We are so very grateful to the forces of universe that are allowing us to work on land , learn and live happily.
We are all set for new year and things will only get better hence, for we have taken the worst into our stride.
Testing Times
Last few weeks have been really testing for us. The road of so called natural living and natural farming ain’t as easy and simple as we imagined. It’s perhaps harder than regular lifestyle. This was our clear lesson in last few days.
We have faced numerous challenges starting from acute shortage of labor to no electricity at all making it hard for us to water the plants.
With no experience with animals, we are also finding it hard to manage our cow Gita and her calf Shunyo. She just got lost recently and we all had tough time finding her. In absence of help , there are times when we cannot milk her or even take her out for grazing to right places. We are trying our best though to be nice to her and ensure no hurts.
A local bitch gave birth to 7 puppies and we were declared the care takers. It was added work for us but the sound of lovely puppies just didn’t allow us to stop cooking for them.
A lot of trees succummed to the peak summer. We couln’t save coconut, papayas and few others.
The systems are not yet in place, be it irrigation or power. We are working with simple solar system but it’ll take some time till things get smooth.
On personal front, With my (Shashi) marriage I had to deal with multiple emotional and intellectual waves. Right now, I am the only person full time on farm and at times it got really tiring to take care of entire farm and it’s living entities. Just the last evening, i was so frustrated that I wondered what am I doing and why am I here. But perhaps, these are the moments that needs your faith and persevearance.
We are looking forward to the monsoon, we have our plans for more plantation of trees. We look forward for support from nature, man and animal. We hope that things will smoothen up and slowly the farm will evolve as it should.
On a lovely starry summer night, Sitting on the terrace in middle of land free of pesticides, using a solar powered laptop to write this email – as one can see small plants around and hear voices of cows and dogs along with crickets – we have covered some ground for sure. Looking forward with great excitements on how things unfold inside and outside !
The Wild Boar and Rabbit Dilemma
The farm is next to a jungle, no wonder we have guests visiting us often from the woods. Perhaps, the truth is we are the guests. The land and jungle belongs to wild animals and birds, we human beings are entering their houses without their consent and then we cry for damage done to our crops by wild animals.
So what do we do ? That’s our dilemma. We clearly can see that we are the one disturbing their habitat. If wild boar eats up our corn and wheat or parrots eats up our crops, how are we supposed to feel ? The locals usually hunt wild boar down and shoo away parrots with stone or crackers.
This is true test of our philosophies. We planted various plants with love and took care for months and one day its no longer there because a wild board decides to check out its root for earthworms. Heart sunk when we saw the sight of a well grown plant torn down to pieces, but then how can we blame the wild boar. With the speed that we all are cutting the jungle and moving closer to deepest woods, do they have any option ? The truth is that most of these wild animals are perhaps starving.
We have chosen to help them out and also take care of our plants. So, we do have a fence to protect our plants and we do keep an eye ,but if a someone eats up our crop or trees, we simply plant other and try to sympathize with the painful state of jungle and wild animals today. We also plan to dedicate a part of our farm to them. The dream is to leave an acre or two unprotected , unfenced and grow things these wild animals like. We have dream to co-exist with our wild friends. We have dream to undo the damage we are doing and have done to our ecology.
Farm gets a simple compost toilet
As the farm is evolving one of the thing on our mind was to take care of Human waste and gray water. About gray water it was straight – reduce the production of gray water. So we hardly use (only when simple bathing or washing doesn’t work) soap either for washing cloths or bathing, we use ash for cleaning utensils and guide this water to our plants.
Compost toilet was also on our mind and we would like to share our journey in thoughts as reader might find it useful.
On our mind :-
- Do we need a toilet or is it ok simply to use outdoors ?
- Shall we only have compost toilet ? What about people who’d not be comfortable using it ?
- If there is a jungle next door, do we even need a compost toilet ? Why not simply defecate outside and cover matter with soil or dry leaves ? (to avoid spread of pathogens)
- If we need a compost toilet – how should it be ? Shall we separate urine ?
The decisions :
We decided that having a toilet will be a good idea as it might not always be good idea to use the outdoors (say in rains or during late night). Having only dry toilet will be better afterall it’s not that difficult – let those who are not comfortable – learn a better way of dealing with our waste. Also, having a compost toilet makes processes cyclic. We eat produce of farm, so better give it back. (instead of dispensing it elsewhere like in jungle). We also found that having a toilet will reduce chances of spreading of pathogens. On the question of separating urine or not. Currently to make things really simple we are not separating urine and faece. Urine also adds lot of nitrogen which is good if we can balance it. So, we are using rice husks and wood ash to maintain right carbon nitrogen ratio.
Helps :
Humanure Handbook by Joseph Jenkins and his website was great help. Check it out here.
A lot of friends who’ve had experience in making and experimenting with dry toilets also helped a lot.
The Design
After thinking a lot through various designs available on various books, website. We were really impressed by the simple Arbor Loo idea. A similar toilet was also experimented by a friend from Mysore. So, we further simplified the design to suit our needs and went ahead with it. At the risk of sounding self approving, we must share that we feel this to be simplest, cheapest and quickest model of compost toilets.
The simple compost toilet inspired from arbor loo design. Soon the walls will be replaced by bamboo structure and a lot of flowers will be planted around the toilet.
The toilet was completely constructed in 2 hours by one man from scratch and cost zilch. We used waste materials or unused things from the farm itself, most of it was thrown as junk. It might look quite crude right now but it works well and is very convenient. We’ve already had few visitors use it and they found it very comfortable.
The idea is simple, dig a hole – deposit urine and fecal matter in it – cover it with husk and ash.You need to squat and take a mug of water with you for washing (or tissue paper if you belong to the second category of man called the wipers ! ) . When almost full, cover it with few inches of soil and leave it for a month and then simply plant a tree on top of it and move the toilet setup to next spot.
It works fantastic for us as we are still planning to plant many trees. There is zero problem with odor because it’s open toilet. One can look at the stars and pee. The weather of Madhya Pradesh makes the composting very efficient. Most of the pathogens die at around 45degrees C, the temperature in summer here is around 45 – so imagine the temperature in the compost pit. Winters are not too cold too, so things should work pretty fine.
The next step
We are thinking of bringing beauty in. Right now, the toilet looks little bit crude. This made us think – why not make toilet beautiful. So we have planted lot of marigold flowers all around it. Soon, we’ll have flowers smiling at you as you make compost for the earth and recycle your waste.
We still need to think little bit about improving the design for monsoons as there is lot of water logging in the farm around this time. The simplest solution will be to put the monsoon pit somewhere at the highest point of farm so most of the water is drained. We might also need to cover the roof in monsoon to avoid too much water from reaching the pit.
The moveable structure of the toilet (which is currently of old iron sheets) will be replaced by an elegant design walls of local Bamboos. We are working with local artisan to get some interesting moveable structure for the toilet.
It really feels good to take care of our waste, take care of water, be responsible. Whether it’ll help save the world, or alleviate environment problems – we don’t know. But we enjoy it and it feels good to be kind to nature.
18 reasons for a seeker to become a farmer
1.) Poison in our food
It’s no secret anymore that most of what we eat today is full of all kinds of poison. Industrial agricultural which uses chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, boosters, artificial hormones, GM seeds etc have made our food poisonous. There are ample researches supporting this. While buying natural food or organic produce is an option, it is not easy and reliable. Getting on to producing your food is your only escape, else be prepared for all sorts of 21st century ailments.
2.) Dominant chemical farming
Chemical Farming or Modern farming that extensively uses chemicals and machines has taken over entire world. Natural ways or simpler ways of farming are considered primitive and non-glamorous. While modern farming is able to get better produce, it is a very short sighted approach. It makes land quite non-fertile and damages the ecosystem heavily. It does produce good looking produce but quite often they are heavily degraded nutritionally. So, if you care for planet and for yourself and for humanity – taking up alternative modes of farmings and providing a workable model is one of the best thing you can do.
3.) Lack of Sinless Jobs
As one grow morally and started valuing ethics in life,you’d hunt for a job that does not involve corruption or exploitation of any sort and has no net negative impact of society or nature. Frankly you’ll not be able to find such a job easily. You can only fool yourself for sometime by looking only at your side of story. Natural Farming is one of the very few occupations left in modern world that can be considered ethical.
As one grow morally and started valuing ethics in life,you’d hunt for a job that does not involve corruption or exploitation of any sort and has no net negative impact of society or nature. Frankly you’ll not be able to find such a job easily. You can only fool yourself for sometime by looking only at your side of story. Natural Farming is one of the very few occupations left in modern world that can be considered ethical.
4.) Living close to Nature
We all know the difference that living close to nature can bring. The quality of life, of your days, of your mind will be totally different when live close to nature. As much it is difficult in cities to live a healthy, happy life so much is easier if one lives somewhere close to nature. Thus moving to village will be a very obvious decision and taking to farming will come as a by product.
5.) Farming as meditation and worship
Many ancient scriptures like The Vedas have considered farming as worship of five elements that make up the universe. Farming use to be the occupation of sages. Many great saints have spent their lives understanding plants and farming. Many are believed to reach the ultimate truth through this worship of five elements in form of farming. So if you are on a spiritual journey, becoming a farmer is one of the greatest service you can do to yourself and your journey. It is no coincidence that most of the Zen masters were farmers.
We all know the difference that living close to nature can bring. The quality of life, of your days, of your mind will be totally different when live close to nature. As much it is difficult in cities to live a healthy, happy life so much is easier if one lives somewhere close to nature. Thus moving to village will be a very obvious decision and taking to farming will come as a by product.
5.) Farming as meditation and worship
Many ancient scriptures like The Vedas have considered farming as worship of five elements that make up the universe. Farming use to be the occupation of sages. Many great saints have spent their lives understanding plants and farming. Many are believed to reach the ultimate truth through this worship of five elements in form of farming. So if you are on a spiritual journey, becoming a farmer is one of the greatest service you can do to yourself and your journey. It is no coincidence that most of the Zen masters were farmers.
6.) Ample Leisure Time
A farmer (especially one practicing natural “do nothing” farming) has leisure time much more than even the richest person on this planet. All he has to do is put seeds and take care once in a while. He works as per his wish and nature’s requirements. Because in farming, nature does most of the hard work – the farmer is bestowed with lot of leisure time which she/he can use as she/he pleases.
7.) The only Real work
We all eat food everyday. We cannot survive without food. A farmer produces food for the world. Producing food is the real work. Can we live without gadgets, rockets and TV ? Yes. Without cars, mobiles and shopping malls ? Yes. So, the real work is farming. Rest everything is frankly quite redundant activities. One may argue the importance of a doctor, an astronomer, a teacher or a politician. But they all survive on food and farmer produces it. Farmer is not dependent on anyone else except nature ,while we all depend on farmer.
8.) Working with real stuff
One more dissatisfaction a sane modern man will always have in most of jobs is that he is always working with unreal things. Software coding, a media campaign, designing an electronics chip – though appear real but are quite unreal when we put them in canvass of universe. Entire day, you are sitting in front of computer doing something (it could be stocks, designing, painting, reading, writing, making movie etc..) and you call it work. Now compare it with working with something real such as people or nature. A farmer works with real stuff….air, water, life, plants, insects, people and ultimate forces of universe.
9.) Life of Independence
Who is really independent ? or lets say who can be ? Can a job holder in a city really be independent ? Perhaps not ! But if a farmer wants, he can be totally independent of most of the systems in our world. He works with nature and that’s it. All his basic needs (clothing, shelter, food) are taken care by himself. Ofcourse if a farmer increases his needs , he also becomes dependent on system and other people but if we assume that he keeps his needs in check – a farmer is the person in best position to gain total independence and self sufficiency.
10.) Lifestyle to support inner journey
While one can grow spiritually and take up inner journey anywhere and in any situation, there are few lifestyles more favorable and supportive than others. For e.g. as a cop or politician one might find difficult to take out time for peaceful silent sittings while a writer, singer might have more opportunities for the same. If one is to follow the precepts of most of the religion, living in cities, in our current lifestyles make it very difficult. Simple things like staying calm, not lying, being what you are have become quite difficult in modern civilization. A farmer’s lifestyle (Natural farming) is very supportive of inner journey.
11.) Joy of working with Nature
You sow a seed and then in few days you see it sprout, it grows it front of you slowly from few tender leaves to a plant and soon it gives us a flower, fruit or vegetable. Just the joy of seeing it all is priceless. It’s almost like having your own child and see her grow everyday. When a new flower blossoms or a new spider weaves her web, a bird visits your farm or a grasshopper crosses you- it all brings joy of some other world to your everyday life.
12.) The foundation of Good life – Right sleep, Right Food and Right Labor
Our sages have proposed three pillars as foundation of a good life, especially for a seeker. Right sleep, right food and right labor. Farming gives you all three.
A farmer (especially one practicing natural “do nothing” farming) has leisure time much more than even the richest person on this planet. All he has to do is put seeds and take care once in a while. He works as per his wish and nature’s requirements. Because in farming, nature does most of the hard work – the farmer is bestowed with lot of leisure time which she/he can use as she/he pleases.
7.) The only Real work
We all eat food everyday. We cannot survive without food. A farmer produces food for the world. Producing food is the real work. Can we live without gadgets, rockets and TV ? Yes. Without cars, mobiles and shopping malls ? Yes. So, the real work is farming. Rest everything is frankly quite redundant activities. One may argue the importance of a doctor, an astronomer, a teacher or a politician. But they all survive on food and farmer produces it. Farmer is not dependent on anyone else except nature ,while we all depend on farmer.
8.) Working with real stuff
One more dissatisfaction a sane modern man will always have in most of jobs is that he is always working with unreal things. Software coding, a media campaign, designing an electronics chip – though appear real but are quite unreal when we put them in canvass of universe. Entire day, you are sitting in front of computer doing something (it could be stocks, designing, painting, reading, writing, making movie etc..) and you call it work. Now compare it with working with something real such as people or nature. A farmer works with real stuff….air, water, life, plants, insects, people and ultimate forces of universe.
9.) Life of Independence
Who is really independent ? or lets say who can be ? Can a job holder in a city really be independent ? Perhaps not ! But if a farmer wants, he can be totally independent of most of the systems in our world. He works with nature and that’s it. All his basic needs (clothing, shelter, food) are taken care by himself. Ofcourse if a farmer increases his needs , he also becomes dependent on system and other people but if we assume that he keeps his needs in check – a farmer is the person in best position to gain total independence and self sufficiency.
10.) Lifestyle to support inner journey
While one can grow spiritually and take up inner journey anywhere and in any situation, there are few lifestyles more favorable and supportive than others. For e.g. as a cop or politician one might find difficult to take out time for peaceful silent sittings while a writer, singer might have more opportunities for the same. If one is to follow the precepts of most of the religion, living in cities, in our current lifestyles make it very difficult. Simple things like staying calm, not lying, being what you are have become quite difficult in modern civilization. A farmer’s lifestyle (Natural farming) is very supportive of inner journey.
11.) Joy of working with Nature
You sow a seed and then in few days you see it sprout, it grows it front of you slowly from few tender leaves to a plant and soon it gives us a flower, fruit or vegetable. Just the joy of seeing it all is priceless. It’s almost like having your own child and see her grow everyday. When a new flower blossoms or a new spider weaves her web, a bird visits your farm or a grasshopper crosses you- it all brings joy of some other world to your everyday life.
12.) The foundation of Good life – Right sleep, Right Food and Right Labor
Our sages have proposed three pillars as foundation of a good life, especially for a seeker. Right sleep, right food and right labor. Farming gives you all three.
13.) Being the change you want to see
A lot is being talked about moving to villages, about increasing burden on cities, about increasing energy crisis. By becoming a farmer you immediately reduce your burden on system and on nature. You start becoming the change you want to see in the world.
15.) Non-cooperation with Mainstream
We all are cribbing about mainstream system.We have become critics but haven’t been able to do bring positive change. So, what do you do ? Instead of working against the system, you can chose to work without the system. Farming, over time will make one self sustainable thus you are no longer directly part of the mainstream system. If many of us do it, it’ll weaken the system in multiple way and put a break on it’s momentum.
17.) The Ego Trip in Redefinition of self
Frankly, it has become quite glamorous to turn to farming these days. So, you can always enjoy the ego trip of redefining yourself from an engineer, or a teacher or a manager or whatever to farmer ! Just make sure you don’t allow to take over your sanity.
18.) Message from the universe
If you are reading this blog that means you’ve already been thinking about taking up farming. Do give the message from universe or your gut feeling a chance – it might just turn out to be the only thing you ever wanted. Do remember nothing is a cake walk or a rosy road – but taking up natural farming is one of the best steps any seeker can take.
15.) Non-cooperation with Mainstream
We all are cribbing about mainstream system.We have become critics but haven’t been able to do bring positive change. So, what do you do ? Instead of working against the system, you can chose to work without the system. Farming, over time will make one self sustainable thus you are no longer directly part of the mainstream system. If many of us do it, it’ll weaken the system in multiple way and put a break on it’s momentum.
17.) The Ego Trip in Redefinition of self
Frankly, it has become quite glamorous to turn to farming these days. So, you can always enjoy the ego trip of redefining yourself from an engineer, or a teacher or a manager or whatever to farmer ! Just make sure you don’t allow to take over your sanity.
18.) Message from the universe
If you are reading this blog that means you’ve already been thinking about taking up farming. Do give the message from universe or your gut feeling a chance – it might just turn out to be the only thing you ever wanted. Do remember nothing is a cake walk or a rosy road – but taking up natural farming is one of the best steps any seeker can take.
And …I was called Mad
I chose to follow a different path,
I preferred not to participate in rat race,
I decided to make it on my own………and I was called Mad.
I learnt to listen to my heart, beyond reason,
I allowed myself to feel vulnerable and sensitive,
I let myself be what was emerging in me……and I was called Mad.
I did not listen to what they said,
Instead went in search of my own voice,
I refused to fall into the patterns set before me,
Instead break free from my owns bandages….and I was called Mad.
I put my ego aside, learnt to care for others,
I tried to put the good of all before good of me,
I learnt to raise my voice when I disagreed,
I learnt to agree against my reasons…..and I was called Mad.
Everytime I have tried to be more of me…..I was called Mad.
Everytime I have tried to be more Human …I was called Mad.
……in the hindsight….I am happy…..that I was called Mad.
The Farmer
How lovely is the day of a farmer,
in the open fields, with new blossoms,unknown, stranger friends, here and there,a grasshopper, an ant, a butterfly, a bird, an earthworm, a stray dog,how wonderful is a day at the fields,birds chirp, to wish morning, so you may not miss the sunrise…for a new day, a beautiful day knocks everyday,the silence of afternoon, with songs of winds rustling through the grass,colorful play on the blue sky at sunset,as one fall asleep with the birds, a firefly wishes goodnight,amidst the silence of night, a plop pp of the jump of the frog into the well,How fortunate are those who get company of god in lap of nature.
The Madman's Farm 