Ananda Nagar, Rarh, India
Ananda Nagar is a unique rural development project. Located in one of the poorest and most backward areas of India, Purulia district in West Bengal, the area around Ananda Nagar is inhabited by indigent tribal villagers and exemplifies most of the problems which rural people face: lack of education and literacy, chronic disease especially leprosy, widespread nutrition verging on starvation, total absence of any source of energy life electricity, non-productive agriculture on arid and non-irrigated lands, and lack of any type of industrial development. The projects of Ananda Nagar are designed to address all of these challenges and transform a depressed area into a vibrant example of sustainable development.
Homeopathic Clinic
As I looked over his shoulder, he wrote the name of the patient in the daily log in sequential order. This patient’s number was 539,916. That’s right: five hundred thirty nine thousand, nine hundred sixteen. The next patient (number 539,917) was sitting on the bench to the left, with a number of other patients of all ages.
The daily log book series in which he was writing was begun the day this clinic was started by a previous doctor in 1985 with patient number 1. And since he started working in this clinic in 1990, every subsequent patient has been seen by this one man who works seven days a week as an unpaid volunteer. And this is but one of three clinics that he operates.
The man is Dada Aksayananda. He is called Dadaji (“respected brother”) by his patients. He sits daily in his saffron turban and monk’s robes counseling patients, conducting exams (usually in the open, occasionally behind a curtain), diagnosing illnesses and prescribing remedies.
He works two shifts a day, from mid-morning to afternoon and then again in the evening until the very last patient has been seen (as long as it takes, irregardless of the hour).
He is a yogic monk of Ananda Marga and for monks of his order there is no sequestered monastery where they live; instead the world is their monastery and their practice (outside of their personal meditation and discipline) is to serve humanity.
Dadaji became a monk as a young man in 1965, deciding to forgo the rewards of family life and dedicate his life to the welfare of his larger human family.
Dadaji had some background in homeopathic studies prior to becoming a monk, but was surprised when, in 1967, his guru instructed him to sit for the exam to become a certified homeopath. Dadaji was one of the only examinees to pass the exam in that sitting.
Since that time he has practiced homeopathy on a service basis; sometimes part-time in addition to his duties running a school or children’s home; sometimes full-time as he has done since 1990.
The clinic is the Abha Seva Sadhan in the Tiljala district of Kolkata, India. Many medical clinics run by Ananda Marga, whether allopathic or homeopathic, use the same name.
Prior to Dadaji’s start at this clinic, it had irregular hours and minimal patients. When he started in 1990, the subsequent regular hours and good results soon made the clinic a community success.
In fact, in the early days his success was almost the clinic’s undoing. Local corrupt government officials, jealous of the clinic’s popularity, sponsored a competing free clinic down the street with the apparent intent of closing Dadaji’s clinic.
Dadaji’s attitude was, “If they want to serve humanity, let them do so. There are a great many people who need help.” He knew, however, that with such impure motives it was unlikely the other free clinic would continue. Sure enough, as the months passed the patients continued to line up at his door and the other clinic quietly closed its doors.
Dadaji sits in the one-room clinic at a small wooden table. In front of him is a box with hundreds of small vials containing liquid homeopathic dilutions. An assistant stands at his side to medicate vials of blank pellets and dispense them to the patients at Dadaji’s instruction. The back wall is covered with larger stock bottles of homeopathic dilutions, mother tinctures and some herbal salves.
Patients enter the room in the rear and wait on wooden benches until their turn comes. Overflow patients wait outside the door.
There is minimal privacy. Most problems are discussed and examined openly in full view. I notice that in India there is a different sense of privacy and personal space and this arrangement was comfortable for the patients.
Most exams consist of looking at a rash, in a throat, listening to lungs or heart, or maybe checking blood pressure. Both the history and exam take little time and Dadaji prescribes a remedy.
In fact I talked to a few Americans, who, down with the flu or “Kolkata cough”, visited Dadaji for a remedy. More than one said that Dadaji merely looked at them and started packaging their remedy before they even stated their symptoms! They reported dramatic improvement from the prescription.
Dadaji says that it costs the clinic one and a half rupees (about 7 cents) to dispense a bottle of remedy. They ask a one-rupee (about 5 cent) donation for each prescription to help offset this cost, but obviously the clinic runs at a deficit.
This deficit is met by free will donations from well-wishers. I personally have carried donations to a number of projects in India (clinics, children’s homes, schools) and find that donors appreciate that 100% of their donation goes to the project (and none to organizational overhead) and will be carrying donations to this project on a future trip.
I asked Dadaji if he had any words of advice or encouragement to the modern student of homeopathy. He said, “Tell them that homeopathy can be used to cure any disease.”
After such a lifetime of service and experience (at least 650,000 patient consultations), who can argue?
AMURT Relief at Ananda Nagar
Dada Ramananda continues to hold AMURT medical, mass feeding and clothe distribution programmes at Ananda Nagar, West Bengal, on a regular basis.
Albania
Our primary school in Tirana continues under the supervision of local margiis.
Portugal
In August 2014 an incredible group of 53 volunteers repeated an adventure that started in 1998, selling vegetarian food at music festivals in Portugal: Andanças Festival and simultaneously at the Boom Festival. Funds were raised for the development of Ananda Kalyani Master Unit in Portugal, plus donations to other AMURT/AMURTEL social service projects around the world.
Prout Convention
In the beautiful Danish countryside, 170 people attended the 2014 Global Prout Convention at Ananda Gaorii Master Unit, Vig, Denmark.
Jaya Brekke opened the conference, as she has for several years, with a report on the impact of austerity measures in Greece, Spain and the Ukraine and resistance movements to them, screening the documentary she made, Future Suspended. Dr. Ed McKenna, Professor of Economics at Connecticut College in USA, gave three inspiring classes: Spirituality and Finance, Causes of the Economic Crisis, and The Way Forward. A video about the movement Future Tasmania ended with a videoconference interview of Liila Hass. Dada Madhuvidyananda gave a talk about sadvipras and a class about the Prout political party he has started in Germany. Ramesh Bjonnes and Govinda gave classes about four interconnected crises: finance, inequality, resources and the environment. Satya Tanner organized duty co-ops and presented Organizing Effective Teams. Hiranmaya from USA gave a workshop on Integrating Prout with Local Food Movements. Divyajyoti presented The History and Potential of a Nordic Union. Frands Frydendal and Martin Wozniak gave workshops on Sociocratic Decision-Making and The Dragon Dreaming Method. Candela Vargas gave a workshop on non-violent communication.
The most inspiring part of the conference was amazing news reports about Prout work around the world. Dada Vandanananda gave news of 14 active samaj movements in India. Didi Ananda Devapriya and Diipanii told about the inspiring work they are doing with the European Roma Movement and the NGO community in Romania. The Prout Research Institute of Portugal and the PROUTugal Movement are doing great work. Other great news came from Prout work in Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Italy, UK, Ireland and Germany. Dada Maheshvarananda gave a workshop, Strategy Ideas for Implementing Prout and news about the Prout Research Institute of Venezuela.
This interview on Prout was shot at the conference:
Meanwhile, Prout Blocks are being established all around the world. This one in Manchester!
Prout presence at Bilderberg 2014:
Ireland
Dada Maheshvarananda met President Michael D. Higgins of Ireland at Áras an
Uachtaráin, the president’s official residence, in Dublin on 12 February, after
President Higgins read Dada’s book After Capitalism and invited him to meet.
Here’s Dada’s account of the meeting:
The military attache who showed us into the beautiful historic reception
room set up with tea and coffee explained where I should stand and greet
the president when he entered. When Niall asked him how long the meeting
would last he said, “That completely depends on the president, but I would
expect between 10-20 minutes.” In fact the meeting lasted almost an hour.
The president had invited Ruairí McKiernan, a young social entrepreneur
and self-described community troublemaker who had organized the Dalai
Lama’s visit to Ireland, to attend. After the photos were taken, the
president asked the reception assistants to bring orange juice for me, and
his attache to bring in his Prout books. The copy of After Capitalism that
Niall had mailed him had several book markers.
He said, “I’ve marked up my copy a lot. I know Marcus Arruda who wrote the
preface. We met during the Earth Summit in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro when
I was minister for the environment. We made a documentary together.”
President Higgins repeated several times, “This book is remarkable. It
needs wide circulation.” He expressed his gratitude to “this wonderful
person, Niall,” who had sent it to him. He explained that he had tried to
find Niall’s telephone but it wasn’t listed, so I joked that he wasn’t as
“efficient” as the NSA. Then he suddenly asked Niall, “Why haven’t you
made this book available to the public?” The president then suggested
various publishers and trade union leaders that we should approach this
week while I am here in Ireland.
The president opened his copy of the book and read to us one paragraph:
“The International Monetary Fund in 2009 estimated the total value of the
world’s economy to be US$70.21 trillion. And yet the total world
derivatives market in the second half of 2009 has been estimated at about
US$615 trillion, more than eight times the size of the entire global
economy!” And now it is even more than that, he emphasized.
He felt the second Prout book that Niall had sent him, Principles of a
Balanced Economy by Roar Bjonnes, is also very good but it’s more a
handbook for cooperativists.
He talked about the discourse on language, how it has been subverted by
the neo-liberal agenda. He said that the media throughout Europe now talks
about “the tax burden” as though it should be avoided completely, not that
it is part of our social responsibility. He asked me, how to change the
discourse of institutions? How to get this into the discourse?
He recounted his experiences in Nicaragua and El Salvador with international
human rights delegations. He said he knew one woman who was killed. He later
stood with the woman’s grandmother at the Monument to Memory and Truth in
El Salvador that has the names of 47,000 people who lost their lives during the
Salvadoran Civil War (1979-1992). Sadly, he said, the children who were
refugees always made drawings of helicopters.
He said at the World Economic Forum that takes place each year in Davos,
Switzerland, all the people “have ashes in their mouths.” The politicians
keep going, but they keep mouthing the same thing because they haven’t got
any vision.
I gave President Higgins a copy of Notes and Recommendations on the Irish
Economy by the Institute for New Economic Futures (INEF). I explained
that seven Proutist economists in different countries had contributed to
this 13-page proposal on how to make Ireland more self-reliant and resilient
to global financial crises. That 400,000 Irish, mostly young people, have left
the country since the 2008 crisis looking for work in other countries is a tragedy.
He feels there is a great misunderstanding in Europe about Latin America.
He talked about the different religions that depend on “the book” and
about the fatalism of India. I agreed that there are dogmas in both the
West and the East that are dogmatic and divisive, and how spirituality, on
the other hand, is all-inclusive.
He was very impressed about Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar and said, “Anyone who
can fast for five years on only two cups of yoghurt a day must be very
strong!”
After a pleasant hour of charming conversation, President Higgins graciously
apologized for taking so much of my time. When we said farewell, he embraced
me.
Also in Ireland, the Sunrise Farm has turned into a hive of activity:
