Once upon a time... there was a small village of 50 inhabitants -- at the beginning of the last century, a thousand people lived in this territory -- perched above a valley of the Alps of Haute Provence. The highest mountain of the region (about 2000 metres high) dominates a cirque where Blieux nestles at 1000 metres, the last stage before transhumance. A simple landscape where the mediterranean vegetation takes on an appearance of highland, softened by pockets of cultivation and meadows that are ready to be mowed at the bottom of the valley where flows the Asse of Blieux. And then the steep slopes of Marnes become greyer as you go further -- robines, as they are called locally -- sculpted by erosion of running water. These robines never become green; summer or winter, they retain a worn off grey due to the sterile soil.

At the base of a mountain track that leads to Majastres, a house set in thirty hectares of land owned by a couple who are into farming and breeding: mohair goat rearing, with an impeccable kitchen garden whose straight and neat paths are planted with grass, plenty of hives, some hen in the big orchard, and a permanent battle is waged against the elements to rehabilitate the eroded slopes of this territory. It is from this landscape, shaped by a giant’s hands with the romantic charm of high mountain crests, lit by the sunlight of Haute Provence, seen everyday by this couple that the project of "Fertile Land" was born.

What started off as a family project now takes the form of a collective one. We are exploring the possibility of gradually constituting a group of individuals having common goals, a similar philosophy of life, who have come to settle down in Blieux so that their energies, means at all levels, competence, ideas and ideals can be put together to make headway in this global project. The long term plan is to repopulate the land of Chaudoul by offering a quality of life defined by all those (families and individuals) who have opted to be in this project, since they are as much participants as active architects of this project.

A multi-faceted project

• At the outset the project is a means to make a livelihood: being an agriculturist and breeder; a ‘farmer’ in the true sense of the word. By returning to the soil, we want to materialise the idea of "living in the country" given our roots in a particular land. Through our farming practices, we want to participate by working out an alternate development model.

• The second project was the result of our immediate participation in our environment: the region of Haute Provence is poor, constituted of sensitive and depleted soil. We do not approve of only exploiting a region without bringing it any returns, without improving it. We believe that the primary function of a farmer is to protect the environment, conserve and create a landscape, to develop a piece of land...

• The creation of the ecosystem "Pond" in 1992 was the beginning of the cultural project (project 3). Indeed, the transformation of an insignificant place into an attractive spot, the arrangement of its surroundings into an original site, the lay out of the slopes according to its specificity, all this went to show that a purely functional (water reserve, fish breeding) place at the outset, could become a charming and magical location.

• The desire to share came from our sensitivity, our specific competence, and our personal interest in education and communication. This took the form of project 4: with the children, men and women of tomorrow; with the concerned adults of today.

J.P. Locatelli, C. Blanc Locatelli, D. Sarkari
[Address: 04330 - Blieux (France)]

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Should one fear happiness? Or rather, should one fear being well in life?

Faced with the increasing problems of a society that is becoming more and more complex, faced with the crisis, faced with insecurity which is not restricted to suburb dwellers, but also with a life whose problems and solutions are more and more incomprehensible and inaccessible, faced with a quality of life and social relations that need to be desired, it seems natural and logical to look for a refuge, to create a small paradise.

Perhaps one might consider two ways of creating a paradise for oneself. It could be a paradise for personal use, a closed fortress, a deserted island, a selfish haven. Expression of anguish, manifestation of fear, negation of the others, we are among ourselves and no admission: private paradise. It can also be a paradise without boundaries, a space that is not closed, perceptible by everyone, without an entry or exit. A place of work or any activity, but also of thought and reflection, a space of innermost recess, but also of opening and expression. Apparently, a unique place, something rare.

At this stage of definition, the term paradise seems inappropriate: perhaps it will be better to look for a substitute. If we keep the context of hostility in mind, where the problem is right at the beginning, should we not prefer the term oasis?

Oasis of security in a world of danger.
Oasis of economic prosperity in a society of widespread poverty.
Oasis of diversity of the living in a standardised environment

But also:

Oasis of beauty amidst so much ugliness.
Oasis of tranquillity and harmony in a world of noise and fury.

Very well. But is that all? Or better still, because man is a conscious being "in the making":

Oasis of poverty in a world of shameful abundance.
Oasis of friendliness in a society of indifference.
Oasis of resistance in a world of visible and invisible oppression.
Oasis of uniqueness in a society of uniformity.

As we can see it, it is a question of subtleties and particularities. What do we want?

Jean Pierre Locatelli
(in ‘Alternatives Rurales’, 1996)

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It is not easy to write about the Gurukula experience, as it is like trying to describe a river - you can describe the banks, the rocks, the falls, but the river, it flows, on ever the same, ever different. So, in order to convey the experience, one has to talk about the experience.

The "Gurukula Experience", in its essence, has been known from the earliest days of human aspiration. The silent, youthful teacher seated under a banyan tree, surrounded by students who are old, is an idiom which is still very alive in Eastern cultural traditions. The old disciples represent the age-old questions of humanity while the silent youth stands for the newness of the answers when they arise as well as the nature of the teaching, which transcends words. Gurus, as representatives and exemplars of the perennial wisdom of life have always lived in every time and clime, even as they do now.

Wisdom refers to our finalised knowledge, thoughts and feelings understood in living and dynamic terms. A Guru revalues and restates perennial wisdom to answer the need of his/her time. The wisdom heritage of humanity has always been upheld by Gurus -- World Teachers -- since their lives and teachings are constantly reaffirming universal core values of life, such as love and kindness, equality and justice, in their particular expressions in the daily life of people. Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu, Gautama Buddha, Mahavira, Jesus Christ, the Prophet Mohammed are some of the name of such illustrious teachers we have had. It is indeed a great pity that we have lost the names and traditions of the numerous women teachers, even though it is mostly through the grandmothers that human wisdom has been preserved.

Narayana Guru, (1854-1928) who inspired the founding of the Gurukula was a wisdom teacher belonging to such a line of Gurus. He emphasised the need to transcend parochialisms of all kinds -- whether in the name of caste or race, language, sex or faith. This was not to be reached through any homogenisation, but through recognising the underlying unity of human aspiration. His teachings could be summarised in the dictum "Humanity is of one Caste, one faith and one Goal".

His disciple-successor, Nataraja Guru, founded the Narayana Gurukula Foundation, as an educational institute where the ideals of self-realisation as well as world-citizenship can be actualised through an open and dynamic way of plain living and high thinking. While considering all religious/spiritual traditions as the common heritage of all humanity, it also keeps neutral between belief and scepticism, as well as between all such bipolarities. Such a way of seeing "both together" instead of "either/or " is known as yoga in India. Yoga means union -- union of the wave with the ocean. Nataraja Guru saw the Gurukulas as "islands of neutrality in an ocean of insanity". He also called it ‘Narayana Gurukula Unlimited’, meaning the liability of each to all and all to each is unlimited. He saw the whole world as a Gurukula.

This is a general background of the Gurukula. The place in Bangalore where we live is one of the many centres of the Gurukula. There are 16 others in India and a few in other parts of the world. Margaret & I have been living here for the last 27 years. We met in the Gurukula as Nataraja Guru's students and were married 25 years ago. We have 4 children aged between 24 and 12 -- three girls and a boy. The eldest, Hypatia Anasuya has just qualified as an Ayurvedic doctor. The other 3 are in school and colleges. As far as I know, they are the only children in their schools whose caste and religion is ‘Humanity’.

Some incidents may be cited which may help understand the role of the Gurukula today:

Last year a young man and woman came to us. They were from Kerala -- the man a Muslim, the woman a Christian. Both were from educated, wealthy upper middle class families, and very much in love with each other. The families were both very much against them having anything to do with each other. The young couple had waited for a number of years, hoping the families would come to better senses. Not only did that not happen, the woman was locked up in her own house and frantic efforts were on to get her married off to someone, anyone, as long as he was a Christian. The man's family, not to be outdone, was threatening to murder him if he did not give her up. Somehow they managed to run away together and reached Bangalore where they had a few friends. They went to many churches, mosques and temples, wanting to get married. They wanted a religious ceremony, but nobody would get them married unless one or both of them were converted to a particular religion. They did not want this; neither were they willing to do with a registered (civil) marriage. Finally, some friends brought them to us. After talking to them, we agreed to get them married. We had a ceremony where prayers from the Koran, the Bible and the Vedas were recited by all. We issued them a certificate as well, recognising their love and devotion to each other. They are now living in their own hometown, the families slowly becoming open to them.

More near, in a village 4 kms away from us, there is a young mother and father with 2 sons. The father is an "untouchable" while the mother is "high caste". We are very thrilled at such efforts, however minuscule they may be, that show us that we need not give up home, that it is possible to transform lives of individuals while we wait for 'total' or 'global' revolutions to change the human but for the better.

I also remember receiving a postcard from someone who had visited us 12 years before. The card had only one line written on it. "The seed has sprouted", which reminds me of the sower of seeds in the parable of Jesus.

These are a few examples cited in the hope that they will reflect some aspects of the Gurukula. But they remain incomplete, as the whole way of life, in each of its moments, days, is unique and different; may be the only constant is the intensity of purpose to fulfil each moment. We are also involved in organic/natural farming, reforestation efforts as part of the spiritual discipline we try to live. Agriculture, thus practised is an easy way of gaining insight into how all life is interdependent, and grows together.

The numerous friends, who visit the Gurukula, from different parts of the world, keep in touch regularly, making for an ever-growing network. The Gurukula is also associating with Pipal Tree, an NGO in Bangalore City on communal conflict resolution in holding training workshops and other awareness programmes. The Gurukula is also in close contact with some 20 villages around. We are invited for weddings and other community events and often are able to raise some questions at least about their age-old sustainable ways that are being mercilessly eroded by the all-pervasive consumerist 'development' models.

We also seek to revitalise liberative elements in the spiritual traditions of the people and are involved in translating into and from Kannada, Malayalam, Sanskrit and English, different indigenous poetic expressions. A translation of 200 poems of the 12th century Kannada poetess, Akka Mahadevi, is ready for publication.

In the word Gurukula, kula means family. So the Gurukula is a wisdom family. It excludes no one, no thing. Right now, the core family here consists of 6 humans, 11 cats, 3 cows, 1 dog, and numerous trees, lots of butterflies, lots of birds, snakes, mongooses and jackals. Talking of birds, I am reminded of the beginning of a poem of wisdom, 2500 years old. The student asks the teacher, "Is it through contemplation or through action that one attains liberation?" The Guru answers, "Verily, my dear, just as a bird soars up to the heavens on both its wings, it is through contemplation and action together that one attains liberation".

Vinaya Chaitanya

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