Daaji's Travel Diaries - Paris, May 14 to 15, 2024, part 3

2024.36 - Sunday, 23 June 2024

Dear friends,

On the evening of May 14, after two back-to-back sessions in the morning and afternoon, Daaji honored the partnership between Heartfulness and 4per1000 by participating as guest of honor for the event on the Holistic Vision of the Importance of Living Soils for the Restoration of Ecosystems at the Maison de l’Amerique Latine.

Saving Nature to Save Ourselves

Present were a number of experts in the field of soil regeneration, including former Minister of Agriculture of the French Government, Stéphane Le Foll, and Dr. Paul Luu. Daaji started by sharing an anecdote from his life: “After living in New York for some years, doing business as a pharmacist, I returned to my village in India to visit my parents, and what I saw in my native farms was quite shocking. Almost one foot of topsoil had eroded from most of the farms around the village. Imagine, one foot had eroded just in my absence of five years or so, so what must have been going on over the last century? And where does this eroded soil with a lot of nutrients end up? In the oceans.

“How can we make use of these lost nutrients? First, let’s use the water in diluted form and sprinkle it over our crops. It has all the minerals. Second, we can grow a lot of different types of seaweeds. There are medicinal seaweeds, ones with cosmetic uses, nutritional uses, etc. They seem to sequester more carbon than trees. I am sure Dr. Paul Luu will be able to verify this.

“We are also solving a problem we have in India, especially in the northern part, where once a crop is harvested the farmers burn the straw that is left, creating a toxic environment. We have taken up the challenge of converting the straw into charcoal, as bio-char. This charcoal can then be saturated with bio-waste, be it human waste or animal waste, or with certain minerals, or by sprinkling seawater onto it so that it absorbs a lot of minerals, and then it can be used positively. That is one technique.

“I have often wondered about our role as human beings: what can we do, and how can we enhance this partnership with nature? Nature is tremendously benevolent. We have a complementary partnership. Trees give oxygen and we give carbon dioxide. It is mutually benefiting. Not only that, some of you would have studied energy, and how energy vibrates; we can measure how plants emit energy, and we also emit energy.

“There is a cycle in everything in nature. Sometimes we emit and sometimes we absorb energy. The same thing is done by plants. The kind of energy plants absorb is not good for us. The kind of energy they emit is good for us. So there is a partnership. You can try this also. There are so many beautiful trees around here. I have been watching and enjoying the trees in this garden.

“If you ever have a headache, sit with your back supported by a tree trunk and see what happens to you. Your headache will be dissolved. You don't have to take my word for it. Try it and see if it helps you or not.

“What does a tree actually take from us? All these apple and orange and apricot trees, do we give them apple or orange or apricot juice for them to grow? We don’t. They take manure and water and sunlight and give us lovely fruits. The same thing is true of animals—for example, cows and buffaloes. Until they die, they keep giving us milk and sometimes they are killed for their meat. They sacrifice so that our life can go on. They take very little—some grass, some water—and that’s all. That’s the animal kingdom. What about us? We take the best, and what do we give in return? Something to think about. What is our return to Mother Nature? There is not much difference in the spelling of the words ‘plant’ and ‘planet’. You just have to add ‘e’. Without plants, there is no planet Mother Earth.

“We need to preserve water, also; every little drop. You may not have a water problem, but even in France, in the South, where there is less rain, there is a problem. Tremendous scarcities are there. Most cities, like Bangalore in India, people are leaving so they can migrate to another city that has water. Water crises are growing in most countries.

“Our main topic is how to enrich the soil. As well as reforestation, certain techniques have to be applied for farming especially. Every country offers various methods. We have adopted some techniques from the ancient Vedas like jivamritam, which thoroughly enriches the soil. In addition, microbes can be taken from virgin forests, grown in the lab and mixed into cultures. One liter of culture can be added to 200 liters of water and 20 kilograms of brown sugar, and the mixture left for a week. Add three quarters to your crops, and add another 200 liters of water and 20 kilos of brown sugar to the remaining quarter to keep providing healthy microbes to your soil. This process continues on, like maintaining a sourdough or kefir culture.

“There are so many ways of enriching the soil. Another is the way we use charcoal when we do forest plantations. In their rush to plant millions of trees, people don’t always prepare the ground sufficiently. In India, I have seen people plant a million trees but hardly one thousand would survive. They want to prove the numbers. It is better to plant smaller numbers but plant effectively.”

Daaji ended his speech by describing how the Kanha Shanti Vanam rainforests were created: “For each tree, we dig a hole 3 or 4 feet wide and deep, and fill it up with charcoal and absorbing soil, like black clay, or a mixture of compost and bentonite, so that it can retain water, and then we plant the tree. And when you do plant a tree, hug the tree, love the tree, and see the impact. You will see, when you measure it with HeartMath’s device, that the energy emitted by a tree that was hugged and one that was not hugged are different. Trees are like children: children who are loved grow differently from children who are abandoned.” invited all to experience the serenity and calm beauty of the place themselves.” He then invited everyone to visit Kanha to see for themselves how “arid land can become lush, a kind of Disneyworld of peace and harmony and joy; how the human-nature partnership can thrive.”

The Journey of Inner Peace to World Peace

In the next session, on the morning of May 15, Daaji was interviewed on Peace and Education by Mark Milton, founder of Education 4 Peace. Mark started by saying what an honor and inspiration it was to attend the Global Spirituality Mahotsav in March 2024 at Kanha Shanti Vanam, where people from so many traditions came together with the same message of inner peace leading to world peace.

Daaji responded, “Thank you. I also felt it was a miracle and an extraordinary step that happened for the first time, where leaders of almost 500 spiritual organizations, religious organizations, and agnostics, were present. We exchanged ideas on establishing peace, starting with self and expanding it globally. The main thing was how we can only attain global peace with individual peace. And how to attain it? Not just by lecturing people about what peace is; instead, helping them to experience peace. Hence, magical things can happen.

“Once they experience peace, they will want more and more. The same thing happens with children in the field of education, where before school starts and at the end of the school day, they go through relaxation just for three to four minutes. That settles them in class. They become more centered and focused so they can pay attention better. There is a higher level of receptivity during class. So, we have to start with children first and show them the ways of developing intuition, which I'm sure you must have seen at Kanha.”

They also talked about the possibilities of organizing future spiritual events in Europe, creating islands of peace, and Mark asked, “How can we bring Mahotsav to Europe?” He also asked Daaji to speak about youth and sports as a vehicle for peace. Daaji spoke about the importance of sports as a way of creating overall success in life.

While talking about raising children, Daaji said, “When it comes to mentoring youth, there is no better way than to encourage them to look within, seek the answers from inside, from their own heart, from the beginning. When we are young, up to the age of 13 or 14, our senses, our neural pathways, and the right-brain and left-brain coordination is very much intact. Once we cross this age, the disconnection starts. So if you can inspire children to know how to retain this coordination between the right and left brain. I can demonstrate something to all of us here—most of us are 30, 40, 50 plus—and I can prove to you that all of us have lost that right brain-left brain coordination.” Daaji then went on to explain the Brighter Minds program in detail and also how it enhances sporting ability.

Mark asked Daaji, “How to bring more peace in leadership, especially given the diverse cultural, spiritual, and political environment of Europe?” Daaji responded, “I think we have to start early, from school time. Culturally speaking, spiritually speaking, there are some differences, but all human beings, whether from Africa, Europe, North America, or any part of the world, have the potential to grow spiritually. You have an example here. There are people who have been meditating for more than fifty years in this group. Their families continue. The tradition continues. That child who has experienced some peace at school is always going to remember, ‘So and so taught me how to meditate, how to go inside.’ Sooner or later they will try, and when they also have children, they will say, look, my child, ‘You learn this also, I benefited from it.’ They may meditate or they may not meditate because of circumstances, but they will ensure, ‘Tell the children, please do this.’

“So, I am very optimistic about the world. Whether we involve spirituality or not, that’s a side thing. Whether we say God gives us life or not, we have life. Life is going on. Something exists within me; I don't know what it is, but it gives me life. The same thing is with you. That entity that gives you life is with you from birth and it will be part of you until it leaves the body. Whether you call it God or spirit or soul or life force, the name does not matter. Likewise, whether you call it spirituality, godliness, or divinity, it really does not matter. Call it, I am being centered into myself. I am being drowned in love or cosmic love or cosmic consciousness. The name really does not matter. I want to experience that peace. That should be our goal.

“Only when I am at peace within myself, only then can I enjoy the possessions or the wealth that I have. Even when you have wealth, if you are not at peace, you cannot enjoy it, you will never be happy. So peace is the fundamental requirement to become happy. It is the background. Peace is the background with which you can be more creative. A person who is restless and disturbed all the time cannot be creative. If at all, it will be accidental. So peace is fundamental to human existence. For the prosperity of all and moving toward the higher level of evolution, peace is mandatory.”

To know more about Daaji's day-to-day activities, visit - www.daaji.org/glimpses

For our next bulletin, we will bring you the final part of Daaji’s Paris visit and the wisdom he shared at the pre-launch of the Master Yoga Exhibition at UNESCO held on the evening of May 15.