Hyderabad, Jan 12 (FN Agency) A three-day Agro Youth Summit organised by Heartfulness Education Trust (HET) in association with the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR), began at Kanha Shanti Vanam – the Headquarters of Heartfulness, outskirts of the city on Thursday. The summit , which will conclude on January 14 ,was inaugurated by ICAR Deputy Director General R C Agarwal and Kamlesh Patel ‘Daaji’, Guide of Heartfulness Meditation Worldwide. The summit that coincides with the National Youth Day and also the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda intends at empowering the youth of the country studying agriculture with knowledge transfer and technical know-how while keeping meditative minds on the heart of agricultural advancements. Speaking on the inauguration, Agarwal said, in August 2022, HET and ICAR signed an MoU and since then 10000 students from 50 universities have benefited and universities have incorporated their modules. Students have shown a great change in their mindset. Students are very happy undergoing this meditation and wanted to come to the campus.
Agriculture is one of the backbones of our country. Students have to focus on their inner strength and self-realisation that comes from meditation. About 300 entrepreneurs have developed from these graduates. We have already established incubation centres and 900 experiential learning centres in our universities with all the facilities accessible to every student, he said. Students have now developed a vision for agriculture and can understand Daaji’s vision of making the country self-sufficient. We can easily meet the demands by growing more from less resources (amid climate change, water pollution, lesser land etc), he said. Agriculture alone will save us in case of any calamity such as another covid or a lockdown, he said we have got good progress on students turning entrepreneurs and creating agro jobs. Implementing ideas is necessary which can only be achieved through dhyan and meditation.
We have such potential today that we can feed another 30-40 countries, said Agarwal. He said out 1kg of rice cost 3000 liters of water. We waste much hidden water. We waste 40 percent of 340 million grains annually. According to FAO – 80 percent biodiversity is already lost, he said. Thankfully, we have Heartfulness education training students and showing them how to adopt new technology making the country great through self-reliance, he added. Kamlesh said, “Agriculture goes hand in hand with spirituality only a farmer can surrender to nature absolutely. Sleep in the farm and meditate in your farm one night and see what happens. When you do this prayerfully vs. doing like a laborer. With a positive attitude the entire – smile and work gives productive work. Farmers can think that they are wasting time. If entrepreneurs have no enthusiasm, then people who work with you will also not have enthusiasm, he said Honor your work, respect and worship your work. Vivekananda said people of my country need food, not God. Balance and enrich lives, prosper, without any limits in one direction in material world, he added.