Navadarshanam

Navadarshanam is the second of the two communities I'll be staying at before my classes in Bangalore start. 

In 1990, a group of like-minded professionals came together and bought a large piece of land 50km south of Bangalore.   During their studies, they realized that all of society was caught in a "dangerous swirling current" of a materialistic lifestyle that is unhealthy both for the environment and for the inner health of individuals. 

Their main mission of starting Navadarshanam is to maximize inner growth while minimizing material inputs, and to explore alternatives to the modern way of living.  Everyone there lives without dependence on the electric grid, grows their own food in a communal organic garden, and lives in thatched-roof huts right in the middle of nature.

Here's the flyer for the Permaculture course that I'll be taking during my time there:

What's awesome about me going here is that the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy at the University of Delaware worked with them a couple of years ago to install some renewable energy devices, that they now use to get electricity.  My professor and the head of the CEEP department, Dr. Byrne, worked with the residents there to get windmill parts from China, then install everything on their property. 

Here's their website if you wanna learn more about Navadarshanam's philosophies:

www.navadarshanam.org/