Project Report
| Aug 8, 2016
Construction of New NEEV CIL School
![Bhumi Puja (Land Puja) for starting construction]()
Bhumi Puja (Land Puja) for starting construction
NEEV in the past couple of months has been anything but silent. It has been a buzzing bee hive of activity and volcanic creation. I have been in the eye of the storm which is about heralding a totally new avatar of NEEV - the NEEV Community of Integral Living - our life term project ; one that we had been incubating since the last twenty years.
NEEV CIL (NEEV Community of Integral Living) is the blossoming of the final flower from the seed of NEEV that was planted twenty years ago. A vision that came to me even when I was in college. I conceived of NEEV CIL as a community that would demonstrate a new way of living for humanity - a life without conflict, a life based on Freedom, Love and Beauty. All the attempts we have made in the last twenty years were to birth this community. Like a river, the path of this vision meandered through steep cliffs and mountains, through dark and mysterious forests, through the dusty heat of the plains and now finally it is quivering with the excitement of meeting it's final destiny of meeting the vast ocean of life.
This one sharing is not enough to talk about the breadth, depth and complexity of vision that we are trying to materialize through NEEV CIL. Honestly I do not know where to begin and where to end. But it is certain that I have to tell the story. So I am just committing my pen to paper and let the head, heart and hands do the dance. Please forgive me if you notice enormous gaps in my mail today. I have to cover a large distance in a space of few words and pictures so that I do not bore you all with a long, obfuscated story. But I promise that the updates that shall follow would fill up the bones, muscles and skin to the skeleton I shall present to you today.
Basically in the past few months I have been busy in the following endeavours
1. Formation of NEEV Community of Integral Living
2. Restructuring NEEV Vidyalaya to reflect Integral Education - an education which balances the activities of Head, Heart and Hands without introducing any hierarchy in them
3. Buying Land and starting construction of NEEV CIL School in Hurlung Village.
The Story of NEEV CIL (NEEV Community of Integral Living) [Paying no particular heed to the sequence in which events occurred and with enormous gaps]
With the help and support of all of you and with significant support of one of our friends we have purchased 5000 sq. ft of land in Village Hurlung, a few paces away from where the present NEEV Herbal Cosmetics Unit exists.
The purpose of purchasing this land is to construct NEEV CIL School. The central features of NEEV CIL School are
* Central vision of school is to foster the following in children
Self Inquiry - to lead a life of freedom, love and beauty - to find out the significance of life, it's vastness, it's majestic splendour, it's eternal beauty or as our ancients put is - to find eternal existence, consciousness and bliss (
sat-chit-ananda) rather than consigning oneself to be unquestioning slaves of a vast techno-economic complex that reduces human living to numbers and statistics. To lead a life that discovers the immeasurable rather than living a life that is pettily tethered to the world of measurement and comparison
Farming - To revive the glorious culture of farming, a way of life lived close to nature and in harmony with it. To revive the profound and ancient village culture that produced the greatest sages, the greatest literature, the greatest art and crafts, the greatest builders of technology which did not conflict with nature. That culture which produced the Vedas and the Upanishads, the Ramayana, Mahabharata and the Bhagavad Gita and innumerable other gems of human wisdom. Wisdom which remains perennial sources for man's inquiry into truth. It is only in a life lived close to nature that man discovers the true meaning and joy of existence. It is about bringing back the dignity to man's most noble and grand profession - farming.
Handicrafts - To live a life of beauty not as consumers but as producers, producing handicrafts to meet our daily requirements replete with skill, imagination and aesthetic delight but at the same time not by plundering and despoiling nature, the way the modern technological world does. It is not only about crafts but also about dance and music, building and technology. But not the ones which are for mere sensual delight. Instead all handicraft is about bringing the joys of divine in daily life. It is about celebrating the divine rather than a rabid indulgence in sense pleasures. Pleasure is not shunned but raised to the level of the divine. The divine life is not found in ascetism but in the complete acceptance of every aspect of life raised to the level of the spirit.
Twenty years ago, together we saw a dream to start a community that would create a new way of living, dissatisfied with the materialistic, technological and fragmented world that humanity finds itself in today. Several times, several people came, joined and left. Both of us too went through the clash of individuals, through the fire and the brimstone. However the vision always prevailed. And this is where it finds a culmination as well as a new beginning today........
The Bhumi Puja for NEEV CIL School
Bhumi Puja (Land Puja) for starting construction of NEEV CIL School
Seen in the photograph in the front row are my parents and my daughter Harshal (student of Std. 1o NEEV Vidyalaya)
In the back row are the five founding members of NEEV CIL Community (from left to right) - Anjali, Simi, Sourin, Suraj and Babu. Students who have passed Std. 10 from NEEV Vidyalaya and who have devoted their lives to the formation of NEEV Community. (Self Inquiry, Education, Farming and Handicrafts)
Some other photos of the Bhumi Puja
The physical features of NEEV CIL School is that it will be made of mud plastered walls and tiled roofs instead of cement and concrete bearing in mind that it's ecological footprint has to be as less as possible. Only the school office which would house the computers would be made of cement.
The school would not have more than 50 to 75 students from Kindergarten to Std. 10. The mission of the school rather than the acquisition of degrees is more important. The students shall be the children of Hurlung and surrounding villages.
Though we have been able to procure the land and have funds for half of the construction we still have to raise about Rs. 15 lakhs to finish all the construction we have planned. I would be grateful to all our friends and supporters to help us raise this amount and create a truly unique school in the world.
![Photo of Shikha and Anurag in Hurlung Village]()
Photo of Shikha and Anurag in Hurlung Village
![Photograph of 5000 sq. ft of land purchased]()
Photograph of 5000 sq. ft of land purchased
![Bhumi Puja (Land Puja) for starting construction]()
Bhumi Puja (Land Puja) for starting construction
![Land Map made by the Local Amin]()
Land Map made by the Local Amin
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