Yatras

The Issue  of Vivekananda Kendra Patrika on ‘Yatras' is a compilation of articles, essays, comments, slokas, Vedic, Upanishadic and Puranic quotations regarding the great Saadhana of pilgrimage. The Veda says that when a man is lying down, it is Kali Yuga, when a man is sitting, it is Treta Yuga, when a man is standing, it is Dwapara Yuga, and when a man is walking, it is Satya Yuga. Therefore, the Upanishads and the Vedas glorify all human movements in search of the great world of spirituality. “Charaiveti, Charaiveti” is a great Vedic Mantra. The purpose behind the great spiritual journey is this. Man is endowed with all spiritual qualities. “Tattvamasi”, says the Samaveda - You are That, the Ultimate Reality. The Samaveda says, look at the huge prapancha, the world outside in a miniature form encrypted in your heart inside. This is what we call as the Pindanda Aikya. The individual goes around the world, to find himself in the world outside. Therefore, pilgrimage is a form of self-search, seeking the inside out, and the outside in.

Why does a man go on a pilgrimage when the Ultimate Paramatman which he searches is within his own heart? The reason is, man cannot listen to himself. The ear cannot hear itself. The tongue cannot taste itself. The eye cannot see itself. In order to enable these senses, to identify the objects of the senses, these are placed in front of him as symbols. The great Rishis like saint Madusudhana Saraswathi, say, “Baktyatartham, Kalpitham, Dwaitham, Advaithat api Sundaram”. Though the Ultimate Paramatman is within you, in order to enable the senses to see Him, the mind, the intellect and the praana, we need to search for Him/ the Ultimate. It is positioned as an object.

The places of pilgrimage are sanctified by the visits of the great Rishis of the Vedas, the Puranic saints and avataara purushas, and later-day great saints. So, the pilgrim centers that a saadhaka seeks to visit are thrice-blessed either in the Vedas, the Puranas or by the avataara purushas. Every pilgrim center finds some kind of glorification in the Puranas, Vedas or in the Upanishadic scriptures. The Upanishads themselves talk about Benaras (Kashi) as the avimukta kshetra. The Puranas describe in great detail, the places of birth of avataara purushas like Ayodhya, Mathura, and the places where the Paramatman in the form of Shiva, Rudra stays; for example, Kashi, Haradwar and Ujjain. These places are the locations where God is equally, easily found. This kind of pilgrimage has been the age-old practice in India.

Perhaps, the Saadhana of spiritual journey is as old as Bharat itself. The (Tamil) Sangam poetry talks about a man going in search of God, in search of his love, a man going out for earning money, or for a war, or delivering a political message. To carry man from place to place, different yanas, the different vehicles, are also described in our scriptures. From the Rigvedic period downwards, the great ship-building industry was flourishing in India enabling man to go to different places. The carts, the elephants, the horses are also described on which man could ride and go to different places. Palkhis (palanquins) are also mentioned in the Shaastras, carrying saints and those who cannot walk. Even today pilgrims going to Amarnath or Sabarimala are being carried there by paid employees who can carry the old and disabled people up to the temple precincts. The facility of vaahanas, development of vehicles for carrying the needy pilgrims has been a great facet of development in Indian society. Once, a minister of tourism and pilgrimage development in the Delhi Govt. told us that 90% of the tourism out of which Delhi Govt earns money is only through spiritual tourism. For the Hindus, tourism means going on a pilgrimage, a Teerthasthaana or a temple. Ordinary site-seeing has grown a little now-a-days, perhaps, as a result of further developments and modern facilities.

Then, because of the variety of experiences, tremendous amount of literature has grown around the concept of pilgrimage. For example, Vivekananda Kendra Patrika brought out a volume years ago, titled ‘The Pilgrim Centers of India’. About each temple, there are books about how the pilgrim centers attract yatris. Coming to Itihasas, Rama’s great pilgrimage, from Ayodhya to Mithila to marry Sita and then coming back to Ayodhya, and then going to Lanka to kill Ravana was the very purpose of his Avataara. Then, how Rama journeyed from Ayodhya to Srilanka and how he returned by Pushpaka Vimana back to his capital Ayodhya have all been described in great detail. Maps have been produced and descriptions were made on what are the important places that Rama visited while going from Ayodhya to Mithila, Mithila to Ayodhya, Ayodhya to Srilanka, and Srilanka to Ayodhya again. That gives an idea of the geographic extent of India in those times. Following in the footsteps of Sri Rama, the Pancha Pandavas also went on pilgrimage. Similarly, in the Mahabharata, the Pancha Pandavas go on pilgrimage on two occasions. When they are in the Vanavaasa tenure, one of the Panchapandavas lives with Draupadi and the other four brothers go out as pilgrims. These pilgrimages are described in great detail. Then, Dharmaputra, Bheema, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva have established a number of temples, from Gokarnam to Kedarnath to Kanyakumari. The pilgrim centers where the Pancha Pandavas have established Shivalingas, have been described in the Puraanas, and more in the Sthala-puraanas. When Dharmaputra was to be coronated as Chakravarti, he performed Rajasuya Yajna. Then, the four Pandavas, Bheema, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva branched out to different parts of India, to earn money and collect wealth and tributes from the titular kings for the proposed Rajasuya Yajna of Dharmaputra. This also has been described in detail in the Mahabharata. All the travelogues make up a great wealth of pilgrim(age) literature. Then, following these sanctified routes, the great Rishis wandered from place to place preaching the message of Sanatana Dharma.

For example, in the year 2025 Jan. 14^th to Feb. 26^th there is going to be / there was a Mahakumbh in Prayag. Mahakumbh occurs once in 144 years. What happens when the Mahakumbh takes place? The great Rishis and saints who perform tapasya in the Himalayas, always stay in very great heights where snow does not melt; they come down once in twelve years, reach Prayag and stay in great tents and huge camps. And then pilgrims from all over the country reach Prayag. There, for 45 days, the kalpavasis, the pilgrims who come to Prayag, stay and get instructions on different aspects of Sanatana Dharma from the Himalayan saints. It will be about Vedas, it can be about spiritual saadhana, it can be about Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Raja Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, it can be about different Shaastras, different types of Pranayama, herbal treatments, Ayurveda, grammar and so many other topics. Every subject, which the Vedas cover is discussed by the Himalayan saints for the benefit of the pilgrims who gather in Prayag from all over the country and all over the world. This is a kind of spiritual parliament. Such spiritual parliaments are being held once in every twelve years at Prayagraj. Countless number of pilgrims return home from the Mela refreshed and spiritually rejuvenated.

In the Kumbakonam Mahamakam, in the Tamil month of Maasi in the Maka Nakshatra (Feb-Mar.), pilgrims come and take bath where all the saptateerthas converge. “Gangecha Yamunechaiva Godavari Saraswati Narmade Sindhu Cauveri jalesmin sannidhim kuru”. All the teerthas conjoin at the Mahamakam temple pond and people take a dip there. And similarly, in the Rivers Tamiraparani, Godavari, Krishna, Cauvery, and Narmada, in every 144 years a Pushkara (holy assembly) is held. These are very sacred days even for the rivers themselves. People from all over the world come there to take bath in the rivers, and they get purified. Therefore, pilgrimage made to get purified of one’s past sins, or spiritually elevated, is a very very important saadhana for any common man of Hindu faith.

There is a Puranic story. Once, Parvati asked Shiva, “Is it true that when a man takes bath in Ganga during the Kumbhamela, he is purified of all his sins? If that is so, then the whole creation will come to a standstill. All the people will take bath in Ganga, and the creation will end because everybody will be absolved of all his/her sins and go to Swarga or attain Moksha, or whatever he wants”. Then Paramasiva laughed and they both descended on earth. Paramasiva was lying down as an old man and Parvati was sitting by his side. Then Paramasiva pretends that he is dead. Parvati weeps. People who came to take bath in Kumbhamela asked the woman, “Ma, why are you weeping?”. Parvati said, “My husband is dead. Whoever has not committed any sin, brings out a handful of Ganga water and pours it in his mouth, he will come back alive”. Everybody said, “Oh I am a sinner, I cannot save your husband, I cannot be of any use to you” and turned away. At last, there came a very ordinary man. He said, “Oh, I might have committed so many sins, but whatever be the kind of sinner one is, if he takes bath in Ganga, all his sins will be nullified.” Saying this, this young man, goes and takes a dip in the Ganga, brings a handful of water and pours it in the mouth of Lord Shiva, who was laying there in the manner of a corpse. Then Paramasiva comes alive and tells Parvati, “See, this is the only man who believes that the Ganga purifies man of his sins. So, it is simply not that you take bath in the Ganga, it is the question of your intense belief, that Ganga purifies your sins”. The number of such pilgrims who come to Mahaamakam will be in crores. But how many are really believing that a bath in Kumbhmela will absolve the man of his sins is what is to be seen. There is a great stress on shraddha, when you go to a pilgrim center or a place of Mela like the Kumbhmela. The history of Kumbhmela is also very important. The same story applies to Mahaamakam in Kumbakonam also, in the South.

We all know the story that Devas and Asuras churned the ocean of milk with the help of Vasuki snake and Mantara mountain to get Amrita. Lord Narayana also came in the form of tortoise (Koorma avatara) to support the Mantara mountain. There were number of divine things like Uchchaisravas, the divine horse, Kalpataru, Jewel etc. emerged. Finally Lakshmi came and then Dhanvantri comes with a pot of Amrita. Then devas and asuras fought for it and Narayana in the form of Mohini, cleverly deprived the asuras of the Devaamrita and gave it all to the devas who were all restored to their original glory. That Amrita kumbha fell at a number of places. There are legendary stories, puranic instances which say that where the Kumbha fell, is the place of Kumbhamela or the place of Mahamaka. When the amrita kumbha fell near Kumbakonam, the places where the coconut, the mango leaves and the sacred thread from the Kumbha fell, became the places of pilgrimage around Kumbakonam in Tamilnadu. Thus, such pilgrim centers have got the touch of amrita, the heavenly ambrosia.  Whenever you go to such great pilgrim centers, you will find some such puranic stories, which authenticate the holiness of these places. Therefore, the yatras to Kumbhmela and the teertasthaanas link the soil of India, the air of India, the water of India, the space of India, the energy of India, the Panchaboothas of India to the puraanas and God Himself. Each teerthasthana has got a great sanctity. These pilgrims are doubly blessed because, the common man goes there to remove his sins and the saints go there to remove the sins of the teerthaas themselves, thus replenishing their sanctity.

And then, to sanctify these places, our ancients have built great temples in these places. For example, in the birth place of Dasharatha Rama, Ayodhya, a great temple has been built. Then in Puri Jagannath a great temple is built. In Ujjain, a Shiva temple is built. In the great Hrishikesh, where the Ganga descend from the Himalayas to the plains, a great temple is built. And then in Rameshwaram, where Sri Rama is said to have worshipped Shiva, a great temple is built. There are the seven Mokshapuris.  These are the places which confer Moksha on people who go there. And there are the Char Dhams in the four corners of India, namely, Rameshwaram, Puri, Dwaraka and Badrinath. These are also places which confer Moksha on the pilgrims. There has been a continuous tradition of thousands of years, of pilgrims going on specific occasions to these pilgrim centers to purify themselves.  Pilgrimages are inextricably interwoven with India’s spiritual culture.

If a metaphor could be used, life itself is a pilgrimage.  Pilgrimages are great opportunities for self-exploration, and to connect oneself with the higher levels of existence, thereby seeking fulfilment in one’s life.  This issue of Vivekananda Kendra Patrika has ‘Yatra’ as its central theme.  In the preceding passages, some puranic stories have been briefly recollected, paving the way for the rest of the journey, yatra, as could be covered within the limits of this volume. Here, yatra has been taken in its spiritual sense, as a kind of saadhana, or a mission in ones’ life, and not a mere pleasant tour or holidaying trips as is often the spirit in sabbaticals. 

An individual’s life itself is a yatra.  From the tiny tots to the aged, life is a yatra, a constant progress towards higher goals, culminating in Self-realization.  This idea has been brought out in the light of the Kendra Prayer in one of the articles titled dhyeya maargaanu yatra.  This volume seeks to celebrate the glory of yatra in a spiritual perspective.  Great unifiers of the nation like Sri Adi Shankara and other great teachers have immensely contributed to the sacredness of teerthayatras through their own examples.  Hence the tradition continues with its unflagging spirit. Yatras could be in quest of spiritual knowledge.  They could be in fulfilment of vows.  They could be undertaken as a kind of traditional sacred practice.  They have been an unshakeable unifying force in our country. Travelling through the length and breadth of the country, Swami Vivekananda internalized the essential India which is nothing but spiritual to the core, and he called himself a Condensed India.  Such was his identity with the country.  

This volume discusses the concept of yatra in an impressive manner with contributions from very knowledgeable persons.  Reading this issue itself, we hope, will give the reader the experience of performing an exhilarating and spiritually elevating pilgrimage.  All said and done, much remains to be said.  Nevertheless, what is contained in this volume, it is hoped, will claim its own worth as a sumptuous fare on the subject.  

                                                                                                                                   

                                                                                                         N. Krishnamoorti

 

Baker's contribution to Architecture

1. Introduction:

Laurie Baker Uvaca

I learn my architecture by watching what ordinary people do; in any case it is always the cheapest and simplest because ordinary people do it. They don't even employ builders, the families do it themselves. The job works, you can see it in the old buildings—the way wood lattice work with a lot of little holes filters the light and glare. I'm absolutely certain that concrete frames filled with glass panels is not the answer.

 

My clients have always been Indian. I've not even had the foreign-returned to deal with, since I work primarily with the poor and I've always wanted to give people what they want and what they need which obviously is all Indian. My feeling as an architect is that you're not after all trying to put up a monument which will be remembered as a 'Laurie Baker Building' but Mohan Singh's house where he can live happily with his family.

Gautam Bhatiya:

Laurie Baker has worked in India for over forty years now. He is one of the very few architects who has had the opportunity and the stamina to work on such a remarkably varied spectrum of projects ranging from fishermen's villages to institutional complexes and from low-cost mud¬housing schemes to low-cost cathedrals. In Trivandrum alone he has built over a thousand houses. Besides this, his work includes forty churches, numerous schools, institutions and hospitals.

It is not only the number of buildings that Laurie Baker has designed and the range of architectural commissions he has executed that sets him apart from other architects. What makes his work even more remarkable is the way in which he draws creative sustenance from the environment in which he works absorbing vernacular patterns of construction and individual styles of living to such a degree that he is able to give his clients the comfort and ease of homes and institutions that are firmly rooted in the soil upon which they stand. All this is done keeping in mind the special needs of those who will inhabit or use these places.

In the designing of these varied projects, Laurie Baker takes half-forgotten vernacular patterns of design and construction from the rural setting to dislocated urban residents whose building choices are often limited to the unsuitable structural concepts discarded in the West. In every building that Baker designs, he asserts the appropriateness of traditional constructions to local conditions, adapting existing locally-available materials and traditional methods to contemporary urban structures.

 

A recognition of Baker's contribution to architecture has a singular timeliness today. It has come at a time when a questing conscience has provoked—to look inwards, to solutions of its own making. In these circumstances, Baker in India remains a lone protagonist, experimenting singly and quietly in a distant corner of the country and providing information on the causes and results of his numerous architectural interventions.

In both, his work and writings, Baker emphatically rejects the 'inter-national style' that lingers so perniciously in India. The French architect, Le Corbuiser, who designed Chandigarh, spawned a host of acolytes seeking a universally applicable architectural technology. The result of this is seen in the post-fifties buildings of almost every city in India. Baker has never accepted the idea that the multiplicity of human needs and aspirations can be fulfilled by a standard set of design options and materials. He believes that individual needs stem from India's diverse environment, the varying cultural patterns and lifestyles; and he feels that these needs must be met through an architecture which is responsive, uses local materials and expresses itself in many different forms.

In Baker's scheme of things, architecture cannot be transplanted without doing violence to those very needs which it is attempting to meet. When, for example, the introverted patterns of desert architecture are transferred to the fertile landscapes of the Kerala coast, it dislocates traditional patterns of living. Parallels to this may be seen in any mass-housing scheme, when all-too-often, inhabitants are compelled to camp uncomfortably within unsuitable contours and divisions of space.

However, Baker is no conservative. He is at pains to emphasize the fact that living architecture thrives on appropriate assimilation and adaptation. Indeed, its vitality frequently stems from its ability to change and to meet the changing needs and perceptions of its inhabitants. Architecture, like any craft, is an organic, evolving form and traditional patterns are not the rigidly- structured creations of individuals but the collective experience of many generations. Baker's architecture draws inspiration from the work of successive generations of builders, from the imprint of the environment and those who have lived in it. In his the imprint of the environment and those who have lived in it. In his case it happens to be his adopted home state of Kerala in south India.

The building techniques Baker has evolved to suit specific problems of his poorer clients in Kerala is not a formula applicable to all similar situations; and yet, from it stems an entire ideology of architectural practice—a pattern that is revolutionary in its simplicity and its contradiction of the accepted norms of architecture in contemporary India. Baker's work is an effective demonstration of his own strength, his own interpretation of tradition, technology and lifestyle.

 

1.   What factors influenced Baker's architecture?

Laurie Baker Uvaca

 Distinctive architectural styles were not designed by some famous ancient architect who decreed that a certain style will be used in Japan and a certain other style will be used in Peru and yet another style in Punjab. The upturned, horned roofs of buildings as found in Kerala, China and Japan are the direct result of the people of those places making use of the most common, plentiful, useful material: bamboo—to house and protect them from natural enemies such as sun, rain, hurricanes and wind. A completely different set of styles has evolved in hot, dry, treeless, desert areas, as in parts of Egypt,

Laurie Baker at Work

Iran and India; in almost every district in the world these natural styles have grown to the patterns that could be seen in the first half of the twentieth century.

Our 'backward' ancestors had learned how to live with and cope with the problems of climate. They had learned that a pitched or a sloping roof lessened the effects of all these hazards. They knew the movements of air currents and placed their wall openings almost at ground level. They knew that hot air rises and allowed it to travel upwards from the low eaves to the openings at the end of the high ridge. They understood and applied principles of insulation; their roofing materials formed hollow cellular protective layers and their storage spaces provided insulation from the midday sun. They had understood that wall surfaces can absorb and retain just as much heat as a roof surface, so they kept these walls as small in area as possible and never left them unprotected. They knew that eye-strain from working out in the sun could be alleviated by rest in an area where glare was eliminated and they used smooth, hard, light-coloured surfaces sparingly and left the natural materials—wood, brick, stone—exposed. Their practical knowledge of the properties of these differing building materials was amazing. They knew, for instance, how to design their timber and wood work to avoid warping, twising and cracking.

Gautam Bhatiya:

Laurie Baker's philosophy of architecture is inextricably bound with his experiences of childhood and youth in England, and later, in the Pithoragarh district of Uttar Pradesh in the Himalays where he lived for sixteen years.

 

One of his earliest architecture-related memories is that of being baffled by the differences in the styles of houses at the seaside, where he went on holidays, and that of houses in the mountains, where he lived.

 

2.   Is Laurie Baker the founder of new architecture?

Laurie Baker Uvaca

 

I am these days sometimes quoted as an expert or an authority on 'appropriate' or 'intermediate' technology and although I did not know it at the time, it was my life and experiences at Pithoragarh that taught me 'appropriate and intermediate' technology....

 

To me, this Himalayan domestic architecture was a perfect example of vernacular architecture. Simple, efficient, inexpensive.... As usual this delightful, dignified housing demonstrated hundreds of years of building delightful, dignified housing demonstrated hundred of years of building research on how to cope with local materials, how to

 

cope with local climate hazards and how to accommodate the local social pattern of living. It dealt with incidental difficult problem of how to build on a steeply sloping site, or how to cope with earthquakes and how to avoid landsliding areas and paths. The few examples of attempts to modernize housing merely demonstrated, only too clearly, our modern conceit and showed how very foolish we are when we attempt to ignore or abandon these hundreds of years of'research' in local building materials...

 

Gautam Bhatia:

The direct and honest use of local materials created its own expression of structural necessity, of economic restraint. Confronted with building materials like rock, mud, laterite and cow-dung, Baker's architectural practice in the Himalayas was anything but conventional. His education at the Birmingham School of Architecture and the skills acquired during his professional apprenticeship in England became decidedly insignificant in the austere mountain environment in which he found himself. He realized that the local people knew how to use materials more effectively than he did.

 

It was a very unusual sight to see an English architect, with an urban background, working with and learning from mountain tribesmen and village masons, and using indigenous materials for building. However, it proved to be a richly fruitful alliance. Baker learnt to adapt his skills and training to the needs with which he was now faced. He built schools, hospitals and community buildings, all of which ran on a self-supporting basis.

 

The strength and the organic resilience of

Badker's early architecture was the direct outcome of his own strength and resilience. And, in turn, the years of continuous settlement in a single place gave his designs a quality of rootedness. The lessons he derived from this experience in the Himalayas and the architectural principles he learnt there remained with him even when, years later, he resumed practice in Trivandrum.

The Bakers left Pithorgarh in 1963 and moved to a similar hill area in central Kerala. They settled in a remote village, Vakamon, inhabited by tribal people and Tamil migrants, and continued to work in much the same way as they had in Pithoragarh— building schools and leprosy treatment centres, using their skills and training for the benefit of the local people, and learning local skills as they did so.

 

In Trivandrum, Baker applied all that he had learnt to a wider clientele—building homes for the middle class and institutions for a wide range of organizations. Today, over a thousand families in the Trivandrum district live in Baker's houses; and the evolution of his style can be traced through his work in and around this city.

 

As he worked, Baker began to understand the essential simplicity that is at the base of effective, living architecture. He refined his style, stepping away from unnecessary accoutrements. A chance encounter with Mahatma Gandhi at the beginning of his career seems to have made a great impact of his architecture, as Gandhi's ideologies were to influence him in all his work.

 

Though this is not the single most persuasive influence in Baker's life, in the course of several discourses of the Mahatma, Baker imbibed the meaning of one of his most persistent messages—that change in post-independent India can be brought about

only through education and revival of the

local crafts and cottage industries; that is,

real independence can be only achieved

by self-reliance and by encouraging local

craftsmanship. Unfortunately, much too

often this message has been lost in the

muddy waters of politics and the race to

modernize India. Thus Baker's work is more relevant particularly now than ever before.

 

3.   The Gandhi influence

Laurie Baker Uvaca:

I believe that Gandhiji is the only leader in our country who has talked consistently with common-sense about the building needs of our country. What he said many years ago is even more pertinent now. One of the things he said that impressed me and has influenced my thinking more than anything else was

that the ideal houses in the ideal village will be built of materials which are all found within a five-mile radius of the house.

 

What clearer explanation is there of what appropriate building technology means than this advice by Gandhiji! I confess that as a young architect, born, brought up, educated and qualified in the West, I though at first Gandhiji's ideal was a bit 'far-fetched' and I used to argue to myself that of course he probably did not intend us to take this ideal too literally.

 

But now, in my seventies and with forty years of building behind me, I have come to the conclusion that he was right, literally word for word, and that he did not mean that there could be exceptions. If only I had not been so proud and sure of

my learning and my training as an architect, I could have seen clearly wonderful examples of Gandhiji's wisdom all round me throughout the entire period I lived in the Pithoragarh district.

 

Gautam Bhatia:

His qualities emanate from a deeply-held belief that each piece of work is an offering to God and must, therefore, not only be without flaw, but must not violate God's creation in the making. From this stems a natural inclination to use the materials cautiously, leading to a conservationist approach to design. Baker's deep convictions and the persistent intentions supported this architectural expression.

 

4.   The contextual relevance of Baker's work

Laurie Baker Uvaca:

There is a general belief that India is wealthy, both in simple basic building materials and in potential labour forces. Then there is a firm unyielding belief that all this talk of 'low-cost building' should not be 'for the poor' but for all. Furthermore, although we possess a certain amount of more sophisticated building materials, such supplies are comparatively small and must be used to maximum advantage. For example, we possess steel but the fact remains that many mechanical industries have a stronger claim on its use than the building industry, which can, if it wants, find substitutes and alternatives.

 

Gautam Bhatia:

At the turn of the twentieth century, architects genuinely believed that the modern movement would provide new

techniques and new materials to serve the needs of ordinary people. It seemed as if technology could provide a solution to the persistent problem of housing, and it was believed that high-tech buildings would ultimately improve the standard of living for everybody.

 

However, rapid industrialization only seemed to increase the demand for housing that has now grown to unimaginable proportions. Housing has come to be dominated almost entirely by commercial builders employed by local governments— both of whom look upon a house as a commodity to be produced and sold in large numbers. The once-new technological solutions of the modern movement have fossilized into rigid inflexibility in their hands. The comfort and lifestyle of the individuals for whom the mass-housing schemes are intended are very rarely considered. The result is all-too-visible in cities all over the world. Especially, in Third World countries such as India, as governments struggle to house the ever- increasing numbers of urban dwellers, the inadequacies of the forty-year-old doctrines of modern architecture have been brought more sharply into focus. Moreover, as the gap between available resources and the need for housing has increased, the inflexible sterility of the modern movement has become even more apparent.

 

Mass-housing and emphasis on the improvementoflivingconditionsisallaresult of the new industrial economy. Humanistic considerations are no longer the primary logic for the evaluation of design. This has led to a break from tradition and given us an increasing number of impersonal, anonymous buildings. Unfamiliarity with this new kind of architecture adversely affects the psyche of the people inhabiting it.

 

Laurie Baker Uvaca:

The necessity for speed was one of the big factors that contributes to that break with tradition. It probably took a thousand years for us to find out by trial-and-error how to make a mud wall impervious to rain and wind, another thousand years to learn how to keep termites out of it, and another two or three thousand to learn how to build multi-storeyed mud buildings.

 

Gautam Bhatia:

Though Baker is not a founder, practitioner or product of the modern doctrine in any sense, he was, in own career, demonstrated similar concerns. But, unlike the movement, in his endeavour to improve living conditions architecturally he seeks a purposeful link with tradition.

 

Baker's work can be viewed as part of a much larger worldwide effort to re¬examine architectural values. In the 1960s, the new architect's rejection of establishment values was an admission that the profession was out of touch with the times. Ordinary human needs to which the modern doctrine was as wholeheartedly committed seemed imprisoned in unfamiliar buildings and surroundings. The increasing inability of government agencies to produce adequate housing led architects in several parts of the developing world to examine architectural priorities. The work of John Turner in Latin America and Hassan Fathy's experience in Egypt paralleled the quiet revolution that Laurie Baker was enacting in India.

 

Each one sought the development of a contemporary vernacular—a commonly observed, felt and accepted language of building which would be transformed to suit the new requirements. The prevalence of an overriding craft tradition and the need to evolve buildings out of severe economic constraints shifted the emphasis away from technology towards an earthy humanism. Such a transformation required a sharp comprehension of the dual phenomena of tradition and change; and of the need to re-establish the use of traditional construction without the loss of vitality, the vitality, that accompanies change.

 

5.   Is a Modern Indian Architecture Possible?

Laurie Baker Uvaca:

In most countries of the world architects are being accused of failing to produce a modern form of their own previously- distinctive architectural styles. If one or two typical modern buildings from each country could be transported and put down in isolation in a large flat desert, could any of us, even architects, walk from one building to another and say 'Ah! A modern Fijian masterpiece' and 'Wow! Just look at this one—pure Italian' and further on 'My! This is obviously an Indian effort!' A hundred or so years ago we could probably have been successful with such identifications, but there are very grave doubts whether we can do so now.

 

Does this mean that we have failed in our job?

 

Fifty years ago (in 1940s) we were taught that a building must have an identity. We could certainly tell by looking at a building whether it was domestic or commercial or industrial and so on. It also had its geographical and cultural characteristics. In India there is an incredible wealth of regional architectural styles, and there is not the faintest possibility of confusing one with another. Even where the same materials have been used for building, the climatic, cultural and regional variations are so great that different methods of construction have been used to produce unique individual styles. Further, these distinctive styles apply not only to big and important buildings but also to the smallest domestic structures. Really we can say that the buildings of any small district are a quintessence of that district's culture and skill.

 

But these distinctions cannot be found anymore. What has happened?

 

For one thing—cement. Modern Portland cement came and suddenly our slow, steady, evolutionary building process came to a devastating and tragic halt. Cement and steel were joined in holy matrimony and lo!— their child was this universal anonymous expressionless 'modern architecture' which tells you nothing except that reinforced concrete has been lavishly and brutally used. The saddest thing about it is that reinforced concrete has been lavishly and brutally used. The saddest thing about it is that reinforced concrete is a wonderful material that can do almost everything fantastic and exciting. It can stand, soar, twist, hang, swirl, gyrate, encircle, defy and placate. But we rarely ever let it do any of these exciting things. We merely imitate the building practices of the Dravidians, with their square stone pillars and split stone beams; and when in a very dare-devil mood we cantilever out the beam-ends to an uncomfortable length, we think we are really and truly 'modern'.

 

Of course, we have a third deadly material, glass—with which we fill in all the holes. The result of this modern but static style of architecture, is that everybody's buildings, be they in Bombay, Birmingham, Bologna or Buenos Aires, look the same.

 

Consolingly, 'high technology' has also taught us that there is no need to concern ourselves with the weather or the functions for which the building will be used, or the variations in the cultural patterns of our clients—'high technology' applique- work can cope with all this old-fashioned 'nonsense'.

 

I think the time has come to ask ourselves a lot of questions. Could we have done something different? Should we have done something different? What does 'modern' mean? Can't we be 'modern' with other materials besides reinforced concrete, glass and aluminium trimmings? Can't we go back to the year 1BC (Before Concrete) and carry on with that wonderful history of research and development by applying twentieth keep termites out of it and another two or three thousand to learn how to build multi- storyed mud buildings. But we did do it, and our enemies on the other side of the hill also did it, though in their own way which was different from ours. Now 'developed communications' has taken the 'wonder material' to all the corners of the earth and we have succumbed to it like children falling upon a dish of instant hot cakes. So we all have identical pot-bellies and have forgotten 'mother's cooking'. Fortunately, the rebellion against 'instant mixes' has already begun and there is a yearning for 'fresh-compost-fed-vegetables and whole meal-bread'—so may be there is hope that we too as architects, can as our road signs say, 'Stop! Look! Proceed!'

 

Brick Jalis, Arches - Speciality of L.Baker

century knowledge and know-how while still showing love and respect for all that has gone before us?

 

Perhaps speed has been one of the major contributing factors leading to that catastrophic break with tradition. It probably took a thousand years for us to find out by trial-and-error how to make a mud wall impervious to rain and wind, another thousand years to learn how to

In view of the fact that there are over twenty million families in India without any sort of shelter, that we have to import cement from Korea to make up for the shortfalls, that we are using up a lot of our energy resources at an alarming rate, and that we have bred some of the top brains in the world of science, we should, for instance, in areas where mud has been the traditional staple building material, show how modern we can be with mud! Where burnt brick has been the main building material can't we produce brickswith less energy and use them in a modern way? There are experiments which show that this sort of thing can be done along with the new sender materials to produce buildings that are 'modern', beautiful, characterful and identifiable with a particular region and its people. For example, in the State of Kerala there is high rainfall, strong winds, powerful tropical sun and a lot of humidity. The result of ancient research and development work was a steeply-pitched roof which threw off torrential continuous rains and protected walls and rooms from the glare and heat of the sun. It all made good sense and good architecture. But concrete and glass towers are incredibly expensive because of all the antics required to cope with rain and sun, and they are quite useless without the air-conditioners, fans and louvers of aluminium strips. Can 'modern' architecture only be vertical of wall and flat of roof? Couldn't we throw off rain and protect from sun and show that we are doing it effectively, even by being modern'?

 

Since the beginning of recorded art, India's brains had devised the Jali (trellis, lattice, honey-combed walling, pierced stone and wooden screens and walls) to filter the glare and strong sunlight into cool but breeze-filled rooms. India has used this device more than any other country and it is essentially an Indian device. We can study the many and varied components of Indian architectural design and find out what makes them essentially and intriguingly 'Indian'. Only then can we create an Indian-ness into all our materials and designing. Then our 'modern' 'Indian' architecture will be a continuing, growing, crowing glory to our great heritage.

 

Extacted from the book: Laurie Baker Life, work, writings: By Gautam Bhatiya Viking / Hudco. New Delhi 1991

 

That is why plants are called The Brahma's hair:

15% of the heat in a building can come through the roof. That is why it is important to insulate the roof. In industrialised coun tries roof-top gardens are becoming a norm, Green-roof tops cut down a building's energy conumption. They add to the aesthetic value.

Promoting Pathways To Sustainable Living -3

Man-Making and Planet-Building...

If Swami Vivekananda were to address the Parliament of World's Religions at Chicago in 2024, he would have given yet another dimension to Religion and called upon the religious leaders to unite to rebuild our Planet Earth. He would have added something more to his famous Chicago address... I am proud to belong to a religion which can provide mankind with a blueprint for rebuilding Planet Earth with sustainable possibilities for the future.

In the course of his lectures from Colombo to Almora he would have urged on his countrymen, the preservation of the purity of the Ganges, the sanctity of the Himalayas and the quality of our earth, water and air. He would have drawn endlessly from our grand mythology and enriched and expanded our global awareness. We would then have not slipped so miserably in our ecological responsibilities. We would have shown how a religion can be man-making and planet-building...

True to the demands of time, the Chicago Parliament of World's Religions 1993, in its centenary celebrations addressed itself not only to matters of spirit but also to many down-to-earth problems. The Millennium Institute which was a co-sponsor of the Parliament took up this issue on the second day itself. Though their entire paper "Global 2000 Revisited"-"What shall we do" is worth serious study, for the sake of brevity just a few points are presented here.

1. The spiritual leaders have a vital contribution to make to a country's reflections on sustainable possibilities for the future.

2. There is an urgent need for a more substantiative dialogue between "secular" issue experts and spiritual leaders of all faiths and traditions.

There are many pressing issues that need thoughtful holistic attention integrating both the spiritual and the secular or scientific perspective. When we study the world religions from this angle we find that a holistic approach has not been a significant part of all traditions. The result is, that secular people are convinced that religions have ruined the earth. Attacks on religion by the so-called wise secularists are not infrequent.

In one form or other, virtually every faith tradition is being criticised today for not having a thoughtful, informed, penetrating analysis of the issues facing Earth and Earth's human community in the 21st Century."

The Director of the Millennium Institute Dr. G. Barney raised several questions before the Parliament. The first one of them was directly connected with man, his essential nature and his interrelationships with everything around. To quote: "The task before us is fundamentally spiritual in nature, to discover who we humans are, how we are to relate to each other and to the whole community of life and what we are to do, individually and collectively here on Earth."

We in India are fortunate in having preserved (though not well enough) a tradition that has answers to all these fundamental questions - the Ultimate Truth of our real identity - a philosophy to comprehend this Truth and a way of life to actualize it in day today life, the dharma - or holistic approach to relate ourselves with everything on earth, a mythology revealing the multifarious facets of this dharma in action and the extensive rituals to concretise this philosophy and to reach it out to all and sundry. In the totality of Sanatana Dharma there lies the blueprint for the survival of mankind and preservation of our Planet Earth.

This is truly a great challenge for spiritual leaders and religious people. Hindu Dharma can fortunately provide very many clues which everyone can adopt irrespective of caste, creed, race or any other differences.

Need for a universal Blueprint.

If only we had a Blueprint how to co-ordinate the affairs of the Universe, we could have kept the five elemental forces in a proper form without contaminating and polluting them ........      

          We could have taken care not to disturb the natural rhythms.

          We could have assured that the flora and fauna would not become
          extinct at this fast rate of 100 species a day.

          We could have prevented the formation of holes in the ozone layers 
          due to  the accumulation of CFC in our atmosphere.

          We could have avoided the 'greenhouse effect' and its serious global

          repercussions and ,

          May be, we could have assured mankind of health, happiness and
          harmony through a new World Order and possibly guaranteed its survival
          as well!

Unfortunately, most of the Blueprints which the modern man has managed to put up have pushed the world and with it mankind, nearer to the brink of a global disaster. Somewhere, man, in the course of his progressive evolution, has misplaced it, if not lost it altogether. Suddenly, his progression is proving to be a "retrogression".

Mother Earth - the lessons she imparts

The blueprint just cannot get lost, because Nature never entrusted this to the custody of the foolish man alone. The first clue that a blueprint for survival exists comes from the fact that without taking the aid of the so-called intelligence of man, Mother Earth has preserved life for millions of years. Behind this truth lies the wonderful interdependence this planet has established with the other planets and the elemental forces around her - water, air, space and fire, energy, sun, moon and so on. Together, they have created a near perfect system, referred to by modern man as the Ecosystem, which is the best public service available to man, but of which he is almost totally ignorant. Creating a series of checks, levers and governors, planet Earth and the other elements have together created a climate of great diversity, an atmosphere of carefully chosen contents, geared to provide for the growth and metabolism of all that lives, a soil system with its dynamic equilibrium of moisture, air, minerals, flora and fauna which together maintain simple but nourishing soil fertility; a variety of mechanisms for energy absorption, pollination and fertilization in its magnificent plant kingdom through which it links up man with the five elements around and also provides the wide variety of food, clothing, shelter, medicinal herbs and so on and the most important of all, a perfectly harmless way of decomposing dead matter and keeping the place clean and tidy so that man has a cozy place to live! All this and more have been gifted to man by Nature and her self-renewing Ecosystems.

 

It is this wonderful life - creating - supporting – destroying capacity of  planet Earth that we, the so-called wise and learned men, are tampering with. In our greediness we are consuming more than the 'income' kept at our disposal, which in turn is supplied to the Earth by none other than that giant power station, the SUN. By interfering with the natural fertility of agricultural soil, groundwater resources, biodiversity, and various energy-transforming cycles in Nature, man is heading towards self-annihilation.

Need for a holistic answer

The survival of mankind is no longer a simple issue but is closely interlinked with the survival of the entire planet. But, who can give a holistic answer? Materialistic philosophy can, at best, provide only an economic world-view. Profit-oriented as it is, it will continue to harp on 'taking more out of less', of boosting production, enhancing desires, needs and consumption. It just doesn't know how to go beyond 'well-having' to 'well-being'. 'Survival' is of least importance to those who are habituated to looking at forests for its timber, at rocks for their ores, at landscapes for their real-estate value and of course at men and women as 'resources'.    

Disrespect and total lack of concern have become the hallmark of modern man. This has to be contravened and a new respect towards the entire creation has to be generated in the human mind. Only then will we learn to treat each other and our environment with respect and understanding and in that lies the first seeds ensuring survival of our human race. 

In ancient cultures and value systems, though survival was not a prime value, it certainly became the net result or by-product of man's greater achievements in human life, reflected in his knowledge of the Whole and the adjustments he made to co-exist peacefully with the Whole. One is reminded of Sri Krishna's words in the Bhagavad Gita

"parasparaṁ bhāvayantaḥ śhreyaḥ param avāpsyatha" (BG 3.11)

By cooperation between humans and the celestial gods, great prosperity will reign
for all.

In tune with this, the Indian blueprint insists on a different vision, an attitudinal change and a cultural reorientation. Time has come for the world to study the Indian Blueprint and the valuable information contained in it so as to adjust our lifestyles with global survival in view.

         

The Indian Blueprint is very simple, eloquent and grand in its sweep. It is as ternal as Truth and as nourishing as Life. It starts with man as its centre and endlessly unfolds as the ever-expanding universe, never for once snapping its ties between the individual and the Total. Only such a Blueprint can help the West to shift its attitude from the "well-having" to the "well-being" and help it learn the primary lesson of seeing the Whole in the part and part in the Whole.         

At the very outset it helps man to visualize Life as a Whole, Infinite and Eternal, far superior to the grasping power of human intelligence. Therefore, it holds that humility is the key, not aggressiveness, to unlock the mystery of everlasting life.

It also emphasises that Truth, the fundamental and prime basis of the Universe, the value behind the values is ONE, manifold though its expressions be. Seeing Unity in diversity, therefore, forms yet another clue for understanding Life in its totality.

From these two basic assumptions the blueprint unfolds revealing the grand vision of the universe with all that exists in it as ONE, interconnected and interpenetrated by one Divine Essence.    

The quintessence of the Indian concept regarding the laws of the Universe and the adjustments man must make to accommodate himself within it peacefully and harmoniously is effectively caught in the supremely meaningful opening stanza of Isavasyopanishad.

What does it say? To start with, there is the emphatic declaration that all that exists is pervaded by Divinity or Truth. To realise that Truth, making it a part of our life in knowledge, love and action is the surest way to achieve immortality. This tantamounts to recognising divinity everywhere and to one who has realised it in oneself; it is a question of seeing oneself, projected in the entire Universe! Thus, should man break the barrier of "otherness" which is the cause for spoiling our relationship with the world outside.

When man starts recognising the intrinsic worth of all that exists, naturally he will modulate his behaviour with love and respect towards all. Then would man learn to take from nature only what he needs for his well-being and not to exploit nature for his well-having.

The next step enjoins man  - 'to enjoy with restraint'. Behind the crisis at all levels that we face today is a lack of self-restraint in thought, words, work and enjoyments. To stop overutilisation and exploitation there is no other way than to practise "frugal consumption" and "voluntary simplicity". Global awareness resulting from and based on the above concepts, can undoubtedly reverse the self-annihilating trends that we find widespread today.      

An ultimate warning also is incorporated in the stanza to hold back man from destroying himself, that is 'to refrain from covetousness', unwanted competitions and petty jealousies that mar human relationships. So long as we are not ready to change our lifestyles, so long as we go on pampering ourselves in sensual delights and indulgences, so long as austerity and simplicity do not become part of our lives, we will not succeed in stemming the root of degradation that is threatening the life of this very planet. A reversal of the trend is a must.       

Swami Vivekananda wanted this message of India to reach far and wide before modern civilization irreparably turned this world into a graveyard through its blind passions, ignorance and morbid surrender to mechanical and materialistic culture and forces that are bent upon destroying the human race, nature and possibly the planet earth itself. He clearly foresaw that the only hope for the survival of humanity lies in renewing the macrobiotic vision of the ONE UNDIVIDED TRUTH in which everything in creation remains interconnected, interpenetrated and interdependent. Through his speeches and writings, he has drawn the attention of the entire world to this all-encompassing vision of truth or reality which is the cornerstone of the magnificent Indian spiritual heritage.  

If mankind, not in the far away future destroy, itself, it will not be due to lack of a blueprint, but because man was too egoistic to learn his elementary lessons spelt out in the blueprint. In such an impending global catastrophe the major share of blame would be on us, Indians in whose custody this blueprint had been lying from time immemorial.      

Through the three volumes of Kendra Patrika, Vivekananda Kendra-NARDEP has brought into focus this global problem and has also opened several windows to study it indepth. One comforting factor is the arrival on the scene of a large number of people belonging to all sections of society who are keen to study how to correct the imbalance in nature. It started in last century with several authors studying the book of Nature differently with a new meaning and purpose to help man find the right place in nature's magnificent gallery.  Many a heart has been touched and now they look at life and nature with a new deeper understanding. Examples of such wonderful studies at individual and collective levels including the state level are brought out in this volume. Also included are reviews on some of the publications by great thoughtful men and women who through their writings changed the human approach in remarkable ways.

Let me conclude this foreword with the wonderful blessing uttered by the great Saint Paramacharya of Kanchipuram, who made the world listen to India's message through the unparalleled melodious voice of India,
Smt. M.S. Subbalakshmi in the U.N. during its 50th anniversary, which dealt with Universal Brotherhood and peace as enshrined in the Sanathana Dharma which ends with this last prayer.

 

śreyo bhūyāt sakalajanānām

May all people be happy and prosperous.

 

                                                                                                                                 Dr.M.Lakshmi Kumari