Stories from the grassroots | Thoughts on development
This interview had appeared a few years ago in the Cornell Policy Review, a journal of the Cornell Institute of Public Affairs, Cornell University, USA. My views on Micro-finance still remain the same.
https://www.civilsocietyonline.com/column/village-voices/a-new-path-for-tribal-women/
It was January 1985. I was sitting with Swami Achalanandaji, a monk who was then living at the Ramakrishna Institute of Moral & Spiritual Education in Mysuru and discussing the qualities of an ideal student and that of an ideal Teacher (Guru). Swamiji was trying to explain to me Shankara’s ‘Vivekachudamani’, wherein Shankara so wonderfully describes these qualities. I felt them to be so ideal that I was left wondering if such people really existed. Suddenly Achalanandaji turned the conversation to another monk in the Ramakrishna Order, whom he said I had to meet, and who embodied this concept. He
I will be writing a column in the Civil Society magazine for the next few months titled ‘Village Voices’. I wanted to begin the series with an article on Mahatma Gandhi, whose message I believe is still relevant and valid. Read the first article that appeared in the March 2019 issue here: https://civilsocietyonline.com/column/village-voices/why-gandhi-still-inspires/