August is the season when many youth from all over the world flock to Amritapuri to spend their holidays with Amma. It is a time for the youngsters to reflect about life in a deeper way, contribute to Amma’s charitable work and socialize with other like-minded youngsters. This year, AYUDH, Amma’s International Youth Movement, decided to make an effort and follow Amma’s advice to work on the preservation of Nature. The first initiative was to start a vegetable garden.
Twice a week aound 30 youngsters have been going to the ashram’s “Vrindavan” garden near the Ayurveda College to prepare vegetable beds, mix compost into the soil, plant medicinal trees and learn about organic gardening.

Br. Shubamrita accompanied the youth to start with the planting of the first vegetables on Friday, August 21st 2009. After the planting the group prayed together for peace and harmony in Nature.
Along with the garden in Amritapuri, AYUDH has started cultivating food in Amma’s Centers in California, Michigan, Germany and France. Even youth who live in cities have made an effort to grow vegetables, in whatever space they have available. The AYUDH group in Austria for example has turned one of their members’ balcony into a field of pots, with tomatoes, zucchini and pepper sprouting up everywhere. “GrowIn’ – One Seed at a Time” is the project title which the youth have given to their common effort to grow healthy, organic food, thus reducing pollution and becoming more independent from the international food market. Another objective of the project is to reconnect to Nature as the life giving principle. Even though all the youngsters have consumed countless of tomatoes in their lives – very few have ever experienced how much effort and time it takes to grow a tomato plant. People are used to getting their food from supermarket shelves – not from the soil. GrowIn’ wants to re-introduce the younger generation to the joy of gardening.

“Many of the plants die after they have shed their seeds. They sacrifice their own life in order to give birth to many more plants, thus sustaining the circle of life,” explained Lola, an ashram resident who has been working in the “Vrindavan” garden for two years, cultivating over 7,000 Tulasi plants and many fruit trees.

Taking the inspiration from Nature to serve the world, AYUDH decided to make another commitment to contribute to the preservation of Nature. In two sessions the youth have been clearing the trash in the village surrounding the ashram and the backwaters. Layer by layer the AYUDH group removed plastic bags, bottles, shoes, glass, batteries, even telephones and old saris from the soil. The trash seemed to be never ending. “This shows us how much plastic is used in society,” said one of the AYUDH members, “it takes 400 years for a piece of plastic to decompose – if we continue to consume plastic like this the whole planet will be drowned in trash soon.”

One solution to this problem is the reuse of some of the waste material. One of the ashram’s current projects is the recycling of plastic to weave mat covers for 800 emergency cots. Amma has asked for the cots to be made in order to be able to provide immediate help in the case of a disaster. AYUDH participated in the cleaning and preparation of the plastic strips, which will later be used to weave the mats.

Finally, in a few weeks, the youth hope to harvest the tomatoes, corn, cucumber, beans, ladies finger, spinach and many more delicious, organic, vegetables at the “Vrindavan” Garden, offering the fruits of their efforts – literally – to Amma.

When they will go back to their home countries they will take with them not just the memory of spending beautiful days with Amma but also new knowledge to live a more sustainable and environmental friendly life.